Scott-
Just Saturday night past I finished a complete down to the nuts and
bolts rebuild of my front suspension. I was going to post some "what I
learned's" to the list so I may as well do it here in response to your
post, in case anything I did or learned is of use to other novices such
as me (Judging from what I've seen of your car, Scott, you are no
novice).
My setup, for no particular reason other than it worked out that way due
to a series of corrected mistakes or good deals is as follows:
Upper ball joints, trunions, tie rod ends, sway bar joints,
miscellaneous nuts and bolts, bearings and steering rack internals from
Moss as well as some parts from their defective front suspension rebuild
kit ( Why Moss? because Dick Burger from British Parts Connection can
get great pricing from Moss which makes sense for _ordinary_ parts)
Moss upgraded front springs and rubbers-they are blue with a white
stripe on one side for identification. Why Moss?-see above. The car sits
about 1/2 " or more lower in the front than it did before, but that
works nicely with my 215/65/15's. The shorter springs did not seem to
visibly impact the wheel camber at all. Right now I still have the stock
springs ( replaced when I bought the car about 2,000 miles ago) in the
rear. Car is now somewhat raked lower in the front and looks kind of
cool that way in a mildly aggressive sort of way. Ride is not harsh,
just firm, which is what I wanted.
Spax adjustable shocks- Why? On sale at British Parts Northwest
British Parts Northwest Polyurethane bushings, installed with loads of
antisieze to eliminate potential squeaking. They are the supplier to
Moss for poly's.
Braided stainless steel teflon lined brake hoses-hey I was in there
anyways, so i figured I might as well....
I've driven about 200 highway miles down to CT and back. So far it feels
pretty good, though it needs a professional alignment. I set the SPAX
to the 6th adjustment of 14-I may go harder. The rear end now seems
somewhat squirrely and feels like it wants to come around to the front
on the few curves I have gone around since Saturday. It may be that the
affect of old rear rubber bushings, lever arms and stock springs are
now obvious with a solid front end. I will know better once I get the
alignment done but I am pretty sure I will upgrade the rear levers and
install poly bushings. Not sure yet whether I will replace the spring
since I like the ride at the moment ( though not the balance) and as I
said, it looks good the way it sits. I still have to replace the front
rack mount, will do rubber, when I have more time this winter.
What I learned-
1.Without the help of the list and the confidence of knowing it was
there when needed, I could never have done this. Thanks to everyone who
offered ideas and help!
2.Clean the suspension _before_ disassembly. I figured this obvious
thing out after the fact. I would have soaked it in Simple Green and
hosed it off before starting if I could do it over. What a mess.
3.Test the fitting of as many parts as possible before beginning the
project. For instance, the rebuild kit I got from Moss not only was
missing some parts ( and had another irrelevant part in their place),
but some parts just did not fit like they were for another car. I
thought I was smart doing an inventory and bagging all parts for an
orderly reassembly, but I did not check to see if they fit until I was
up to that point in the project. Cost me a lot of fedex money to get the
replacements when needed. BTW, keep your old nuts and bolts just in case
there is an oddity that the supplier sends but just won't fit. Also,
Dick Burger was very helpful in resolving the bad parts problems with
Moss on my behalf.
4. Moss rubber bushings just did not fit right. After hours and hours of
trying to get them in ( the threaded rod trick works great by the way,
unless of course you are installing these $#@#$ rubber bushings) and
then finding that the uppers were bigger than the entire spindle, I put
in a desperation call to BPNW and got the poly's the next day along with
some excellent advice, like using antiseaze to prevent squeaking. 5
minutes later and they were all installed. Given their other benefits, I
now believe poly's are the way to go from the start. And they don't feel
all that harsh on the road.
5. Spax adjustable-on-the-fly shocks aren't necessarily so. In my case,
the spring footing winds are in the way of the adjustment screw, so the
shocks will likely have to be lowered each time I want to adjust them. I
am now searching for some sort of tool that will avoid this. Since
Koni's aren't adjustable on the fly, I'd say the decision between the
two kinds of shocks should be based on damper performance, not this
perceived convenience. OTOH, maybe your spring setup won't get in the
way.
6. Mityvac worked for bleeding, but for the life of me I could never
make it bleed without some sort of bubbling. I figured after running two
cans of brake fluid through the system, it must be clear of air. So far,
so good. OTOH, at this point my spouse had had it up to here with this
project so it saved me from having to prostrate myself one last time
before her during dinner preparation hour on Sat eve and beg her to get
in the car up on the stands and press on the brake pedal. Had I done
that, I might not be here to tell the tale.
7. When frustrated, put it down, have a beer and sleep on the problem.
You will likely wake up with an intelligent solution instead of spending
late hours cursing and banging on things with mallets. Ask me how I know
this-and how many times it took before I learned.
8.Shipwrights disease is very, very real, folks. This started out merely
to paint the wheels, but since the car was up on the stands I might as
well...the rest is history.
Keith Ehrlich
74 TR6
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