I'm back! (With a broken car)

[daisyduke]

Hi all,

Apologies that I tend to only stop by these days when something's gone wrong! My Capri had been fairly problem free for a while, but on Friday the anti roll bar nut fell off the drivers side front and rolled into the road along with the bush, and so the car sunk down massively onto the tyre in the process shredding bits off like Parmesan and squishing my (newest) wing inwards. Lovely. Luckily I was just on my own road and going pretty slow.

Am unsure if it's 22mm bushes I need - Tom and I were investigating this, as I thought it was 24mm, but I guess the jury is out on this. Anyway, hoping to order some new ones (poly over rubber?) along with castle nuts and split pins unlike the nyloc that I'm pretty sure was from my car (found a day later in the gutter while dog walking). Thanks to Dave for the advice!

Car had been pulling left, and also vibrating something crazy when applying the breaks between about 50-40mph whilst turning slightly left - so I'm sure this is connected. Was planning to try and sort this summer.

Strangely enough, Tom happened to walk past while the RAC were prepping my car to be towed, we are both going to try and make CRap this year

[stevemarl]

the car sunk down massively onto the tyre in the process shredding bits off like Parmesan and squishing my (newest) wing inwards. Lovely. Luckily I was just on my own road and going pretty slow

It`s really scary, I had almost exactly the same thing - lower ball joint popped out of it`s socket on my Viva. Hell of a bang & the wheel collapsed into the wing (obviously locking up) Like you it was at the end of the road, probably <20mph; 2 miles earlier I was on the M60..... It makes you think.

The snake lady...what can I say? Welcome back.

[Swishy]

Laser should be 24mm ARB (willing to be corrected on this) - good quality poly bushes are worth the extra - there are some cheaper ones out there which wear worse than the rubber ones.

[stevemarl]

Laser should be 24mm ARB

Correct.

[Major_Tom]

Except for the ones which are 22mm

Daisy's is an early laser, B-reg. The earlier ones are more likely to have 22mm ones. But it may also be 24mm. Later lasers are more likely to be 24mm, but may also be 22mm. Annoying. Car isn't around to measure the width of hers (oo err).

It might conceivably have been replaced as well. It only had nyloc washers on, not castle nuts.

[Swishy]

early laser, B-reg. The earlier ones are more likely to have 22mm ones

Which is interesting as I've never encountered an LS - technically the 1.6 Laser's predecessor - without a 24mm!?

[Peter-S]

It only had nyloc washers on, not castle nuts.

Hmm, who mot'd that then?

[stevemarl]

Doesn`t make sense to me, surely the whole point of putting the 24mm bar on all models was just to simplify inventory, you just have one bar across the whole range of cars (which you`re `running out` anyway). I can only see a 22mm one being found on a post `84 car `cos it was a repair later in life?

[nigecapri]

Hey up lass.
Shame about the wing but a good panel beater should be able to sort it.
As far as I remeber the important bits are the same size - thread, sleeve, nut & bush, just the diameter of the plain bar changed.

[Terra-Kotta]

I'm not making any jokes about nuts and a bush. No no no.

[Terra-Kotta]

Ok. Here's a fact. Later laser shells are the same as 2.8i shells without the strengthened parts added. This means they had to use the kinked 24mm bar as the 22 or less won't actually fit. The change was made around mid 86.

[daisyduke]

Mid '86... When I was born.

[pbar]

Think the link to your website isn't right Daisy, it points to .com, but think it should be .co.uk.

[daisyduke]

Nah, that .co.uk isn't mine - it's a different Daisy. I don't freelance anymore so no website either.

[pbar]

Ok Daisy, you may wish to remove the website link in that case?

[daisyduke]

It was 24mm...

[Andrew 2.8i]

Mine's probably closer to 30mm with all the layers of Hammerite I've painted on it!

Andrew.

[Major_Tom]

It only had nyloc washers on, not castle nuts.

Hmm, who mot'd that then?

Some sort of ballbaggian life form.