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TR2/3/3A lower wishbone installation

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BobbyO

Jedi Hopeful
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I am totally confused, which at time can occur easily. I totally disassembled a '59 TR3A because the chassis was so rusted it was totally unusable. Earlier I had done the same with another '60 TR3A with a body that was to rusted to salvage; however, the chassis was usable. I am now reassembling the '59 using the usable chassis. When I got to the front suspension I initially inadvertently assembled the passenger side vertical link and all (minus coil spring and spring pan) on the driver's side. All installed well although the tie rod lever was in the wrong place along with some other parts. Realizing this, I changed it to the passenger side and started on the driver's side. There I ran into a problem. When installing the lower wishbones they would not go on the trunnion. Measuring the distance between the outer ends of the wishbones it was 5 1/2 inches, outside to outside. The trunnion measures 4 inches where the wishbones would fit. I have no idea which car or where these wishbones came from but they appear to be the same as any others I have. Also, since I had placed the passenger side suspension on the driver's side without a problem I suspect there hasn't been any damage to the chassis. What could be wrong??????

I noticed I an old thread someone mentioned the wishbones could get bent. Although not scientific, I placed the wishbones on the coil pan and all holes lined up and the wishbones were 4 inches apart at the outer end, which would make them appropriate for the trunnion.

Any help, suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
 
Do I correctly understand that if you dry fit bolted the two wishbones to the spring pan your space for the trunnion would be correct, but with arms put on the lower fulcrum pin it would not?

Bob
 
Sorry I haven't answered sooner but have been out of town. What you understood was correct; however, before I left for the weekend I fitted a loose trunnion to the wishbones and found the holes do NOT line up. Obviously, the wishbones are bent. At least one of them if not both. So now my question becomes how do you tell when they are bent? Which one or both bent? Can they be straightened and, if so, how? I had placed the bent wishbones over the good ones currently installed and they seemed to be the same. Eyeballing did not disclose the fact they were bent. And, I had two others which appeared to give me the same result. Any suggestions as to what to do now??
 
The left front and right rear have the same part #, as do the right front and left rear. I don't know the difference or if mixing them up would produce the result you describe. I would start by bolting the arms to the spring plate (bushes in the big end) and run a properly sized dowel thru each hole to the end of the opposite arm to try to find the bent unit. The other possibility is a bend on one end of the fulcrum pin on the frame.

Bob
 
Bobby, the front and rear wishbone arms cannot be mixed up since they all have a stud in their end closest to the chassis. If they are placed on the coil pan and all the bolt holes align, then the wishbone arms are roughly straight and it is only at the ends that there could be a bend. In that case, to have the trunnion holes so far out of alignment I would think the bend would be visually obvious.

I have been looking at the arms and pan which are off my car at the moment and cannot see how they could be interchanged to create such a problem. The casting numbers of the two arms are 05113 and 05112 respectively.

The Moss catalogue has the engineering drawings for the wishbone arms at about page 71. When refurbishing my suspension, I clamped each arm to a heavy length of angle iron and was able to measure the offset as per the drawings. Each arm was individually clamped at the trunnion end to the angle and the offset measured at the other end. I used a press to tweak the arms back into alignment. It takes very little force to bend the arms so be careful if you do this.
The greater error I found was in the vertical plane. Ie on the side that bolts to the pan. These I checked with a straight edge and again tweaked them in a press.

If they match up when mounted on the pan, I would be looking at the fixing points on your replacement chassis.
Regards, Lionel
 
Thanks all. I have determined the pair of wishbones I was attempting to use are definitely bent. One especially. When placed on the pan holes line up on one wishbone and are off somewhat on the other. Also, the ends which attach to the chassis are not parallel and they should be in order to fit properly. I have another pair which I have placed on the chassis and everything seems to line up. I have not attached them to a trunnion yet but I think they will be good. For now, I guess the problem's solved. I hope!!
 
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