Some days, I think I'm in danger of getting the TR3A built and on the road in
time for the back half of the summer LBC activities and other days..... well
I'm almost discuraged enough to flush the project.
This last weekend, after it stoped raining, I ended up removing the steering
box, and the upper steering column.. sigh
I thought I was making solid headway, when things were dry enough for me to make
headway. All the steering was in except the motoleta steering wheel was not
mounted to the hub. It started when I put the 3 up on jackstands to check the
hubs all the way around, check the rear brakes that were done a couple of years
ago and mount the front calipers. I discovered that the steering was extreamly
difficult to turn by the front hubs. During this last week I stopped at
Triumphs Only. They had a TR3 with the front wheels off sitting on jackstands.
I turned the steering using the front hubs and discovered that it was a lot
easier to turn than mine.
[ mine is a late TR3A with split adjustable steering column]
Sunday, remembering that the felt seal seemed tight to me, and thinking I might
have an alignment problem causing a shaft to press against a bearing, I removed
the upper steering column shaft. The steering became slightly easier. but I
noticed a couple of other problems as well.
1. The front end had about 15 to 20 degrees of toe-in (where one side was
straight, the other turned in 15 to 20 degrees. Hmmm
2. When I try to turn the steering by the hubs, the movement was very jerky and
someting seemed to be gratting during part of the movement. I checked the
clearence between moving parts and the sourrounding stationary parts.
Everything cleared.
Because of the severe toe in, I could not excercise the steering box for the
entire lock to lock swing (One hub would hit its stop early in ether direction).
Next thing I did was get out the pickle fork and seperate the the center tie
rod from th steering box drop arm (Oh no chipped paint!). The front wheels,
attached to each other through the 3 tie rods and still connected to the idler
arm swung freely with almost no resistance. The steering drop arm turned much
easier without the tie rods attached. hmmm
I reattached the steering box to the center tie rod and unbolted the box from
the frame and upper bracket. I tried moving the box higher & lower and changing
the angle. It MAYBE seemed a little better if the steering shaft was lower than
the upper bracket.
By this time I was getting extreamly distressed. A quick mental check of the
parts:
The frame and inner wheel wells show no sign of ever having been in an accident.
The upper & lower wish bones are original to the car and according to the book
are on correctly. The steering levers never were removed from the vertical
links. and they were on the car before the rebuild. New ball joints at the top
wish bone on both sides, correctly mounted. New trunions at the bottom of the
vertical links correctly mounted.
Steering idler is the one that was on the car before the rebuild. I took it to
Triumphfest and compaired it against new ones in the Roadster Factory room. It
was if anything slightly tighter (but still very loose). I set the arm up one
turn from all the way in per the manual. hmm
Both end and the center tie rods are pre-rebuild, checked for straightness.
New tie rod ends at each end on both outer tie rods. The ends were adjusted for
a total tie rod length of 7.68, center of tie rod end to center of tie rod end,
per the factory work shop manual. This was supposed to provide correct front
wheel alignment.
Center tie rod is orignal for the car. The steering box is a Roadster Factory
rebuilt unit.
I have a picture of the front steering from another car that had the body
removed that shows correct posistioning, and notes with sketches telling how the
idller, steering box & everything should go together. I examined the steering
of a couple of TR3s just before putting my steering together.
Let see everything except steering box, silent bushings, tie-rod ends, trunnion,
springs, upper wishbone ball joint, and wishbone bushings origninally came off
this car. The manual says, with 7.68 inch long outer tie-rod (measured center
to center on the ends) should give correct alignment at static laden condition.
That means, I should expect some additional toe-in when jacked up, but 15 to 20
degrees?
But what is causing the tightness of steering... hmmm.. Well when putting
pressure on the steering from the hub, the first thing that happens is the
steering drop arm moves vertically, like there was a lot of slack. Hmm
As I pulled out the steering box, I remembered that it did not want to line up
to the brackets when I put it in. The lower mounting bolt openings on the frame
bracket were a very tight fit through the holes. The lower shaft did not want
to line up with the mounting bracket. I looked very closely at the frame
brackets, frame and shock tower. No sign of any previous damage. A compairison
of the mounting brackets on each side of the frame showed no difference.
I turned my attention to the rebuilt steering box. There does seem to be some
grating if you put a load on the arm and turn the shaft. Everything moves
easily, but there is this grating.
Well I think I'll send the box back to CAR Parts & see if they will check out
the box including proper steering drop arm dimensions & proper steering column
alignment. If it isn't the steering box, I don't know what I'll do. Any
suggestions about what the problem might be would be appriciated.
I'm bummed because I tried so hard to do this right and its not working.
Of course not having a garage and it raining on weekends but not week days has
not made me any happier.
ARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!
TeriAnn "but I tried so hard & was pure of heart and purpose"
How can it do this to me??????
PS: Credit to the workshop manual for providing the names of these do-hickies
so I wouldn't sound too dumb in this message.
TeriAnn Wakeman One of these days, I'll be old enough that
twakeman@apple.com people will stop calling me crazy and start
LINK: TWAKEMAN calling me eccentric.
408-974-2344 TR3A - TS75519L, MGBGT - GHD4U149572G, 109 - 164000561
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