John:
I don't recall what all you have tried to date. Did you rebuild
the rear suspension?
The rear trailing arm bushings are highly stressed, and allow
the rear suspension
to sag over time. My car leaned to the left, most noticeably in the
rear, although
there was some lean also in front. Measuring the wheel arches gave about
1/2" in front,
over an inch in the rear. I replaced front and rear springs to no avail,
then rebuilt
the rear suspension (new trailing arm bushings, and nothing else) and
that cured it.
You do not need to do much except remove the rear wheel and
disconnect the shock
link. You can remove the rear springs by hand (no spring compressor
needed) and then
remove the bolts holding the trailing arm mounting brackets to the
frame.
Use a 2 jawed gear puller and a socket to press out the old bushings and
press in the new.
The trailing arm remains on the car, and it takes about 3-4 hours to do
the job. I also
turned my brackets upside down, and swapped the inside and outside
brackets to reduce the
camber on the back end to 0 when the car is unloaded. You may not wish
to do this last step.
Voila, all suspension sag eliminated and the car looks soooo
much better.
All the rubber bits in your car are at least 30 years old, so it
is not surprising
that so many of them give trouble. Urethane is much more durable, but is
very prone to
squeaks. If the urethane bits have a metal sleeve in them, then they
will not squeak, but
the ride will probably be harsher. So you might consider urethane.
One other place to look - The bushings on the upper A-arms in
front are also
highly stressed. On my car they had basically extruded themselves from
between the
mounting pin and the a-arm over time, giving me a shake and a very loose
feel to the
front end. I just now finished rebuilding that part of the front
suspension, and so am
looking forward to driving it. You imply that you have already replaced
these, so
my suspicions would definitely fall on the rear bushings.
Vance
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-6pack@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-6pack@autox.team.net] On
Behalf Of John North
Sent: May 08, 2005 7:31 PM
To: 'Triumph 6 Pack'
Subject: Leans to the left - still
Just finished a front suspension rebuild thinking to fix my list to the
left, but still the left side of the car is an inch or so lower measured
at
the wheel arches. So I'm looking for suggestions.
When I set the frame on jack stands the car is level, meaning a
measurement
from the floor to the top of the wheel arches is equal at all four
wheels.
So surely that means the problem is in the suspension. But I just
replaced
springs, trunnions, and lower a-arms. Ball joints were replaced less
than
2000 miles ago. The a-arm brackets to the frame are good, not bent or
broken. The spring turret looks intact.
I'm out of things to look for, anyone got any more ideas?
John North
76 Aztec Yellow
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