For the upper A-arm bolts, use a jigsaw with the flat guide piece removed
and a BUNCH of "medium thickness metal" type cutting blades. This did it for
me, though a sawzall would have been much faster. WEAR SAFETY GLASSES!
For the lower ones, you can unbolt the parts from the frame and pull them
out, maybe enough to get to the bolt heads you need. (I replaced my upper
and lower A-arms as assemblies after renewing the parts from another car)
Gregory W. Smith http://www.cvn.net/~gsmith
Member, Central Pennsylvania Triumph Club
1980 Spitfire 1500 "for the wife" :)
1980 TR7 Spider v8 (in progress)
1980 TR7 30th Anniversary Edition (deceased)
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-spitfires@autox.team.net
[mailto:owner-spitfires@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of david
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 1999 12:52 AM
To: spitfires@autox.team.net
Subject: mk2 progress
Well I thought I'd have it running in no time......oh well.
You may recall I am new to the list and asked a bunch of newbee
spitfire questions a few weeks ago regarding the mk2 spit I bought that
had been sitting for a decade outside. Lots of you helped me with parts
suppliers and cooling system rust and brake stuff etc. Thanks again to
all.
Little things keep cropping up, for example the broken exhaust
manifold stud was fun to fix! Now I'm replacing the A-arm and trunion
bushings in the front suspension and this has turned into an adventure
too. I cannot get the upper left A-arm bolts free, period. I will either
cut them but I don't have a sawzall (method mentioned in the list
archives-I'm going through them) or I may just leave those two bushings
till a later time. Also the lower A-arm bolts are in from the incorrect
side - incorrect that is, if you want to remove them without taking the
whole suspension subassembly off! The bolts are too long to slip out of
the bushings without hitting the subassembly. The lower A-arms must have
been put on during manufacture before the subassembly, which allowed
some sly worker to put the bolts in anyway he chose. I think he was a
prankster looking far into the future! So I'm going to have to cut
those bolts to avoid the hassle of removing the subassembly and all that
entails.
I will get this car going though, come hell or high water!
One question: I'm going to replace the motor and transmission
mounts. Do I have to disconnect the driveshaft to do this? Or can I just
jack up the engine under the oil sump, replace the motor mounts, and
then jack the transmission tail up and replace those mounts?
Still looking forward to seeing those of you and your spits on the
list within driving distance (laura et. al. etc). Is working on this car
some sort of test or something? Trial by fire?
Regards, David
>
|