Eye Bolt Bushes

[pgp001]

Well I have finally cured the clunking noise from my front suspension, I suspected it was the eye bolt bushes but I was rather surprised at what I found.
It looks like someone in the past has done a bodge job on it, the old bushes have probably been poked out of the eye bolt somehow and then this one piece hard plastic bush has been pushed in from the front, they will have manged to do this without removing the pin and cup from the torsion bar. The inside of the eye bolt had a worn groove where the pin had been rubbing away at it previously.

The hole in the cup was enlarged and the cup rattling around loose on the pin as well.

The fact that the bush only has a flange at one end means that the lower arms were free to float fore and aft by about 1/8" this is where the clunking noise must have been coming from, the other fault it had was a violent steering wheel judder when braking from around 30mph, thankfully this has now been sorted as well having replaced the whole front suspension with brand new old stock parts. And some decent Poly bushes.



Phil

[philthehill]

The bodge job is not a bodge job - someone has gone to the trouble of fitting Minor Mania plastic eye bolt bushes.
Minor Mania were producing those plastic bushes before the advent of poly bushes and when only the standard poor quality short life BMC rubber bushes were available. They were a welcome item as the eye bolt bush was a regular replacement item.
I have had a set fitted to my Minor for some time and I also have Minor Mania rear spring bushes fitted to the chassis bush holes.
I have a pair of modified Minor Mania plastic bushes fitted to each Minor Mania negative camber

Negative camber eye bolts 2.jpg (193.48 KiB) Viewed 2036 times

eye bolt with grease nipple. The grease nipple is needed so as to lubricate the bush. If they are not lubricated they will wear.
For track use the Minor Mania plastic bushes are fine but for road use poly bushes are best and even with the poly bushes a grease nipple is recommended for regular greasing.

[pgp001]

That is interesting, do yours have a thrust washer at the back to prevent end float ?

These did not have anything and there was a gap which allowed movement and metal to metal contact between the rear arm and the back of the eye bolt.
I have now fitted brand new eye bolts and some Superflex poly bushes from JLH Minors. In fact everything that moves is now new.

I went one better than you and have fitted grease nipples to top and bottom of eye bolts.

Phil

[philthehill]

The eye bolts pictured above have split Minor Mania plastic bushes so as to give fore and aft thrust faces.
The original fitment on my Minor was just one long bush as per your suspension.
The bush was fitted and should be fitted from the rear of the eye bolt so as to place the thrust against the cup washer.
The plastic bush was a good fit into the eye bolt and there was never any fore or aft float of the suspension arm.
If you had metal to metal contact I suspect that the bush was fitted the wrong way round as per the orientation of the bush in your photo.
Photo below is of a poly bushed eye bolt with grease nipple.

100_2131.JPG (202.96 KiB) Viewed 2026 times

I also have a set of Minor Mania top eye bolt plastic bushes which again have give no trouble over many years.

When replacing the eye bolt pin use pins with UNF threads as the shoulder is better formed and has a proper contact face for the cup washer. The BSF thread pins usually have a very poor shoulder which does not allow the cup washer to fit fully home which leads to the cup washer becoming loose even though the nut can be found to be tight.

[pgp001]

Looks like they are still in business.

http://gdkgarages.co.uk/parts-repairs/

Phil

[philthehill]

They are still in business but having spoken recently with them very few if any Minor tuning parts as listed in the advert above are available.
Phil

[Monty-4]

Very interesting thread. Do we know how their "adjustable front torsion bar" works?

[philthehill]

Monty-4
You can always contact Minor Mania for details of the adjustable torsion bars. A friendly bunch and the contact details are in the link above.
Phil

[LaughingBoy]

Philthehill - just wondering how a grease nipple can be fitted (as in pics above) to lubricate the eyebolt bushes. I have poly bushes which are squeaking badly. My first step is to try spraying with some PTFE dry lubricant but if this doesn't solve the problem I may need a grease nipple.
Also what type of grease do you use?
Monty-4 - The adjustable upgraded torsion bars work by means of a vertical bolt at the chassis cross member end of the torsion bar. It changes the effective mounting position of the bar. Used to have them but reverted back to standard ones as I found the upgraded ones too 'stiff'.
Minor Mania are still around but George left many many years ago - Nick is still there but as already mentioned very few of the modified tuning parts are still available.

[philthehill]

Just drill and tap for a suitable grease nipple as per the photo.
Make sure that there is a gap between the poly bushes to allow the grease to access the pin.
Preference is to use red or white grease for lubricating the poly bushes but have found no detrimental effects using ordinary general purpose grease.