I'm finally getting around to putting the front sway bar on my '69. All that
was left of the original stuff were the wishbone brackets and one snapped off
ball joint. In poking at the general area, I found some "interesting" things:
* Both lower-front wishbone-to-spring-pan inner bolts were
completely loose, allowing the spring pan to clang around.
tightened them back up, but why are those studs instead
of bolts? Maybe you TR6 people should check these on your
car.
* The RH sway-bar mounting bracket was in the right place,
attached to the lower-front wishbone, but the LH one was
on the REAR lower wishbone!! What?? No wonder it broke!
* The brackets don't fit the wishbones properly. Wishbones are
thinner in the middle cross-section than at the edges. One
bracket had a perfect round spacer on the bolt to make it fit
properly, but that item isn't shown or mentioned in anything
official. The other, with presumably the stock arrangement,
did without, and just let the clamping force of the one bolt
bend the bracket until it pinched the wishbone. That's a crock,
and I can't imagine there's very good clamping action going on,
so I'm putting spacers on both sides.
That's it for now. But there's always exciting discoveries (asymmetric
sway-bar mountings!!) whenever I go over any original/PO stuff...
Oh, and does anyone have any better suggestions for new sway bar gear than
Victoria's AddCo + Urethane bushings? Bar $140, Frame bushings $17, End
link bushings $17. Seems like a lot for the urethane bits, but Putney &
Perry wanted $190 for the same AddCo bar.
--ian
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