At 08:36 PM 5/16/98 EDT, you wrote:
>
>So, folks, if the body of the trunnion moves up and down, independent of the
>lower wishbone a distance of, say, 3/8ths of an inch and is accompanied by an
>icky clunking noise, that's a bad thing, right?
VERRRY BAD! This is not safe. The machined hole through which
the trunnion bolt passes is fairly close tolerance, if you have that
much movement then that hole is 50% larger than normal. I suspect
that the trunnion bolt is worn also, you really don't want this
to break under stress. Think about 35 degrees of negative camber...
>Moreover, if the upper wishbone balljoint assembly is capable of moving
>laterally (ie, perpendicular to the centerline of the car), independent of
>the upper wishbone, again accompanied by said icky clunking noise, that is
>likewise an ill omen?
Yup. New ball joints, pronto.
>Are the front wheels on the way to falling off?
No, but you are risking your vertical link to greater than normal
stresses, if it snaps, you'll lose the wheel and a great deal of money
fixing destroyed parts.
>Can I assume a rebuild is called for here? The car will be seeing some track
>time in the next several weeks, if I ever stop finding things needing to be
>fixed. If it's likely to fall apart, I guess I'll have to tear it apart or
>have it done.
Yes, absolutely, tear it down and renew.
>Who makes the best replacements for these parts?
I did a complete front end on my TR4A last winter. Its almost the
same as the TR6, most parts are exact matches.
You'll need trunnions, ball joints, and new a lower suspension hardware
kit that includes new trunnion bolts. Going that far into it, its easy to
renew the control arm bushings, the lower outer should come with
the kit, you may have to buy the lower inner bushings separate,
and the upper inner bushings you will have to buy separate.
Many people opt for polyurethane bushings instead of the
stock rubber; I did, I like the solid handling and the idea of
not replacing them again three years from now. Shocks,
brakes, wheel bearings, are also very simple, since its
already all apart. I did the shocks and brakes (complete,
including new disks and rebuild the calipers.)
Here's where I got my parts and prices at the time (from memory)
trunnions British Parts NW $35 apiece (2)
ball joints Victoria British $25 apiece (2)
suspension kit Victoria British $60 for lower
$20 for upper
polyurethane bushings BPNW $42 for all
new pads for spring local $4 apiece (4)
shocks, stock Woodhead Victoria $50 for both
brake pads local $20
brake rotors local $45 apiece
caliper seal kit local $15
caliper pistons TRF $22 apiece (4)
various paint, cleaner, lots of nyloc nuts $40
You'll need one special tool to compress the spring. You can buy
one from Moss for $45 or make one for about $10. I posted a description
about 3 months ago, I've since lost all those files. You may find
it in the digest. Basically you need 18" of 5/8" coarse threaded rod,
2 5/8" coupling nuts (regular nuts WONT work), several big-ass
washers, and one piece of something (wood, flat steel, junk part)
about 2"x3" to push against the bottom of the spring pan. I like
the idea of a piece of 2x4 drilled to fit over the shock mount bolts.
Oh, and you will need a manual. There are numerous torque settings
that are important, as well as knowing the sequence that the bits
fit together on the trunnion assembly.
Plan on 10-30 hours of work, depending on how much cleaning and
painting you will be doing. I managed to stretch the job into 3
months of 1-2 evenings a week, but I painted everything and
did brakes as well.
Good luck.
Cliff Hansen
chansen@exis.net
1966 TR-4A CTC 64615L (on the road daily)
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