From our “never seen this before” department, here’s something ugly we found this past week. As ugly as this situation was, this car has actually been this way for a lot of miles.
On this particular Bugeye, the car has been driving with no rear washer on the control arm mount. This allowed the control arm to wiggle in its mount! That’s not desirable because it results in alignment changes with every bump and turn, and a less than stable front suspension. It’s amazing that there were no real issues as a result of this omission; I can assure you the suspension is much tighter now that we’ve installed the proper control arm washer and bushings in their rightful places!
Make sure you take a look at your suspension on a lift (if and when that’s convenient) to confirm you have all the proper pieces in place. If your front wheels are loose when you grab them at three o’clock and 9 o’clock or 12 and 6 o’clock, then it’s worth further investigation. Most old British cars have some play in the front suspension but without this critical mounting washer, the play on this one was particularly excessive!
We sell new control arm bushings in our catalog (see above) as well as the proper mounting pins and washers (below). Keep it tight!
