Anyone run into this? The forward tabs on the passenger side are out of position by about a 1/4". I cannot insert one of the conical washers on the left side of the front tube, and there is too much space on the right side. I can start doing some bending and re-drilling holes, but wonder if anyone else has seen this. If I start bending the tabs, the holes will be out of alignment. I can do something else for spacers I guess, but they won't be those nice little conical spacers that fit back into the heim ball.
This is totally normal. I had the same issue on HM-2016. Your conical washers don't have to be the same thickness. Just use a file to file down the "narrow" end of the cone. The key is to install the conical spacers in a particular order. I found it easiest to install the front forward first, then the rear aft spacer next. So essentially start with the outers and file the inner ones to fit. Then label them because they will be particular to location.
I did have to file the outers too. Mess around with installation order until they fit. I think I did have to order some more as I screwed up a couple times.
The control arm was actually the culprit. The driver side arm was perfect. It measured 8-1/2: wide at the top of the wishbone and went into place with a little sanding on each washer. I did run the flat side of all washers on a belt sander for a snug fit. The passenger side was 8-1/4". I would have had to make a conical washer 3/4" - 7/8" wide to fill the space on the wide side and sand one down to about 1/4" for the other side. What I did do, was make a screw jack. Place a piece of wood on the inner side of each tube close to the heims. Take a bolt a little shorter the the distance between the two boards. Screw a nut on 1/4" or so up the bolt. Place a larger diameter nut against the nut that was screwed on the bolt. Then start unscrewing the nut from the bolt and as it starts pressing against the larger nut it will easily begin to force the arms apart. In my case, it was off by 1/4", so I was actually only flexing the tubes about 1/8" each. That should not be an issue at all. Popped in the sanded washers and it works perfectly.
I'm just advising how I fixed this in case anyone else has this problem and would happen to stumble across this. I also rebuilt antique tractors for a number of years and a lot of times the tricks that were used by the old timers still have a place today.
Thank you aarvig for your response.
This is the first time i'm seeing these conical washers. for HM-2008 I was provided steel spacers I had to grind down to match the unique gap at each heim joint.
I didnt think to measure the spacing between the lower control arms. I'll be mine are different, too.
They shrink and move from the welding heat. and are easy to spread or bend a little into position.
I ran into this on my GenI build. Put a bottle jack between the two arms and opened them up. Little bit at a time till you get to the correct dimension
Paul