The other day I was driving my 79 Spitfire home for lunch. As I rounded a
left hand turn at about 30 mph, which I do every day, I heard a rather loud
bang and was suddenly riding on three wheels and the bottom of the front
right shock absorper assembly. The vertical link snapped right off. I
happened to have a used front end assembly that a friend had given me about
a year ago. He does some racing with US built cars and found the parts in a
box of stuff someone had given him. He thought it looked British so he gave
it to me. So, I walked the remaining mile to the house, found the used
front end parts and loaded up a jack and tools and went back to the car.
The used assembly did fit on the car and I managed the replacement in about
an hour. I was able to drive the Spitfire home. I did notice that the
replacement front end parts were not quite the same as the original. After
looking at a parts book, it appears that what I put on the car is probably
from a GT6. I do not intend to leave it on the car, but it got me home. I
am now trying to remove the vertical link from the spindle axle. The manual
says if this needs to be done, a press is needed. Does anyone have any
experience with this? Can it be removed without a press? Also, how
frequently do these these things break? I have been driving the car for
about 8 years now and it was a bit of a shock. Now I am very leary of
taking any turn at any kind of speed.
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