Is it acceptable to bolt the shock mounts to the wishbones rather than weld them?

Bolting is so much easier as my welding is POO!!

I would say yes. As long as you use high tensile bolts.

Dont take my word for it though. Wait for several responses.

Rich

I don't know for a fact but if the shocks are bolted to the bracket and the wishbones are bolted to the chassis, I don't see why it can't all be bolted together.

The front shock mounts on a mini are bolted on, but the spring (rubber cone) isn't on the damper so the stress is presumably less. The coil over shock conversions for the mini use the same mounting IIRC.

Not got the SVA book in front of me but I suspect it doesn't say anything beyond ensuring they are 'strong enough'.

I guess it will depend on where & how many holes you drill of what size so as not to weaken the wishbone.... after all the shock units are held to the bracket by a bolt.

Given that the shocker are held on with just 2 bolts, a wide enough bracket with 3 or 4 10.9 or better bolts would be more than up to it. Might be worth fitting some form of wedge perhaps under the bracket so the bolts only see tension/compression forces. Although as the suspension loads up, this will change. Just a thought really, as it may be a useless extra bit of hassle.

One 12mm bolt will be more than enough. The forces will be mainly in compression with a little shear thrown in. After all the whole suspension is hanging on one balljoint nut in tension and shear and the balljoint itself is only held on with two (the Maxi ones anyway) bolts which see a lot more shear forces.

At the very least you need to do something to stop the tube crushing as you tighten the bolts.

This has all gotta be way more hassle than getting a mate who knows how to weld round!

Cheers,
James