Brian Lanoway wrote-
"Hi everyone:
I'm on the verge of rebuilding the rear suspension on my 73 TR6. The parts are
on order from Moss (springs and collars, trailing arm and shock bushes, gaiters
and clips) and before I tear her apart, I want to make sure I've got everything
covered.
1. I've bought the polyurethane trailing arm bushings. A prior posting to the
list mentioned that these bushings squeek unless they're lubricated - what to I
lubricate these with? Is there anything else I should watch out for when
installing these poly bushings?
2. I'd like to relube the half shaft splines while I've got it apart. Is this
simply a matter of removing the gaiters and relubing it? My Hayes manual
doesn't indicate what to lube the splines with - surely you don't reassembly
them dry. The Hayes manual also says to wash down the surface before
dissassembly with "paraffin" - what the h**l is "paraffin"?
3. I'm assuming that you replace the nylock nuts instead of reusing them. The
Moss catalog doesn't mention them - where can I buy them? Are they available at
a standard automotive or industrial hardware store?
4. The Hayes manual says that once the rear suspension is reassembled, I
shouldn't tighten the nuts until 2 people are sitting in the car so that proper
ride height can be achieved. Which nuts are they talking about? How do you
access them when the car is back on the ground, sitting on its tires?
Looks like fun!
Thanks in advance,
Brian Lanoway
73 TR6"
Brian,
1) I rebuilt my rear suspension with stock bushings, and used a bottle jack, a
couple of short pieces of 2x4, and if I remember correctly, a 1/2 inch drive
socket of the right size to press in the bushings. Oh, and K-Y jelly as
lubricant (installation, not as a squeak preventative). It worked great, as
long as my hands didn't get too slippery with K-Y. The only tricky part was
getting the bushings started in the holes straight, that is, preventing them
from tipping sideways as the jack was pumped, and I would think this would be
more important with poly bushings because they might crack under the wrong kind
of pressure.
2) I lubed the halfshaft splines with wheel bearing grease. "Parrafin" is the
British term for kerosene. I just used soft wire to hold the gaiters-wrap three
or four times and make a nice little twist-tie, clip short. Looks nice and neat,
but easy to rip your hands on when reinstalling.
3) TRF carries both of the nyloc nuts (halfshaft to diff and bearing to trailing
arm, at least they did last time I looked. You can probably buy them cheaper
locally. I've purchased them at a place that's kind of an industrial hardware
store/power equipment dealership (i.e., tractors, multi-ganged mowers for golf
courses, giant
snowblowers, etc.). The trailing arm- to- hub studs strip out of the trailing
arm very
easily (aluminium). And no, you can't reuse the nyloc nuts.
4)The nuts they refer to in the Haynes manual are the ones on the bolts that go
through the bushing. I run the back end of the car up onto car ramps, then jack
up the front to where the car is level and support the front with jackstands.
Then you can sit a couple of people in the car and get under it.
As long as we're on the subject I'll mention a couple of things I've noticed in
case anyone has any suggestions-
A) because of the rubber stone guards around the u-joints on the halfshafts,
getting the halfshafts out through the hole in the trailing arm is easy, but
getting it back in can be kind of tough, especially working alone. Any tricks?
B)Speaking of u-joints, as long as you have the halfshafts out....
C)getting the nyloc nuts on and off the diff flange to halfshaft connection is
a pain in the rear, because they are hard to turn all the way on or off, not
just when they're tight. Is there a ratcheting type of wrench that will fit in
there to make this job easier?
D)Don't forget to support the trailing arm with a small jack while you're
removing the
shock absorber arm, or you might get clobbered.
E)Finally, has anyone ever seen a TR6 halfshaft that would not come apart even
though the splines slid in and out freely (up to a point)?
Have fun Brian, and let me know if I can help w/anything else-
jb
69 TR6 CC28037
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