The 'E' Type Forum

Motor out for the first time, looking to reset torsion-bars and get correct ride-height.

Have made up the bars with 452mm centres as substitutes for the front dampers as per factory manual, but can't drop the lower wishbones sufficiently before they foul on the picture frame.

They overlap the frame tubes by about 40 thou, so won't rotate any further, and I'm 20 or 30mm short of getting the 452mm links into place.



Same on both sides.

So what was put together incorrectly 25 years ago for this to happen, anyone got any ideas ?

Further strip-down reveals nothing obvious, to me anyway.



Shows front-end of LHS lower wishbone.



Shows rear-end of LHS lower wishbone.



Appears to have "LOWER" stamped on 2 out of 3 washers, which anyway don't affect the clearance in question - the rear horn-block (or what-not) is stamped "R" although it's mounted on the Left, but L and R both have the same part number so ......... irrelevant ?



I tried to get around the problem with a couple of Ducati shims (0.7mm in all - thanks to The Magic Box, 35 years of hoarding, and Taglioni's pragmatism) and the horn-blocks still fit up into the chassis tubes, but it's insufficient still to clear the frame tubes and, anyway, I feel I am hiding the problem rather than addressing the root cause.

Hi looks like the front arms have been fitted the wrong way around left fitted to right & vise versa If you look at you 3rd picture you will see that one side of the arm is machined just next to the torsion bar retaining pin hole to allow it to clear the frame.....Steve

I agree but ned to look at photos of other lower wishbones. I cant quite understand how the ball joint has been fitted though as the taper would be upside down!

Well b----r me.

Looks like you're right Steve.

25 years with the arms the wrong way around ?!

Swapping them side-to-side would keep the ball-joint tapers the right way up, wouldn't it ?

Could it really be as simple as this ? (rushes off to try)

Yes it is as simple as that.

Easy mistake

If the RH ans LH lower arms are fitted the wrong sides not only will you find that the arm fouls the frames, but also the torsion bars will be impossible to remove to adjust the ride height. This is due to the spine in the arm being cut at 0.5 deg (rather than perpendicular to the lower arm), so with the lower arms the right way around, the torsion bars run toward the centre of the car and line up with the reaction plate.

The drawing in the manual shows that you have the left and right side crossed up. The drawing shows that the "machined" part goes to the front, not to the back as you currently have it. I looked at my '68 which has been apart and see it's wrong as well. I can't recall if it fouled or not, but as I have an adjustable reaction tie plate I don't have to be that accurate on setting bar lengths. I can't comment on the remark that the splines are cut to a certain angle, but it seems that was not a problem when I (now know) I screwed up and got them reversed as I was able to get the torsion bars hooked up at the plate without issue.

Thanks for all the advice, indeed now sorted. All the parts were stamped L or R but had been put back together all over the place.