Removing the Offside Front Suspension

Today presented the perfect opportunity for working on the car. The missus was out for the day, she took the young'n with her, and she had left without issuing a list of tasks. Excellent.

Despite removing the nearside suspension in August, I only got round to doing the other side today - and I've really noticed a difference in temperature since the last time. Still its no problem for me, as my skills aren't limited to slowly pulling apart an old car. I can also stick cardboard together to keep my bum from getting cold...

Anyway. This side came off pretty much the same as last time, although the tie bar came off pretty easy this time, and I needed a bigger weight to split the ball joint...

...and the rear nut on the tie-bar bracket was hard to shift. I tried a few things, but found wacking a spanner it through a bit of would seemed to shift it pretty well.

When I removed the nearside suspension, the front lower arm was damaged due to a seized lower fulcrum pin. I expected that offside lower arm would be damaged too (and actually bought 2 replacement parts from an autojumble) but it seems fine. The lower fulcrum pin is siezed though and is worn a little as a result. I had to hacksaw the end off one side because it had a shoulder that prevented it from fitting through the aperture in the suspension arm (I assume that came from being whacked in the past)...

The tie bar came in done without any bother...

Then it was the torsion bar. A bit of penetrating oil into the nuts and they came off without much additional headscratching - or grinding.

Removing the torsion bar also revealed more evidence of cack maintenance by whoever laid the car up to rest 30 years ago. The rubber bushes for the torsion bar have worn through on one side...

A bit of a nerdy observation I had; the replacement lower suspension arms that I bought at an autojumble are a little different in profile. I'm guessing that MOWOG change the profile to avoid any stress points and a possible fracture point. The picture is a bit blurry so I've highlighted the differences in profile.

Removing the Nearside Front Suspension

The chassis legs need sorting and to see what's what and make the repairs (whatever they may be) the front suspension needs to come off. This week, I have been mostly tackling the nearside...

The Haynes book said remove the tie bar first, but the bolt just wouldnt shift, so I'm going to come back to it later. Great start.

I carefully removed the brake drum then wiped it down inside with a damp rag. The brake dust inside the drum will likely be asbestos so dont want to take any chances there. I just chucked the brake shoes. They're old and I will be putting some new ones on anyway when I reassemble.

Removing the hub was a little tricky as I didn't have a hub-puller, and any leverage easily slips and just spins the hub. A post on the http://www.morrisminorowners.co.uk/ forum and I was back the next day to try a couple of things. It turns out that using a wooden lever was less prone to slipping than a metal one and the hub came off easily...

With the hub off, I thought I'd start on the suspension itself. I removed the nut holding the top trunnion onto the damper arm, then decided to try and remove the steering arm. I got as far as removing the nut, and no matter how hard I hit it, the steering arm did not want to shift. On reflection, I dont know why I was trying to take it out anyway. There's nothing that needs to be done to it, and it's not like it suffers from wear etc, so I'm happy to leave as it is!

Defeated by the steering arm, I thought I'd try removing the track rod end. This was done by removing the bolt on its underside that held it to the steering arm, then since I don't have a ball joint splitter, I shocked it out of the steering arm by giving it a good hearty wack with a hammer.

With everything pretty much off that needs to be, I removed the fixings that held the front half of the lower suspension arm in place, and took it off. Note that bloody tie bar still floating about.

 

I felt a bit of play in the bottom trunnion earlier on, and it looks like this is the source. Excessive wear on the bottom fulcrum pin. According to the guys on morrisminorowners.co.uk this is probably caused by the fulcrum pin becoming stuck inside the trunnion, and not rotating as it should. Notice the "notch" on both ends of the fulcrum pin...

 

 It turns out, that this fulcrum pin not moving freely as it should, has also caused this elongated hole in the suspension arm. Suppose I'll be needing a new one of these - and I hope the torsion bars aren't buggered as a result.

I recon I've got the same to look forward to on the other side of the car. The problem has been caused by poor maintenance, so it's unlikely that one side has been maintained well, and the other not. Still, I've learned what can happen if things aren't greased/maintained properly.