Pete Chadwell wrote:
>>>>>
Hi all.
The other night I was flipping through the Practical Classics & Car
Restorer Triumph TR6 Restoration book and noticed something
interesting. At the bottom of page 78 there is a photo of the upper
fulcrum pin assembled to the chassis and the caption points out that
the upper fulcrum pin "
should be fitted so that its middle section
(which is curved) curves towards the engine. It is possible to fit it
the opposite way, so take care."
This was interesting because I've currently got my front end torn
apart in order to repair the support structure for the upper fulcrum
pin on the passenger's side and when I read the caption I instantly
recognized that the upper fulcrum pins on my TR6 are fitted the
'wrong' way.
Now, if I had ever removed the fulcrum pins from my car, I would
naturally assume that I had, yet again, screwed up. That would
certainly be no surprise. But, I've never had the pins off. I've
owned the car for just over 15 years. Of course, it's possible that
a DPO removed the pins and flipped them inadvertently, but I don't
consider it very likely. For one thing, in a typical suspension
rebuild the fulcrum pins don't need to be removed at all. I can't
really think of a reason why the pins would have needed to be removed
prior to my acquiring the car. The body has never been off the
frame
this is a car that is very straight, with no evidence of
anything but superficial accident damage limited to bodywork. The
chassis shows no sign of past damage of ANY kind or anything that
would indicate that there was ever any major repair or restoration
work done prior to when I rebuilt the suspension in 1989 (but I
didn't remove the pins then). After that suspension rebuild I had a
4-wheel alignment done on the car and everything was aligned to specs.
I figure one of 3 things is going on here:
1. A DPO had some suspension work done at some point, for some reason
had to remove the pins and then installed them incorrectly.
2. The Practical Classics book is wrong about the correct orientation.
3. The Practical Classics book is wrong about the orientation being
important
perhaps the alignment is the same regardless of the
orientation of the pins.
It's important to note that I've been driving this car since 1986
with the pins installed incorrectly (according to Practical Classics,
anyway) so the orientation must not be THAT important. I'm going
with number 3 above.
Can anyone expand on this?
<<<<<
Pete, I have my front suspension apart and my fulcrum pins have the curved
section towards the engine. The camber seemed ok prior to disassembly. If
I turn it around, that would pull the upper wishbone towards the engine,
making the wheels look like / \. I only had two shims on the lower brackets
on one side, one shim only on one of the brackets on the other side, so if I
put the fulcrum pins on the opposite way, I would have to remove shims to
get the same camber I had when I started. But obviously, I cant remove any
more than two shims at most, and they dont add up to 3/8 of an inch that Tim
Hutchison measured, so its clear to me anyway that for my car the curved
section towards the engine is probably the way to go. Also, if you have the
Bentley manual, it's a long shot but it does look like the curved section
towards the engine is implied.
Is it possible that there was a change in the frames between 73 (your car)
and 76 (my car)?
John Lumia - 76 TR6
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