Elise S1 - lower rear wishbone fit

[David-122i4]

Hi All,

I've been refreshing an Elise S1 over lockdown. I've owned a couple of S1's previously, and what started as a tow-bolt renewal very quickly turned into a clams-off refresh of everything I could see or think of that could do with a make-over.

The car's an early '98 and it spent its first 21 years by the Scottish coast. A few bolts have come out cleanly, but the majority have been rusted solid and among many new tools I've bought for the project the angle grinder has likely been the busiest.

At many, many points I've been stumped, but thanks to some of the great fresh guides here and on YouTube have found a way of getting the job done.

Now, I'm really wary of the next step.

I was planning on cleaning up the rusty old wishbones, but spotted a massive crack on a front lower arm, where it meets the damper bolts, and decided to change the lot. I bought a complete set from EliseParts, along with their copies of the original wishbone bushes.

When I try to fit the lower rear nearside wishbone, I can get the rear mounting point in place, or I can get the front one in place, but for the life of me, I cannot get them both in together.

One of the bushes wasn't perfect centred in the arm and I've used the EliseParts tool to move it, but the metal cylinder inside the rubber bush (is this called a race?) is perhaps 1mm too long for me to press both mounting points home at the same time. I've covered the bushes and the mounting points in red grease.

I'm tempted just to grind or file 1mm off the metal cylinder. I'm not sure my thinking is right, but I believe the rubber bush envelops the complete metal cylinder and therefore if the metal cylinder was 1mm shorter, it likely wouldn't make any difference - the cylinder simply has a bolt running through it, creating a hinge, and the bush is just to keep the cylinder (and bolt) in place inside the wishbone mount.

What I don't want to do is find the cylinders need to be an incredibly tight fit and by lopping off 1mm I've introduced some slack and wrecked the car's handling. The attached pic shows the metal cylinder protruding from the end of the wishbone. All 4 'ends' protrude to a degree, but the others are all fractional and this one is obvious. I can't move the wishbone any further to the right without the rubber appearing beyond the metal of the wishbone.

Any advice greatly appreciated!

David

[BertBert]

Dodgy bush perhaps? I would expect the sleeve to need to be tight for the bolt to be able to be torqued. I'm no expert though!

[David-122i4]

Thanks Bert - that's possible, perhaps the lack of slack between the cylinder and chassis mounting points prevents any forward and backward movement in the wishbone.

If I get a chance today I'll try one of the front wishbones and see if they're similarly awkward!

[fredd1e]

Have you measure old bush and new to compare lengths? if old is shorter could be tolerances on new parts arent as tight as OEM.

[David-122i4]

I've measured by lining up old and new and comparing by sight, and would say the new is perhaps 1mm longer on the rear mounting bush (by the length of the cylinder I was thinking of grinding off) and perhaps very slightly longer (less than 1mm) on the front mounting bush (front of the rear lower wishbone that is).

I've ordered a set of measuring callipers from Amazon - they'll come in handy generally and if I know for sure the new cylinder in the bush is too long I can reduce it with confidence.

Thanks for the thought

[BertBert]

Are you planning on measuring the actual inner sleeve to see if it is too long? Is that inner sleeve centred in the rubber bush?

[David-122i4]

The inner sleeve is longer than the rubber bush and protrudes at both ends of the bush. It protrudes by more at the front end than at the rear. When I try to centre the sleeve, the bush moves within the wishbone, so I've moved the entire bush (and sleeve) as far to the rear as possible without having the bush extend beyond the metal of the wishbone.

I'll measure the metal wishbone and the sleeve and compare them with the originals. I don't think I can measure the bush without removing it, and I don't think it would tell me anything anyway - the bush doesn't extend beyond the metal wishbone arm/cylinder. If the sleeve is too long for the bush I'll try and find a way of grinding or filing it without damaging the bush or the wishbone. If the sleeve is the right length and just needs to be moved within the bush I guess I could put a socket or similar on one of the bush and use the wishbone bolt to force the sleeve to move....

The callipers should be here Friday so I can test then, but if I get a chance earlier I'll see if other wishbones fit more easily!

[BertBert]

As said before, I suspect the length of the inner sleeve should be a snug fit inside the mounting point, but not being an Elise expert, I can't be sure. That means the bolt has to be torqued down and hold the sleeve tightly stopping the sleeve from rotating on the bolt. So I'd be very wary of grinding anything of it unless you are sure it's over length. And then I'd consult the supplier to gee their view. Presumably you can compare measurements with the old wishbone bush?

As I said, no expert, so could be wrong here.

Bert

[David-122i4]

Calipers arrived, and the measurements of old and new are close to identical - one of the cylinders is around .5mm longer than the original, but the only other difference was although the rearmost wishbone bush was centred, the cylinder in the bush was too far to the front.

I pressed the cylinder in the rear-most mounting point of the wishbone further rearward and although the bush moved a little too, the entire wishbone then pressed into both mounting points with very little effort.

Thanks both of you for your help, much appreciated!

[BertBert]

Result!