Front Suspension Squeak Fix(?)

[32Flat6]

Earlier this year I rebuilt the front suspension on my Carrera. One of the items I wanted to address was an annoying squeak. The squeak was the result of compressed control arm bushings allowing the torsion bar to "sag" slightly and rub on the main suspension cross member where the control arm and cross member join together. The fix was to replace the rubber bushings as Chuck Moreland has so thoroughly documented Here. Repalced with new rubber bushings from Smart Racing and problem was solved, or so I thought.

With only 1,000 miles on the new suspension, the squeak is back. I pulled the torsion bars and see that they appear to have been rubbing the whole time. It was nice and quiet up until the paint on the new t-bars finally rubbed away and it got back to metal on metal.

A while back when frequenting that "other" board, I saw posts referring to a fix suggested by Bruce Anderson. As Bruce describes, when the bushings compress and the center line fo the torsion bar lowers below the center line of the control arm tube, the endcap (adjuster) is also affected. The bottom of the cast iron endcap starts to rub along the inside channel of the suspension cross member wearing down the endcap itself and, in effect, wearing a notch into the cross member. Per Bruce, one remeby is to put a bead weld on the bottom of the adjuster cap to build it back up and recenter the torsion bar.

OK. This sounds good but wouldn't it be just a bandaid solution? Wouldn't the newly welded cap continue to work on the cross member and wear down all over again? Has anyone tried this before? How about something else altogether? Curious to hear of any first hand experience.

At this point, my choices are:

1) Redo the control arm bushings again (pain in the a@@)
2) Swap out the control arms with Factory replacements ($$$)
3) Pull the adjuster caps for a bead weld (low cost fix, maybe temporary)
4) Grease up the t-bars and crank up the radio (the 'do nothing' approach)

I'm open to any other ideas someone might have.

[john walker's workshop]

weld the caps. they don't rotate and rub on the crossmember, they just lever against it. 15 years from now, you may have to do it again.