VR/VS rear cradle bushes/cradle failures, Solid VS soft bushes and mounts????

[delcowizzid]

ive welded up a few vr cradles if its not cracked ide drop it out and weld on a strengthening patch

 

[Immortality]

Yeah, mine has to come out, but unfortunately with a stuffed arm/shoulder it will be a couple of months yet before I can even consider doing something like that

I like the way VRsenator065 strengthened his so I'll copy his one when I do it.

 

[Immortality]

Had the car up on a hoist this morning and no signs of any cracking in the rear subframe :w00t:

Plenty of movement in the bushes though, everything else looks like it's original, bushes, shocks (which are shot) etc.

 

[VRSenator065]

I reckon the problem with solids is the holes on the chassis will have to line up precisely. Seriously the Super pro's I have are as close to solid as you would ever need anyways. There is a guy on eBay (can't fnd it right now) selling a fabricated diff mount I think to sort of try and replicate the Harrop but without going to the cost.

 

[Immortality]

Yeah, I'll fit Urethane type bushes for the subframe as this car is intended mainly as a comfortable cruiser. I haven't yet decided if I'll go with the Harrop mount or if I fabricate something up myself.

I think I know what mount your talking about, I think it was all alloy but it looked a but ugly if I remember correctly.

 

[VRSenator065]

I think it was all alloy but it looked a but ugly if I remember correctly.

Yep actually looked pretty rough tbh. I don't reckon it would be too hard to fab one up. Post up if you do, be interesting to see.

 

[Immortality]

If I do it will be steel (I don't have a lot of alloy stock, nor the equipment to weld it). but it should look nice at least.

 

[VRSenator065]

Yea and really you will never ever see it. I wouldn't do it in Ally anyway, unless you could lay your hands on some 6061 or something, it will be under a lot of load/stress.

Might be worth messing around with the height of the cradle if your doing it. You may be able to crib a few millimeters by making the rear of the cradle sit a little higher than stock so that with the car lowered the drive shafts are more horizontal taking load off the cv's Just a thought bubble though, haven't thought it through.

 

[Immortality]

Yeah, I figure If I measure a standard mount before fitting and use that as a base the diff will sit higher as there won't be any sag like you would have with that standard rubber mount.

You don't really want the CV's to be 100% straight. From my understanding you want at least 1° angle across the CV joint so the bearings turn a little in the joint. If they don't apparently they wear out a lot quicker which I think is why the IRS models have the centre drive shaft mount offset.

 

[VRSenator065]

Interesting, I would have thought just regular suspension travel would give you some of that, but I am not Mr CV. Cool, nice little project, post up pics if you do it.