Hi all,
my front lower arms have 2.7mm wall seamed tube for the bush tubes. The seam is not enclosed by the weld joint to the arm tube . Should I be concerned about this? I might remmove the bush tubes and remake with thee seam enclosed by the weld joint. I am using citroen/pug metalasic bushes.
My main concern is that the tube seam splits in action.
What do you think?
Cheers

[Edited on 2/9/09 by goodguydrew]

If you have the skills to remake them it would be silly not to!

I presume most are made of seamwelded tube.
- Although, without having thought about it before, it would make sense to place the seam within the weld.

I wouldnt worry too much, but would be interested to hear others thoughts. (maybe even look at my own wishbones!

the weld will be stronger than the rest of it. Its the material imediatly around the weld that will be weakest as it has a tendancy to go brittle. Theoretically you could have them normalised which would be far less work and make the material more uniform.

If it were me i would just make new wishbones. Those littke tubes are the only thing keeping you on the road when it comes to the crunch. If you leave it you will never be confident in the car.

Can you not get them replaced by the manufacturer?

I wouldn't worry about splitting tube of that section.

If you can do it, i would.

To be honest, if you are in a situation where the tube is splitting as a result of something else, then the tube is the least of your worries. It will take some force to split it, and the stress is not all on the seam weld.

I made the wishbones myself and I still have the jig, so I suppose I'lll just fit new tubes. Sometimes it's 2 steps forward and 1 back!
Just as well I enjoy it Grind, grind