[TR] Upper Wishbone TR3

[Peter Ryner]

Bill,
I beat the compressor issue by putting a 55 gal drum in the engine bay and
filling with water.  Plenty of weight to hold the chasis down and just
emptied the drum when finished.  Back in those days there weren't many safe
compressors.  I couldn't find one to fit the springs on the car.  I was on
Guam at the time and had a lot of questions from the neighbors about why I
had a drum in the engine bay.  Always let to a good discussion.
Good luck
Pete

-----Original Message-----
From: triumphs-bounces+pryner=verizon.net at autox.team.net
[mailto:triumphs-bounces+pryner=verizon.net at autox.team.net]On Behalf Of
Bill Beecher
Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2008 1:58 PM
To: 'Randall'; 'triumphs'
Subject: Re: [TR] Upper Wishbone TR3


Thanks Randall,

I'll leave the fulcrum pin on the tower then.  Will probably still rent a
compressor as there is no weight to counter lifting the spring pan. (bare
chassis)

All the best,

Bill

-----Original Message-----
From: Randall [mailto:tr3driver at ca.rr.com]
Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2008 11:39 AM
To: 'Bill Beecher'; 'triumphs'
Subject: RE: [TR] Upper Wishbone TR3


> 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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