Bonded rubber bushes – unbonding?

Traction Owner’s Club › Forums › For sale & wanted. Suppliers › Suppliers › Bonded rubber bushes – unbonding?

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • 30th June 2018 at 3:10 pm #23280
    Chris
    Participant

      A few people, our President included, have found their bonded rubber bushes becoming prematurely unbonded. These were not the same item type or from the same supplier. The common thing is that they are bonded rubber bushes – for example the front cradle silentblocs and the bushes on the 6 cylinder starter ring.

      Is this an unusual coincidence of one-off poor quality control at each supplier, or is there some generic deterioration in the quality of the bonding process?

      There will be something about this in the next F-P. We’d like to know who else is seeing problems and is this that is something that is getting worse.

      Please either post your experience here or send me an email to chairman@traction-owners.co.uk .

      Thanks

      Chris

       

      3rd July 2018 at 9:32 am #23292
      Editor FP
      Participant

        What purpose do the bushes on the starter ring of the 6 serve?

        Turning a six cylinder engine on a cold day in thick oil must put a terrific shear  load on a bonded bush so no wonder they might have a limited life given the environment in which they have to function. Can  we have an indication from the owners of these cars of the expected lifespan of a ‘good’ bush.

        4th July 2018 at 11:22 am #23303
        Bernie
        Participant

          The silentblocs were not part of the original design and were only introduced at a later date and, to the best of my understanding, their purpose is noise suppression.  Because the starter ring is exposed it makes more of a clatter than the 4 cyl. version and I guess the sort of people buying a 6 in its heyday were not pleased that their very expensive car sounded like a bag of nails every time it was started.

          The silentblocs are mounted with the axis in a horizontal plane, front to rear and the load is from the side, effectively attempting to drive the outer metal element towards the inner part and thus squashing the polymer on one side and tensionning it on the other side.  I would expect little sheer force so the failures are difficult to understand.

          Having experienced a second failure (only one item this time) in the last couple of weeks I have now fitted off-the-peg bushes from a UK supplier of such items instead of buying more, supposedly special, parts from a supplier of Traction parts.

          I shall monitor their performance keenly and I have also taken the precaution of having some solid bushes turned up in case these also fail.  I shall be happy to revert to a solid assembly and tolerate the bag-of-nails syndrome for a few seconds when starting rather than worry whether the rubbers are still intact all the time I am driving.

          Meanwhile, I too would like to know how long other owners have found these parts to last in their engines.

          B……………

           

          20th July 2018 at 9:57 am #23403
          Philippe Allison
          Participant

            Just like to add my silentbloc experiences.

            My own 1950 Slough 6 has had a major failure of the upper wishbone bushes after 800 miles, it is not just the cost of the bushes, £200 aprox. for the set of 4 but the labour involved in changing them. My estimate would be close on 40 hours, bonnet,front wings, bumper and supports, radiator, engine and gearbox out, torsion bars unwound and cradle removed before the job of changing the bushes even starts!! Like Bernie my ring gear bushes have also failed at 1600 miles.

            This week I was contacted by Colin Banstead at Thornley Kelham Racing  to tell me the new set they have fitted to a 15-6 that is being prepared for the Paris-Peking have failed at 2000 miles.

            21st June 2020 at 1:24 pm #26935
            Philippe Allison
            Participant

              Julian Pratt has posted under the 6 cylinder heading his experience with Classic Automobile Services (https://www.cas-shop.com/en/ ). I wanted to echo his findings. This is a brilliant company supplying the highest quality parts clearly not supplied by our usual run of the mill european suppliers. To update you all on my front wishbone bushes, I have just fitted the third set in under 4000 miles! The lattest set have been supplied by CAS and look to be excellent quality, Thornley Kellam Racing have also fitted these to their rally 15-6 and these have well exceeded the mileage done by the last set. They have also striped down the front suspension  to inspect properly and everything looks in order. Last year  I also helped a fellow club member replace the rear trailing arm silent blocks, after returning the first set (not from CAS) because they looked awfull he sourced some from CAS, again great quality. As a bonus they are nice people to deal with and very efficient.

              Philippe Allison

              22nd June 2020 at 9:43 am #26939
              Norman Anderson
              Participant

                Agree with Philippe, they are good people to deal with.

                sent my water pump off to them for overhaul. It came back in good time, then spent two years on a shelf on the garage whilst I worked on the rest of the car. Eventually fitted it and it leaked! But of course it was now well outside any warranty period. Emailed some pics to Barry and he was happy to accept my word on it. They repaired it and installed a new ceramic Bush for free.

                It doesn’t leak anymore ?

              • Author
                Posts
              Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
              • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.