Amazon: suspension bushes, clutch slave & exhaust advice...
 

Hey folks,

Our favoured garage fitted the new brake hoses to our '64 Amazon, welded up a small hole in the rear exhaust box and finished the MOT this morning.

It also gave me a chance to actually look under the car, as the fella put it up on the lift, which was a first. I'd asked him to check out the suspension bushes, as when I spoke to the longtime owner a coupla years ago, he said they could do with renewing.

The fella at the garage also pointed to the clutch slave cylinder (which seemed to be missing the 'concertina' rubber thing that goes on the rear end of the rod) and said that the seal was beginning to go.

He passed the MOT but with advisories on the bushes and exhaust. So, I now need to get the following parts, but am unsure as to what I actually need, so any help/advice gratefully received!

1) Rear exhaust box & pipe after main box under the floorpan: I'll get clairification of which bit is going from the garage fella but the rear box didn't look like the 'bomb' shaped factory one on the Brookhouse site – wish I'd taken some photos now! He did say it 'looked factory' so are there any others it could be?

2) Suspension / trailing arm bushes: The rubber's very hard on all of these so wanna go for poly – front and back, upper and lower, and the 'trailing arm', what would you recommend? Am totally lost as to what I need...

3) Clutch slave cylinder: as noted, this is starting to leak from the rear, where the rod goes in, and also is missing the concertina-like rubber thing that goes along the rod. So I guess that I need Brookshouse part B276572 'CLUTCH SLAVE CYLINDER RUBBER SEAL KIT' and also 673032 'CLUTCH SLAVE CYLINDER PUSH ROD' (for the gaiter) - is that all? Should we also be getting the master clutch cylinder rebuilt, to be on the safe side?

Sorry for being such technical dunce, all help most gratefully received!

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The original resonator in the rear exhaust pipe was a more rounded version of the one Simon sells. His is the normal standard now with the 2 halves of the pot joined in the middle. There are plenty of pattern ones that have a mini version of a normal silencer that are a tube with a seam along it and the end caps crimped on. Simon's type tend to more reliable. Back boxes always rust out first due to never getting really hot. This leaves a bit of condensation in the bottom of the pot and rusts them out. Some of these have a very small hole at the lowest point to allow the water to drain away. If not drill one after fitting. If you have a very fussy MOT man you can screw a short self tapper into it when you take it in.
Simon can make you up a kit of either Poly or rubber and you might get a small discount if you buy a complete set. He will run through with you what you need. Buy new nuts and bolts as well. As it's an advisory I would start by squirting penetration oil on all of the nuts and bolts involved. Do it as often as you can manage, say a couple of times a week until you take it in for the work. If it's not going in until next year, fine, just get extra cans! Plus Gas is good. Some bolts can be a real b*gg*r to get loose. And your garage, and your wallet, will get the benefit.
The clutch slave kit comes with the rubber cap you mention so you shouldn't need the fancy concertina one.

Exhaust if you can afford to do it get a free flowing system fitted, your engine will thank you for it.

Suspension bushes the rear bushes usually last well but as modern rubber is not anything like as good as it used to be poly is the best bet.

As to the clutch when you bleed the system after fitting the new slave the master can sometimes fail where there is a step in the bore causing the seals to tear. Unless the master looks very crudddy i would take a gamble on the existing one before replacing

Thanks, gents...

Thanks for the info, but the box under the bottom of the floorpan was long and kinda rectangular, then there was an arched pipe, and after that a flattish, oval-sectioned back box with the tailpipe on – I shoulda taken some pics, really... that setup ring any bells? Maybe the back box is non-standard because the car was lowered?

Thanks for that, good to know about the nuts and bolts – as I said, it was the first time I'd seen the car from fully underneath (on a lift) so I ain't gonna be able to squirt any penetration oil on 'em... :-(

That's saved me a bunch of cash, cheers! :-)

Can't afford another whole system yet, but as noted above, may have to go to a 'regular' exhaust place to get the existing middle pipe / rear box setup replicated...

Yeah, that's what I assumed, having had crap experiences with other rubber products, especially replacement soles and heels on my footwear! :-)

Top advice, thanks!

Well, it's seem that that I've gotta buzz the garage, get more details on which bit(s) of the exhaust needs doing, then buzz Simon... thanks, folks!

Someone on the Volvo 122 Facebook group intimated that poly bushes give a really hard ride, saying "I would replace the rubber ones with rubber unless you are planning to race the car. Too hard a ride." Is that true? Should we be going for rubber again, rather than poly, which I thought were just more hard-wearing?

Hard ride isn't exactly how to describe it. They can make the ride a bit harsh and you can feel the bumps with a bit more "precision". This is due to them lacking the bit of compliance and compressibility that the rubber gives. It's common to fit poly to the front upper inner bush positions. The excuse here is that the modern supplied rubber bushes have a much lower service life than the original Volvo ones. It is also an easy job so if you have to replace the current rubber ones every 15k miles it's not a big chore. Yes I know you rely on a garage. These bushes when poly is used, on my estate when bought, do give a noticeable hard feel over sharp bumps but fans of them will argue that the steering feels more precise, especially if used in conjunction with a set on the anti roll bar and the vertical rods. Harsh feel at the back I can't comment about but IMO the Panhard rod should only use a poly bush at the axle end and not the body one as that can cause the rod to transmit the bump noise into the body. The P rod and the front ones mentioned use the same bush. Racing and rallying suits poly better as you aren't worried about noise and comfort so much, but if you're only doing a couple of k road miles a year I'd stick to rubber. New rubber all round should last at least 15-20k so that may be enough. Make sure the rubber is in contact with clean painted metal and not the rusty surfaces that the old ones are working against. Poly more expensive too if that is a factor.

Thanks for the clarification, Derek!

We don't really do much mileage, to be honest – 'high days and holidays', really, guess about 1-1.5k per year...

Okay, so to summarise, we should go for rubber all round, apart from the front upper inner bush positions and the panhard, which should only have poly at the axle end? If so, I'll drop Simon at Brookhouse another email...

Your best bet would be to have a go in a Amazon that is fully poly bushed and see if you like it.

Top wishbones are a must in poly, race cars use nylon in this position. For the panhard rod I do a softer grade poly to help is move as it is supposed to without binding. This binding of the panhard rod is the bump Derek describes and the old way of doing was to use rubber one end and poly the other.

The main thing is to pick what is right for you especially bearing in mind fitting will cost more than either type of bush

Well, thanks for the extra info – I emailed Simon at Brookhouse yesterday about bushes but haven't heard anything back. I didn't think of looking at your selection, sorry!

My wife's the driver in the family, I just do the 'sorting out', and we don't really know any other local Amazon drivers than Jamie, whose later model is just about to come back on the road after a major resto... it's likely that he's got rubber bushes, I reckon...

If you can supply a full kit of rubber / poly for our '64, including replacement bolts, etc, please let me know – I'm not just stuck on using Brookhouse as a supplier!

Yes I can supply all the bushes and bolts etc in either poly or rubber or a mix of the two.

You are welcome to give me a call to discuss the best options.