Gene,
I think the dust covers are very important if my 'steering boot' experience
is any indication of what dust can do to wear out critical moving parts. On
my 1964 TR4, one steering rack boot broke open but it was awkward to fix so
drove it that way for several years before storing it for the last 15. When I
went through the steering last month to rebuild it the ball joint with the
'broken open' bellows had almost 1/8 " SLOP due to severe wear! The other
side (intact boot) was almost perfect and within factory specs (.005 inch
play).
My 35 year old TR4 suspension has never been rebuilt and in tearing it down a
few months ago ALL the bushing dust covers were intact, in fact, I wanted to
remove one and had to twist it in a knot several times over with pliers to
get it to break! And that was after about 20 years of hard driving and more
recently, 15 years of just sitting neglected in a drafty garage.
If I go through the huge effort of rebuilding the front suspension (all four
A arms had to be replaced) I will be furious with the manufacturer and vendor
if something as simple as these rubber ring 'dust covers' breaks before many,
many, years of service.
If anyone can tell me where to purchase proven suspension bushing dust covers
- I sure would appreciate it.
Carl
'64 TR4 since '74
<<Tony,
This is not rocket science. It's just dust covers called seals that are
stretched over the nylon washers on each end of the lower wishbone arm.
It takes 16 total.† I don't recall anyone complaining about the
bushings. As I mentioned in a previous post, all of mine broke and fell
off within two weeks while I'm still working on it.
The material these seals are made of is just plain and simple, no good.†
I plan to find some thin industrial† type† hose with 1 1/8" ID and cut
it 5/16 width for the 16 needed and do the job over. Sure is a lot of
work and I'm not so sure they are very effective.
Gene
60 TR3A>>
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