suspension refresh with pics!

[Russell Mc]

Following on from here with my new suspension parts I took advantage of the lovely weather and started taking all the suspension apart yesterday.

Skinned knuckles and stinking of Plus Gas here is what i ended up with:








Not sure now if i should of taken the rear hubs completely off now hopefully I can pull the old bushes out with it on the car.
Wishbones generally weren't too bad condition just the normal surface rust. Not holed like some of the ones I've seen though which is good!
Next job is to get all the bushes out which I'll be started today then send them off for blasting and painting then the real fun begins!

[Russell Mc]

Is there any advantages to the one piece front upper? I still they still flex about till they are bolted in securely.

Can a rear ARB be added to the chassis easily enough?

Joggle pipe??

[phazed]

Let me know when you want to borrow my wire brush Russ

[Adrian@]

One piece gives you better steering return and straight line stability because of more caster (that shopping wheel trolley effect) and the rear ARB is drilling two bolt holes (one in a chassis lug and the other in a floor bracket) and add the wishbone brace, this combo upgrades the car to 95 on spec.
Adrian@
If you need a ARB kit then email me.

[davep]

Adrian@ said:

One piece gives you better steering return and straight line stability because of more caster (that shopping wheel trolley effect) and the rear ARB is drilling two bolt holes (one in a chassis lug and the other in a floor bracket) and add the wishbone brace, this combo upgrades the car to 95 on spec.
Adrian@
If you need a ARB kit then email me.

With a '92 pre-cat chassis do you have to add a chassis lug or is there one already there?

[black and green]

FWIW I couldn't shift the bushes in the rear uprights in-situ. I ended up unbolting the inner and outer ends of the driveshafts. As a result of this I also found that my O/S rear wheel bearing was shagged and renewed it.

Have you managed to push out the old wishbone bushes yet? I used a vice for the first few, but reverted to my mate's hydraulic press after the picture below!!

[Barreti]

Adrian@ said:

Early car do not have a joggle pipe between the tank and the fuel pump, they just have a piece of rubber stuck to the the wishbone to protect the pipe...IF you do not have one, the local plumber will have one, you just need to set it in place so that the high point is above the wishbone.

Guys, what the hell is a joggle pipe?

I have an early car which DID have lumpsmof rubber silicones to the wishbone. The state of the braided hose which I took off was frightening. I replaced it with normal fuel hose but put it inside a shaped piece of 22mm copper pipe to protect it from the wishbone. Sculptured ends means no chance of it rubbing the hose either.

But now you've got me curious about this other TVR solution.

[Barreti]

Thanks Adrian@
For a while I thought it was going to be something technical. Being TVR I should have known better eh.

Looks like my 22mm copper pipe shroud is a decent solution.
Phew!

[Russell Mc]

I had a go at pulling the bushes out yesterday with the hubs still on the car. No joy Stripped the studding I was using numerous times.. Damn these things are hard to get out!

So I pulled the hubs off by unbolting the driveshafts. Hopefully this'll give me a better chance of removing the bushes.
After work today made a little start on the arms. I burnt out all the rubbers so the inner tube could be pulled out, great fun but my God does it stink!



After the rubber had been removed I managed to get ones of the bushes out just by using a drift and a lump hammer, wasn't so successful on the second one though.

Hoping I can get the friendly local garage to push them out for me otherwise it'll be the hacksaw for me!

Edited by Russell Mc on Monday 18th February 23:15

[phazed]

I took all mine to a workshop in Rudgewick and picked them up a few days later, all debushed, shot blasted and treated.

No job satisfaction but hey, it was winter and I couldn't be arsed!

[Russell Mc]

Ideally I want to do all the work myself but could be tempted to mug it off onto someone else

[Lunablack]

Might help....

http://youtu.be/1m94NghO8ec

[phazed]

Russ, if I'd known you were gonna do it outside, you could have done it here, the skips gone!

[EGB]

black and green said:

FWIW I couldn't shift the bushes in the rear uprights in-situ. I ended up unbolting the inner and outer ends of the driveshafts. As a result of this I also found that my O/S rear wheel bearing was shagged and renewed it.

Have you managed to push out the old wishbone bushes yet? I used a vice for the first few, but reverted to my mate's hydraulic press after the picture below!!

Ed on Wheeler Dealers drew the bushes out in situ on a Merc with a screw bolt, nut and socket. Looked easy. I broke my Chinese vice the same. Did a b....dy somersault when it broke.

[Colin RedGriff]

There were drawings to get a tool made up to remove the bushes on the Griff Pages. I can't remember who did the drawings and not sure if I have a copy of them

It uses a threaded bolt and some presses to put pressure on the bush and then you hit it with a big hammer to free it up. Worked a treat on mine, I did the rear hub carriers in situ.

[jeboa]

I had the tool made up for removing the bushes - just used it on mine for all but two of them (the larger rear bushes).

If you want I can post it to you? Send me a PM if you like.

[TJC46]

I think this post should be a valuable learning curve for anyone refreshing their suspension, and removing the old rubber bushes.

They are an absolute pain in the ase to remove so im afraid its a no brainer to fit poly bushes.

I did a few years back and this winter whilst checking everything over, there was play in the top rear bush of both front wishbones.

Theses are the ones that are very close to the exhaust manifold.

I did fit heat shielding but it had deteriorated over a 3 year period.

Took me about 30mins to replace each bush,with the wishbones still on the car.

Poly bushes are the way to go!

I just pushed the old ones out by hand and pushed the new ones in.

Try doing that with pressed in rubber bushes.

I have now paid a bit more attention to the heat shielding and will be checking carefully every winter.

[Russell Mc]

Thanks for the offer but Im doing alright

Done a bit of work in the garage this evening using just a junior hacksaw (my proper hacksaw broke when I changed the blade ) Made a couple of cuts then hit the bush out with a chisel. I got this down to one cut on the later ones.



Only one arm and the rear hubs to do tomorrow

[Tom The Cat]

Hi Russell MC

like the Car (Pic 2)on the left ... what's her Name?

My Griff sill sleeps in Garage ....
By TTC

Edited by Tom The Cat on Tuesday 19th February 20:13

[Russell Mc]

Tom The Cat said:

Hi Russell MC

like the Car (Pic 2)on the left ... what's her Name?

My Griff sill sleeps in Garage ....
By TTC

Edited by Tom The Cat on Tuesday 19th February 20:13

Its a Rochdale Olympic

New project thread here: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...