The galvanising of the SS1/Sabre chassis can give you into a false sense of security – not all of the underside of the car is galvanised and some of the untreated parts can lead to serious rust problems which result in structural failures. We now have the distinction of having three suspension failures on our cars and hopefully I can pass on our experiences to those who have so far had none and may not be away of the dangers.
Failure one photo1.
This is quite well known, adding the shocker mount to the original front upper
ball joint causes a twisting motion which eventually leads to the rear part
of the wishbone fracturing away. Later wishbones have been strengthened by adding
a stiffening plate behind the ball joint – if your car has the older original
wishbone then either replace it or have it modified asap. This failure was not
dangerous at the time although the effect on the steering was very apparent
I was able to drive it home all be it at a much lower speed.
Failure two photo 2.
Fracture of the lower front wishbone just behind the ball joint. This is a serious
failure as the wheel collapses completely, fortunately for us at the time of
the failure the car was going very slowly and there was no damage. Failure at
high speed could be fatal therefore I would recommend that you examine your
lower wishbones asap. The metal in this area is quite thin and also exposed
to the elements. The obvious way to strengthen the area is to weld plates to
either side but this may not be easy to do with the wishbone fitted especially
if you like me are not the best welder in the world, also the plate needs to
be shaped to fit the curve of the metal. I have therefore stitch welded on the
sides which would seem to me to be a reasonable compromise, regular inspection
is however high on my agenda. If buying new wishbones you should also be aware
that they come with various sizes of ball joints. I assume that Vauxhall at
some time modified their cars or that Reliant did not use the standard Vauxhall
size of ball joint, whatever the reason you are likely to get the correct size
of ball joint from one of the club traders but if buying elsewhere you may not.
Failure three photo 3.
The rear trailing arm is well designed as a rust trap, there are four holes
in corners of the box section which holds the hub assembly and no drain hole.
Although the metal in this area is quite thick through time it will rust away,
we did get a warning about the problem as the rear wheel started to lean inward
at the top. When I fitted a replacement trailing arm I filled in the two holes
and added extra plates ( to the outside ) top and bottom of the frame although
adding the extra plate to the top was not so important. I also drilled a drain
hole in the bottom plate.
Even after these problems we still love the cars – they just need to
be watched carefully.