Offside Torsion Bar Clonk - Nuts?

[mogdobz]

Hi all, I have some clonking from the offside torsion bar. I've noticed two nuts immediately adjacent to the torsion bar on the box frame jutting out and just touching the bar. The bolts are roughly along the same line as the clutch. Just wondering if anyone knows if those are normal, or if they are a quirk acquired by my car over the years - seems like the nuts impinge very slightly on the bolt and contribute to some clonking as the suspension wriggles.

The bushes are well-aged so that certainly contributes, but mainly just wondering about the nuts. I don't recall seeing them on my last MM but I never needed to look closely at the suspension.

[philthehill]

There should be no nuts anywhere the torsion bar.
It may be that a previous owner put the master cylinder bolts back in the wrong way. The factory fitted bolts have thin heads to improve the clearance.
When working - the torsion bar bends out of line and can touch any nuts incorrectly fitted.
If the nuts are touching the torsion bar then there will be marks on the torsion bar where the nuts and bar make contact.
A photo of the nuts in question would be of benefit.

[geoberni]

Sounds to me that, as Phil has already said, someone who thinks they know better than the designers has fitted the Master Cylinder bolts incorrectly.
Bolt heads should be on the outside, not the inside.
Though to be totally fair, whilst the Workshop Manual has a note that the bolts have 'special heads' it doesn't explain why and the person who drew the illustration almost 80 years ago wasn't told which way the bolts went, or that they had thin heads for a reason....
Perhaps the bolts were changed aftert the drawing was done

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