Triumph TR3-Rear Hub Bearing Replacement?

Time in Garage Tuesday: none

Picking up parts: 20 mins

Tuesday was a strange day for me energy wise. I must have been heavy into hibernation mode (might be the result of all the snow that fell on the weekend) as I was not really not "motivated" to do automotive work or much of anything else... I was also distracted by other "value added" activities like going for a very relaxing and therapeutic massage that took a couple of hours (including travel time), cooking dinner and practicing my drawing. Also an errand that I need to run took much longer than anticipated....Everything contributed to me not migrating out to the garage during the day.... In the evening I ended the day sitting on the couch watching TV for a couple of hours (Speed Vision mainly-at least it was car related???)......I realize it is not the most productive use of my time but a "low energy" passive activity that took priority...I should probably cut myself some slack and get back put into the garage today and make up for some lost time......what has passed has passed!!

In the afternoon I made my way up to the suspension shop to retrieve my hub washer that was missed when I picked up my axles last week....

In an e-mail response from one of my suppliers they indicated rear hub bearing failure is a rarity in TR3's and as such they do not stock bearings. Cost for replacements are in the $70 each range..I am thinking about pulling the axles out of the other rear end to see what condition they are in? While driving around yesterday I was also thinking about spending the $140 for the replacement bearings in the context that we recently paid Honda $550 for a valve adjustment and new spark plugs (for example labor was approx $25 per plug for removal and installation) for my wife's Fit-so the cost of the new bearing doesn't seem that unreasonable...

More decisions to be made today....

Triumph TR3-Critical Path Review

Time in Garage Monday-None

I took the day off yesterday. I had planned to do some clean up of the workspace and rear hubs but ended up doing nothing. I did call my local bearing supplier to see if the rear hub bearing were available. The cone is but it is very expensive-the race is not available in Canada. I made an e-mail enquiry with my Triumph parts suppliers on bearing availability-no word back yesterday. I may contact my brother today who has contacts in the bearing industry and see what he can do?

I did a quick estimate of the tasks remaining to finish off the chassis to rolling status.

Right hand suspension assembly 4 hrs

Front disk brake install 6 hrs includes repacking the front brgs

Hand brake installation 2 hrs

Rear hub bearings and seals 4 hrs

Rear brake assemble install 2 hrs

Clean up and paint driveshaft 4 hrs

clean up and inspect transmission 4 hrs

find engine mounts and install 2 hrs (for some reason my purchased engine mounts are missing?)

reconnect brake lines 3 hrs

misc 2 hrs like installing wheels, transmission mount etc

33 hrs

I wasn't able to meet my critical path tasks for the month of February although I did spend a fair amount of time in the garage. My estimates for painting the remaining chassis components was was way off. Also the complication of the worn trunnion slowed down the reassembly of the front suspension. 33 hrs is a considerable amount of time left pending but if I keep my head down perhaps I can catch up a bit...

Triumph TR3-Quality Garage Time

Time in Garage Saturday: 3-1/2 hrs

Time in Garage Sunday: 4 hrs

List of Completed tasks:

1. installed rear differential, shocks and axle straps-took about 2 hours to complete ( a bit challenging to do single handed-a combination of my body weight,jack stands and floor jack were required to compress the leaf springs enough to get the u-bolt nuts started). Interestingly I dropped one of u-bolt nuts and ended up not being able to find it in the immediate area. Today I am going to do a sweep and hopefully it will turn up. I used another nut to tighten down the U-bolt which I will replace when the original nut turns up.(or I buy a new one)...

2. Laid out all the front end components that are yet to be installed just to make sure everything is accounted for....(it is) Still awaiting my parts delivery-my wife is spending an extra day away and won't be back until tomorrow at the earliest..

3. Installed the right hand shock hardware and did a trial fit in the lower wishbone-all A-OK.

4. Removed the rear hub bearing races. The bearings need replacing.

5. Repainted the front body hold down plates and related hardware....

6. Decided to wipe down (cleanliness is next to godliness!!!) the powder coated chassis and remove some paint splatter. The chassis has been gathering sanding dust and dirt for over a year and was looking a little "ratty". I had used covers to protect the chassis when I was painting the underside of the body but for some reason in a couple of places there was splatter...the specks of paint removed easily (although it did take longer than I anticipated-all the time I was having an inner dialog about making sure I am more careful next time!!-ha ha). The chassis looks much more impressive clean...

