front suspension

[grainger]

hi

just thought id tell you about my experiences last weekend doing my front suspension, i was quite pleased, this is just why i love minors i certainly couldnt have done the same with any other car.

last week i finally bought some bump stops for the front, then realised there wasnt enough room to fit them so it was obviously time to sort it out.

day one -i took it all to bits .... damn damn, mark your torsion bars and levers accurately and permanently before you start so you know where it was to begin with!! ... anyway once id got the suspension arms apart i checked it all over and found a big hole in the thin one on the drivers side which had been covered in black sticky underseal. the fulcrum pins and oil seals on the bottom trunnion were ok, so all i had to buy was the thin arm, poly eyebolt bushes, eyebolt pins and new nuts and bolts.

day two - painted all the arms and levers with hammerite and ordered the parts from ESM - it was less than £50 including the bump stops id already bought.

day three - it was raining like mad so i put it together roughly. and it was exactly the same height as it was before !! so i left it all to dry off and got cleaned up.

day four - its very difficult to slip the torsion bar lever off the splines and then move it up only one spline - what i did was to shift the adjusting bracket then with a long bolt through the end of the lever moved the arm forward off the splines keeping the bolt at the bottom of the slot in the x member then as it comes off the splines i turned the arm up so the bolt was at the top of the slot and then pushed it back onto the splines - perfect. then got it all back together, then found that one of the fulcrum pins had a long thread one side and a short one the other and id put it in the wrong way so i took it apart again. the fulcrum pin on the other side had equal sized threads !? greased all the trunnions and did up all the bolts.

anyway it all worked like a charm, the damper arms are now half way between the rebound bracket and the top, i presume thats how it should be. and .... no more rattling in the steering, and when i go over a bump i hardly notice until the back wheels hit it !!

then i made sure it was all tight, changed the oil and set off for stoke to pick up the wife - what a brilliant ride!!! one thing im not sure of is wether ive upset the steering, it started squeaking after about 100 miles, but only seems to be from the actual steering wheel, the action is still light and the boots on the steering arms seem to be ok ... could i have pulled the boots off the back when i was tugging the king pin out of the suspension arm ? i dont want to oil the rack again i did it a couple of thousand miles ago so i dont want to overfill it, though its difficult to tell wether i actually got any oil in there. im pretty sure its just a stiff steering wheel, are you sposed to grease it anywhere ?

four days, £50 and a wet backside was well worth it. minors are the best ..

cheers
grainger

[Cam]

Excellent!!! glad you enjoyed it mate!!!

My steering has gone the same way, squeaking every now and then. I presume mine will be a worn out felt pad/bush in the steering column. I bought a new one for £1 from the national rally, but I have not got round to fitting it yet!

[Kevin]

Just done the same job Grainger, why did you not replace the Top Trunion and Tie bar Bushes while you had it all apart ? and what method did you use when raising / lowering the suspension arms

[grainger]

Just done the same job Grainger, why did you not replace the Top Trunion and Tie bar Bushes while you had it all apart ? and what method did you use when raising / lowering the suspension arms

yes you mentioned on the other thread thats why i thought id share this with you all, hope im not going on too much, but its the biggest mechanical job ive ever done and it is a great buzz to make such a vast improvement to the car, what did you have to replace then ?

the top trunnions looked ok, it has poly bushes already, and theres no play in them. apparently they are a real pig to dismantle arent they ? i had the garage replace the front dampers a few months ago.

do you mean the tie bar bushes at the front of the car, big black rubber things ? they look ok too. i think i'll replace the whole king pin and trunnions at some point, when i have the cash. i mean you can get proper mowog sets for 75 quid a side

i had my scissor jack on the rubber mat i was lying on in the rain, to raise the arm, it is quite scary, especcially when you have to start levering the tie bar into place you have to get your head under the wing right up close you know how you have to get it so its just under six inches difference between the inner and outer pins when its off the floor ? i used a carpenters right angle thing with a spirit level on it, and that seemed to work.

cam, where does the felt pad go ? i'll look into that

proper bo !

grainger

[Cam]

'ow do, grainger, lad!

