Bristol 410 Anti-roll bar update
I thought I would provide an update of the works to the front suspension on my 410. As noted sometime ago, I had corrosion in the brackets supporting the ant-roll bar. Initially, I was intending just to replace the brackets and renew the rubber bushes. The existing brackets on my car showed signs of previous patch repairs, I wanted to renew them completely but was unable to obtain replacement sections or even an existing section I could use as a template prior to dismantling my car.
Zorglub made the suggestion that I could upgrade the position of the ant-roll bar to that on a 411. This made a lot of sense to me for a number of reasons.
As with all of these jobs on old cars you will make decisions to replace other parts in the process and this is precisely what I did in the hope of not revisiting any issues in the vicinity of the front suspension whilst in my ownership.
The works involved the complete strip down of the front suspension and replaced, renewed and upgrading the following:-
Coil road springs, rubber donut and large steel retaining “washers”
New coil spring pans were used as part of the upgrade to the 411
Replacement anti-roll bar and bushes etc. also from a 411
Suspension struts were sent away for checking and servicing
Upper and lower ball joints renewed
Brake calipers sent away for refurbishing, new pads, flexible brake hoses and copper brake pipes.
New outer track rods and ends
Replaced all the wishbone bushes.
Replaced all nuts, bolts and washers with new; washers were a rarity on my front suspension for some unknown reason.
The small brackets which attached the bottom of the suspension struts to the coil spring pans were cracked (a common fault I believe), replacement brackets were expensive for what they were, so new ones with a much improved design were made for a less than £10.
Doing these works, the following changes and hopefully improvements were made:-
I replaced the 4 LH outer track rod ends and track rods to the more conventional 2 LH and 2 RH outer track rod ends and track rods; this simplifies the tracking into a very small and quick job.
As mentioned above the lower strut brackets were upgraded to an improved design.
The 1/4” bsf nuts, bolts and washers to the inner brackets of the upper wishbone were replaced with 5/16” bsf bolts.
The area of the original anti-roll bar brackets was taken off and the corroded areas cut out and new section of steel plate were inserted to provide additional rigidity, as these brackets support the front bumper.
Everything in the area I was working in was taken back back to a sound surface and treated with 2 coat of primer and two top coats of black paint, plus prepare and touch up the under seal in the same areas.
The central track rod ends, wheel bearings and oil seals all appeared to be ok, so these were left untouched.
In addition to the above I had the rear brake calipers refurbished, new brake pads, one new copper brake pipe and two new disc brake shields (these were made in my workshop for a material cost of £2).
To summarise the works, having completed approximately 500miles in the last couple of weeks my car is driving very well and the handling excellent. I also had the car MOT’d with a pass and no advisories plus a few complementary comments by the examiner.
Special thanks to Zorglub for pointing me in the direction of the anti-roll bar upgrade and also to SLJ who helped me out of a few very sticky corners with their expertise.
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