All round a good couple of days in the man cave....

Triumph TR3-More Painting,Parts Pickup and Rear Bearing Inspection

Time in Garage on Friday: 1-1/2 hours (includes 1/2 hour reading manuals)

Picking up parts-1/2 hour

Spent: $2.40

First thing Friday morning I inspected my paint job on the shock absorber brackets, spindle etc. I determined another coat of paint was in order so I sprayed the parts in two phases. I am now satisfied they are fit for purpose. Based on my discomfort with the nylon lock nuts for the rear differential U-bolts I purchased a few weeks ago I determined to get a more robust solution. I purchased grade 8 nuts ( I don't recall what they are called but they have tapered threads that lock down the nut as the nut is tightened down-they can only be used once) and washers. I am now set to go. I read up on replacing the stub axle seals and hub seals and did a quick inspection of one of the removed rear axle bearing...it has been recommended I change them out. I have yet to drive out the race from the rear hub to see what the number is ?

I was not overly motivated to work in the garage yesterday, a low energy day....

Triumph TR3-Rear Shock/Axle Straps/Spindle Painted/Rear Hubs Removed

Time in Garage Thursday: 1-1/2 hrs

Purchases $360 approx

Finished off painting the rear shock brackets/axle straps and spindle. Picked up the removed rear hubs. Some concerns around condition of one of the axles. Doing some more analysis today. All the remaining parts orders came in. I will have the rotors/caliper brackets and trunnion delivered on Sunday when my wife returns home. Purchased 2 more cans of spray paint. Chassis Black and Super Primer...

triumph TR3-Primer Application/Rear Hub Removal Challenge

Time in Garage Wednesday: 3 hrs

Delivery of Axles For Hub Disassembly: 30 mins

I finished applying the primer to the two rear shock absorber brackets, the remaining front steering arm and the right hand side spindle. I also coated all the rear axle hub mounting hardware and the refurbished hub grease cap. I sprayed the primer in 35 min segments-so out to the garage-spray-leave right after-set the oven timer-timer goes off-go back to the garage-move the parts to expose unpainted surfaces-spray and leave again-etc etc until 2 coats were applied. I ended up spending another hour prepping the shock absorber brackets as there were some areas I was not happy with when I did the final Metal Prep application. I also reattached the rotor bolts and repainted front wheel lugs to the front hubs-everything looks good. I also temporarily attached the adjustment mechanisms to the rear brake plates-just to see how they looked installed.

I decided to take my axles up to a suspension shop I did some previous business with. I think they are a competent shop and do lots of work on special interest cars... The hubs are not coming off easily which is a bit of a concern. Today will bring more news as to whether the overnight soak in penetrating oil will make the difference? They are recommending changing out the bearings which is probably a good idea...

Triumph TR3-Axles Removed/Some Painting

Time in Garage Tuesday: 1 hr

Daydreaming and Scheming: 1 hr

Removed and tagged the rear axles for hub removal, cleaned up the rear hub/axle hardware in the Eastwood tumbler, squirted on another coat of black paint on the front hubs and applied a coat of primer to assorted fasteners.

Received notification of the Moss Motors super sale and downloaded the installation instructions for the rack and pinion steering mechanism...I think I should order it before the March deadline and get the 10% off...more pondering required on this...

Still contemplating the sale of the '57..

Triumph TR3-Final Paint-Front Hubs

Time in Garage Saturday- 1 hr

Saturday was a busy day preparing for my cross country ski trip so not much time available for TR-3 work. Finished painting the front hubs and did some general garage clean up....

Triumph TR3-Rear Shock Absorber Play???

