MOT Failure!

[Dave Meredith]

The £20 sellotaped to the steering rack hasn't worked this time!

I'm not very familiar with the rear suspension on my 350i but I have a feeling that's all about to change.
The rear trailing arm bush has failed.
This bush is at the chassis (inboard) end - not at the hub end. It seems
to be mounted in a seperate metal plate which is bolted to the chassis in two
or three places.

Is this the 'metalastic bush' referred to in the "hard to get parts (MOT)" list?
If not can anyone steer me towards a supplier

Thanks chaps

Dave Meredith

[Campbell]

Have you looked on the TVR Car Parts web site http://www.tvrcarparts.com
or have a look for RT Racing Shefield http://www.rtracing.co.uk/ and im sure some else will come up with some others for you.

Cambelt

[MJG280]

The geometry is loosely based on an early Lotus design and as posted previously here the front mounting bush is similar to the one on the Esprit. Try their forum. I think that I have seen them on e-bay in the past

[peaktorque]

I sourced mine from RT racing

[Wedg1e]

It is the same as that used on the Esprit (well the S3 at any rate).
Pound to a pinch of sh!t you'll get one cheaper from SJ Sportscars.

[SEvans]

There was some info in the TVRCC mag that RT Racing has had a batch of pins made. Just in case you need any.

[mac123yre]

Try Steve Heath you can get all the parts you need and info

[Dave Meredith]

Thanks Chaps

Have now sourced trailing arm bush from TVRCarparts. It's worth noting that the prices on their website do not include VAT

It will be going up on some ramps in a day or so but I have another question. I suspect that after I knock out the pin from the centre of the trailing arm bush, it could be difficult to align things to get the pin back in. I reckon the traing arm will move backwards once the pin is out. If I chock the front wheels and put the car in first gear can I use the engine to drive the axle and trailing arm forward against the chassis? It should be easier to line the holes up and push the pin in, or am I worrying unnecessarily?

I'm asking the question now because I don't want to end up asking a garage to take it away on a trailer!

[SEvans]

I would have thought the biggest possible problem is the pin being stuck in the trailing arm. It may then be necessary to remove the trailing arm to get the pin out. If you do need to do this, remove the big bolt to the sock absorber and undo the big drive shaft nut, although it may be easier to unbolt the driveshaft from the disk/diff and remove the drive shaft with the trailing arm, you then don't need to worry about undoing the big nut.
There are washers on the pin that set the position of the trailing arm, so you need to make sure these go back as they were. If you take the drive shaft off there may be shimms between the drive shaft and disk that need to go back. Cheers Steve.

[Trickie Dickie]

As Steve says it is getting them out that will be your problem

As my previous post I had to get my mechanic friend to do the job in my double garage
(as the car wouldn't move - and I knackered my back years ago working on cars)
and it took best part of 2 hours to remove the 2 bolts on one side
as they were rusted in solid (probably why it had sheared!!)
He actually had to remove all the wishbone and inner bolts and take the wishbone to his garage.
Replacement (even in the comnfines of my garage) only took minutes not hours

When he had replaced the nearside bolts, he said the offside were all done in approx 30 minutes
as they weren't rusted in and much easier to get at on the ramp in his garage with all the right tools for extracting

As also already mentioned he took the bolts to a local nut & bolt company for replacements that "cost pennies"

Moral of the story - get them done on a ramp with the right tools (and by someone else)

HTH and Best of Luck

Cheers
Richard

[Wedg1e]

Seem to remember doing the t/arm bushes on my Tasmin just by supporting the car on stands and having a trolley jack under the suspension to help with alignment. At the time I had to do all my car work in the street (and it was on a hill!) so it can't have been that difficult.

[Comadis]

you will hopefully not use the "old" Pin anymore? replacing the bush, should automatically mean replacing the pin, too.


the washeres behind the pin do set the camber-angle on each side. so a good chance now to get your suspension geometry back in shape.

Edited by Comadis on Monday 5th October 15:47

[Wedg1e]

Comadis said:

you will hopefully not use the "old" Pin anymore? replacing the bush, should automatically mean replacing the pin, too.

Why? The pin doesn't turn inside the bush so nothing is wearing.

Edit: 'Mothing'? What the hell does 'mothing' mean??!

Edited by Wedg1e on Tuesday 6th October 00:25

[grahamw48]

Yes, but it's a crappy English pin...therefore bound to be sub-standard !

[convert]

grahamw48 said:

Yes, but it's a crappy English pin...therefore bound to be sub-standard !

Bomb door release ones always worked on Lancasters

[grahamw48]

convert said:

grahamw48 said:

Yes, but it's a crappy English pin...therefore bound to be sub-standard !

Bomb door release ones always worked on Lancasters

[Wedg1e]

convert said:

grahamw48 said:

Yes, but it's a crappy English pin...therefore bound to be sub-standard !

Bomb door release ones always worked on Lancasters

...once they'd stopped the Lancs from falling out of the sky, that is. The search for the reason why, was one of the early cases of the fledgling Air Accidents Investigation Branch, and not a lot of people know that
You know the twin vertical tail fins on the Lanc...? The way they were assembled to the tailplane relied heavily on the production workers drilling precisely through several layers of plating and inserting rivets. Unfortunately the process was a bit hit & miss with rivets going into thin air and quite a few planes were lost in the early days due to the fins snapping off in flight. Once the investigators had pinned it down, a simple drilling jig was introduced and IIRC not a single Lanc was lost due to that particular failure.

[jeff m]

Comadis said:

the washeres behind the pin do set the camber-angle on each side. so a good chance now to get your suspension geometry back in shape.

The washers behind the pin set the rear toe in.
Shims behind the Drive shaft do the camber.
Note; camber shims will change the toe in, but trailing arm washers will not affect camber, so camber first.
As your bushing is past it's sell by date a new bushing with the existing washers should bring it back to "factory"
As I doubt anyone has been adding washers to allow for bushing wear.
1 degree for rear toe in I beleive. (I'll check and edit if wrong.)

An impact gun is almost essential, it'll take you all day if you are going to spanner it. Get an mains one if you don't have air.

[Dave Meredith]

Thanks for all the feedback

I'm having a go at it over the weekend. I'm going to support the back end in such a way that there is no weight on the rear wheel. My plan then is to align the inboard end of the trailing arm by levering it into place using a length of wood inserted through the spokes of the alloy wheel.

Before then I'm going to see if the nuts and bolts can be loosened with spanners

Only my pride (and my wallet) are stopping me from taking it to the local garage!

[jeff m]

I suggest getting it as high as possible, axle stands on the crossmember just f'wd of the bushing.
The way you intend doing it will probably require the inner lower link bushing pin to be removed (minimum) to give you the ability to get some movement.
If you can't get enough movement then remove bolts from UJ and pull back on the hub while you stick an old screwdriver in between the UJ yoke and disc to keep it square so it comes off nice w/o messing up the threads. Lower link will then drop.
You can then wrap a cloth over the inner drive shaft end and fiddle it above the diff carrier.
Good luck.