Rear trunnion - rotoflex

[Freebird]

Took the VIT for an MOT today, naively thinking it would be a walk in the park as it's passed the last two without issue and I've done masses of work on it this year.

Anyway, you guessed it failed sob:'(sob. A few petty little things like rigid brake hoses not secured to the chassis well enough and one front wishbone bolt too short and not reaching the nylok. Must admit, I was surprised I missed that on assembly when I changed all the bushes.

Worst bit was he wasn't happy that there was signs of rust on one of the nearside rear lower trunnion shields - reckoned he had seen this in the past and it points to seized swively bits and risk of the through bolt shearing - this, he said, was a bad thing to happen and he is probably right!

I have tried and failed to remove this bolt and the short one at the inner end of the wishbone in the past, so am not looking forward to tomorrows antics with a hammer, heat and lots of Plus Gas.

Any tips would be muchly appreciated.

Cheers

Glen.

[Clive]

3 shreddies for breakfast ;D
Clive
ps he does sound rather thorough! did he say the trunnion was seized or just looks like it might be?

[Freebird]

That it might be - later, when he was filling out the paperwork, he actually said if I got rid of the rust he wouldn't have noticed, therefore if I do that now he will pass it!

He had just had a row with the previous customer, so was being a bit petty IMHO - He's normally very accomodating, that's why I take my cars there!

I will still try to fix it properly as I have a polybush for the inner joint ready to go in if I can get the bu**er apart. Already got a polybush in the other side.

[Nick Jones]

Sounded like he deserved a second row to me! Shrouds over the trunions look a bit rusty so they might be siezed?! Suspension moved when he jacked it up and let it down presumably?  If not then it is seized and worth of a fail....  If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Nick

[Freebird]

Inclined to agree with you Nick, but I do want to polybush the inner joint as the rubber is very soft. While it's apart, I will be able o see if the trunnions are seized and take approprate action.

[Tim Bancroft]

In a way taking the trunnions apart and re-building them is not such a bad thing in this instance, at least you can liberally apply the copperslip and ensure that the joint works properly.

Still annoying that the variety in strictness between MOT stations exists.

Good luck with the car.

[JohnD]

Glen,
I think you should take a copy of this to your MoT man:
http://www.motuk.co.uk/manual_240.htm (Suspension, General)
and:
http://www.motuk.co.uk/mot_appendix_c.htm (On how to assess for corrosion)

Very difficult to see how the "lower trunnion shields" - aka water shields? - can be considered structural.

John

[Freebird]

Well I didn't think that was going to be a walk in the park and I wasn't disappointed!!

Having released the top of the upright from the spring, I could rotate the wishbone about the lower joint where Mr MOT has said he thought it was seized. It was a bit stiff, but far from being in need of replacement. I WILL let him know in no uncertain terms, not that he will be interested.

However as I said earlier, I wanted to put a polybush in the inner wishbone joint and as I had all the trunnion parts and two new bolts (thanks to Jeff at Wins who had everything in stock this morning) I thought I would replace the lot.

The inner wishbone bolt was seized which I already knew. I has to hacksaw through it between the chassis bracket and the wishbone after burning out most of the rubber. There is limited access to do this so short strokes and lots of breaks to ease aching arms was the way to go. Now the wishbone and upright assembly came clear of the car enabling big swings of a big club hammer to be taken to the long outer bolt which was seized into the upright (but not seized into he two steel bushes thankfully).

Belting it didn't shift it. Heating with a blow torch and belting it didn't shift it. Heating with Oxy acetylene and belting it still didn't shift it, so out came the hacksaw again. I cut through the bolt both sides of the upright freeing the wishbone from the upright and leaving the middle bit of the bolt and the upright as one with each other. Judicious drilling and whacking of said bolt eventually saw it come free.

Now all I need to do it put it all back together again. Darkness has stopped play (if you can call it that) for today.

[Nick Jones]

Usual horror show then...... :(  Sounds like you have it under control though.  

I have a vertical link in my garage on which the bolt and the casting itself appear to be 1 in spite of MUCH violence and heat.  I'm ignoring it the moment......  Oddly enough the radius am bolt came straight out.

Nick

[Freebird]

I just read the Haynes manual to see how is should be done - after the event of course.

Simply remove both bolts releasing the wishbone, change the worn bits and re-assemble. If only life was that simple!

[Nick Jones]

Freebird wrote:

Simply remove both bolts releasing the wishbone, change the worn bits and re-assemble. If only life was that simple!

Yeah, right! >:(

Nick

[sparky_spit]

Freebird wrote:

I just read the Haynes manual to see how is should be done - after the event of course.

Simply remove both bolts releasing the wishbone, change the worn bits and re-assemble. If only life was that simple!

My favourite quote from Haynes is "tap gently with a copper or hide-faced mallet"

[Richard B]

Freebird wrote:

I just read the Haynes manual to see how is should be done - after the event of course.

Simply remove both bolts releasing the wishbone, change the worn bits and re-assemble. If only life was that simple!

In other words,

Angle grind the head of the bolt off
angle grind the nut off,
hacksaw the reminder of the bolt from the vertical link,
beat out the bolt with a 3lb club hammer from the wishbone,
attempt to  beat out the bolt with a 3lb club hammer from the vertical link,
attempt to  beat out the bolt with a 7lb sledge hammer from the  vertical link,
drill out the blasted, sodding God damn bastard bolt in a piller drill with a 3 horse-power motor from the vertical link

Reassemble with copper slip & new components and copper slip & MORE copper slip and VOW to regularly strip down and grease the suspension  :P

[Freebird]

Yup

[Tim Bancroft]

I have said it before, but using the Canley CV shafts makes the tearing down of the rear suspension very easy-this makes maintenance so easy. No more attempting to manipulate the rotoflex coupling.

So far I reckon CV shafts are a win win situation.

[Freebird]

A bit of an expensive way of making it slightly easier to tear down though. Once the bolts are freed up, it's not difficult anyway.

[Freebird]

I'm sure everyone will be very pleased to hear theat the Vit passed it's re-test today.

Here's to another year looning about and having fun.

Glen.

[Clive]

Good stuff. And hopefully it won't need taking apart for a while!
Clive