Thread: Radius arms, movement...

What sort of movement are you talking about? Do you mean you can move the radius arm relative to the axle or what? Not clear what you are talking about.

There should be no movement except by flexing the rubber bushes at each end of the arm. You need to remember that the radius arm only locates the axle by constraining it in the direction of the length of the arm, and to a lesser extent constrains the rotation of the axle. In all other directions not only is there no need for the radius arm to resist movement more than is needed to stop it falling off, but movement is needed to allow for the axle to move from side to side with pivoting of the panhard rod and for twisting when one wheel is up and the other down.
John

mmm.... will have another look tonight and see if i can explain it better

Right, finally got around to checking the bushes out... even took a quick video to show the movement. So this video is looking from the front at the front passenger side radius arm bushes. I am using a 40cm flat blade screw driver to move it, not alot of effort. Pretty sure there stuffed, the drivers side just as bad. The other thing is you notice the wobble after about 70-80 kms.

Here is the video :
http://video.google.com.au/videoplay'docid=2994044202635070478&hl=en-AU


What do u think ??

Matt.

Originally Posted by matbor

Just wondering how much movement is good in the radius arms, was checking on the weekend and if i put the crowbar in and leverage it, it gets a bit of movement, but not sure how much is to much etc !!

Matt.

The movement you need to worry about is fore and aft movement, front to back, the movement you are getting is the flex in the rubber bushes, inspect the bushes for splits, get a crowbar or tyre lever and try and move the bar backwaerds and forwards, if they do replace them, what's your steering damper like if it's worn you will get wobble, Regards frank.

a steering wobble is probably the steering damper......this will happen after hitting a bump.....
it could even be the swivel hub preloads......

if it just comes on as soon as you hit a certain speed......then chances are its a wheel balance problem.....

check your rims arent filled with mud.....

That looks like too much to me, they should flex but it should take more effort then that. I would replace them, another way to check is get the missus to drive forward or backward slowly then hit the brakes hard, if you can see the whole diff move then they are shagged.

Can't help with your radius arm problem, but I am very impressed that you can put up a video to show people what you are testing etc. That's a neat thing.

also make sure all the bolts are tight.....actually...make sure they are done up to the correct torque....for those bolts its FT....

in that video.....it looks as though the centre tube of the bush is moving left to right.....

if the mentioned bushes are worn....they shouldnt give a vibration.....
if anything...they will make a click or clunk noise.....annoying.....