Did you get a chance to look into this issue Paul?
I've been trying out a couple of new designs from Superpro with voiding and inner bore Knurling. These are a better design and rotate around the crush tube as intended although the bushes can still be turned in the housing with a bit of effort.
This issue has held up my project for far too long. I have hard rubber bushes on the arms of my other TR7 which I use every day and it handles superbly. The bushes I took out lasted 30 years so I'm thinking rubber hard or soft may be the way to go. Much to think about.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Paul_TR8</i>
The bushes, especially in the trailing arms should not rotate. The original bushes would have been tested in 4 axis.
Axial - side to side movement viewed in the plane of the bolt (so movement along the bolt)
Radial - up and down movement
Torsional -IMPORTANT one for the trailing arms (rotate around the bolt)
Conical (up one end and down the other) when you go round a corner and the trailing arms moves to the side (if that makes sense, I am trying to keep this all simple). This is important as too stiff and the car will oversteer.
also don't forget that the bolts for the trailing arms must be torqued up with the vehicle on the ground to set the neutral position so that when the axle moves up or down then the bushes acts conically (tries to twist)and depending on the make up of the bush (shore hardness) will counteract this and help the arm get back to the neutral position.
I am going to look into this in the new year as its something that will interest members who fit after market bushes. I work developing cars for ride and handling.
Paul
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