Hi all,
As part of my conversion to V8 power and big brakes, this past weekend I removed the original engine, tranny, suspension & sub-frame. I power washed it all to remove the grease and grime. Then I started to dismantle everything in prep for redoing it.
When I took apart was the strut assemblies, much to my surprise, the axle on the left strut is all hacked up. Looks like there was an outer wheel bearing failure at some point in the past. The bearing surfaces don't look too bad, mostly the taper that is hacked up. Tonite I will try to check it for trueness, although I'm not sure exactly how I can do that. Oh joy.
The next thing to dismantle was the subframe. The first indication that something might not be quite right, was when I removed the Steering assembly. The front left mounting bolt was all bent, as was the subframe tube it slides through. As well, the holes for the frame mount on that side were slightly deformed, with a dent from the mounting bolts hitting the front side edge of the holes. Looks like the subframe took a fairly strong hit at some time in the past. Guess I'd better check it for trueness tonite also..... More joy.
Finally I removed the lower links. The right side came out quite easily. The bolt in the left side was seized and I ended up cutting it out of the subframe and then drilling out the bushing. When I finally laid the two links side by side on the workbench, something didn't look quite right. The left link is bent. I haven't measured it yet (at that point I decided it was time for a beer and the couch), but it has a slight curve along it's length, maybe a 1/16 - 1/8" max deflection along the vertical axis, closest to the bushing end. There aren't any impact marks on the underside, so I'm wondering if it's just our traditional British Leyland quality control or if it might actually have been hit. This just keeps getting better. [B)]
Thought anyone?
I'll try to post pics later tonite.
Martin
