Ideas Or Opinions Please

[Bally 4]

What do you all think of fitting grease nipples to the rear beam and instead of the roller bearings, use teflon bushes instead. Opinions please.

[Rob_the_Sparky 9]

Suspect they would be too soft. Roller bearings work well as long as water seal does its job. The cars suffering from failure are now 10-15 years old and have often had a hard life, it isn't going to be easy to improve upon that.

 

Rob

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

Suspect they would be too soft. Roller bearings work well as long as water seal does its job. The cars suffering from failure are now 10-15 years old and have often had a hard life, it isn't going to be easy to improve upon that.

 

Rob

even if you changed the seals every few years and regreased the beam it would last as long as the car.

 

if i was to buy another 205 ther first job would be to replace the seals , regrease and check the condition of the bearings .

[C_W 3 1 Cars]

Suspect they would be too soft.  Roller bearings work well as long as water seal does its job.  The cars suffering from failure are now 10-15 years old and have often had a hard life, it isn't going to be easy to improve upon that.

 

Rob

I wouldn't agree with that. A soon as my dad saw the design of the bearings and the engineers who pressed out my old trailing arm shaft both said that it shouldn't use roller bearings; a plain bearing would be better as it load is more spread. Which is why the needles dig in to the shaft even if the seals don't fail; the suspension, especially on a lower car or one with stiffer torsion bars doesn't move enough to suggest roller bearings are the best choice as the needles which have very small points and very high loadings just sit in almost the same place all the time.

 

The reason my beam failed onthe drivers side was just through age; the needles have worked into the trailing arm shaft a bit showing how little the suspension actually moves. The seals were fine and it was all greased and clean suggesting they all have a limited lifetime and perhaps could be said to be a design fault.

[nick 3]

I would have thought phosphor(sp) bronze bushes would be more suitable, as these are self lubricating if I remember correctly.

 

Nick

[pug_ham 240 3 Cars]

hehe, I was just about to start a topic showing my partially rebuilt 309 rear beam with my scheme for replacing the outer bearings, thanks Bally.

 

I have fitted some phosphor bronze bushes;

into the centre tube today, drilled & tapped through them & fitted a grease nipple to each side.

 

I got both bushes made for less than it would cost to replace the outer bearings & they have grooves machined inside to carry gease around the shaft.

 

I don't think it is a design flaw, just a built in scheme for the rear beam to need work & cost a lot to fix because by the time you notice/ find out what is wrong it has progressed beyond a cheap & quick fix.

 

Graham.

[jackherer 543]

I don't think it is a design flaw, just a built in scheme for the rear beam to need work & cost a lot to fix because by the time you notice/ find out what is wrong it has progressed beyond a cheap & quick fix.

I totally agree, BX rear arms are a completely different design yet fail in the exact same way and that is no coincidence, its a 'designed in' failure.

[Bally 4]

Well I think that the bearings rolling on the arm is a bad design, especially such smaller roller bearings since they exert the force on such a small area. I seem to like the bronze / brass bushing with the grease nipples idea.

 

Right now I pull down and regrease my bearings really regular, but what I find is that even if the seals are good, the grease tends to move away from the loading area and that is when they start to eat into the arm with no lubrication. I think someone should look at mash producing these bronze bushes as a replacement, that way at least if you have to change the bushes, you dont have to worry about the arm being pitted.

But how would you get out the out side bronze bushing, surely you would have to cut it out some how.?

[red 0]

That looks a really good job Graham , with respect to the grease nipples make sure they are not fitted on the loaded side as it will be much harder to get the grease around this area, and re- grease with the beam and wheels unloaded, it's old technology but it'll last a lot longer, we use this in the lift industry on heavy duty googd lifts and they last for ever, a better design in respect of the grooves in the bearing is also to have one continuous groove that runs across the bearing from one side to the other as if you were having it threaded.

 

Regards Russ.....

[pug_ham 240 3 Cars]

I've fitted them so the grease nipples are at the bottom of the beam when it is on the car so hopefully it'll be OK. I need use of a honing tool for one of them to get the radius arm to move freely & then set the ride height & it's ready to fit soon.

 

They have a groove machined round at each side & one going across where I've fitted the grease nipple through to make a path for the grease to flow around although I was told that it is self lubricating as well & found this from a google search;

provides an excellent bearing surface that limits friction and wear.

good news alround.

 

Bally, they aren't a really tight fit into the centre tube so they will come out again if needed to replace the inner bearings for example although I can't see this being needed for a long time if a grease nipple is fitted near that bearing too.

 

I'm going to try to get in touch with the engineer who made these bushes for me & get a few more made up, he has moved jobs since so hopefully I can get his phone number.

 

Graham.

[Wurzel 16]

If you do manage to get some more made up (or at least find the person who did the last ones) could you post/pm me the details Graham?

I've not bought bearings for mine yet so it's worth considering.

 

Cheers

[pug_ham 240 3 Cars]

I'm hoping to get in touch with him because he kept the measurements of the ones I have so it'll be easy to make some more but if not afaik he just took the outside dimensions of the outer bearing & pin & made them to suit.

 

If I'm successful I'll pm you & anyone else that might be interested pm me & I'll let you know the outcome.

 

Graham.

[perfecto pug 0]

looks good