[165th]

My 1979 TATA is an original un-restored car with 3,820 miles. The original owner never touched the car since new, including never having gone under the hood for normal air cleaner changes or underhood cleaning. Even the fan belts are original. I did find an oil change receipt from 1985 with 2,897 miles.

I have been doing a careful degreasing under the hood and general cleaning around the front suspension and came across a strange circumstance with the sway bar end links.

Both sway bar end link assemblies have flat washers vs. the cupped washers generally used on these parts. The passenger bushings are standard rubber.

The drivers side bushings are (were) a hard white neoprene. From the picture you can see how much gap there is in the link bolt. At first I thought it was just not tightened at the factory, but then realized all but one of the neoprene bushings have exploded due to brittleness. I founds parts of the bushings in the coil spring well on the lower A arm. The one remaining is cracked badly and soon to break as well.

As there is no signs of any work ever being done on this car, I am confused, why the flat washers, why the two end links would be different, and why there would be neoprene bushings on the drivers side.

Does anyone have any information on this 'anomaly' regarding sway bar end link washers and bushings used in 1979 WS6 cars, or TATA's?

[Larry Navarro]

One thing to point out with these cars is the ability to EASILY disconnect the speedo at either the cruise control module or the speedo itself. I am always sceptical of "stated" mileage figures when chassis parts are overly dirty as the ones shown above. No offense Greg, just trying to validate the issue you have with the bushing question.
Now with that said, back in '90 I purchased a nocturne blue '79 t/a 403 Olds, WS6 with 30K original miles, that was supposedly "never touched". The car still had the goodyear polysteel radials and also had the neoprene bushings on both sides as pictured in the photos. The bushings were intact but were beginning to "flake" so I replaced them with rubber ones. Back then, retaining original chassis components wasn't a big deal.
I don't know if they had been replaced with new neoprene ones over time before I aquired the car but in comparison to Gregs car and the lower mileage, I would presume so.
FWIW....I did see a set of these NOS neoprene bushings on ebay sell for next to nothing a few months ago.

[165th]

Larry, no offense taken. The interesting thing about this car is if the mileage was anything other than original, then many of the neat interesting stickers, inspections marks and such would not be present. I'm sure the reason the car looks more dirty than normal, is on top of being undercoated, which tends to gather dust/grime, in 30 years, it's never been pressure washed. If it had, I'm sure many of the tags I'm finding would be gone.

Here's a few more pictures. I'm certain I was the first to remove the air cleaner. The foam ring around it was completely rotten and came apart in your hands when trying to remove it. Also, you can notice factory markings on the fuel line insulation. Finally, on the next pic, the 'N -" on the carb butterfly is a made with a marker.

The other pic is of some plastic plugs probably from the brake lines that were floating around in the engine bay. I found them laying on the intake manifold, valley pan and one down by the power steering pump. In the close up of the carb identifying the original carb stickers, you can see the red plastic plug laying against the carb before I had even found it.

So far, the bushings are the only thing that doesn't seem just right.

Were the NOS bushings you saw on Ebay GM or aftermarket?

[Larry Navarro]

Yes your right, the undercoating would tend to gather alot of gunk.
the bushings were GM.

[Y81all]

The white one is the factory one... the black looks to be aftermarket polyurethane. I had a 7300 mile 79 WS6 that had the factory end link bushings rot away too from age (and there no doubt it was legit miles... still had factory tires and still smelled new inside, car was pristine!). I replaced them with Energy Suspension poly units... likely a previous owner did the same with your car.

[bluebandit]

Yes it can come from the factory that way, why I dont know. But I do know this. I bought my 78 WS6 right off the showroom floor and ran into this exact thing. I dont remember which side had what but I know for a fact that there were rubber bushings on one side and white plastic on the other. Anyone else ran into this? By the way, mine is a Norwood car if it makes any difference

[2manyT/A'S]

I'd say it's a pretty common case of "brain dead" assembly line worker.

OR,just a simple error.(likely MORE common in 78,being the first year of multiple choice endlink bushings)

If it was YOUR job to install maybe 200 of these in an 8 hour shift(with the possibility of EACH one being different than the last one),maybe your mind COULD wander a bit!

Don't forget that each side of the sway bar was probably attached by a different worker.

Unless the pre-delivery inspection guy at the selling Dealer was sharp (and noticed),that's the way it stayed.

[165th]

Y81all and bluebandit, thanks for providing input that substantiates these as original. It's very interesting to say the least.

The two assemblies are very different, from bolt diameter, to washers to tightening nut.

I will of course leave them as is, but now I need to find 3 original white neoprene bushings.

Anyone have any they have taken off to replace the hardened bushings?

[autobahn]

seems kind of that no one has noticed the weld on the 1st pic lower control arm??? never been touched, they didn't come that way from the factory.I'd like to see that sway bar laid flat on the floor, it looks sprung ,thu it could the way the suspension is setting on the floor,a jack,uneven floor , low tire?? But just my thoughts

[mzbk2l]

The "weld" looks like excess grease from a ball joint to me.....