Time in Garage Friday: 2 hours

Time on Snow Covered Driveway: 1.5 hours

Friday was an "interesting" day on the project.....while doing the final clean up on the rear shock absorber plates I decided to go back and check the shock absorber resistance. One shock was fine but the other had no resistance. I was a bit surprised at my finding. I also checked the "hanger" that attaches the plate to the shock absorber pivot arm and found one of the bushings fairly worn. It was very nice winter day yesterday(about + 4 C) and sunny so I decided in my wisdom to go out to the stored 1959 chassis which is leaning up against my fence in my driveway and extract the shock absorbers and then pick out the best 2 out of 4 for the rebuild.... Wedged between the fence and my camper van the chassis was frozen to the ground. The shock that was in the upright position was fairly straight forward to remove although there was a fair amount of crud and rust to contend with...the shock in the "ground" side was a much different story!!! Access was very restricted to begin with and I had to contend with a bunch of snow that had accumulated. After some struggle one of the bolts came undone but no luck with the other so I ended up taking my angle grinder and grinding off the head of the bolt. Even after I did this the bolt would not push through so I had to get a drill and drill out the center of the bolt. All of this was very time consuming. Finally with the help of a center punch and a large hammer I was able to drive the beheaded bolt out of the bracket to free up the shock. Unfortunately the spring was partially buried in the snow and was covered in ice. To make matters worse one of the fender hold down brackets was blocking the way of the extraction. It too was totally frozen in the ground in the absolute best place to block my extraction. So back into the garage to get a socket wrench to undo the nut and bolt. Not an easy extraction either. Finally the bolt came off and with the use of a hammer to persuade the bracket to move over ( a bit) I was finally able to get the shock past the spring and free...by this time my knees were soaked and I was a bit chilled. I thought to myself I am I don't work in a auto wrecking yard in the winter...

Another coat of black paint on the right hand shock absorber hardware and assorted lug nuts etc. The front hubs are now in two coats of primer ready for the final coat of paint...

I am heading off to the mountains this afternoon for a few days of cross country skiing. Hopefully I will get out into the garage for a while this morning...

Triumph TR3-Moving the Chassis/Lots of Surface Prep

Time in Garage Thursday: 3 hrs

Yesterday I repositioned the chassis, moving it deeper into the garage, back from the garage door and away from the body support stand so I can get access to reassemble the rear end components. I placed the rear of the chassis on jack stands and moved the differential into position.

After doing this task I retrieved the rear shock absorbers (they need to be installed before the rear axle U-bolts go in) and realized I did not "appropriately" surface prep the parts that need to be painted. More clean up ensued. They brackets etc were fairly clean and good shape so not much clean up was required. The shocks seem to be in good working order. I made a note to replace the hydraulic fluid before the body is reinstalled.

I reassembled the left hand side shock absorber hardware and did a bit of Chassis Black touch up of the bolts. The assembly looks clean. I did a trial fit of the attachment bracket on the lower right wishbone that has yet to be installed and everything worked well. I seem to have temporarily misplaced my new upper shock absorber grommets etc so some rooting through my parts supply is in order.

I cleaned up the steering pitman arm and the rear axle straps. The straps look a lot better than the rusted hulks I started with. Some more primer was applied to fasteners and the right hand shock absorber attachment bracket. I threw some more fasteners into the tumbler and they all came out clean and shiny.

I made an enquiry with a local brake shop to get get a quote on removing the rear axle hubs. Any way I slice it, it looks like about $100 per side is in order. I am still trying to decide how to address this task???.. should I use the local shop or take them to my Triumph specialist? More pondering is in order today...there are pros and cons of both approaches.

I was curious about the cost to have a specialist rebuild the front suspension so I checked with one of my sources. Labor costs for a mechanical rebuild is around $2000-a show quality finish etc:$3000...plus parts.. wow...I was surprised. I won't have a show quality finish but it will be presentable...after going through the clean up/rebuild process I can see how the hours add up...

A good day in the garage. It is very satisfying to see paint applied to cleaned up components...

Triumph TR3-Front hub final cleanup

Time in Garage Wednesday: 2 hours

Supply Pick Up-1 hour

My main focus was on the final clean up of the front hubs. I ran my 3M rust remover tool ( an orange wheel that attaches to a drill) which worked really well for the final clean up. I removed about 90% of the surface rust-then treated the hubs with metal prep which should neutralize the remaining rust that I couldn't get at with the tool. There is a bit more prep needed to finish off surface...With a couple of coats of primer followed by two coats of chassis black the hubs should look as good as new. I also cleaned up the right hand spindle. It was pretty rust free and surprisingly left unpainted when installed. It too will be covered in primer and painted the same way as the hubs. A final coat of paint was applied to the suspension stop and shock absorber hardware. Lug nuts and assorted fasteners were placed in the Eastwood tumbler for processing.

I picked up some 3m dust masks, shop towels and a new quartz replace bulb for my tripod mounted flood light. The light actually is brighter than with the original bulb that I accidently broke a few weeks ago (by tipping over the light and having it crash to the floor)... It will be good to have the light back and functional. Total cost $18. I also replaced the block heater plug on my wife's Honda Fit. One of the wires had broken (from the continued flexing of the plug) and as a result the plug needed to be replaced. Quoted price at the dealer $45...my cost $6.00 and 20 minutes work.

