Radius arms are a never-ending challenge in the world of quarter-elliptical Sprite Mark I and II’s. The bushings fail and fail regularly, and if you think that rigid steel heim joint radius arms are a better idea, you’ll find that they diminish ride quality and shake your teeth more than you’d probably like. Heim joints are really only appropriate for track cars, or people under 30.
As a result, we are constantly working on the rubber bushings on these things to try and attain at least the slightest bit of comfort for the driver. And we change these bushings often, because the rubbers tear all the time, and if you lower the car with them too tight after you’ve installed new ones, they’ll tear all over again.
The other big issue with radius arms is the topic for this post, and that’s the spacer that is shown in the above photo. That spacer is often missing. In fact, on one of these really nice restorations we just got into the building from another shop, it was the first thing we noticed. The reason it matters is because the radius arms tend to float laterally, and contribute to wearing the bushings, and also noises that you don’t want in your rear end.
Nobody wants noises coming from their rear end.
So get the spacers. If you don’t have them and aren’t sure where they are supposed to go, see the above photo for reference. And if you need new spacers or other suspension parts, check out our parts catalog or click the links below to get your parts today!
