LARGE CRADLE SPACERS

[Christopher SmithParticipant]

As I  disassembled my L15 (1951)  these  two large  spacers fell off The  hole  matches  the  size  of the  cradle sub shafts and the  spacers are 5mm thick Anybody know  where they are supposed to fit??  Thanks  for  your helpn

[BernieParticipant]

I would think these may have been fitted at some time to correct alignment by pushing the cradle forward on one side only.  I have seen this method used on a number of occasions.

If that is the case they go on each of the two cradle shafts, as you surmise, and should be located between the cradle and the horn on the relevant side.

If there are no witnesses marks on the rest of the hardware to help you identify which side they were previously fitted you may have to do some fine measuremnt to determine the correct side – a small (5mm) difference at that point makes a much bigger difference to the wheelbase.

B………

 

[David FaulknerParticipant]

My car has similar ‘adjustment pieces’ fitted on the nearside. Basically you measure the distance between the axle centres with the cradle fitted which should be the same both sides, if not it’s adjusted with spacers on the front cradle as Bernie describes.

[David FaulknerParticipant]

To add to the previous post, from getting the car it cornered fine going left but always felt ‘twitchy’ on right turns on country roads and had a tendency to steer to the left. Now the front silentblocs were visibly perished so back in 2016 it was decided to rebuild the front cradle.

What we found was a bent left side lower suspension arm, now how could that chunky bit of metal get bent? No idea but it would take a heavy clout on the front end to do it but it was visible using a straight edge on the cradle once removed from the car as shown below.

Now that may have been part of the reason for the indifferent handling as the nearside track was shorter than the offside but even with a replacement suspension arm, the distance was still marginally shorter between the axles on the left side of the car so spacers were fitted between the cradle and Jambonne to balance it out.

The car is very different to drive now so whilst your cradle is out, check everything over for straightness and check the distances both sides as the cars have been around a long time now and most have vague distant histories.

[Christopher SmithParticipant]

Thanks for your collective  wisdom and  I now  have  a path to follow I have attached  photo of  my  L hand Upper  suspension arm as it came off the car  so measuring up should prove interesting!

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