This was a new one on me. My Super's right front suspension has been increasingly creaky and groany lately. Not that unusual for an old Alfa, but this persisted, so I looked into it last week.
Turns out the rubber inner bushing on the upper A-arm was separating from the arm itself. As you can see in the pictures, the rubber sleeve was moving forward, piling up in the small open space at the front end of the body mount, shoving the arm rearward, and causing the arm to scrape against the body.
I pulled it all apart this morning, and was it a bear, because the rubber was so expanded, I couldn't pull the A-arm out past the short "tubes" inside the mount that the bushing centers on, even with a bid sledge and a slide hammer. I Sawzalled it some, then ended up burning the rubber with a small torch, and chiseling the rubber out. Tough spot to get access to.
I bought a new inner bushing from Centerline, pressed the old one out, pressed the new one in, and now all's well.
This arm was an adjustable upper arm, bought from one of the big mail-order places about five years ago. I'm not slagging the seller, as I just think it was one of those things. The rubber did not appear to be at all bonded to the outer shell or inner sleeve of the bushing; friction seemed to be the only connection, as the bushing completely fell apart after I pressed it out.
The original non-adjustable arm on the other side (presumably a regular Alfa one) is fine. The only non-adjustable arms available from the mail-order places are for 115 cars, and 105 cars need a shorter arm, so you have to use the adjustable one.
This is not a problem I've encountered before. Pics show how much the bushing had migrated forward in the A-arm.
Andrew
Turns out the rubber inner bushing on the upper A-arm was separating from the arm itself. As you can see in the pictures, the rubber sleeve was moving forward, piling up in the small open space at the front end of the body mount, shoving the arm rearward, and causing the arm to scrape against the body.
I pulled it all apart this morning, and was it a bear, because the rubber was so expanded, I couldn't pull the A-arm out past the short "tubes" inside the mount that the bushing centers on, even with a bid sledge and a slide hammer. I Sawzalled it some, then ended up burning the rubber with a small torch, and chiseling the rubber out. Tough spot to get access to.
I bought a new inner bushing from Centerline, pressed the old one out, pressed the new one in, and now all's well.
This arm was an adjustable upper arm, bought from one of the big mail-order places about five years ago. I'm not slagging the seller, as I just think it was one of those things. The rubber did not appear to be at all bonded to the outer shell or inner sleeve of the bushing; friction seemed to be the only connection, as the bushing completely fell apart after I pressed it out.
The original non-adjustable arm on the other side (presumably a regular Alfa one) is fine. The only non-adjustable arms available from the mail-order places are for 115 cars, and 105 cars need a shorter arm, so you have to use the adjustable one.
This is not a problem I've encountered before. Pics show how much the bushing had migrated forward in the A-arm.
Andrew