Lubricate it and slip it in!

Back to the refurbishing of the rear suspension on PMW.

Here I have just drilled out the steel tube within one of the trailing arm bushes. Next I used the 1" wood drill to remove the rubber bushes followed by cleaning the inside of the holes and lubricating them with vaseline, as well as the new bushes.

So having applied lubrication it was then simple to slip it in! Of course you need good nuts and technique :-)

With all this done and experience gained so far I used the same techniques as on the nearside to relocate the trailing arm with it's new bushes (jacks, smaller bolts, screw drivers etc) and bolt it all up with new nuts and bolts.

Then the new spring and shock absorber along with new brake pipes.

Now I am getting somewhere. The circlip on the wheel cylinder still isn't on though but then I looked on Youtube for tips and found there is a tool which makes it a doddle. A check on ebay showed me I could buy one for less than £10 from a supplier in Stoke on Trent so that 's what I'll be doing next week.

 I am now left looking forward to next weekend and a special tool!

Show and struggle

A Triumph weekend with Saturday at Woodvale Show in Southport.

First was meeting up with 4 mates from Club Triumph Pendle and Pennine at Darwen Services on the M65

As you can see, I had the top down on UNJ but the weather was typical stuff!

We all made it and set up with a good variety of the models. Eventually the sun came out which meant I needed somewhere to relax.

Then Sunday it was back to PMW.

Although I had made good progress last week I had actually bolted everything back up with the drive shaft below the exhaust! So first I removed the rear section of the exhaust and bolted up the drive shaft to the diff using new nyloc nuts and copper grease on the bolts.

I also took the time to tidy up a number of things whilst there such as the rubber drive shaft boot and got it properly attached.

Next was cleaning up the brake back plate, putting the wheel cylinder in place and then the simple task of putting the circlip on that holds it in place. NO, this was not simple at all and in the end I have put that off until next week.

I did get the offside rear trailing arm bolts out though so more progress made but PMW is still on axle stands under the car port and it will be a while yet before it's back down on the ground and I can see what effect those new springs have had.

A bit one sided

So today 6 hours of work on the 2000. I really must be a slow worker!

Here's my first attempt today to get the first bush in the trailing arm using threaded rod, washers and an old socket. Not succesful again as the bush was distorting but not going in.

So I decided to get up off the floor, bring my workmate bench out onto the drive and get the trailing arm up on that. Then I got the bush back out, cleaned inside of the arm thoroughly and then smeared vaseline all over the bush and inside the hole it has to go in. Nothing like a bit of lubrication! Although no doubt someone will tell me I should have used something else.

This time, using the threaded rod, lubrication and making sure everything was lined up properly I got the result I wanted, the bush pushed home fully in the appropriate hole.

This method worked for the second bush too :-)

Now with the whole assembly on the bench I carried on with other jobs which would be easier now, like greasing the inner universal joint. This was the side with the leaking wheel cylinder so I stripped all the brakes off too, the wheel cylinder and the brake shoes along with all the fittings.

Then the new braided brake hose was fitted to replace the old flexi brake pipe as can be seen below but I will now need two new pipes which broke during dis-assembly :-(

Now I could refit the trailing arm but I put copper grease on the new bolts and nyloc nuts to help keep things from seizing up and to make it easier to take apart again at some distant time in the future (another 46 years?). Again someone will probably tell me I have used the wrong grease; are you reading this Mike C?

The next session was all about lifting the trailing arm up to the shackles and it took some doing, none of which I could take a break from to take photos.

Basically I attached the old shock absorber again to hold the rear of the trailing arm and then used two jacks at the front to get the two bushes lined up with the shackles. Then good old pushing and shoving got the bushes nearly in place.

Techniques learned over the years were used next. These were getting a small screwdriver in through the shackles and the bushes to start to pull them in to place, then using a smaller diameter bolt than the correct one to get them closer again. Finally I used the old bolts to fully locate it all at which point anyone nearby would have heard me almost shouting "You beauty, GET IN".

Once the old bolts were in it was then relatively simple to get the new bolts in and tighten them up with the new nyloc nuts.

So, on now to fitting the new shock absorber which in comparison is a piece of cake and with that in place at maximum drop the new uprated 575lbs spring went in sitting on it's poly +5mm insulator. All of this means one side is well on the way to being complete.

What joy!

So with a day off work and a load of parts from Chris Witor today was a good day to crack on with PMW.

Unbolting the rear trailing arm suspension bushes went better than feared so it was straight on to the usual method of setting fire to the old bushes to help remove them.

Then it was removing the centre steel tube and all going according to plan. Removing the rubber bushes themselves wasn't quite so easy until I came up with the novel idea of drilling them out with a 1" wood drill which worked very very well.

My experience in the past has been that inserting the new polybushes is a piece of cake but no matter what I tried with bolts, washers and or old sockets they wouldn't co-operate. Here's the best I could manage!

So I bit the bullet and did as advised and removed the whole trailing arm. The flex brake pipe didn't want to undo though so I cut through it as I have new braided ones to fit. It looks like the actual "solid" brake pipe is going to break when I undo it so it looks like I'll need a new one made up.

It looks like I'll be doing a complete rebuild now with new brake pipes, new wheel cylinder (nearside), new brake shoes, new polybushes, springs, shock absorbers and various other bits and pieces. I only hope PMW plays ball when we do the 10CR. I do keep threatening it with an emergency purchase of an Austin Maestro if it doesn't!

Here's the arm off the car ready for me to return to the attack on Saturday.

UNJ's back, no stopping PMW!

UNJ passed it's MOT last month and had a new water pump fitted so with June now here I have taxed it again.

Unfortunately it wouldn't start yesterday due to a flat battery and I didn't have time until today to fix it but now the car is running just fine again. I took if for a run on the "test track" and then washed and cleaned it as I may well be using it tomorrow and certainly intend using it for  a show later this month.

Meanwhile, there literally is no stopping PMW. I was on my way to the Pendle and Pennine meeting last night in PMW when I found the brake pedal going straight to the floor! Thankfully the handbrake stopped the car from going onto the main road and I got it back under our car port.

So today investigations found that the rear near side wheel cylinder has failed and allowed all the brake fluid to escape as can be seen in the photos as it is on the tyre and then inside the brake drum on the shoes. Having cleaned it all up now I need a replacement wheel cylinder which I will then fit along with a set of  new brake shoes I have in stock.