Hi there the Ovlov Brains Trust!

i’ve taken Harry, my 1973 144 GL, front suspension apart, and a good thing Izvestia gotta say, mostly it was ok but while completely out of the car Im replacing the worn bits, primarily the bushes etc.

courtesy of George M I have new bushes but WHY are the factory rubber ones offset? And which way do they go in? There is a small green dot on the outside of the replacement bushes and I guess that goes ‘up’ when putting them back in but there is not that much in the manual to guide me in this.

I also have Nolathane aftermarket bushes but they are NOT offset, just wondering?

will most likely go with the rubber but just need to know how they go in?

thanks, and hope none of you are too badly impacted by the fires!

We're talking lower control arm bushes, yeah?

Have you got photos of the replacement bushes?

Mother Volvo originally supplied two different types of LCA bush - one type for crossply tyres, the others for radials.

Do you have a 140 Green Book? If not, I believe there's a 1974 140 Green Book in the Members' Tech Article Archive. The Green Book shows (in Figure 6-15, page 6.9) how the bushes fit into the LCA, and page 6:17 shows the installation instructions.

I've not used rubber bushes, so I can't tell you what the green dot is all about. The offset is explained, sort of, in Figure 6-38 of the Green Book.

The Nolathane bushes are very solid and have very little compliance, so they'e not offset.

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The solid bushes were the same as the 120 up until the mid year model change in 1970. These were for cross ply or 'rag' tyres. The offsets were for radial tyres to change the amount of negative camber. To be honest, the cutout bushes were weak as piss (but not as weak as the rear 240 LCA bush) and would fall apart if you hit something hard enough or drove on enough rough roads. The earlier bush is far superior to the later one IMHO. The Nolathane will add more positive camber, which is a good thing for handling but may well wear out faster and not dampen road feedback as much.

Adding positive camber is never good for handling. Positive caster is, though.

Maybe I'm getting my camber angles mixed up. The cutout bushes lay the wheel out at the top. The solid bushes should give better handling.

Thanks to Ozzy Tyres.

On my old 144, I had about 2 deg neg camber and about 4 degrees positive castor. Back in the day (late 1980s - early 90s), with a 24mm Selby front sway bar, it was awesome in corners.

FWIW all vehicles today with radial tyres have negative camber to aide in turn-in and handling.

5 days later

Hi there out in old VOLVO land,

seems my lower control arm has been bent a bit too much to allow correct fitting of my new bushes, must have been when I was rallying in the late 70s ? so I’m looking for the left passenger side front lower control arm for a 1973 Volvo 144, any out there? The bent one is the one with the upright still connected.......???

@iceton1975 ? @1971_144GL ?

The only place near Sydney which I believe may have any 140 lower wishbones is Northern Wreckers, at 557 The Northern Rd, Londonderry. (02) 4777 4205

Last time I was there (a looong time ago) they had a 144 out there. Problem is they're only open Monday to Friday, not weekends.

I have a few sets in Melbourne. Not sure when I will be there next.

How bad is the arm bent that it won’t allow the bush to fit? I can understand it bent so that the pivot bolt would be jammed in, but not that you couldn’t get a bush in.

re poly vs rubber bushes, everyone has their own view on the merits of either, but when I was getting shocks made, Murray Coote wouldn’t make the shocks unless I used rubber bushes.

I’ve done a couple of very long rallies plus a few week-long ones on rubber bushes and the only bushes we’ve ever had problems with have been the rear LTA bushes. We’d chew them out in a week. Changing the shock mounts from rose joints to ex-Hilux rubber mounted ones seems to have cured that problem.

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