Watts Link Problem

[CarlB]

One of the bell cranks on the watts links that locate the De Dion tube is binding when I tighten the bolt that holds it to the De Deion tube. I have had both apart and one is fine. I am confident I put them together correctly, although I admit I had to correct the orientation of the radius rods once. When I was assembling them, they both had some wear on the bell crack where the spacers that go in the bracket on the De Dion tube. Some people might describe this as wear on the area in contact around the through bolt on the bell crank. Has anyone experienced a similar problem, or can they suggest someone who might have had experience and I could speak to?  

[ashyers]

CarlB,

If you take a photo I'm happy to compare to my '03 SV.

 

Andy

[MV8]

It sounds like the bellcrank bushing is binding or the spacers are worn or were not thick enough to begin with.

If the bolt is not as tight as it should be, wear can occur between the spacers and the inner sleeve of the bellcrank. This wear could reduce the thickness of the spacers, reducing the clearance to the bellcrank body or bushing, causing it to bind before the bolt can be fully tightened. The spacers should not contact the bellcrank body. It could be the clearance was never enough and the bolt was not fully tightened. Clear pics of the spacers and bellcrank sides could help. The fix could be adding appropriate sized washers to the ones you have to provide enough clearance when the bolt is fully tightened. You can use a six inch dial caliper to measure what if anything is needed (ID, OD, and thickness) for adequate clearance or take the parts to a machinist to measure. Fairly cheap at harbor freight or ebay and accurate (tested side by side with a $600 dial caliper).

Also make sure the inner sleeve rotates freely in the bell crank bushing.

[CarlB]

Thank you for the help. I figured it out. The bell cranks on my car had been modified. The bushing in the center was not rubber mounted. It was solid. I did not realize it was a separate piece. Clearly it had suffered from over lubrication. I assumed that the through bolt would only tighten so far before bottoming out and the spacing of the components was designed to take up the slack but not bind. I looked on the Caterham web site and it looked like the bell cranks had a rubber bushing. Then I called Red Line and they confirmed the bell crank does have a rubber bushing.