Front suspension: successful replacement of eyebolt + bushes!

[mattinhertford]

Hello all,

Just wanted to share some pics of a very satisfying Sunday afternoon/evening changing the front suspension eyebolt and bushes on my '67 2 door. I've had the parts in stock for over a year (added to an earlier Bull Motif order to get free delivery) and finally had a free afternoon to attempt changing one.

I'm a member of the North London & Middlesex MMOC branch and I brought up the topic in the 'any technical questions' part of the last meeting. I can't stress enough how beneficial it is to be part of a branch and to meet and discuss these things face to face. Obviously this forum is great too, and very useful, but there is added face to face banter at the branch meetings .

So one thing that had been putting me off doing this for a while, apart from time' was the thought that I would need to remove a torsion bar to get to do this job.

I knew from a previous inspection that the bushes and eyebolt needed changing, you can see the round hole in the eyebold has gone a big egg shaped from wear and tear, from memory the other side is even worse!

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One of the chaps at our club meet suggested that you could leave the torsion bar in place and merely pull away the front end of it with the eyebolt still attached (but obviously the nut on the inside of the chassis leg removed).

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At first it would only come out a couple of inches. The rub being that its at perfect right angles to the chassis leg, which itself must be a about 3 inches wide, so the further you pull it out then its pulling out slightly sideways and so losing that perfect 90 degree angle.....which gets it stuck. However, I think the fact the rubber bushes were very worn ultimately gave it some wiggle room and so after some more huffing and puffing (technical term!) it popped out with not much trouble at all!

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Obviously if you don't want to take it off the torsion bar, to prevent having the hassle of re-adjustment etc, and adding another hour or so to the job, then it means you leave the pin in place (so can't replace that), but you can pull the eyebolt and both bushes off the end (pic above).

Obligatory pics of old and new eyebolts and bushes below...

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And the bushes on their own...

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And the eyebolts....

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So then I slid the new eyebolt and bushes onto the pin (which was still attached to the end of the torsion bar)...and pulled the torsion bar back a bit to re-insert it into the chassis.....which is where the fun began...because the centre of the end of it, was a full centimetre off the centre of the chassis leg hole ...so the realisation that there was no way I was going to just knock that in....no photos of this bit as it took 2 hands to pull the torsion bar back, it wasn't too hard, but a two handed job as there was naturally some spring in it.

After some more manly grunting it occurred to me that having two perfect poly bushes on the end was giving it a solid 90 degree angle with the chassis leg, so unlike the old worn rubber bushes no wiggle room at all..... so I removed the front end bush which gave the eye bolt some wiggle room on the pin, and, after some more manly grunting, it popped in the hole no probs, with a gentle tap to help!

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Then I just had to tap the front bush back in which was fairly easy, tapping one side at a time to get it evenly on (eg: either side of the pin).

I honestly hadn't expected for it to be so straightforward and had thought I would need to finish it off next weekend, although it was quite dark by the time I finished...curse these short dark autumn/winter days!!

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Job done - very satisfied indeed, fish & chips for supper!

I don't have a garage, or a pit, or a ramp, so all this was done with the car jacked up on one side and suitably supported.... so there was a lot of on-my-knees work, and a bit of crawling underneath to undo the bolt on the inside of the chassis leg, but I'm (relatively) young enough.....40-50 age bracket!....to be doing that.

Hope that was useful for all. Next month it will be the other side....although that exhaust could get in the way a bit....

Matt

PS: Just realise I have logged this under 'bodywork' instead of mechanical ....but I'm not going to risk losing all my typing trying to move it at this stage!

[mattinhertford]

Maybe a moderator can move it to the correct heading for me?

ta

Matt

[mogbob]

Matt
Very well done. Good work , good explanation and piccies. Excellent.
Onto the other one ! That will be a doddle , now you know what you're doing. Experience is a wonderful teacher.
Pat on the back.
Bob

[geoberni]

A nicely illustrated report.
Have a pat on the back for getting it done with minimal facilities. (I wish we had a Thumbs up emoticon)
Let's hope a Mod can move this topic for you; from personal experience it's a simple enough task which takes about 3 mouse clicks.

[Andy W]

Nice job & great write up but just one thing looking at your photos....just what was wrong with the old parts?....looks like you had another 30 years in them!!!!

[philthehill]

Well done but what was the condition of the eye pin?
It is no good putting new bushes whether they be rubber or poly on a worn pin as those new bushes will not last long.
The state of the eye of the eye bolt makes me wonder if the pin should have been replaced.

It should be noted that pulling the torsion bar away from the chassis leg to give enough clearance to remove the eye bolt puts quite a load on the cross-member and if there is any rot in the cross-member that loading may be enough to distort/tear/break it with serious consequences.
The torsion bar should only be pulled if there is absolutely no possibility of the cross-member distorting/tearing or breaking.
It is always better to knock the lower thick suspension arm rearwards but not fully off the splines (put a jubilee clip around the torsion bar to restrict the rearwards movement of the tick arm) to disengage the eye bolt pin cup from the thick suspension arm. If the thick arm is not disengaged from the splines there will be no requirement to re-set the suspension height.
The eye bolt can then be easily removed from the chassis leg without putting any strain on the cross-member or any other part of the chassis.
Phil

[les]

I agree regarding the concern about the strain put on the body with the method of removing the eye bolt. I don't think your club meet guy gave you good advice. As above, the correct way doesn't involve disturbing any settings.

[GavinL]

Just to reinforce Phil's comment about the eye bolt - below is an eyebolt i recently changed - what you can't see from the picture is that it was oval where it had rubbed against the eyebolt. Also mine was very corroded, and if i had left it in situ the movement against the new bush would damage them.

[mattinhertford]

Hi all, thanks for the additional comments, all taken on board and all make sense. Hadn't thought about the load on the cross member so good to know for the other side, and future reference.

To be fair, my club colleague did also suggest knocking the arm along the bar just fractionally, but it was my choice to try the torsion bar method instead.

I think I might add that to the jobs list to try that method, on this side again, and hence be able to replace the pin too. It wasn't in too bad a shape, but as I have new ones handy, and enjoy having a crack at these things then I might as well give it a go.

I have a desk job as the one that pays the mortgage, and I can't stress enough how much I look forward to some good old fashioned mechanical tinkering as a complete change to the day job

[Andy W]

I have a desk job as the one that pays the mortgage, and I can't stress enough how much I look forward to some good old fashioned mechanical tinkering as a complete change to the day job

Anytime you feel the need to get the spanners out, you're welcome to tackle the endless list of jobs on my Traveller.....!