Hello All,
Just a quick follow up note on the progress of my re-bushing of the rear
suspension and addition of a rear anti-sway bar on my '69 TR6 - a few of the
listers who provided advice asked for a progress report, and here it is...
Well, it's done - I took Firday 22nd of March off work and started work on
the rear suspension. I didn't realise that you had to take (basically) the
whole of the rear of the car apart to get at the trailing arm bushes, but a
quick read of Bentley's soon cleared that misconception on my part up.
Reading the manual was, of course, the easiest part of the exercise...
Removing the trailing arms sounded relatively simple - remove the shock
absorber, spring, hub and half-shafts complete, then unbolt the trailing arm
brackets, and a trailing arm is in your hot little hands. Unfortunately,
what the manual failed to mention was that some previous owner/agent thereof
inevitably will have rounded off half the nuts on the bolts holding the half
shafts onto the differential, and with those same nuts being some of the
most inaccessible on the car you'll have an absolute devil of a time getting
them off. Must write to Messrs Bentley & Co about that glaring omission.
They did, however, come off eventually with the judicious use of an angle
grinder, a cold chisel and a hammer. After they came off, the trailing arms
came out with barely a whimper.
The bushes in the trailing arms were a different matter. Even if I could
have just removed the trailing arm brackets (as opposed to the trailing arms
themselves) and got at the bushes that way, I don't think I would have ever
actually managed to get the bushes out of the trailing arms. Yes, they were
buggers to get out, with each taking what seemed like an eternity to be
'persuaded' out (with the exception of the very last bush which seemed to
leap out after seeing what happened to its comrades). In the end I took the
advice of several list members who had obviously done it before and drilled
holes through the bushes so they were easier to compress, and pushed them
out (with lots of force required) using a large socket, a large washer, a
piece of wood with an appropriately sized hole sawn in it, and a large vice.
If I'd had an oxy-acetylene torch I would have been very tempted to burn the
things out as one lister suggested, and damn the stench. Fortunately, one
was not at hand...
So that was Friday and half of Saturday gone... Buying the replacement bolts
and cleaning everything meticulously was the rest of Saturday. Assembly was
just the reverse of disassembly (of course) with the omission of several
steps involving vices and angle grinders. Fortunately the new bushes were
split down the middle so I didn't have to press them in - each half slid in
cooperatively and without fuss. I also didn't bother rounding off the half
shaft nuts, so I imagine if they ever have to come off again they will be
easy to get off. Getting everything lubed and back together took up Sunday
morning. And finally, installation of the rear anti-sway bar took around an
hour (and two broken drill bits). Then I had just enough time to clean
myself up and go out to dinner... :-)
So, how does it all work? Well, the ride has noticeably improved - the
suspension now feels like it goes up and down over the irregularities in the
road instead of trying to smash the rims through bumps, etc. So I'm very
happy about that. The addition of the rear anti-sway bar has introduced
oversteer into the cornering equation, so I've been a bit reluctant to
really try its capabilities out until I get a bit more used to it, but the
oversteer seems to be very consistent and gentle. Before I added the
anti-sway bar I'd only get oversteer when I backed off the accelerator when
cornering, and its onset was sudden, which was quite scary on the few
occasions that I'd had to back off.
I think my next step is to replace the springs with slightly lowered and
stiffer springs, and replace the shock absorbers on all four corners with
adjustable Spax units. I know I should have done all of that at the same
time as the bushes/anti-sway bar, but unfortunately I ran out of cash...
Besides, replacing the springs and shocks (at least on the rear) is
relatively simple and should only take a short amount of time. Notice I was
careful to say "should" there...
So there you have it - update done.
Thanks again everyone that provided advice.
Frank Biedermann
69 TR6 PI
Adelaide
AUSTRALIA
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