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pdplot

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It finally happened. After almost 70 years of working on cars, I finally - in my old age - bought a....Creeper from AutoZone. No more twisting my aged body under a car on an old, ratty towel. This will go along with the small air compressor I finally bought about 10 years ago that ended the bicycle pump era. Ever try inflating a car tire with a bicycle pump? Now maybe I can find that clunking noise every time I go over a bump. The last time it was a bent piston rod in the left tube shock, cured by a new shock ($17.00) from Rock Auto. This may be from the right side. I'm beginning to think the tube shock conversion is not such a great idea. At least the diff mounts were strengthened years ago when I bought the car. OTOH, maybe the best answer is a solid axle conversion from a TR4? Is it even possible?
 

Basil

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Congratulations! I won a creeper a few years ago at a car show raffle but for some reason I almost never use it. Speaking of clunking noise, I had a clunking on the right side of my Hyundai Santa Fe when I went slow over rough surfaces. It turned out to be a sway bar link that wasn't sufficiently tight on one end (was not easy to diagnose as it "felt" tight from trying to move it by hand).
 

vette

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PD, bring it on over we'll get it up in the air for ya. And ya those tube shock conversions on LBCs ain't what they're cracked up to be. I have them on an MGB and I'm going back to good old, original lever shocks when I restore the car next year.
 

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DrEntropy

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vette said:
I'm going back to good old, original lever shocks when I restore the car next year.

:thumbsup:

I consider that conversion a solution without a problem.
 
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pdplot

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I don't know about the MGB conversion on a straight axle, Doc, but there any many cases of frame cracking on TR6's caused by tube shocks. Google TR6 tube shock conversions. Apparently they move straight up and down while the trailing arms move on an arc. The lever shocks with those short control links also follow that arc it is said. That's apparently how my left side one got bent. Now there's clunking from the right side (I think) - maybe the right tube shock, maybe not. So far, no frame cracks. IMO, the TR6 stock rear suspension is a cobbled-up mess and dangerous too if not properly looked after. Ask the owners whose axles pulled out and detached from the car or as mine did some years ago, had the bolts loosen from the trailing arm and cause the right rear wheel to come off and roll into someone's front yard causing me to lose control and wind up across the road on the sidewalk facing the way I came. Luckily, no one was coming the other way, or...a head on for me. I had to replace the trailing arm and torque those bolts very carefully. Too tight and they can strip out of the aluminum trailing arm and then you either go to Heli-coils or get another trailing arm - if you can find one. They're NLS.
 

vette

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I agree with your opinion about the TR IRS. The funny thing is that I have a Nissan Pathfinder that has a very similar suspension. It's the most unstable vehicle I have ever driven. There are two lower control arms and the leading one is on an angle and has the seat pan for the coil spring. I've changed the springs and the shocks and it still moves all around when just cruising down the highway. Ya feel like your holding on to it all the time.
About the 'B's tube shocks. They were on the car when I bought it as a project car about a year ago. They are loose and bent. I believe they are too long for the application and also mounted so they can't travel with the arc of the axle. Their just not worth the effort seeing as how the level shocks do a very fine job. These aftermarket "alterations" seem to me to follow a similar concept. The "alteration" might have its merits if you are racing and it is engineered well, but for constant every day driving they are impractical. But what these concepts do is create a Market. They sell. But most we don't need.
 

DrEntropy

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I hold the same disdain for automatic transmissions and air conditioning. :smirk:
 

DrEntropy

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A.E. Neuman said:
Not from the south, I take it.:excitement:

Tampa, to be accurate. If the State Legislature outlawed both, it wouldn't bother me. And I'd have a lot more Lebensraum. The place would clear out as if someone shouted "FIRE!" :smirk:
 
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pdplot

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Florida used to be the last stronghold of the big car. Big Cadillacs and Buicks with small turtlehead drivers. That and parts of the Midwest. My dad's dream car was a Mercury Marquis. His last car was one of those big Fords - forgot the name. My brother inherited it and blew the transmission driving it back to his home in Virginia. Before that, he had an Olds 98.
 

JPSmit

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Florida used to be the last stronghold of the big car. Big Cadillacs and Buicks with small turtlehead drivers. That and parts of the Midwest. My dad's dream car was a Mercury Marquis. His last car was one of those big Fords - forgot the name. My brother inherited it and blew the transmission driving it back to his home in Virginia. Before that, he had an Olds 98.

When we lived in Florida we used to say "beware of octogenarians driving cadillacs." This was one reason that I didn't enjoy riding a motorcycle in the state - that and every road is straight.
 

DrEntropy

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Knew an octogenarian in Miami with an old '60's Cadillac. He patched the rusty rocker panels by filling 'em with CONCRETE! One of the first Low Riders! Everyone called him Pappy. I don't think he ever went faster than 40 MPH in it.
 

JPSmit

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Knew an octogenarian in Miami with an old '60's Cadillac. He patched the rusty rocker panels by filling 'em with CONCRETE! One of the first Low Riders! Everyone called him Pappy. I don't think he ever went faster than 40 MPH in it.

with concrete I doubt he could!

Back in the day there was a 50's Roller parked in the lot next to where I lived (back when it was a used car) went up close one day and all the holes were covered with black electrical tape.
 

waltesefalcon

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PDP, do you mean one of these? My head is fairly large but I do have the car.
68 coupe.jpg
 
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