> Received several good susgestions on improving the ride on the 3 and decided
> to undertake replacing the only item that appears to be original. "The rear
> leaf springs"
>
> I carefully read the manual and then proceeded to unbolt the old springs. The
> bolts to the lever shocks were removed without any real problems, as were the
> rear links amd bracket bolts holding the spring to the rear axile.
>
> Now comes the problem that I bet alot of you who really love to work on
> British cars have encountered. The front bolt is a suprisingly simple device
> but the way they made it go through the frame and recess into the frame
> sleeve is beyond tomorrow. The manual suggests that you screw a 5/16 x 24
> bolt onto the head of this bolt and to withdraw the bolt by means of a lever
> using the frame as a bearing surface. I bent the frame! It wont come out and
> thats when I lost it.
>
> I heated it with a tourch, I hammered it with a sledge hammer, I wonder if
> this is just one of those little things that make us all a little crazy.
>
> Anybody got any suggestions?
Chuck,
Thirty or fourty years tends to leave this bolt with the obvious result...
It essentially becomes fused with the frame. I have heard of two solutions
to this problem... neither of which you are going to want to hear:
1. Disconnect the necessary body fasteners and ancillary bits to
permit the body to be raised enough for the springs to be
removed from the frozen bolts.
2. Cut away enough of the bodywork to withdraw and replace the springs
and then repair the bodywork.
I suspect that this is the reason that there are a number of TR3's on
road sporting broken leaves. Quite frankly, if it were me, I'd probably
opt to try an awful lot more heating, hammering, & etc before even proceeding
to solution #1.
-Steve-
P.S. TeriAnn - Did you deal with these when you had your car apart?
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