tires/wheels/suspension
Well I finally finished assembling my rear suspension on my TR250. One year
ago I rebuilt the rear suspension and I replaced the original semi-trailing
arm bushings with stock replacements from TRF. I also replaced the
original springs with TRF replacements (ie, TR6 springs). I drove the car
for one year with this setup including the original 60 spoke wire wheels
and the original redline tires. This combination had several problems
including some very unsportscar-like handling. The car looked like it was
on stilts, the rear suspension had a very irritating jacking/hopping/
loading effect even during not so hard cornering, the tires presented
virtually no grip while the wheels clunked due to worn splines.
I purchased the hard rubber bushings from TRF and installed them this
weekend. They are about 1000% stiffer than the ones I took out which
meant that they were extremely difficult to put in. I found that by
heating the entire trailing arm and bushing in the oven at 275deg and by
using lots of silicon lubricant, after many hours and lots of sweat I could
pull them in using a make shift puller consisting of a threaded rod, and
assortment of washers and a length of PVC tubing. I then put the orignal
springs back in the car (I'm having springs made but the orignals tested
at 400lb/in and although they are sort of tall they'll do till I get my
custom 450lb/in, one inch shorter springs) along with a set of panasport
alloys running 185/70 x 15 Yokohama 008R tires. I have about 50 miles
on the car with these modifications and what a difference! I'm driving
a sports car again. Turn-in and cornering is much improved and I'm
actually running a little negative camber in the back.
My next step is to put the new rear springs in and then finish it off
with front and rear sway bars. Later.
David Brady
dbrady@synoptics.COM
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