[DeTomaso] Offset Poly Bushings

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/17/10 18 03 0, tborcich at msn.com writes:


> My car still has rubber bushings that show cracking on the outer rims of 
> the bushing, probably original.
> Realistically they need replacing. Soooo...if I can get 5 degrees of 
> caster (+2-3 degrees) from offset bushings then
> I've solved two issues: got new bushings, and more caster. 
> 
>>>You won't get nearly that much caster just by installing the offset 
bushings.   But, while you have the suspension apart anyway, it's a snap to mill 
.100" off the back side of the ball joint; doing so in combination with the 
new bushings will get you where you want to be.   You'll need to add .100" 
in spacers on the front side of the ball joints of course.

1971 Panteras used a different A-arm with a narrower opening; it was just 
wide enough to accept the ball joint, with no spacers.   The hot setup, with 
either style, is to add the camber lock kit from Pantera Performance Center. 
  It will drop right in on a 1972-later A-arm, but you'll have to mill 
.100" off *both* sides of the ball joints to gain the .200" clearance necessary 
for the .200" spacer that is an integral part of the kit.


> > If I can get the extra caster I don't need
> to do the mod to the upper A-arm which was one of my priorities on the 
> list .....right. 
> 
>>>Yes, bushings plus milling the ball joints will probably be more than 
sufficient.
> 
> >Go ahead Jack...or Mike...tell me that depends on MY car and how far out 
> the A-arm pickup points were
> mounted by Guido when they built my car....I can see that coming. Honestly 
> I'm laughing as I type this.
> 
>>>Some people perpetuate the myth that these cars were all handbuilt and 
tolorences were all over the place, but that's really a big load of crap.   
These things were mass-produced from stampings, and welded up in a jig, and 
other than some minor hand-fitting of the body panels (leading etc.), they 
were really extremely uniform.   30 years later, as a result of rust, crash 
damage etc. it's not unusual to find cars with chassis that are tweaked and 
twisted.   But it's ludicrous to then characterize the cars themselves as 
being badly built, just because a particular car with a checkered past has a 
chassis that's twisted like a pretzel.   To measure such a car, and then 
broadly proclaim that they're all built like that, is disingenuous in the extreme.

Mike