I have not looked at it properly yet, but it should go in-between the inner rod and outer tube parts on the steering column. (between the bit that moves and the bit that doesn't).

[Chris Morley]

I've done the top trunnion and shocks myself - not too difficult when you've got the right tools (best to get the 'new' shocks with the lever arm fitted). I always assumed the rest of the front suspension would be more difficult.

Is the traveller your only car?

[grainger]

ey up duck (sorry weve all got a bit northern tonight)

yes its our only transport, doing over a thousand miles a month in it so far, i was thinking of spending money on getting 'proper' suspension for the front but now its done i think its plenty good enough as it is.

isnt it difficult to get the top pivot pin out of the trunnion ? i can see one of my poly bushes at the top is a bit worn, theres no play but i will have to do it one day. i didnt know you could get the dampers without the arm ?

cheers
grainger

[Kevin]

the top trunnions looked ok, it has poly bushes already, and theres no play in them. apparently they are a real pig to dismantle arent they

Grainger when you had the suspension arms off to change the top trunnion bushes all you had to do was open the rear tab washer undo the nut and while supporting the suspension leg wiggle it off the top pivot pin and replace the bushes its quite easy.

i didnt know you could get the dampers without the arm ?

What Chris meant was the pivot pin between the shocker arm and the top trunnion, as this can be a right pain to remove from the shocker arm they often need a press to remove them and as they are only a few pounds it pays to replace them at the same time as the shockers which is what I advised Chris to do when he did his as I found out the hard way.
The top trunnions and bushes are not to difficult to do when replacing / or by removing the shockers, a much easier job than the stripdown you have just completed.

do you mean the tie bar bushes at the front of the car, big black rubber things ?

Yes as you had the rear apart you only had to remove the split pin and nut, but getting them back with new poly bushes is a real struggle, but again this can be done at a later date.
In total I had to replace both Eyebolts (worn oval) and pins (also oval) and Bushes, both sides upper Trunion Bushes one side totally shot, both sets of Tie bar Bushes, both perished and in the wrong way round, a replacement pair of Tie rods as the 2 on the car were both different types & the offside lower Trunnion and Fulcrum pin as the Fulcrum pin showed signs of wear and the rubbers had gone like blue tac.

[grainger]

hi kevin

aaah .. when i had the dampers replaced at the garage he ended up chiselling the old ones to bits trying to get it OFF the pivot pin, i should have bought new pins then !!! so it would be best to take the damper and pin off together then get the pin replaced and do the bushes at the same time ?

and also aaaaaaah ! i didnt check the actual eyebolts !! the pins were obviously shot, they were oval with a shoulder at the front end, though hopefully like i say the ride is fine now so they are probably ok.

the fulcrum pins were definately still good, i cleaned them up and they slipped in and out quite nicely. it sounds like you had a much bigger job than me ...

cheers
grainger

[Kevin]

Grainger
My local specialist Minor Mania very often replace the pivot pin because if it won`t come out with one go of their fly press it costs more in labour to remove the old one than to just fit a new one, this is so tight because it has a very tiny taper on it.
The eyebolt pins wear oval when the Bushes go home and the pins rub on the eyebolt usually the top side of the eyebolt, and old trick to extend their life is to turn them the other way up, in my case the eyebolts were oval in all directions and the existing bushes that were already poly bushes were badly scored, I think if yours had been as bad as mine you would have noticed.

[67trav]

Grainger
glad you found this worthwhile. I have carried out replacement in past with poly bushes with excellent results. Unfortunately this was on my last Trav and my/our new one would benefit from same; another job to do. I agree is very worthwhile and will be carried out high on the list of priorities
Regards
Ben
PS am glad to find other LoG fans!

[Chris Morley]

Kevin - "What Chris meant was the pivot pin between the shocker arm and the top trunnion, as this can be a right pain to remove".

Spot - on. I had forgotten the terminology, even though I did this job only a year ago And your advice was very useful - much better to know this fact before you start dismantling the suspension.