calibra/cavalier front wishbones

[yunis4z]

what the gen on these, wernt there some problems with it flexing too much or something? i heard something a while ago..but cant remember the details..and there was an update??

[Dutch]

Remember something being said about them but sure it was changed on the cavs & cally's in 91-92

Someone please post if i'm wrong

[Richie]

Have a look at the Haynes manual and you will see the differences.

They were changed around 91/92. Even if you have the older ones it costs about £30 for a new one and it comes with a new balljoint and other bushes etc so its not a costly problem.

[yunis4z]

richie the new ones, would that be from GM or a pattern part??

[Richie]

Vauxhall

[Giles]

go for the pattern part yunis cos it is actually the same as the VX part. As Richie said it comes complete with bottom swivel AND new rubber bushes. I bought 2 for £70ish.

The difference is in it's 3D shape which has been changed to make it stronger (the early origional ones were known to bend especially when jacked on).

You could also do what I did:
Get new wishbone, remove swivel (by engineers using specail grinder) & bushes.
Have wishbone seam welded and strengthened.
Have wishbones powder coated (colour of choice).
Get special (strong) bolts to clamp swivels back to arm.
Install Powerflex bushes.

Regal will sell you what I done for (wait for it.........) £190 per arm!!!! (yes I said £190 EACH). Bargin or what.

I've also replaced the ARB eye bolts & put PF bushes in these as well.

I would say if your arms are looking a little bent or you need/could do with new swivels and/or bushes then just go get new arms.

[Richie]

TBH, if its not much diff in price then its better to go for the real McCoy and not pattern.

[JohnA]

Pattern wishbones?
with their reputation?

you must be joking...

I've changed mine right after I bought the car (call me paranoid...)

[Giles]

Yeah I would agree Richie but I looked at a VX one but he only had one in stock, so went round corner to motor factors (who supply LUK clutches etc) and got 2 off the shelf that looked exactly the same (both packaging and actual item) so in this instance I wasn't too worried about quality, but Yuniz u might as well get them from vx if you can especially if they are the same price.

John - Larger I was told use pattern wishbones (!?!). Don't think I'll have problems with mine bending though (not now anyways) - strong as feck

(P.S. - Richie I've just put cheque in post for injectors. Kept forgetting to write cheque! No rush for them though)

[JohnA]

Originally posted by Giles
Larger I was told use pattern wishbones (!?!). Don't think I'll have problems with mine bending though (not now anyways) - strong as feck

There are serious forces going through the wishbones, especially during high-speed turns. Bumps at high speed, too.

When the wishbone snaps, you're off the road immediately. You could be sent straight in the opposite side of the road, down a bridge, on the reservation, at full speed - no braking or steering will work.

Pattern wishbones? only for my dog
lmao lmao

[Richie]

Originally posted by Giles
(P.S. - Richie I've just put cheque in post for injectors. Kept forgetting to write cheque! No rush for them though)

No problem, they will be sent out tomorrow...... Working 7am till 7pm miles from a PO is not handy sometimes

I'll send it recorded as well just to be sure

[Giles]

Originally posted by JohnA


Pattern wishbones? only for my dog

Can understand what your saying John but the spot welding on the standard vx parts won't impress anyone - have a look to remind yourself.

As I said I couldn't see any differance between the pattern I bought and the vx part I had looked at 5 mins earlier. As I also said I went to a factors that sells the standard vx clutch (LUK) at a fraction of the price vx want for a new part, not re-manufactuered like vx sell.

Perhaps I should have said "the pattern part I bought..." rather than OK to us a pattern part cos I'm sure there are several pattern suppliers with the quality of some worse than others.

.... and to make sure mine was strong I had them welded etc.

Yuniz - as I said get the vx bit if it's the sameish money. However have a look at it's spot welds and consider if it is really a feat of moder engineering. I thought not and would have seam welded the vx ones if I had bought those instead. However I have been know to go a bit OTT with things.

You make up your mind.

Regards,
Giles

[yunis4z]

just phoned up GM and they have quoted me 89+vat and the parts are not on trade club either, so thats about £210 for a pair..

Rich i though you said they were £30 each??

Giles who were the patern parts made by? did they look identical?? how about the quality of the ball joint and the bushes??

[Richie]

I know of a few ppl that have got them for around £30 each.....

They quoted me a similar price (cant mind exactly).

[yunis4z]

yeah bugger, even with trade discount max is 75+vat...

richie hhows your boost problem? fixed it yet?? let me know how u get on

[Richie]

Wont be fixed till next week when Gerry gets back altho I have one last thing I wanna check out first.

[Richard Bell]

Hi Guys,

ONLY buy the GM arms as it was the non GM arms that had the problems. I still have the official info from vauxhall on it at work. The problem was when you buy some items on trade club (lower arms in this case) you are supplied with a aftermarket version but it still has vauxhall sticker on it only its ony its not in colour. GM parts stickers are black and blue if you know what I mean.

Also the problem with the 2 types of arm were the amount or lack of spot welds holding it together. From memory a genuine arm should have 25 spot welds !!!

Richard

[yunis4z]

yeah like the water pumps supplied by GM are HQ made...how how can u be 100% sure its a genuine GM and not an after market GM...is the sticker thing dead cert?

[JohnA]

lmao lmao

[ChrisB]

When I used to work at QH distributution centre I used to chuckle every time I walked past the racks of vauxhall boxed parts. lmao

[Giles]

Just had a look at my arms and they have 25 spot welds. Put them right along side the genuine GM ones that I took off the car and can't see any differance in quality of the items except that the new ones are the newer design (and now seam welded).

As I said before I looked at one arm vx had in but as they didn' have both I went round the corner and got the 2 from the factors - couldn't notice the differance.

I'm happy that my part is the same/as good as the part vx would have supplied me (and by the looks of it at 3 times the price). As I also said this could e a 'good' pattern part, other patterns may not be.

Yuniz - the swivels look exactly the same, the bushes (still got old ones that I removed) look the same as well.

This looks more and more to me like a case of vx water pumps, their clutches and god knows what else - go round the corner and buy the exact same bit without the hugh vx mark-up.

Yuniz why don't you talk to our vx place (mine is very friendly and helpful), buy a lower arm on the understanding that 'you think you've got a bottom swivel gone or something and want the aprt to replace it, but if not needed can you bring it back'. My place has let me do this before. Then go round the factors and compare the parts. However as I said before you might not get offered a decent pattern so have a look around a few places and ask who supplies their parts.

Even if my parts were sub-standard (which I do not believe), now that they have been seam welded they far exceed the strength of a standard vx part so I'm happy.

Giles.

PS - Yunis factors was Capital Motor Factors in Crawley (they also supply the LUK clutches and the QH pumps).

Oh yes - I think we should all remember that VX don't make 99.9% of their parts (if any at all), they buy them in from external manfacturers. If they only sold their parts via vx they would not shift many and lose out to the cheaper sold pattern parts, so they also sell via the factors. It's a case of find these factors and avoiding the vx mark-up.