Hello all 2.2 owners.
This is a quick posting to let you know that I have now started proceedings with a UK company for obtaining some Polyurethane bushes to fit the engine reaction bar link. (sometimes called a stabiliser but that term can be confused with the suspension anti-roll bar so I prefer reaction bar) I thought I would post this now to prevent anyone else duplicating this work unnecessarily.
These Metallastic bushes never lasted that long, depending on how much mileage a year you do, and how hard you drive your car. (quite hard in my case
) As the original stocks were used up some time ago, the only ones available now are reproduction items and these seem to last even less time. In fact the *new* one I have just sent as a sample to Polybush already had a section of the rubber not bonded fully to the outer metal at one point on the circumference! Not good for a new bush.
They are going to check if they have anything in their stock that might fit. We cannot do this ourselves on-line, since they use drop-down lists and just like others that use these type lists, they do not include Talbot or Matra. If they do not have anything suitable, they will then decide what is the best means for making something that we can use.
I have also suggested that they consider something a little stronger, since most of us have uprated our 2.2 engines and I think we would prefer something better than the original anyway. They do three grades, the normal 'comfort' rating, an intermediate hardness that will probably suit us, and a 'track' type hardness. The full hardness might cause more harshness to be felt, so the intermediate will probably be a good compromise between the basic rating and something that will suit our uprated engines and still last longer.
I will update this posting once I have more details.
Roy