I enquired about getting the rear hubs professionally removed. A little pricey. I may see if I can rent a hub puller and see if I can do it myself first. Not sure $200 is a reasonable cost?

All round a good session in the garage. I had a busy day yesterday with other distractions and commitments so not much time to spend turning wrenches...

Triumph TR3-Another Coat of Paint

Time in Garage Tuesday: 30 mins

Yesterday being Valentines Day, it was a "Love" focused day vrs working in the man cave ...I did get out there for a few minutes, cleaned up my work bench, took out a bag of garbage and applied Chassis Black paint to some of the primer painted surfaces and called it a day.....

Triumph TR3-More Parts Cleaning/Painting

Time in Garage Monday: 3 hours

Did the following:

1. Completed final cleaning and prime coat on the suspension stop bracket

2. Finished cleaning up both front hubs-they still require some finish sanding before primer and paint. I scooped out the old wheel bearing grease-one hub looked like the bearings had been repacked later than the other hub that had a good coating of "vintage" grease..I discovered the inner bearing race on one of the spare hubs "spins" so the hub goes to the discard pile. I am glad I have a parts car on this project and the ability to choose the best parts.

3. Picked out the best front hub bearings. Removed the inner races from 2 hubs to switch bearings. The best set are "OK" but somewhat marginal but given the yearly mileage the car will be driven I have few years of service at least...

4. Final coat of red paint on the shocks

5. Chassis black sprayed on assorted parts

6. Loosened up both threaded adjusting nuts on the rear brake adjusters-applied WD 40 and let it soak. Both adjusters are now fully functional. Just need to pack them with the grease that came with my brake hardware kit and it will be all systems go rear brake wise. I need to do some research on configuring the rear brake cylinder C-clips-which clip goes where and how to install the rubber gasket? It has been too long since I disassembled and I kept no record...

I had an interesting telephone conversation last evening with an acquaintance who owns a Mazda Miata. He asked me how my project is going?? He is an artist and paints with my wife from time to time and says when he asks her about my Triumph project she just rolls her eyes and sighs!!! Her response doesn't surprise me-I find it kind of amusing to be honest...I explained to him that I believe I have completed many of the difficult tasks and now I am on the road to reassembly. He asked if I will be driving the car this summer? I wanted to say " yes" but I am reluctant to do so. I stated one of the observations I have made about the process is when I look at a finished assembly or component it is hard to realize the number of hours it took to get to the finished state??? The hours just get burned up with all the related tasks and unless you have done it yourself a person would not have a real appreciation of what happens in the background to get to that shiny clean finished state...I can see why a restoration on one of these cars would be in $30K range.. even though they are of a straight forward design...

Another relaxing day in the garage-not overly productive in my view but progress is being made..

Triumph TR3-Front Hub Clean Up/Brake Adjusters etc

Time in Garage on Sunday: 2 hours

A fairly quiet day in the man cave yesterday. I stood at the bench with the front hub clamped in the vice and spent about 30 minutes cleaning and checking out bearing wear. I removed the lug nuts for tumbling at a later date. I cleaned up the metal straps that restrict the rear end travel, located (and cleaned up) the missing front suspension bracket (not sure of the name of the part-it attaches to the frame under the lower wishbone and prevents travel) which had fallen behind my air compressor, did some further clean up the rear brake springs, freed up the plunger that was stuck in the rear brake adjuster and put the parts back into the tumbler for a couple of hours..they came out looking clean and shiny and squirted another coat of paint on the front shocks. Most of the work was done in short segments so I made numerous trips to the garage during the course of the day.

I was watching a bit of the Search and Restore program on Speed Vision on Saturday morning and one of the segments talked about the painting of the numerous parts to be time consuming. I can understand the observation for sure. The good thing is the painting of small parts allows for a short duration visit to the garage that can be fitted in nearly anytime of the day or evening which means some flexibility in when I head out....I really have to make sure that TV does not trump working on painting Triumph parts!!!

