Ahh.. the Bachelor’s life...... Or a cry for help!

[Bret]

ALLGGGGGGG!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Sorry guys I need to vent a little (minor cry for help) Hope ya don’t mind.

Well last Thrusday morning I put the wife & kids on a plane to go visit some of her relatives’ through the 5th, with me joining them next Friday the 2nd. This is good news for me as I’ll be a bachelor with no kids or honey dos to be concerned about, so I figured it was a perfect time to jump into some of my neglected projects for my MG.

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans…..

Late Friday afternoon one of my customers (2.5 hr drive from my house) calls me to report that his system is “hard down”. I ordered the parts and had them delivered Saturday morning and spent the rest of the day working on the customers X-Ray Truck in 112 degree heat – 4 hours latter the system is repaired and I start my return trip home. Two hours later – it’s five o’clock and I’m beat – fell asleep on the couch after less than half a beer. Woke up to natures urge only to discover that it was 11pm. Saturday was shot!

Next morning I made a pot of coffee - Extra Strong the way I like it (hey who’s around to complain?) Anyway I decided to waste as little time as possible jumping into my MGBs Front suspension. On tap: Replace all of the bushings with new polyurethane by Energy suspension.

Without going into too many details I will admit that I didn’t realize how much work it was going to be removing hardware that had been in place since the car was assembled back in 1978.

Major problems /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif encountered with front bushing replacement:
1) The upper Fulcrum Pin on passenger’s side had seized in place. This is the bolt that attaches the upper part of the Swivel to the arms of the front shock. Nothing worked at first so by the time I finally removed it – it was damaged to the point that it can’t be used again. Will place one on order tonight.
2) Front Cross Member is loose. While I was removing the old worn out bushings and battling the fulcrum pin – I noticed some strange movement. Not sure if I have a larger problem. But for now I am just going to re-tighten the bolts. I can’t help but wonder if this is the result of the old tired out bushings – the holes were quite elongated. Any advice would be welcome.

Anyway that was my wasted weekend. Hopefully I can find time during the week to put the whole front end back together. Because I will be flying out next Friday to join up with the wife & kids and for the 4th holiday back in Pittsburgh. I really don’t want to think what the wife will say to see her vehicle parked outside while my MG is scattered all over the garage.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/nopity.gif

I swear – sometimes I think its better to just give up and drink a beer.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thirsty.gif

 

[mgtildth]

Re: Ahh.. the Bachelor’s life...... Or a cry for h

Sometimes it's better to have someone else do the work.
Unless you're a competent, mechanically inclined person.
I used to throw things, get upset, not anymore. Now I can
enjoy my beer instead of looking at it as medicine. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif

 

[Bret]

Re: Ahh.. the Bachelor’s life...... Or a cry for h

[ QUOTE ]
Sometimes it's better to have someone else do the work.
Unless you're a competent, mechanically inclined person.
I used to throw things, get upset, not anymore. <<SNI>>

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, I’d like to think I’m competent & mechanically inclined /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hammer.gif. But that’s not the issue – it’s almost like the second ya think ya got a plan noting ever quite works out like you envisioned them. I still believe a lesser man would have cracked by now.

What I’m really concern about isn’t the problems I’ve encountered (hey stuff happens), its’ getting everything back together before the wife returns home.

No head of household issues here – I know exactly where I stand in the pecking order. Somewhere between our kids and the dogs & cats. Once the animals die off – I’ll be at the bottom all alone.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

 

[Bret]

Re: Ahh.. the Bachelor’s life...... Or a cry for h

Yet more disturbing findings. In addition to the two loose cross-member bolts, I also discovered that the drivers side pivot wishbone hardware was also loose. Over all travel on the passenger side of the cross-member was about an 1/8” and the pivot wishbone less than that.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

I’d really like to refrain from totally taking off the Cross-member to thoroughly check things out. From what I can tell looking things over – every thing seems fine. Foolish?

Any comments? Suggestions?.....
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif

 

[Mark Jones]

Re: Ahh.. the Bachelor’s life...... Or a cry for h

Bret;

What sort of shape are your kingpins in? Any excess movement due to worn bushings? If they do need replacement I would suggest taking the front cross member off and do a complete frontend rebuild, including having the elongated holes fixed. Do it once and do it right. I couldn't believe the difference in the handling in my GT after a complete frontend rebuild.

 

[Bruce74B]

Re: Ahh.. the Bachelor’s life...... Or a cry for h

Ah Bret...you have my sympathy...I did the front suspension over the winter. My baby was in pieces for months. Welcome to the club. One thing leads to another on a job like that. I ended up with new rebuilt shocks, new springs, bushings, brake hoses, wheel bearings and other assorted parts. Everything else was disassmbled and painted with POR15. But I changed the oil yesterday and she looks good now! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Next time the wife goes away and leaves you alone, find something more relaxing to do...and beer could me a major component to that /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif

Bruce /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/driving.gif

 

[vagt6]

Re: Ahh.. the Bachelor’s life...... Or a cry for h

Oh man that's a bite, Bret!

Bruce is right, try to back off of your restoration work when it becomes a chore. Don't force it. Enjoy the peace while your spouse is away. Do some yard work, clean the gutters, paint the porch . . . Naah, on second thought, don't do THAT to relax!

I try to view my GT6 restoration as a ball game. Let the game come to YOU. It will be there tomorrow, what's the hurry?

Good luck!

 

[Bret]

Re: Ahh.. the Bachelor’s life...... Or a cry for h

Some clarification on my findings.

When I mentioned movement of the Cross-Member & lower Pivot Wishbone (a arm support) I should have been a little more specific. I saw NO movement in the cross-member front to rear and none side to side. Only move was up & down of the CM. As for the pivot wishbone support – no real movement at all – just loose hardware.

Erroring on the side of caution – I dropped the Cross-Member and did a good once over – the bushing pads & plates look good. FYI this seemed at first to be a major deal – turned out to be the easiest to go down (pardon the pun) all weekend.

FYI almost all of the worn out bushings where extremely elongated and some had even desegregated so much, that I’m sure even normal cornering saw a lot of movements of the front-end. This excess movement would seem to be the likely cause of the other loose hardware.

I inspected the kingpins and they look good. Disassembled them late last night and cleaned them up really good before reassembling them. Pumped new grease into them until I had fresh (clean) grease oozing out of the bleed holes.

Ahh bachelor hood – nobody to tell me what to do. All the hard work of the day was done and I had started to give those three bottles of “New Castle Brown Ale” sitting in the frig the attention they deserved. I ended up sitting in the garage until about 2AM, just cleaning parts and performing general house cleaning getting things ready for re-assembly when the parts come in.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hammer.gif

All seemed right with the world – until that alarm clock went off this morning /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif and all my aches & pains of this weekends arduous tasks kicked in. My 45 year old body is telling me in no uncertain terms that I over did it.

Can't wait until the parts get here in a couple of days to do it all over again. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif