"Underneath", installment 14
I'll try to keep this one short and, and, and-- well, not sweet.
Not sweet at all.
I've made some progress on the rear suspension. I was hoping to
have the car 'down', supported by jackstands on the suspension instead
of the frame, in a few days. A minor setback was finding that my "big"
2-1/4-ton floor jack was leaking; so, instead of risking lifting the car
with it, I found a hydraulic repair service and dropped it off.
Hopefully, in a few days, I'll have it back, and in time to bring the
car down to safer support.
With the rear springs loosely in place, my nephew and I
maneuvered the rear axle assembly into place. Before we could do that, I
had to address the locating-pin problem with the new springs. As I
mentioned earlier, the pin diameter where the springs meet the "spring
pads" on the axle are different. I was going to ignore it, use the
smaller pin "stuck" into the pads, but lister Dave Binkley talked me out
of it; feeling that the locating pin serves a distinct purpose, one
rather load-bearing. I tried to make an adapting sleeve to match
diameters , but the only likely material I could come up with was a roll
pin, and that metal is _hard_, as you'd guess. No go. So I pulled and
found out that the pin was just pressed in. I needed a 1/2" hole,
actually the "pin" on the springs seemed to be 31/64" according to my
drill index. However, my drill bits were not the type with cut-down
shanks, and my electric drill was a 3/8" type. So I ran off to Home
Depot. A new bit? No, a new Milwaukee 1/2" drill, built like a
six-pounder field gun and with a reversible side handle for us
'lefties'; nice commemorative case (75 yrs) too. Fixed up those holes in
nanoseconds, axle dropped right in. The threaded end of the pins that
came with the springs were pretty mangled from shipping, which is part
of the reason I hadn't wanted to use them, but the threads cleaned up
OK, if not perfect. I'm glad of the maneuvering room from the extra
1/64", too; if the rear axle moves around that much I'm sure I wouldn't
notice. :^)
Next was the U-bolts for the rear axle; all new and, for once,
pretty easy. I was warned that they might be "splayed" enough to require
some effort to get them into the holes on the mounting plate (on the new
T-M traction bars, instead of that plate that used to reside there). I
was (!!!) lucky, only one needed "help" and I used one of those
pistol-grip woodworking clamps to squeeze the u-bolt enough to "pop" in.
Then, they tightened up OK; I was waiting for the forward clamps of the
traction bars to "go off-center" during the tightening process, but they
didn't. At least something went smoothly.
The rear shocks, new Spax, gave me a minor fit. No problem at
the bottom, a little synthetic grease on the mounting boss on the axle
housing and they popped right on. BTW, I had found some poly bushings
for shock laying around and installed them; thought synthetic grease
would work well with them to reduce squeaking but I didn't install
grease fittings. Oh, yes, the Spax have a screw you turn to adjust the
damping; it sounds silly, but face them inwards, towards the middle of
the car. Face them out and you won't be able to reach them except with
an offset screwdriver once the car is back together.
However, as you might have gathered from my earlier e-mails, the
upper bushings weren't so easy; the "stack height" of the bushings and
washers was low enough that I couldn't get a wrench on the lower "jam
nut". I tried _making_ a wrench to curl around in the recessed hole they
sit in, but it didn't survive the torching and hammering, and it broke.
Finally, I substituted a thicker lower jam nut, snugged it way down, and
was able to get the thin upper nut fully engaged on the threads of the
shocks' shafts, and _still_ slip in a short 9/16" wrench onto the lower
nut. The shocks are canted inward, so a short wrench aiming away from
the centerline of the car (BTW, raise the soft top for clearance) just
barely fits. Whew!
I tried to torque down the rear springs in their perches last
night; something "easy" and contributing to the possibility of getting
the car down on its suspension. I never did hear of a torque setting for
the bolts, so I set the wrench at 40 ft-lbs. I'm sitting up behind the
car pumping merrily away on the torque wrench, doing the left rear bolt
first, and I notice it has been too many turns without getting any
tighter. So I peer under the car, and the shackle is collapsing like a
big "C". Looking over at the right rear I find there's 1/4" to 3/8"
space between the shackle and the metal bushing in the spring eye. Huh?
Eh, I'd have noticed this if I hadn't tried to install the springs w/out
actually getting _under_ the car.
So I called Dale's All British, from where I bought the springs.
When I get though, I describe the problem to Dale. His reply is "there
should be washers in there". Well, there ain't. Symptomatic, I guess, of
the shipment that didn't include instructions and a fair amount of
hardware -- which Dale has subsequently sent out to complete my
4-wheel-disc kit, vented-front-rotor kit and fulcrum-pin-kit, over the
course of several UPS follow-up packages.
I mentioned that he could have warned me, and the response is
that this has not occurred in the 50+ spring pairs sold. Furthermore, I
was told (a verbatim quote) "that's what you get when you're dealing
with the aftermarket". Dumbfounded, I concluded that I'm on my own to
complete the installation -- save the valuable advice I've been getting
from the List.
So now I'll have to embark on a "recovery operation". Today I'll
visit the local hardware store for some Grade 8 washers I can drill out
to exactly 7/16". Why exactly? The metal bushing in the springs isn't
particularly large in diameter (besides being too short!!!!!) making the
bearing surface rather small; I cannot afford to use 'loose' washers
that might ride over the sleeve in the springs under load. Then I need
to extract the bolts, not nearly as easy with the extra weight of the
rear axle, etc., on top. Lastly, I'll use a couple of giant "crescent
wrenches" to pry open the damaged shackle -- I hope!
Something just snapped last night; in me, not the car. Yet again
I'm confounded by "Sunbeam performance parts" (from the sales sheet)
that, as delivered, _aren't_ Sunbeam parts until some further
"engineering" is completed. I'm just tired, I guess; I'll get through it
somehow.Maybe it'll seem different in a few days. But, were it
practical, I'd be tempted to pull off all of these "kits" and ship 'em
all back to CA -- and go _stock_. If this is the interface I can expect
with one of the most knowledgeable Tiger experts I'm ever likely to
meet, anything else might be hopeless.
Lawrence R. Wright
Purchasing Analyst
Andrews Office Products Div. of USOP
larry.wright@usop.com (new)
Ph. 301.386.7923 Fx. 301.386.5333
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