Rebuilding front end

Need some suggestions for you experts that hopefull have done this before. I have a pretty bad shake in the front end of my 57 tr3. Most of it has been from the front wheels (slight bend) and am thinking about doing some more to the front end. and suggestion on where to start? I am not cash poor, but I do need to watch my finances abit.

thanks in advance

Jack

There are some many places to find a problem in the fr sus of a tr3 that a small book could be written. Let me hit the top 3 to look at first.
Upper control arm bushings are likely shot...
Iddler arm is bady worn......
kudgen pins are toast......
To save money on an iddler assy consider this fix. remove&clean it, note that the shaft is threaded, and has the arm welded to it by 2 tack welds on the top of it.Use your handy bench grinder to remove these welds. Now the shaft can be turned and lowered as needed to acheieve good contact with the threaded housing, deeper into it, where the threads are still as new. Now that the assy is test assembled and tight, re-weld the arm (carefully) and you are ready to lube and go back together
MD( mad dog)

Aloha Jack,

As Mad Dog implied there are a several potential problem areas. If you have eliminated tires and wheels as a cause of the vibration then you can start looking for worn steering parts and front end suspension.

The steering mechanism, cam and peg follower and the bushings in the steering box wear particularly if not regularly lubricated. The peg that rides in the cam groove wears down and steering gets sloppy. There is an adjusting bolt to press the peg dowm but eventually you run out of adjustment.

Worn tie rod ends will cause play in the steering. The idler arm fulcrum pins are in a rubber bushing that perishes and also causes this play. Jack up the front end of the car and if you turn the steering wheel without wheel movement or up push one tire to the side and the other doesn't move, you have worn steering parts. By movement I mean more than 1/8 turn of the steering wheel and maybe a 1/2 inch of side to side movement of the wheels.

The front end suspension has several rubber bushings for the upper and lower wishbones. These wearout over time and make it near impossible to keep the front end in alignment. If you are going to replace these parts, I would recommend you use polyurethane bushings instead of rubber. These are available from most Triumph parts suppliers. They will not deform or perish like the rubber bits. While you have it apart, check the ball joints and shocks to see if they need to be replaced. If in doubt, I'd say replace them.

This may be more work than you were considering, but if this type of work has not been done in the last 10 years or so, it's probably past due.

Safety Fast,
Dave

TFDave brought to mind a little trick for taking out steering play on the worm&peg box used by TR3's and T MG's. It doesnt cure shake but gives tighter steering for FREE.
With the box apart and a new bushing and seal installed(best case scenerio) examine the arm and the peg that actually fits into the wormgear. You will doubtless note that this peg is worn on its contact points(flatspots) This litle guy is only lightly pressed into the arm, tap it out carefully, turn it 90 degrees and re-install it.
While this doesnt help the wear on the worm itself
it lets you get a LOT better adj. when you set the lash bolt. This gets rid of 80 to 90% of the play in the steeringear box.
Want to make it stop leaking oil too??? Pack the lower part of the box around the shaft with the heaviest greese you can find, up to the worm gear. now add a mix of 90wt and STP.(OK its stiff in the dead of winter so am I)This will work wonders and be the LAST time you have to mess with this piece of archane engineering.
MD( mad dog)