clubstylus

Has anyone beefed up thier original wishbones, the rear tube has split away from the short tube for the poly bush, its on my ramp at work and now thinking which way to go repair or renew with more durabilty for road use?

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=618

Was yours an original without the longditudinal bar as fitted to the later ones ?
Its shown in my drawing sketch in the wishbone thread above....

I can put dimensions on it it if you want to make new - for rod end or for poly bush.
Rob has jig for the rod-end type, not sure if he can make the normal ones.

To get back on the road you could cut off 50mm's from the rear tube , clean back to metal then slip a tight larger tube over it the right length ---- weld to tube and poly retainer tube. Personally I'd also weld a tube between front and rear arms of the wishbone.
Instead of a jig , if you keep both poly joints in their positions by slipping a half inch tube or rod through both metal inner sleeves in the correct gap before welding , it will be good enough for a repair job. Just tack it both sides first . Failing that I could make you a pair the same as Matt's but you'd need to buy pins to connect upright to wishbone rodend. Matt got his made for a sensible price . PM me if that's the route you choose.

We have a guy who makes award winning chopper bikes and frames for classic bike racers next door at work and i have given it to him to repair he was surprised at the flimsey construction of it and as he owes me a favour he can return it by repairing it but this has made me think about the future reliability of them and other parts so its time to strip things down and check, i think doing 7000 miles in the first year of owning it shows i need to be more aware of its weaknesses.

I never did like the two armed wishbones especially joining the poly retainer at that angle .

I don't know if the Stylus uses Escort uprights but Steve at Fury sportscars says that the lower ball joints that are available now are not quite correct.

He said that he has had to get the taper machined (or new tapers) to fit the Escort uprights. Its only a real problem when the suspension is working at its extremes.
A road car will fall in to this category. It splits the rubber he told me.

This maybe a point that you need to consider.

About a third of the way down, is what the RGB racers use for lower wishbones.
http://www.danstuff.info/furyracerb4.htm

Could someone please explain to me what the bracing bar actually does?
If the lower wish bone is fixed in the chassis where can it go.
I believe (have been told) that the formula fords have it as a safety measure, so if a wish bone snaps it doesn't go through the chassis and spikes the driver.

My lower wishbone broke not long after I'd built the car . It was quickly replaced but once I had decided to go all rose joints up front , it meant that front and rear tubes/arms would have to be 90 degrees to the poly joint tube. This being the case , the rear tube being just 70/80 mm's needed a better connection than just an angled tube welded to it , so a cross tube welded at 90 degrees made it stronger.
As I've said before , I build instinctively and not by numbers

Hi Phil, I've had the near side break twice within 2years , both times the weld at the upright end. I had Jeremy make new ones to the same design but using cd45. They have been on for 12 years - no further problem. mike

Another point to take into account is that the rear arm of the w/bone is under pressure to shear from the poly tube retainer when braking or hard cornering to the opposite side. Having the cross tube reduces that pressure.Forgot to mention this in answering Dave's question re--- what for

Like Mike , I made mine from CDS when changing to rose joints.

Well wishbone has been rebuilt and a small plate about 2cm square was welded to the top and bottom of the tube covering the weld thus making it stronger and its back together. why is it when you put your own car on the ramp as we were quiet with work and then suddenly the phone goes mad and we need all 3 ramps and i have a 3 wheeler!! still it made us busy again so i will have to wait till we are quiet again and do the other side.

Sounds like you've got it sorted