Hi,
I've not been following this thread too closely, but I thought that I'd pass
on a semi-direct experience...
A friend drove his TR6 from Boston to Minnesconsin for VTR a month or so
ago, and upon getting to Hudson, WI - reported an annoying sound. While
there, we replaced brake pads and the pin thingies and generally poked and
prodded things in the front end to see what was up.
The noise did not go away.
Upon returning home, the car went up on stands and serious prodding commenced.
Verdict: broken lower rear a arm bracket. Cracked right in half. Just above
the frame and broken completely through from "gusset to gusset". The broken
piece was catching on the part that was still welded to the frame, so even
though it was not optimum - it was not totally dangerous.
I would say that auto crossing the car would have probably been pretty bad
with this particular car, and amazingly - despite a 3500 mile round trip,
the tires only "feathered" a bit on the outer edge, so the alignment was not
horribly off due to the breakage.
The repair was simple, remove the suspension, buy lots of metal from TRF and
grind the old stuff out and weld in the new. About 6 hours labor and $100
for parts.
The car is "good as new" now.
Just thought I'd pass that on.
rml
Bob Lang
TR6's
|