Front suspension hanging off the track rod arms?

[tegwin]

With the car lifted off the ground and the front suspension at full droop the track rod end will not bolt into the upright.

There simply is not enough articulation in the joint to allow it to bend far enough around..

So if I force it into place, the suspension can no longer droop all the way and its weight is effectivley taken by the track rod arms..

Is this normal?

The track rod ends are from Rimmer Bros. and are for the TR6... have I bought the wrong part?

[GreenV8S]

tegwin said:

Is this normal?

Depends whether the dampers are fitted. They normally act as droop stops. With those removed you can potentially damage which ever joint runs out of travel first, by allowing the suspension to drop until the joint binds.

[tegwin]

That is with the coilovers fitted.... with the TR arm removed the suspension drops onto the bumpstops... with the TR arm inplace, it struggles to reach the stop because the arm is taking some of the weight.... not doing the arm much good!

[GreenV8S]

tegwin said:

That is with the coilovers fitted.... with the TR arm removed the suspension drops onto the bumpstops... with the TR arm inplace, it struggles to reach the stop because the arm is taking some of the weight.... not doing the arm much good!

That doesn't sound right. Either the droop stops are in the wrong place, or the TREs have insufficient travel.

[heightswitch]

GreenV8S said:

tegwin said:

That is with the coilovers fitted.... with the TR arm removed the suspension drops onto the bumpstops... with the TR arm inplace, it struggles to reach the stop because the arm is taking some of the weight.... not doing the arm much good!

That doesn't sound right. Either the droop stops are in the wrong place, or the TREs have insufficient travel.

When you say arm do you mean the steering rack arm? have you replaced the steering rack? it sounds to me that the rack is incorrect. other option is that you are fitting coil over units with far too much free travel or your springs are too long.

N.

[Grantura2a]

Hello,

I recall seeing a post on one of the Yahoo TVR boards. It stated that the replacement TR-6 tie rod ends have less travel than the originals.

Mike T
62 Mk 2a
65 Griffith 200

[tegwin]

Grantura2a said:

Hello,

I recall seeing a post on one of the Yahoo TVR boards. It stated that the replacement TR-6 tie rod ends have less travel than the originals.

Mike T
62 Mk 2a
65 Griffith 200

That would be a logical explination...

The coilovers were fitted about 15 years ago when the car was rebuilt.... so one would hope they selected the correct part...

Are there any options nowadays when it comes to track rod ends... or am I stuck with the modern one?

[GAjon]

With the suspension set at the correct height and the tracking rough set, how much thread do you have left in the track rod end before it comes to the end of the thread of the rack?
If there is only a few turns you have an incorrect rack.

[tegwin]

GAjon said:

With the suspension set at the correct height and the tracking rough set, how much thread do you have left in the track rod end before it comes to the end of the thread of the rack?
If there is only a few turns you have an incorrect rack.

The rack fitted to the car is present in the rebuild photos from 15 years ago... so I suspect that it is the correct part!

the track rod ends did indeed come from rimmer bros.... can you still get TREs with decent articulation? Or should I just give in and get some modern coilovers

[GAjon]

The rack fitted to the car is present in the rebuild photos from 15 years ago... so I suspect that it is the correct part!


I wouldn't take any stock from the rack being on for fifteen years, some of us have been putting these cars together wrong for longer than than that.

[tegwin]

I dont find that hard to believe...

I just went to adjust my bonnet and someone has welded the adjusters at the front... what a daft thing to do!!! Now the bonnet wont fit and I cant wind the adjusters out!

Edited by tegwin on Friday 6th March 21:37

[djc100]

Noticed a similar situation. The issue seems to be the amount of droop. I used to lift the Wedge on the engine cross member and drop the wheels onto sleepers plus 2" of wood - tried the same with the M, lifted the same height but wheels dropped so low could not even get sleeper under.
Have AVO adjustables but they don't seem to lock out (bump stop) the suspension / track rods are the limiting factor.

David

Edited by djc100 on Saturday 7th March 11:28

[tegwin]

Im wondering.... if I am careful... would lifting the car by jacking up the wheels be a bad idea?

Block of wood and jack underneath the upright/wishbone inboard of the wheel.... Would save stressing anything out by keeping it more or less at normal travel

[GreenV8S]

If the joints have less travel than required, then one option is to reduce the droop travel on the suspension to stop any of the joints from locking out. You could do this either by fitting/adjusting a droop stop / droop strap, or replacing the damper with one which has less droop travel. It's probably possible to reduce droop travel by fitting internal spacers inside the damper, but obviously you'd need somebody able to strip and rebuild the damper in order to do that.

[tegwin]

Adrian@ said:

The correct TRE would be good!
Adrian@

Yup... hit the nail on the head.... but I suspect the correct part with enoguh travel might be impossible to find?.?.?.

[tegwin]

Haha... the mystic as ever ... What would the correct part be?

[JR]

At a guess, I'd say that as a with bumpers owner he might give you an attractive price for the correct parts.

[tegwin]

I had a chat with my local parts store today....

It appears that the part I needed was a TRE from a triumph 2000.... NOT a TR6...

Got a pair and they fit perfectly!

they are fractionally shorter than TR6 ones with signifcantly more articulation!

If anyone is interested, the First Line part number is FTR4063

[GAjon]

Dont you think buying the correct parts from TVR specialists in the first place would be better for all of us in the long run?

[tegwin]

GAjon said:

Dont you think buying the correct parts from TVR specialists in the first place would be better for all of us in the long run?

Perhaps, but I bought a TVR to play with, not let it bankrupt me! And if I can source the parts locally the same day that I want them...thats naturally the path of choice... For common parts its a no brainer.... For specialist parts, of course the knowledgable TVR suppliers would be called upon!