TR2/3/3A TR3A lower inner front suspension

[fogdot]

It appears from the catalog pages that the lower inner front bushings are Either poly OR the steel and nylon bushings. Is this so? Which is the better way to go?

 

[PeterK]

Depends on the year. The 3A uses an inner hardened steel sleeve that rides on the inner fulcrum pin. A nylon bush is pressed into the lower wishbones. The nylon rides on the steel bush. Nylon washers fit to both ends of the wishbone and a rubber seal is stretched over the nylon washer to keep moisture and dirt out. There are no grease fittings for the inner fulcrum pin.

Earlier TR2-3s used a pair of rubber bushes instead of the above configuration. I havent seen poly replacements for the TR2-3 but I'm sure you can find them.

The later style nylon and steel was a "factory-approved retroactive modification" so it appears to be a better approach to the inner fulcrum mount.

December 1955 TechnicalBulletin
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]As a result of investigations carried out by our Development engineers, it has been found possible to increase the life of the Bottom Inner Fulcrum Bearings
employed in the Front Suspension units fitted to the Triumph Sports car.
The original rubber bushes, Part No. 102228, fitted to the bottom inner fulcrum have now been replaced, in normal manufacture, by bearings of nylon material which provide better bearing qualities and consequently have a longer useful life.
The nylon type bearing was introduced in normal manufacture at Commission No. TS.912l. This modification can be made with cars prior to the Commission Number quoted above where normal replacements are required.[/QUOTE]

Hope this help you.

 

[TR3driver]

IMO, the standard nylon/steel works fine.

I upgraded to a third choice, Nylatron/steel, but it was mostly because I wanted to get rid of the rubber upper bushes, and the kit came with enough for both upper and lower.

 

[Banjo]

hope you don't mind a little hijacking here.
I'm getting ready to order a bunch of stuff, and a total front end rebuild is in the works.
What's my best bet? order all the seperate bits from Moss, or get the "magic kit" from TRf?
THis is an early TR2. Upgrades welcome. Poly is great, but not essential on this project.

 

[TR3driver]

Might as well go with the magic kit, if you're sure you need to replace all those things. Being something of a cheapskate, I don't change the upper ball joints & tie rod ends unless they really need it ... my 59 TR3A may well still have the original ones on it !

Don't forget the steering box; replacing the peg & lower bushing made a BIG difference. And with the new seal, I don't have to fill it every month /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

You can have what's left of my RF fender ... with enough work, it might be presentable again. Unless there's something I don't know, making it fit an early TR2 is the easy part.

 

[TRTEL]

If you want to take the time, drill, tap and add a zerk to each wishbone arm through the nylon bushing. I then cut a slot with a dremel tool around the interior circumference of the nylon to distribute the grease. Lube once a year and they will outlast you.
Tom Lains
TS 8651 & 58107

 

[PeterK]

I just did a complete front end on my 3A including all steering and suspension parts. I usually buy my parts from lbcarco.com. They use the same part#s as Moss and most parts are probably actually from Moss but at a greatly reduced price. I bought the complete bushing kit, tie-rod set, silentbloc bushings, and trunnions.

I ordered everything I thought I'd need but ended up needing one ball joint so I ordered from TRF. I like TRF for a lot of stuff but the ball joint I just got for my 3A from them has metric nuts with a note included saying to ONLY use the included nuts.

Sometimes I have to use a sacrificial nut to bang on a little to adjust things and keep from buggering up threads or the castleated nut. But with this oddball ball joint, I didn't have anything I could use. And this ball joint had to come off a couple of times because I had a hard time getting the knurls to align with the the a-arms so that the ball joint is vertically aligned with the lower trunnion pin. So now I have one metric sized and one standard threaded ball-joint, not a show-stopper but I would prefer original parts. Just my $.02 on TRF. Usually good 80% of the time IMO but not always.

The trunnions I received from lbcarco still had drilled pins to use the original hardware. Most of the Asian import replacement trunnion pins are not drilled and use only nylocs.

I still try to do business with all the big 3 but lbcarco is becoming a favorite supplier with me.