Elite/Eclat and pre '85 Turbo/S3 Esprit ARB bush elimination
Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2023 23:30
It's not uncommon to find that the anti-roll bar bushes in the lower suspension arm have deteriorated to the point that the spacer tube has worn the hole in the arm oval and/or that the bush cups are damaged.
The lower arms on my own '81 S3 Esprit were in very bad shape, due to the fitting of air-ride suspension by the previous owner. Repair would have been quite difficult and replacements were expensive, but they looked to be identical to the lower arms on Elite/Eclat, except for the absence of the spring seat (I was planning to fit adjustabe platform dampers anyway). A visit to Lotusbits confirmed this and I came away with a pair of much more usable lower arms. They lacked bush cups and exhibited some ovalisation of the hole, but the only thing that hands the arms is the position of the bush cups. Swapping the arms sifde for side gets you unworm holes, just needing new bush cups.
Perrusing the various forums, it seems the available rubber bushes are very hard and the polyurethane versions don't have the resiliance of rubber and distort (mine had, although probably not helped ny the air-ride). I also needed to source or make replacement cups. They're quite expensive to buy and after considering making a press tool, or machining them from solid, I decided to replace the bushes with a spherical bearing. This would have the additional benefit of improving the location of the lower arm under braking. Several people have added a seperate link and Lotus themselves converted the lower arm into a wishbone on post '85 Esprits with the Toyota based front suspension.
I've use the NMB ABWT10 bearing (as used in the trunnionless conversion). I machined a housing for the bearing and made up a pilot for a 35mm hole saw to enlarge the hole in the arm to accept it.
The lower arms on my own '81 S3 Esprit were in very bad shape, due to the fitting of air-ride suspension by the previous owner. Repair would have been quite difficult and replacements were expensive, but they looked to be identical to the lower arms on Elite/Eclat, except for the absence of the spring seat (I was planning to fit adjustabe platform dampers anyway). A visit to Lotusbits confirmed this and I came away with a pair of much more usable lower arms. They lacked bush cups and exhibited some ovalisation of the hole, but the only thing that hands the arms is the position of the bush cups. Swapping the arms sifde for side gets you unworm holes, just needing new bush cups.
Perrusing the various forums, it seems the available rubber bushes are very hard and the polyurethane versions don't have the resiliance of rubber and distort (mine had, although probably not helped ny the air-ride). I also needed to source or make replacement cups. They're quite expensive to buy and after considering making a press tool, or machining them from solid, I decided to replace the bushes with a spherical bearing. This would have the additional benefit of improving the location of the lower arm under braking. Several people have added a seperate link and Lotus themselves converted the lower arm into a wishbone on post '85 Esprits with the Toyota based front suspension.
I've use the NMB ABWT10 bearing (as used in the trunnionless conversion). I machined a housing for the bearing and made up a pilot for a 35mm hole saw to enlarge the hole in the arm to accept it.
