Rubber grommet on front radius arm mount?!

Fiatfiend

True Classic
Putting together the front bodywork and front suspension of my Fiat after repairing extensive rust and collision damage. (Pics at *davelhudson on Twitter) I thought I had everything, but I need the rubber grommet that insulates the hole in the front radius rod mount. I have the bushings, but there's a rubber ring it looks like. Where can I find that? I wonder if Fastenal would have a correctly sized rubber grommet?

Help! I vowed I would drive it again this month (at least briefly) after having it up out of comission for more than a year.

Dave
 
Was in the same situation. Found out when mounting everything together.
I made a grommet myself from a rubber plug.
The photo shows the plug and grommet.

 
Or, BIG urethane anti-roll bar bushings or BIG shock end bushings should be OK for a short time. Take the wore out bushings to a shop that sells a lot of shock absorbers-dampers and see if they could match some thing up.

Easier still would be to order some from one of the known parts suppliers.


Bernice
 
I looked

Well, midwest bayless, international and vicks didnt show that bushing, unless I was looking in the wrong area.
 
Is it a generational thing? I don't recall that in my 87 - I do t see what the point of it is. I think mine had sleeves for the bushings, maybe - but a spacer set in the bracket doesn't seem to make any sense
 
I don't think that's it

I have the regular bushings. They look like this. There's an additional grommet that insulates the hole of the radius rod mounting bracket.
 
I agree

But it seems to be necessary the way the mount is designed in my car. There was definitely a grommet there, that's for sure.
 
On my '78 there was originally a grommet installed.
I think the function is to keep the rod centered when installing.
 
It's supposed to be a nylon bush, and stops the bracket and the sleeve making metal / metal contact. 2 halves per side

Fiat part number 4177787 (4 req)

SteveC
 
I have rods and bushing from four different Xes and none of them have the spacer. When I did the bushings on my 84 I thought it didn't seem right to have that much slop around the metal sleeve so when I turned some out of Poly and put a shoulder on them to hold the rod on center.
 
I too am confused

I have never seen such. Certainly not in the factory maual for later models .(This was from a question I had when I recently rebuilt mine. The bushings turn out to be the same size despite the drawing, so ignore the red comments.)
 
Number 8 looks very much like the grommet to be placed in the bracket.
And number 4 being the rubber rings on both sides of the bracket.
 
Good Discusssion

Last night I used a bench grinder to shape the rubber grommets I picked up. I removed quite a bit of material because I didn't want them to protrude and interfere with the larger rubber doughnuts, especially since I think this protrusion on one side would amount to adding an extra (or more) caster washers.

While they fit pretty well, it's a work around at best. :hrmph:

Dragonsgate, Do you have more of the poly inserts, or could you make some more??

Dave
 
Nope

I have the metal tube. I have several. This is a hard plastic (or age-hardened rubber) insert. Strange, some people are completely familiar with them and some aren't. Sounds as though they were a feature on the older cars. ?
 
Last night I used a bench grinder to shape the rubber grommets I picked up. I removed quite a bit of material because I didn't want them to protrude and interfere with the larger rubber doughnuts, especially since I think this protrusion on one side would amount to adding an extra (or more) caster washers.

While they fit pretty well, it's a work around at best. :hrmph:

Dragonsgate, Do you have more of the poly inserts, or could you make some more??

Dave
I have a little material left. If I remember right it is like 90 shore on hardness. Several years ago I had a company in Texas pour me some 12 inch long sticks in 1.5, 2 and 3 inch diameters. I had a choice of colors so I picked yellow to match my car. They ran about $95 to $125 a foot. I am not up to making anything for anyone else plus I want to hang onto the stuff I have left for future projects. The stuff cuts pretty easy and turns well with a sharp bit. Seeing as how the bushings are stationary they do not have to be perfectly centered so you could maybe find some existing pieces and modify them to work. The shoulder does not have to be more than an eighth of an inch on the two halves. I recently had the end break of one of the radius rods and am wondering if maybe the bushing are to stiff. I put the polyurethane bushings on about 40,000 miles ago. The rod looks like it was cracked for a while because half is dark and half is clean like a new break.




 
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