Replacement for the standard lever arm damper seen here resplendent in a new coat of paint for the first time in 19 years.

I conceived, designed and built this upper link and telescopic damper mounting in the late spring of 1987. Work on this was motivated largely by the difficulty in obtaining good reconditioned dampers at the time.

With the addition of telescopic damper to the lower wishbone and the associated loads going through the original lower trunnion I took the opportunity to redesign the trunnion assembly at the same time.

The wishbone has been modified so the outer end retains two 3/4" ID x 3/4" long Oilite sintered bronze tophat bushes.

This shows the trunnion components assembled, the kingpin fits in the centre.

The kingpin used for this modification is OE specification with machined sides. To my knowledge these went out of production in the early 1990s and so replacements would require these faces machining.

This shows the various components that make up the new assembly.

With the exception of the Oilite bushes and O-rings the other components have covered about 70k miles. The Oilite bushes were changed at about 55k miles, the O-rings are new. The thrust faces that clamp to either side of the kingpin have suffered from rusting and will be replaced, most likely in stainless.

From the experience gained with this design I shall probably look at improving certain aspects such as the sealing around the thrust faces.