TR2/3/3A Another TR3 Front Suspension Rebuild Question

[karls59tr]

Are there any difficulties to removing and installing the lower arms from the spring pan or is it fairly straight forward? Floor jack is under the pan and coil spring compressor is in place. It's amazing how well preserved everything is down there....leaky engines have their benefits it seems. Karl

 

[TR3driver]

Removing the arms is easy enough, IF you have the special spring compressor that clamps the spring pan to the shock tower. I wouldn't try it with the garden variety "One size fits none" compressors.

Compress the spring until the pan is roughly level, then undo the various nuts & bolts that hold the arms to the pan. Lower the pan (by unscrewing the compressor), pushing the arms up so the lower arms stay roughly level. When the pan touches the frame, you'll need to pull or lever it away from the frame, then continue undoing the compressor.

Once the spring is fully extended, remove compressor, spring and pan. Now (if you just want the lower arms off) you can undo the nuts holding the arms to the pins, and tap the arms off leaving the vertical link and upper arms in place. But if you plan removing the upper arms as well, I'd suggest doing them and the VL before the lower arms.

 

[Tinkerman]

I agree. That is the way to do it. Remember safty first, those springs are powerful and can hurt you in a minute.

Tinkerman

 

[karls59tr]

I wasnt planning on removing the coil spring or spring pan as I basically want to replace the trunnion and lower bushings and possibly the upper bushings. The shock absorber is still in place.I have the coil spring secured with a set of strut compressor clamps(iron clamps with steel pins that secure it to the spring) and two 5" Grade 8 bolts on the outside of the coil spring. The floor jack is underneath the spring pan.Can I not remove the lower arms and trunnion using this set up.

 

[TR4nut]

Karl-

I wouldn't, and I don't think it will work anyway. On the arms closest to the frame and inner pivot point I think they used studs, not bolts- so holding the pan up with the spring won't let you get the arms out. Even without that though, the arms may not be easy to pull off the trunnion/inner pivots. And with what you are pulling apart I don't think you are saving effort but you are probably adding to the effort by keeping the spring compressed. The compressor Randall mentions is pretty easy to make up from hardware parts - worked great when I did it.


Randy.

 

[karls59tr]

Your right...I was wondering about those studs you mentioned. I'll build a proper Spring cmpressor. Karl