Paul :
Glad everything went as well as it did ! Broken suspension is never any
fun, but no damage to you or the car is very good news.
Anyway, yes, instead of a lower ball joint, the TR2-6 have what's known
as a trunnion. There's no ball as such, instead it's actually made of 3
different joints, each turning around a pin (or trunnion).
If you can afford it, I would recommend doing everything at once : ball
joint, trunnion, all the inner bushings (consider an upgrade to
Nylatron), and the brass bushings in the outer ends of the A-arms
(wishbones). Shocks, rebound rubbers, spring pads and tie rod ends are
some other things to check/consider.
The process is fairly straightforward and (I think) well covered in
either the Haynes or the factory manual/Bentley. You'll want a spring
compressor suited to the TR, which can either be made of parts available
at Home Depot, or purchased already made from either TRF or Moss. If
you do the outer lower bushings, you'll also need a reamer for them
(ISTR it's 5/8" but I'm not sure offhand). If you change the inner
bushings to Nylatron, you'll need another reamer. Don't forget to
replace all the Nyloc nuts, plus since new trunnions don't seem to come
drilled for cotter pins, you may want to switch to Nylocs there, too.
Before ordering parts, be sure which suspension setup you have. Early
TR4 (before roughly CT6350, but I don't think the change point is exact)
used different parts than later ones, the primary difference being 0
castor (like a TR2/3) vs 3 degrees of castor. It's also possible that
some DPO has installed the wrong parts, so investigate carefully.
The A-arms and vertical link don't normally need to be replaced, which
is good because new ones are NLA. If yours are visibly damaged, you'll
have to find used ones. One thing to watch for is a bent vertical
link. To check, assemble the trunnion, but leave the upper ball joint
out of the link, and turn the link in the trunnion. If the upper end
moves in a circle, instead of turning around the center of the hole for
the ball joint, the link is bent.
Let me know off-list if you need some tools, or in-person advice. I
seem to've misplaced your phone number ...
Randall
Paul Willoughby wrote:
> Well, when it came down, something broke in the front end. It looks like
> either the lower ball joint or the spindle where it connects.
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