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RE: Front Suspension Lsesson Learned (kind of long)

To: "Ken Waringa" <kwaringa@dynsys.com>, "MG" <mgs@autox.team.net>
Subject: RE: Front Suspension Lsesson Learned (kind of long)
From: "Larry Hoy" <larryhoy@prodigy.net>
Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000 09:22:03 -0700
I usually put the jack under the spring pan and remove the inner a-arm pivot 
from the crossmember.  

Larry Hoy

>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-mgs@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-mgs@autox.team.net]On
>Behalf Of Ken Waringa
>Sent: Friday, November 17, 2000 7:23 AM
>To: MG
>Subject: Front Suspension Lsesson Learned (kind of long)
>
>
>Last night I installed new a-arm bushings in the driver's side of my son's
>79 MGB.  I'm planing on doing the passenger side tomorrow morning.
>
>I don't have a spring compressor so I used my floor jack under the spring
>pan to get the spring tension released.  This is a real chore.  The problem
>I found is that the A-arm is hanging at an angle downward, but the jack sits
>level on the floor.  The two front bolts, actually one bolt and the sway bar
>link, came out fairly easy.  The problem is the two inner bolts.  As you try
>to raise the spring pan to relieve tension on the bolts, the whole car
>raises.  No problem I figure, I'll use a punch to drive them out.  Well the
>rear inner bolt wasn't much problem.  I used a big screwdriver to help align
>the hole some then knocked the bolt out.  The front bolt however was a
>different story.  I had a lot of trouble aligning the holes (read couldn't
>get the holes close) so I decided to just knock the bolt out, I've got spare
>bolts!  Everything was going fine until the bolt finally cleared the a-arm.
>Well if it was shot from a gun it couldn't have flown harder.  Luckily for
>me, it went in the opposite direction I was in.  The rest of the disassembly
>was uneventful.  I installed the new V8 bushings and now we come to
>reassembly.
>
>I'm very concerned about getting the spring pan back in since I had so much
>trouble getting it out.  I get the arms assembled with out fully tightening
>the assembly, now for the spring pan.  I jacked it up and got the two front
>bolts with out too much trouble.  I put the link in first then used the
>hammer to align the outer rear hole.  Now I'm faced with aligning the two
>inner holes.  I have a large C-clamp that I used on the inner rear corner to
>hold the plate in place.  I then lowered the jack and positioned it on the
>inner side of the spring tray.  Unfortunately I couldn't get it jack in the
>location I wanted because the jack stand was in the way.  Well I jacked it
>back up until the car just lifted off the jack stand.  I was very concerned
>about lifting the whole car since all 4 tires are off and it's sitting on 4
>jack stands.  Well the holes still didn't align, but they were getting
>closer.  Time for the big screwdriver.  With a lot of grunting and a few
>choice four letter words the rear hole finally aligned and the screw was in.
>Now for the front hole.  Again, a lot more grunting, more four letter words,
>more grunting and it finally went through, the hard part was done.  Time for
>a beer.
>
>Now to finish, I get under and tighten the A-arm nuts, now just got to put
>the cotter pins in and everything is set.  Wrong!  I couldn't get the cotter
>pin through the forward nut on the inner side of the a-arm.  No matter how
>much I tightened it, I just couldn't get it on far enough to get the pin
>through.  I had visions of having to disassemble the whole thing again.  (By
>now the better half is coming out about every 15 minutes to inform me of the
>time, wanting to eat dinner.  I keep telling her I'm almost done.)  Take a
>beer break to think about the problem  The rear nut went on just fine, no
>problem installing the cotter pin.  I start to look closer and for some
>reason the nuts appear different.  The one on the front appears thicker than
>the one on the back.  How can this be, then I think about the nut on the
>outside end of the A-arm at the bottom of the king pin.  I remove the nut
>from the bottom of the king pin and low and behold, they are different.  The
>thread size is the same, but the nuts on the inner end of the A-arms are
>thinner than the nut holding the outer end of the A-arm.  I switched the
>nuts, and everything worked fine.
>
>Now I have the other side to contend with tomorrow morning.  Does anyone
>have any secrets about removing and installing the spring pans with a jack?
>Also, after I finish the passenger side suspension, I'm going to rebuild the
>calipers and rear brake cylinders.  Any advice for the brakes?
>
>The last time I did this, suspension and brake calipers, was about 10 years
>ago on a 1970 MGB.  This is bringing back memories.
>
>Any advise is appreciated.
>
>Ken Waringa

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