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TRF steering magic rebuild kit

ekamm

Jedi Warrior
Offline
Has anyone used the TRF steering magic rebuild kit? how was it? Is there any thing you would add. My tr3a has some serious slop and think that the suspension/steering should be my next thing to work on. during this winter. Is there any tutorial? where to start, any order to doing it right? Or just take everything apart and try to get it back together right.
 
I rebuilt the front suspension on my TR4 using the workshop manual without any real issues. I did replace anything that could be purchased new. I highly recommend a proper coil spring compressor to do the removal and installation safely. I borrowed one that I believe came from Moss but all of the Big 3 vendors sell it.
 
I had lots of slop in my steering in 1972 so when I did my restoration in 1987 to 1990, I removed all the front springs, tie-rods, etc. and put in 2 new silent-bloc units plus new bushes for the "A" frames (wish-bones) new ball joints and new tie-rod ends.

After this, I still had slop. So I bought a kit from England where the new peg on top of the steering gearbox is spring loaded. This was in 1991. It helped for 15 years by rducing the "wandering" from side to side on a straight road but was still not perfect.

In 2009, I re-did it all again with 81,000 miles since 1990. Once again I put in all new parts. But this time I took out the stering gearbox, put it in the vice on my workbech, used the pitman arm puller which circulates to various TR owners on this list who need this puller and I used it to remove the pitman arm and then we took out the tapered peg which sits in the groove in the worm. My neighbout pushed it out for me using his 10 ton press. Then we turned (rotated) this peg 90 degrees and pressed it back into place. It has cleared up all the slop that has been there for 40 years.

I also agree with Randall that if I had rotated the tapered peg 90 degrees back in 1990 or 1991 (or even in 1972) that the sloppiness would have been corrected.

The tapered peg will only wear on the two faces where it rubs on the sidewalls in the groove, so turning the peg 90 deg. is the same as putting in a new peg which only costs about $20.00 but I can't tell when I order something like a new peg whether the new one has been hardened (heat-treated) to resist wearing out too quickly.
 

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ekamm said:
Is there any tutorial? where to start, any order to doing it right? Or just take everything apart and try to get it back together right.

Please forgive me for asking the obvious.

You have a shop manual, don't you?

That book tells you what to do.
 
I have the manual but haven't looked at it for this particular problem. I will though, and I might work on the steering as well the rubber appears to be original in the suspension and looks cracked and in poor condition.
 
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