Radius arms

[goff]

Ok just got my Radius arms back from the shot blasters and one of them needs new pin and bearing/ bush , But they have bearings in both ends , Yes that's right bearing at both ends , No bush fitted, Have these been modified or fitted wrongly with a bearing instead of a bush, Also have a grease nipple fitted on the radius arm itself .
Have look at the photo's, The other arm is the same, two bearings and is in good condition, the photo is of the good condition bearings
Thanks
Goff Allen

[Lord Croker]

Are these arms from a very early Mini? I seem to remember some of the early ones having bearings both ends, but I've never actually seen any myself. If I'm wrong on that, they must have been modified as it's not possible to put a bearing into the bush end by mistake, the hole isn't big enough!

[goff]

Lord i don't know the year as they are from the Mini Jem that i am restoring, I have a BMC manual up until 67 and it only tells of the bearing /bush type, As you can see they have a grease nipple fitted , I have read about people fitting grease nipple but closer to the radius to lubricate the clevis pin, Spider could know ???
photo before shot blast

Thanks
Goff

[Craig]

I have never seen bearings in both ends of the radius arms .Probably opened up to accept the second bearing as the bearing is larger than the bushing.
The early arms have bushings at both end (correct me if i am wrong )
So , providing a new shaft will "slide " through both bearings , someone has done a good job of machining out the other end.
Keep them greased and they should last a long time!!

Craig

[Lord Croker]

Craig, you have jogged my (failing) memory, the early arms did have bushes both ends, sorry to have mislead you there, goff. It seems that your arms are modified, as Craig says , keep 'em greased, they should work well.

[Tim]

The longer arms fitted to 13" wheel Mokes have a bearing at both ends. I think it was meant to make them last longer, but it doesn't really work. At least they are easier to replace than bushes because they don't need to be reamed.

Tim

[GraemeC]

I think some reconditioned arms are done like this, guess its easier than reaming a bush to size.

Many say the bush is better though, due to the limited cyclic movement the arm goes through (similar argument to bearings in rollover rockers). That said the metro arm has bearings at each end I believe.

What I can't understand is the grease nipple. All that will do fill the hollow arm with grease and make it heavier! Unless whoever put the second bearing in decided the tube to contain the grease around the shaft (and out of the arm) wasn't needed!!

[Spider]

I think it would have been easier to fit a bush and ream that than machine out the arm to fit a bearing! I'd guess that the bush wore through and damaged the arm.

IMO, bushes are way better in this application that the bearings, but not the type of bush the factory fitted, a proper bush! Best thing for high loads with small movements, plenty of surface area. The needle rollers only make line contact, they really chew out the pins. I think they fitted them in production as it was a cheaper option than fitting a (proper!) bush and then reaming it to size.

I guess with the grease nipple in that location, it might slow down the internal rusting of the arm and besides that it does make an interesting storage place for your chassis grease

[IAIN]

While on the subject of radius arms, I came across this radius arm a couple of years ago and had never seen one like it before. Any body got any ideas ?

If you look at the brake quadrant pins in the second picture you can see how much deeper the brown arm is compared to the black one. And thats with no brake quadrant on the pins.