Triumph TR3-Painting and Rear Brake Mock Up

Time in garage: 3 hours

I started the day out but retrieving the painted rear brake plates and laying them out on the coffee table in our family room. From there I gathered the new parts I purchased. Brake cylinders, brake shoes, new clips for mounting the cylinders and placed them in position on the plates. I am reusing the adjusters and brake shoe springs from the '57 so I placed them in the Eastwood tumbler (I think it is great to be able to add parts and walk away and let the machine work its' magic-it is like having an assistant to do grunt work) with a small amount of cleaner to renew them. The springs didn't turn out as clean as I expected so I soaked them in degreaser over night. One of the four adjuster plungers is seized. A WD 40 soak didn't free it up so I liberally applied a penetrating oil to the part and also let it set overnight. Hopefully this morning I will get some movement-if I can't free it up then I am going to have to extract an adjuster from the '59 differential and start the process over again...

I painted the front shocks red. One more coat will be required this morning. I primed a selection of shock absorber and rear axle fastening hardware ready for the chassis black topcoat.

I also contemplated how I am going to approach the replacement of the rear hub seals. It looks like I might have to 3rd party the installation as special tools are required. I know there was oil leakage on one side when I disassembled the axles so both the bearing and the seal might need to be replaced. The bearing was also dry which is not a good sign. I am contemplating using one of the axles out of the '59 as the backing plates were free of oil when I dismantled the brakes. Still a risk if the seals are not changed as the vehicle has sat for so many years. Some more contemplation and planning work is required in this arena.

Triumph TR3-Man Cave Clean Up/Shock Absorber Paint

Time in Garage: 3-1/2 hrs

Parts Pick Up: 1 hr

$$$ Spent: $30

As I promised myself , first thing Friday I ventured out into the garage with the intention to sort through, clean up and put away the multitude of tools spread all over my work area. Mission accomplished. I also tackled a major clean up of my work bench...I can now see the top of it. I boxed up some redundant "stuff" that accumulated on the bench over the last few months. Other assorted tasks including a sweeping of the floor and sorting through my multitude of drill bits-restocking my bit stand and checking the sharpness of the spare bits. Sorting the good from the marginal. I did this while watching TV last night which was a good use of my time...

Total time spent 2-1/2 hours on Man Cave clean up...time well spent in my determination...

I picked up some nuts and washers for installing the rear axle u-bolts. Unfortunately I could not get a good grade of nylon lock nut (3/8 fine thread) from any of the jobbers here so I decided I would use my purchase for the original install and then change them out later for the right nuts. Holding the rear axle in place safely is a big deal and I don't want to compromise safety..

I purchased another can of chassis black paint, primer and a can of red paint for the shocks. I decided to indulge my creative side and paint the shocks a non standard color basically for appearance sake...I went out last night and removed the peeling labels from the shocks, sanded and prepared the surface for paint. The shocks didn't have a very thick coating of paint originally so I ended up putting on a coat of primer last night as there were more than a few bare spots of metal showing.

I cleaned up the rear axle brake backing plate hardware in the Eastwood Tumbler. The pile of parts are now ready for painting.

I removed my homemade spring compressor from the frame. I also purchased the ready rod and nuts to improve the design. Total cost $6

Triumph TR3-Left Hand Front Suspension Spring Installed

Time in garage: about 3-1/2 hours

A successful installation of the left hand spring yesterday. I had to remove of the lower wishbone arms (one more time) to recheck one of the trunnion bushings because I was having trouble closing the gap between the wishbone arm and trunnion. Everything checked out OK so I reinstalled the arm and proceeded with the spring installation. My homemade spring compressor worked fairly well (it got difficult to tighten as the spring compressed) but I am going to make a few modifications before installing the right hand spring. I plan to lubricate the washers and move up to 1/2" redi rod ..a bit of rework and expense but I think it is a safer alternative than utilizing the 3/8" redi rod I used initially. For safety sake I made sure I contained the kinetic energy of the spring by using an external spring compressor in tandem and as I proceeded to tighten the spring down I also installed long guide bolts (and nuts) from the lower wishbones to the plates which would provide more containment if something would go wrong.

After the engine and transmission is installed I will bounce the chassis up and down a few times then go in and recheck the bolt torque values.

My work area is trashed. Tools and parts everywhere. I lost track of my 9/16 socket. Very annoying to say the least...First things first today will be a tidying of the tool crib and a general clean up...

