front suspension

[Deleted member 21878]

i have started tearing apart the front suspension on my car. for those who may not have read any of my previous posts... i bought the car in boxes and mostly apart. only a few things still remained attached to the body/frame.

this week i started on the front suspension. a couple of questions came up.

the PO had bought a number of different parts for the car as he intended to redo the car himself. So as i went thru the boxes i found a number of front suspension parts. Laid them all out on the floor and marked them to see what was missing and what i needed to order. Just finished with the order.

first thing i noticed:
there was a new set of inner lower a-arm bushings in the box. all numbers match what they should. but the old bushings i took out have a wide flange to the outside and the new bushings from Moss do not. Assuming someone has figured out the wide flange is not necc. Thoughts? see pic.


second, the PO must have bought a new swivel pin kit from someone. Not sure who but i did notice a couple of differences from the original. one is that kit came with o-rings in place of the cork ring that goes at the bottom of the swivel pin. again thoughts?

next i also noticed the new swival pins do not use a castle nut at the top of the pin but use a ny-loc nut. again thoughts?
see pic below: other than that the swivel pins look identical.
Thanks

 

[Bob_Spidell]

Yeah, the new bushings have not the wider flange for many years. They seem to work OK. Same with the O-ring and castellated nut; the new setup works fine.

While you're at it, consider getting Torrington top bearings in lieu of the stock bronze bushings; decreases steering effort somewhat.

 

[Deleted member 21878]

thanks. will try to find something on the bearings.

 

[dcarlg]

I agree with the suggestion for Torrington style bearings. Almost feels like power steering. Also, consider offset Trunion bushes to help adjust camber as close to zero degrees as possible.
Good luck.
Douglas

 

[Randy Forbes]

Follow the manual (Bentley version, ideally) for reassembly, particularly noting that the position of both the upper (lever shock) and lower A-arms need to be at ride height when all the relevant fasteners are tightened.

Failure to do this can lead to a very short life for the rubber bushes.

There're also detailed sections in the manual about setting up the end-float on the king-pins, and properly setting the running clearance of the front hub bearings.

A dial-indicator (reading in .001" is sufficient) with a magnetic base is most useful; if you don't already have one__or several__they're cheap and easy to find on ebay. Repeatability is of more importance than outright accuracy, but unless badly misused, there isn't much to worry about.

When you get ready, if you're interested at all, I've taken a great number of pictures detailing some of the more common work on Healeys (and BMWs, but that's another story); I don't do write-ups, but if you're looking for some visual aids, I have thousands! See post #8 (about the middle of my post) for a list of links to albums in my gallery. If nothing else, you may find it's an effective cure for insomnia!
https://www.britishcarforum.com/bcf...ish-Field-Meet&p=853373&viewfull=1#post853373

 

[Deleted member 21878]

i have been reading the bentley manual over a few times as i realize getting the fit right is important. i sent the stub axles and swivel pins off to the Healey Surgeons today to get the new bushings reamed. they will also check that these bushings are not some of the ones that were an issue a while back.

Also ordered the Torrington Bearing kit from BCS today. Went by a John Deere place and bought some cornhead grease for the steering box. hope to get that in and packed with grease tomorrow as well as the idler. not just sure yet how i will do that.

interested in how you used the dial indicator on the swivel pins as well as the wheel bearings. if you have pics of that, that would be great.

Thanks to all.

 

[Randy Forbes]

Just position the indicator to measure the movement.

 

[Deleted member 21878]

thanks. hmmm, now i have to find mine.... haha