I have a 2 door 1967.5 122 with the dual tube style rear trailing arms. My car makes a unpleasant clunking noise when I brake hard or accelerate hard. It is not a major sound like something is going to give way, it just drives me nuts. When I was replacing my rear bushings, I noticed that the forward mounting hole for the driver side lower trailing arm seemed slightly stretched, but not much more than a millimeter, but the mounting bolt could wiggle a little bit. I am pretty sure that this is the source of my clunking noise. The metal that they used for the lower arm mounting points is for some reason of a lighter gauge than all of the other suspension mounts. I beleive a fellow named Trayracer had a similar problem which he documented on his web page about his 122, but his site is no longer up.

So how do I go about fixing this? I figured I could add a little metal with a welder then ream the hole to size. But my dilema is the exact positioning of the hole. How critical is the placement of this hole? Would a millimeter or two make a difference in the performance or safety of the car??

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

I suppose a slightly oval suspension bolt hole would cause the noise you mention... Happened on my 1800 too. But mine was out by 1/8"(~3mm ack) or more. I did a little welding, and started a bolt tightening maintenance program.

I would like to suggest though, that you check your rear brake drums. Specifically, the woodruf key and the bolt. If the bolt that holds the drum on gets a little loose (doesn't take much), the drum will break free of its press fit on the axle. It will pivot slightly on the axle, and eventually make that woodruf key into an hourglass shape and also wreck the slot in which it fits....

Get back there and tighten the biggie bolt that holds the brake drum on. See if that helps.

-Matt

I suggest you ream the hole round about 1/16" bigger, then have a machine
shop make you a washer with a projecting tube that will fit snugly into the
hole and be the right size for the bolt. Put this on the outside and tighten
it up good and tight.
--
George Downs, The "original" Walrus3, Bartlesville, Oklahoma

That seems like it could work, but the projecting tube would have to be the same length as the sheet metal is thick, and I would need two of them, one for each side. What material would you suggest? My main question remains though. How important is the exact placement and aligntment of the hole? If it is super critical, it is going to be a lot harder.

thanks,

I think that if you do as I described it will be sufficiently
accurate for the purpose at hand. I've seen them working with no
rubber in the bushings, noisy but driveable.
--
George Downs, The "original" Walrus3, Bartlesville, Oklahoma

George,

I just pulled out the control drawing for the body floor from the service manual. It shows the measurement for the front back positioning of the hole with a tolerance of plus or minus 2mm. So I think it will be Ok if I am a little off.

I am looking forward to the answer since I encounter the same problem. Found it by putting the car on the parking brake and letting someone else push the car back and forth, while I was laying under the car.

I order all rubber parts and will install them next weekend. Still have to find a way to fix that mounting hole.

My main problem was the shaking during braking at high speeds. Did you have the same problem ?

(Mine is a P130 from 1963, single brake system, 4 drumbrakes)