Triumph TR3-Wrenches Turn

Time in garage Wednesday; 4-1/2 hours

A number of different tasks handled yesterday:

1. Checked out rubber bushings on 1959 shock absorbers to see if the shock mounting bushings are the same as the '57's-they are not-the '59 shocks are not usable (too worn out) however they appear to be OEM replacements. The '57 shocks are non standard but have the same dimensions as the OEM. They are still in good shape so for the "short term" I will reuse them with an eye on replacement after I get the car back on the road.

2. Removed the rotors from all 4 front hubs. One hub is badly rusted (surface rust). Randomly checked condition of wheel bearings. I should have a good "matched" set when I am finished. The TR-6 rotors are in at my suppliers so all 4 rotors are considered spare parts. 2 of them still look usable-the other 2 are suspect (scored). The hubs require clean up and paint and bearings cleaned and re-packed with grease. 3 of the grease caps are damaged (dented)-one is pristine. I plan to straighten out the best one of the remaining 3 and put it into the tumbler to clean it up.

3. Received confirmation that my upper wishbone configuration is fine. Continued to assembly left hand side suspension. It went well with the exception of installation of the new trunnion. There was a burr on the spindle that did not allow the trunnion to seat properly against the seal (required number of turns to seat it). Clean up of the burr was required with a few trial fits before it was seated to my satisfaction. I am going to reuse a grease fitting that is currently churning around in the Eastwood tumbler. A question around whether I had the right trunnion seal resulted in an exploratory disassembly of the spare suspension components to confirm. Probably took 30 minutes to complete the task. Proved the seal to be correct so worth it.

4. The new replacement trunnion will be received in 10 days which impacts my critical path a bit. I plan to finish installing the left hand suspension today and put the wheel back on. I will then move to the rear differential and brakes next-getting them bolted up. When the parts come in I will finish off the right hand suspension...there is lots to do in the meantime....

Triumph TR3-Clean Up

Time in Garage Tuesday: 1 hr.

Yesterday I spent about an hour cleaning up my workbench (there is still work to do) and sorting the cleaned up fasteners and hardware. I wasn't feeling very well physically (I woke up feeling very tired which lasted through most of the day) so I determined not to tackle anything mechanically challenging as I just didn't have the energy to do so...

Triumph TR3-Front Shock Bushings/Upper Wishbone Configeration

Time in garage Monday: 1-1/2 hours

Mainly focused on installing the lower shock absorber rubber bushings in both shock absorbers. I am using the Munroe shocks out of the 1957 that seem to be in good shape. However the bushings I purchased did not seem to fit properly requiring some "modification" to fit. I had to trim them down a bit-I am assuming the shocks are after market and not identical OEM replacements?? I may do some more research today on the situation...I placed the lower brackets in the Eastwood tumbler for clean up and let the machine do it's thing for about 3 hours...I decided yesterday I am going to use the shocks and maybe sometime down the road replace them after I have driven the car for a while..they should be "fit for purpose"...

I took pictures of the upper wishbone configuration to make sure I have them reassembled correctly (front and back placement) then set them to my supplier in Calgary who happens to have a TR3 parts car sitting in their yard. I asked them to confirm my reassembly. I expect an answer back today..

Not a lot of energy yesterday for TR-3 work but I did get out into the garage and make some progress...

Triumph TR3-Non Spec Trunnion/Painting/Research

Time in garage Sunday-1 hr

Reviewing torque specs/internet search-1 hr..

A bit of a setback yesterday. The "used" trunnion I had set aside to reuse (on the right hand suspension) turned out to be flawed/out of spec and therefore unusable....upon closer inspection the shafts were a bit too scored and when inserted into the lower wishbone bushing too loose...I went back and rechecked a couple of the other spare trunnions-even going as far as to partially clean up one as it looked promising... Same problem with fit...I sent an e-mail to my supplier yesterday to order a replacement. I had a "hunch" this might be an issue (reusing an old part) but decided to proceed without really checking fit closely-a bit of an oversight for sure!!!

I sprayed on a coat of Chassis Black on the lower wishbone to frame brackets and the upper fulcrum nuts and washers..

Last night I threw the extra front shock mounting hardware into the tumbler for cleaning. I figure having the fasteners cleaned up will give me more options when I reinstall the shocks.

I also spent about 30 minutes reviewing my manuals to get tightening spec for the front suspension components. I re-read the assembly procedure.....plus did a bit of research on the internet to see if there were sites available for cross reference...A successful endeavor.

