Updates.
Exhaust brackets on! Couldn't get the front one to fit, will have to adjust the angle of the bracket. Rear one is on so the exhaust is now sitting at the proper level. No more knocking on speed bumps! Small exhaust leak at the rear join to the silencer, this is due to it being out of shape (it leaks at the slot), and despite my best attempts at reshaping it, it still leaks. Massive amount of exhaust paste to the rescue
As you probably know, I suffered from a
snapped vertical link, which left the car like this:
This was probably due to someone filling the front trunnions with grease rather than oil - it was all solid and gunky inside the trunnion. See that centre hole? It's meant to be hollow but is just full of rock solid 1970's grease. No wonder it snapped.
A new replacement vertical link and trunnion is on its way to me, but this is where things start to spiral out of control.. again..
While the link is off, I've got perfect access to the suspension wishbones. At the MoT, the inspector said that he could feel slight play in one of the bushes, but it didn't fail. I've ordered a
poly bush and bolt kit. The suspension turret and wishbones will be painted and refitted with nice new bolts and bushes. The upper wishbone arms came off without any problem, the lower was a bit tricky due to one of the nuts I needed to undo being right underneath the steering rack. The solution was to undo the bracket from the chassis and withdraw it whole. Luckily the other side was easy to take out, as you would have to take the downpipe off to access the bracket nut!
I managed to get the shock absorber off okay, but when I gently threw it onto the "pile" next to me, the bottom plate fell of and the whole thing exploded across the road
It turned out that the bottom plate had rusted through! I think the car dropping onto the floor must have weakened it a lot. Scary stuff, it had quite some force!
So new front shocks added to the shopping list..
I also noticed that the front anti-roll bar had very loose bushes - you could see daylight through them! So a bush kit has been ordered for that, along with new links for the ends.
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1978 Triumph Dolomite Sprint (
project thread)
1966 Volkswagen 1300 (
project thread)
1962 Austin Mini (project)
1962 MGA 1600 Mark II
1965 Mobylette SP50 (project)
2001 Rover 75 2.5-litre V6