Radius Arm Bracket Fitment Issues

[WNX700H]

Rebuilding the rear subframe for one of my cars . The rear subframe is clearly a pattern part. I have been dummy assembling the rear arms and brackets as the brackets have needed a lot of fettling in order to get the holes to line up . One one side it looks like I am going to have to machine the thrust washers thinner in order to get the brackets to line up , otherwise the bracket is too far outboard to line up with the holes in the subframe.

Is this a common occurence with pattern subframes ? Any other ideas how to get round this? The brackets are genuine Rover items

[GraemeC]

Is it the bracket or frame that is wrong, or is the radius arm pin a little long?
I'm sure i have recently heard of some quality issues with radius arm rebuild kits.

[tomkidd]

I had the same problem with a genuine subframe and minispares brackets, look at my build thread

[littler]

ive had it too, i had another subframe so i just used that.

[WNX700H]

I am confident it is the subframe as previously I had a radius arm with the needle roller insert in the outboard end along with adjustable brackets and had the same problem ..... so then tried the combination I have now which is same subframe brand new radius arm and gen bracket ...... same issue. If you remove the outboard thrust things line up. so the vertical mounting holes are in the wrong position.

So now machining down the outboard thrust ..... will see tonight if it fixes things

[mk1]

This issue is not exclusive to pattern frames, I had exactly the same problem when using a brand new genuine Heritage frame, fitting the arms & brackets was a major exercise which involved machining the arms & moving the captive nuts for the brackets. NOT an easy or pleasant job, needless to say Heritage couldn't give a toss.

Next time I'm going to use a pattern frame, as at least they are less expensive.