I also realized yesterday the body to frame mounting plates (professionally fabricated to match the replacement mounting plates installed on the 59 frame) on the underside of the body that mount the body to the frame may not line up with the powder coated frame (which has the original mounting brackets) ...some measuring is in order.....

Triumph TR3-Wrenches Touch Bolts=Front Suspension Work

Time in garage Saturday: 4hrs

Time driving all over picking up misc supplies: 1.5 hrs..

I entered the garage in mid afternoon and stay "heads down" until around 5:00 p.m. Good progress on reassembling the front suspension. I put the front of the frame on jack stands which provided a good height for handling the components etc. No challenging issues to report other than having to use wet and dry 220 grit sandpaper to remove a skim of the powder coating to install the lower wishbone bushings. This activity probably added 30 minutes to the work session overall. I am about 40 percent assembled at this point. I also completed the fabrication of my homemade spring compressor. Last night I went out again for about an hour and worked on prepping some unpainted parts by placing them in my Eastwood tumbler and letting them "vibrate" overnight...

I jumped in my truck and started searching out the "nuts" I require for the rear axle u-bolts. Two auto supply store visits yielded nothing so it looks like I will be forced to go to a fastener specialty jobber. There are a couple listed but they were not open on Saturday. A job for next week. I purchased a new grease gun and chassis grease...the gun is a good quality unit that was listed on sale for $12 off. I also purchased a tube of 105 lubricating grease for engine (new oil pump assembly)..total cost around $40.00

Triumph TR3-Homemade Spring Compressor

Not much happening Triumph wise in the last 2 days. I did however, get out yesterday and purchase the materials required to build my homemade spring compressor (ready rod etc), a new grinding wheel for my angle grinder and a new saw blade for my hacksaw. Total cost around $19.00. Hopefully today I will get out to the garage and fabricate the spring compressor... I still have the spring compressors I borrowed from my neighbor last year-I am going them to use it to do the initial compression and then use the homemade one to hold the spring during reassembly (I have a sense there is going to be some interference issues reassembling using the borrowed units...of course I am going to very careful with the reassembly-there is lots of kinetic energy stored up in a compressed spring...)

Triumph TR3-Bright and Shiny Parts

Time in Garage (and family room) Wednesday: 4-1/2 hours

Yesterday was one of the most enjoyable "Triumph" days I have experienced in recent times. To turn to something mechanical vrs bodywork related really felt great!!! I actually started to mock up the front suspension in my family room. It was very satisfying to reacquaint myself with the new and/or repainted parts and incorporate all the new fasteners etc. There were a few fasteners missing (2 ball joint nuts and upper wishbone spacer pieces for example) that required some digging for but when I finished the work in mid afternoon about 98% of the parts were accounted for. I referenced my Moss Catalogue for parts breakdown plus my vintage Triumph shop manual has excellent illustrations and descriptions of how to reassemble the front end... I have no shortage of reference materials available for this build!!

Yesterday I figured out a way to keep the tub in the garage while I reconstruct the front and rear suspension, install the brakes etc. This will require some moving of the frame from time to time (to gain access to the areas I am working on) but saves having the tub exposed to the elements (plus take up room in my driveway) which appeals to me. Of course when it comes time to reinstall the engine and transmission in etc the tub will have to be moved out as I have no room to move the engine hoist around.

I spent an hour and half cleaning up the garage yesterday morning. Another garbage bag full of discarded sandpaper and consumed body shop supplies went out into the trash. I even took a broom and cleaned up a small area. There is dust everywhere that will require a major clean up once the weather improves.

Triumph TR3-Chaos Ensues?

Time in garage Tuesday: 1-1/2 hours

Not a banner day in the garage yesterday. I started out with high expectations and what I thought was some "realistic" planning as to what I was going to accomplish but unfortunately I pretty well "flat lined" on the execution portion.

My plan was to finish gathering up the front suspension pieces and move them into the family room where I could sort (there is really no room in my garage to do this at this time) and do a mock fit up while watching Speed Vision or some similar program. First thing in the morning I actually accomplish the parts gathering portion which included the moving of storage tubs in the garage and the checking of their contents. While doing this I "trashed" my garage clutter wise (too many boxes and parts found their way into the work area) and as a result of my actions I started to feel discouraged about the work environment (chaos everywhere) which put a damper on my energy levels. On top of all this I started to feel cold symptoms around lunch time which curtailed my desire for any further visits to the garage in the afternoon or evening...