Elephant Mounts won't Fit into Al Xbar

[RWebb]

I am trying to put the Elephant Racing Low-Friction Control Arm Mounts on my car - along with the Polybronze bearings.

My problem is that the Rear concave/convex washer sets [shown as C in the diagram below] simply will not fit inside the Al cross bar on my car. It isn't even close - they need at least a mm more space to slide in.

Yet the original factory rear A-arm mount fit in there just fine. Both the instructions that came with the parts & that I downloaded say to use the large washer sets - I take that to mean large diameter - for the rear mounts.

Any thoughts?

[village idiot]

Shave the areas indicated in red.

[RWebb]

eh?

are you saying to find a bench grinder and then grind down the Elephant rear mount itself?

that will grind off the plating -- then it will rust

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by RWebb

eh?

are you saying to find a bench grinder and then grind down the Elephant rear mount itself?

that will grind off the plating -- then it will rust

That's what "village idiot" is saying. You have to grind them to fit. What else can you do? You could touch up the cadmium plating with POR15 or something similar... Or you could "create" some extra space in the alloy housing. If it's only a mm or two that shouldn't be to hard.

Might be an Idea to call Elephant Racing for ideas: Phone: 1 408-297-2789

[Peterfrans]

I had that too and needed to grind down the flange on the control arm mount.

[Staylo]

Originally Posted by RWebb

eh?

are you saying to find a bench grinder and then grind down the Elephant rear mount itself?

that will grind off the plating -- then it will rust

I used a dremel, but yes you need to grind to fit.

[DByers]

Randy, Have you tried putting them in the freezer overnight? That's what I did a few years back at the suggestion of some one on the board when I did mine. Worked and no grinding. My parts were not ER for the record.

[rvanderpyl]

I too ground down the mount

[equality72521]

Hmmm, I just did this and they fit in mine. It is snug but they went in without any issues. Not to belittle but are you sure the washers are installed correctly? It's easy to flip one without realizing it.

[equality72521]

Here is mine:

[RWebb]

I will attempt [in order]:
[1] a fit on the bench
[2] freezing them & maybe even heating the Al ...

BUT if the fit is real tight won't the ability of the concave/conves faces to pivot (and solve alignment problems) be compromised?

[3] If I DO need to grind -- should I grind the Al Xmember or the U-shaped piece of the Elph. rear mount?

re grinding the Al -
ADVs: - it won't rust after grinding
- generally easier to remove material from Al than steel
-- mainly worried it might weaken that part of the Xbar (!)

but it will be harder to get in there with a grinder than to attack the rear mount.


I know some have had the opposite problem and had to shim the mounts + washer assemblies...

Washers are correctly oriented.

Yes, I will call Chuck.

[DW SD]

I would remove some material from the AL crossbar, but am sure Chuck will have the best approach. I would probably use a pneumatic angle grinder with small radius sanding disk (about 1") radius. This would allow maintaining parallel between the sides of crossmember and also an approximately flat mounting surface.

Let us know. There is always some issue to work through.

Doug

[RWebb]

Here is the problem. The yellow on the L are clamp jaws that hold the spherical washer set in place for the photo.

The clearance is off by a whopping 0.9 mm of material. The other one is about as bad.

This could be a serious unhappiness for a DIYer. So I recommend that everyone check this fit BEFORE they epoxy the polybronze mount into the new rear A-arm mounts in the Elph. kit. If one decides it is too much time or effort, then the kit can be resold and old mounts used. Otherwise, you my be spending several days with a flat file.

When I spoke to Chuck, he told me to remove material from the mount with a flat file. I used a RotoZip with a sanding disc after getting bored the first day of filing... Then I used a file to ensure a flat surface. It is hard to get into the recess in the Al Xbar, but I did go in there and make sure the mating surfaces were clean and rel. flat.

I don't have access to a miling machine anymore -- that would be the thing to do. Nor do I have an angle grinder. The RotoZip is the most powerful high speed tool I have. I chose it over a Dremel b/c of the higher torque.

I primed & painted the bare steel exposed, but that came off after the washers were inserted. I hope it doesn't rust too much before I die.


Chuck also noted that one should first:
- get all dirt, grunge, etc. out of the recesses of the Xbar
- ensure the washer halves are aligned when inserting them -- they will be thicker if they are not aligned

[sjf911]

I had similar issues with the passenger side mount but the driver side went in easily. Flat file worked the best but was laborious.

[brads911sc]

wow. i am about ready to do the same install... what is the factor that makes one side fit ok and one side be 9 mm off? thats significant... is this a quality issue with the parts or is this variation in the porsche cars the part is going into?

[rvanderpyl]

Manufacturing a part to looser tolerances is cheaper than tight, and since Porsche used rubber for their bushings, any differences were easily absorbed by the bushing 'squash' Hence these adjustment, and the reason you need to 'glue' the bronze fittings on in order to take up the space between them and the arms.

[RWebb]

both sides were ~ 0.9 mm off

beside the above, this is a used part - 20 years old or more

[Gordo2]

Randy,

Very timely thread - appreciate continued updates on how you resolve and pictures if possible. I'm a couple of weeks out on the same project.

Thanks and good luck,

Gordo

[911nut]

So what's Chuck got to say about this?

[Chuck Moreland]

The Elephant Racing mounts are precisely sized, but the factory crossmember dimension is a moving target.

Even new the factory parts were of limited precision - compound that with 20-40 years of road use we find a good bit of variation. This has been demonstrated repeatedly with different measures on opposite ends of the very same crossmember.

For those intallations that are tight, I don't recommend straightening or removing material from the crossmember. Do as stated above in the first reply to this thread and remove a bit of material from the end of the mount with a flat file. It's almost a trivial operation and usually takes about 5 minutes to get a fit. Randy's .9mm is an extreme case.