> My question is this: Can I simply remove the castellated nut
> at the junction of the wishbones the pull the upper fulcrum
> pin and do the replacement on the bench?
The problem with that approach is that one of the nuts for the bolts that
hold the fulcrum pin is inside the spring housing, and nearly impossible to
get to with the spring and suspension in the way. My suggestion would be to
leave the fulcrum pin on the car, and just change the bushings there. Since
replacement rubber bushings failed relatively quickly, I did this job
several times before finally converting them to Nylatron.
> Being as there is
> no weight on the suspension, is anything under tension or do
> I need to compress the road springs before removing the
> wishbone units?
Likely depends on the car, but on my TR3A I found that I needed to compress
the suspension just a bit in order to get room to remove the castellated
nut. But just a floor jack and a block of wood under the spring pan worked
fine, it only needs to be raised a little bit and the spring remains trapped
by the shock & pan. Lift it up, remove the nut, lower it again, then pop
the ball joint out of the upper arms. If the brake calipers are installed,
have a piece of wire handy to support the vertical link, so it doesn't
strain the brake hose.
You're also supposed to have the suspension compressed when you tighten the
nuts onto the new bushings. In retrospect, not doing that may be why the
rubber bushings never lasted very long for me.
Randall
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