++> Spitfire Weekend. Then Sunday evening after a 60(ish) mile drive around I
++> pulled the car onto the drive at home only to have the front verticle link
++> (LH side)shear. This is the third one that I have had go in 20 months and
++> 37000 miles, the first went on New Years Eve 1993, the second in March '94
+and
++> then yesterdays. I regularly oil the bloody things all to no avail, ANY
+ideas
I have never had this happen on any of the spits I've owned or
worked on. This includes the spit/GT6 I built with boy racer tires which has
had a pretty hard life (and I don't oil mine regularly either). So, lets try
and
look at some other factors which might be causing these to fail. If I had
to guess, I'd say that front suspension is not within spec somehow and it
is causing an excessive load on the vertical link. I wouldn't overlook
improper assembly by the DPO. It is possible to switch the mounting
brackets on the lower A-arm which would cause it swing in completely the
wrong way (effectively eliminating all rearward compliance in the front
suspension) Are the lower trunnons free to move? Otherwise, is there
any evidence that the front end has been hit? Those front uprights can
rust pretty severely back by the frame attachments too.
BTW have you ever examined the broken vertical links? What
kind of a break are you getting? Is it a propagating crack, or a clean
break? How about the lower trunnions? Any evidence that they have
severely bent?
--
William Woodruff woodruff@caen.engin.umich.edu
Ann Arbor MI
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