Ariel.Club Forum

Ariel announces new Atom 3

1 October 2007
....
. Other technical improvements include a more precise gearchange and standard needle-roller bearings for the Bilstein damper bellcranks. ....

Extract from Autocar

Stu posted some pictures in the past

https://www.ariel.club/forum/viewtopic. ... ng#p244494

Hi John,

Thanks for the info. as ever!

I’m not sure what on my car as it’s an early (2011) A3SC, I hope mine are rollers but don’t know if you can tell visually.....

Cheers!

Early cars, pre Atom 3 I think, had phosphor bushes, later replaced with roller bearings.

The phosphor versions suffered from ‘stiction’ which meant that if you pressed down on the car when parked, it didn’t always return to its level state due to friction in the crank bushes.

An option was to upgrade to Race Roller Bearings, presumably stronger?

I have photos of the phosphor and standard roller bushes but not the race roller option but can’t post these right now ..

Does anyone with the roller bearing bell crank have a picture handy? I think my A3 has the bronze bushings but I’d like to ‘spot the difference’ to be sure before ordering the improved ones...

Cheers!