Rocker arm question

[Taff Striker]

Finally getting round to checking things before sending the frame for paint and found a problem with the front rocker arms.
They seem to have been rotating on the pivot bolts rather than, what I assume should happen is, the crush tube being jambed (sp) between the mounts and the arm rotating around this on the bushes. Is this correct?? Here are the bolts





The other thing I've come across is that it was still running the Escort TCA set up when I got it but there were wishbones in the pile of spares that came with it. Thing is they dont fit



Quite surprised actually but not worried -good excuse to make some adjustables

Rich

[David]

Richard

You may know that Raw started producing (I assume "went over to") roller bearing rocker arms about five years ago. The move was made nominally for handling reasons (less resistance), but you may find it a worthwhile upgrade.

HTH

David

[Taff Striker]

Ooh - I didn't know that David. I'll look into it

Thanks

[adithorp]

They should trap the crush tube as you describe. They have a habit of siezing on the bushes though. A common mod is to drill and tap the outer tube for a grease nipple. I did that with mine (and put a spiral groove in the nylon bush) and re-grease regularly. Switching to a stainless crush tube would be a good upgrade that might get done sometime...

There's quite a few who've gone for roller bearings but my opinion is that the small angle of movement means the same rollers are under load while others never get loaded so they can wear rapidly. Well greased nylon bushes works fine. KISS!

[jeffw]

For the same reason I haven't done the roller bearing upgrade. I take the arms apart every winter and re-grease.

The lower wishbone you have in the picture looks like a Fury one rather than a Striker one. Having compared the Fury & Striker parts recently that defiantly looks like Fury.

[RobMsport]

Roller needle bearings were standard in the Stylus since 1997 and mine was built in 1999 then got road use for a while plus 4500 miles of competition to date. The worry over only one area of the needle bearings wearing hasn't proved to be true in my case . I took the bearings out of the original rockers when I built my own light tube rockers in 2005 ----- they're still in there without issues . The pivot tube has a grease nipple and when the rockers were put in , I slipped a half inch piece of tight rubber tube over each end which then gets cable tied behind it , on the tube , to hold it tight to the towers ----- few pumps each time I go on track to see nice clean grease squeezing through between tower and rubber does the job
When they do need changing , they're really cheap from bearing traders local to me. If you ever look closely at Stylus towers , you'll see they have a larger hole at the front housing special washers that fit within the large hole , a plate then locates the spindle onto the tower . Spindles are from a Mini . The rearward washer fits inside the tower against the pivot tube then ordinary nut/washer on the outside. Neville Powell NHP Engineering / Liphook designed this when ownership changed from JP to P Powell in 1996 . I don't know anyone who's needed to renew the bearings yet and the majority of owners are road going.

[dopdog]

im going to put the roller rockers on my car as soon as i get some spare cash for them, great upgrade as have never liked the bush version.

[Taff Striker]

Thanks for the reply's and opinions guys

Priced the roller types today at £210 odd plus the Vodka And Tonic and available in a few weeks

Decided I'm going to retain the current set up for now and go with the grease nipple and stainless tube mods. The £210 + may be better spent elsewhere at the moment but could well be a future upgrade.

Wishbones will make it to the "For Sale" section soon (The new Sherpa ends I've bought will be included BTW )

Thanks again everyone

[micha]

the picture showing the (later-style) lower wishbone i a good info.

i also thought wishbones could be swapped over from the "old" escort tca to the newer models...but that pic is a good prove it cant.

i would be also interested in get rid of the escort tca, but i cant fabricate my own ones.

any ideas?

[Taff Striker]

i also thought wishbones could be swapped over from the "old" escort tca to the newer models...but that pic is a good prove it cant

I'm not sure thats entirely true - why would they move the position of the mountings on later chassis?

The lower wishbone you have in the picture looks like a Fury one rather than a Striker one. Having compared the Fury & Striker parts recently that defiantly looks like Fury

It may be that the wishbones were incorrectly supplied Micha?