Initially when I took off my arms, they looked to be in a fairly good condition. After a bit of hammering to remove the silentblocks, some small holes appeared on the righthand side one. Which means this needs to be replaced.
I have been looking around for sources to buy the arms from, as they are costly but I will buy both sides. I was thinking about buying from Carjoy:
http://carjoy.nl/matra-shop/index.php?route=product/product&path=62_131&product_id=368Now Roy has me worried that these might not be correct. Roy I did not 100% understand where the differences are which you mentioned. Can you please clarify.
I am also intrigued how the "incorrect arms" get fitted, or what fitment issues this will cause?
The suspension strut is mounted to the chassis at the top further inboard than the connection at the semi-trailing arm, so it comes down at an angle of around 9 degrees from vertical. Therefore the bracket on the trailing arm where the strut fits, should also be at that angle so the bolt holes align for the bolt to pass through the arm and metallastic bush which is fitted in the bottom of the strut. The original arms made by Matra and now by Politecnic have the bracket welded on to the semi-trailing arm at the correct angle.
Those from Simon & Carjoy do not. They have been welded on square with the arm such that the bolt holes are horizontal and parallel with the ground. This means that when you push the bush at the bottom of the strut into the bracket to fit the bolt, the holes will not line up. If you get the bolt into one hole and start it in the tube in the centre of the bush, since the bush is at an angle it will not line up with the hole in the other side of the arm. The only way you could get it through is to twist the bolt at an angle but that means twisting the tube in the bush, to get it through and secure it. It is possible although difficult, but then you have a bush that will be compressed on one side and expanded on the other as it will be perminently distorted to fit the incorrectly mounted bracket on the arm. This stresses the bush and the arm as they try to mate with one another and over time will lead to additional wear and/or failure.
(if either of those two suppliers have corrected their arms very recently, then they could now be correct, but the last one obtained within a year from this posting, was still incorrect even after I have sent many photos some years ago showing the mistake)
If your arms are original Matra designed ones, look at the bracket where it is welded to the side of the semi-trailing arm and you will see that there is a wide gap at the top and it is much narrower at the bottom because of the angle. With the incorrectly welded arms, the bracket is parallel down the side of the arm.
Here are two photos of a genuine Matra 2.2 semi-trailing arm, clearly showing the correct bracket angle. I have had these LH and RH genuine arms for years and were two of the very last original stock. (and they are spares for me so they are not for sale!
... and they match the original arms on my Murena 2.2 which I've had from new so I know these are correct.)
Now the 1.6 Murena has a sligthly narrower rear track but it is only 10mm per side, and I have never measured the positioning of the brackets on a 1.6 arm to know if they moved it relative to the chassis so the angle is the same or if it was slightly inboard compared to a 2.2 in which case the angle would be fractionally less, but I do know from seeing original 1.6 cars that the brackets were also at an angle, not parallel to the side of their arms.
I hope this is now clear.
Roy