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A frame Bush options


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Has anyone experimented, or thought about, doing something different with the chassis end of the rear A frame.

While attempting to strip my A frame the other day I noticed how much resistance to movement there is in the chassis end bushes and it got me thinking. I'm not aiming for more travel from the rear of the vehicle, just free-er movement. Has anyone thought about replacing the bush with a spherical bearing? Mr Warne's lotus has bearings instead of bushes and gives a more precise location, that woule be good but I see the advantage being loosing the resistance as the axle end of the A frame goes up and down. Combined with the Xarms I have to fit should see a lovely, easily flexed setup. Is there any advantage to having the resistance?

On a related note, which is the A frame ball joint with the most travel on the market?

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who is Mr Warne ? Sure, you could cut off the existing ends of the A frame and replace the bushes with rose joints but I dont know how long they would last given the dust and mud that a Land Rover has to put up with. The other side of the coin is that transmission NVH would increase and you would feel every tiny bump. rose joints are ideal for racing and rallying competitions as they allow you increased adjustment and as you said have less resistance to travel movement but they are hardly practicle for normal use, besides are you allowed to modify suspension components on a road vehicle in the UK? Our NSW road authority would reject it unless you had it signed off by an approved transport engineer.

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Second Iains comment. Rosejoints or similar are not really suitable for the given reasons. They are known to increase the risk of chassis cracking due to the high frequency vibrations and the inherent fact they do not absorb any movement, a bit of compliance on a landy is a good thing :P. What you can do though is re-set the standard bushes by slackening the joints, raise the car very slightly and re-tighten the joints. This will place the bushes under very slight torsion which will decrease the life slightly but will allow the A frame to drop more readily, if it's a challenge truck you could get away with it but a road car I probably wouldn't recommend it.

Iain, we can change the suspension design in the UK, so long as it will clear the MOT requirements (disturbingly easy) and you have it declared with your insurance company.

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I'll turn it around and ask if the bushes offer a lot of resistance? They do if you are a human, but if you are a two tonne truck they move easily :)

If I changed them for fixed/rotating bushes, I would put the chassis end ones on the same plain as each other, with wide bronze bushes. Basically making it into a big greasable hinge with a ball on the end.

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Rob Ivins, (what ever happened to him?), once wrote of how a Defender he test-drove that had all the bushes replaced with brass had the best ride. But he wondered how everything else would last since it was doing the twisting the rubber bushes normally would have done.

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