JDLangevin:
john l:
i'm sorry but i don't like the way that people talk to each other on this site and i don't think that community should be so negative when driving a SHO in general is a bad idea.
rarely johnny
how true, how true.
****
Agreed. This is precisely why I don't post here often.
Quite frankly, I have yet to see one bit of this "Engineering Data" and "Facts that we know to be true" in this or any other thread on this subject. All I've seen so far are some vehemently held
opinions backed up by pictures of rusty ~10 year old unibody mounting points with
completely unknown histories.
And a bunch of name-calling and nit-picking. You guys can say it's not personal all you want, but your actions speak much louder than your words. The other people reading this thread aren't stupid - it would be nice if you showed us all a little more respect.
Okay - back to this issue of the possibility of the nut pulling through. Didn't we already determine that the gap was only the thickness of the metal at the pass-through opening in the subframe? How thick was that? 0.060"? 0.080"? By definition, the ring-style bushing can only deform the unibody by that amount. The plate part of the plate nut is 0.188" thick. Additionally, one of the pics already posted shows that the plate is in fact supported by the ring-style bushing:
...Okay, so maybe I'm not very smart here - could somebody please explain to me how ~0.080" of deformation on the 0.188" thick hardened steel plate is going to make it fold up like a pretzel and pull through the opening in the ring bushing? Anyone? I'm interested to see the engineering data on this.
I'm also interested in why the deformation noted in the pics so far doesn't appear to be shaped like the plate nut.
The most valid critisizm that I have seen so far is the issue of whether the ring style bushing can deform the unibody far enough that the center section bottoms out, preventing any further increase on the clamping load. The main question to ask here is "Has anybody reported being unable to tighten this style bushing enough to prevent it from moving?" This would have to then be backed up with further investigation as to the root cause of the problem as it occurred on the vehicle in question. Has this been reported? Yes or No?
The most glaring issue that I see right now is the allegation that the deformation has been noted on vehicles that have never had solid bushings installed. If this is true, then there is the possibility that the cup style bushings could be at a significant disadvantage in such cases - this sytle requires the mounting surface to be flat or slightly concave for it to seat properly, whereas the ring style puts the contact area away from the area that is likely to be deformed.
If this is truly not a "Not Invented Here" issue and everybody is truly concerned about the safety of the SHO community, I would expect to see people looking into this issue with just as much concern, as this calls into question some of the basic assumptions as to the superiority of the cup design. So far, it doesn't look like anybody wants to look that deep.
It should not be lost on everyone that the "No failures have occurred YET" argument applies equally to
both styles.
<small>[ March 14, 2004, 12:46 PM: Message edited by: TimZ ]</small>