Guess what I'm doing this weekend?

[Bryan Boyle]

Going to load the car with weight in the cockpit (figure 8 bags of mulch, 4 on each seat to get the loaded weight proper), and use my floor jacks under the trunnions to get the 6" clearance of the front cross member...then...torque wrench at the ready...I don't have a drive-on lift, so, rather than trying to get at the bolts from around the tires (it's a lot easier to do this when the body is off the frame, which is how I've done it before...), I think this will work.

Going to take a week off for work travel; when I come back...attack the master cylinder issue and replumb the front brakes, and flush the entire system with new fluid. 

[Lotuswins]

Hi Bryan,

I've never heard of loading the seats up for tightening the front bushes?  I've always done it just at rest, no loading other than gas/oil/water, etc.  Just like it would be when sitting in the garage so the rubber doesn't take a set in rotational tension. 

Am I wrong on this assumption??  I've only loaded it up when setting up corner weights.

Jerry Rude
4005R

[Bryan Boyle]

Hi Bryan,

I've never heard of loading the seats up for tightening the front bushes?  I've always done it just at rest, no loading other than gas/oil/water, etc.  Just like it would be when sitting in the garage so the rubber doesn't take a set in rotational tension. 

Am I wrong on this assumption??  I've only loaded it up when setting up corner weights.

Jerry Rude
4005R

I think the idea is to have all the metalastic bushings in the neutral loaded position as it would be with a driver (minimally) on board so that they are not torsioned in either direction (either down or up).  Now, this, I'm thinking would presuppose that when the driver got out, the car would rise some amount (the MG folks call it the 'bachelor lean' with used armstrongs...but that's another story), but not as much as if the bolts were torqued with just the minimal weight of the nose and front frame loading the car putting them into torsion as soon as the driver climbed on board.

Section C.4 of the manual supplement talks about when doing an alignment, the conditions for the static loading of the vehicle...I'm thinking this is what they're inferring.  I'm happy to be corrected, which would make it a lot easier than lugging bags of mulch to stack in the car...  I have to make do with 3 6" long 4x4s under the xmember to set the frame height and my floor jack to load the suspension until it imperceptably moves to approximate it on its wheels (I don't have a drive-on lift..would make it so much easier since I could mount the tires and get at it from the underside while the car was up high...) so I can torque it all up.

Still to be attached is the sway bar...thinking that's easier when the car is on its wheels (or the suspension is loaded...).

As I said, I'm open to being corrected.  This was so much easier when the previous body for my S2 was on a dolly in the backyard and the frame was in my garage being built up...

[jbcollier]

Don’t tighten the rubber bushings until it is fully built up and on its wheel.  Trying to simulate actual ride height with blocks and jacks sounds hit and miss to me.

[Bryan Boyle]

Don’t tighten the rubber bushings until it is fully built up and on its wheel.  Trying to simulate actual ride height with blocks and jacks sounds hit and miss to me.

I get it...but not having access to a drive-on lift doesn't really give me any easy access with the wheels mounted to get up underneath the car so I can get the wrench(es) on the bolts.  Not a lot of space between the bottom of the car and the floor to scoot under there. 

I know my floor is level within a couple degrees...what do you think about picking up another set of 12" high wheel ramps (already have 2...) to match the pair I have now, putting the car up on all 4 ramps (in opposite directions...)...that would give me SOME space to get under the beast; the car would be mostly level on its wheels...and stable (chock and strap the wheels to the ramps).  Safety first...but access is important.

[jbcollier]

I did mine on the floor, no problem.  Turn the steering and you can get at the front a-arm nuts and that's all there is up front.  At the back, the radius arms are so long, the bushings hardly rotate at all.  They can be tightened as long as the shocks are in place.

[Bryan Boyle]

I did mine on the floor, no problem.  Turn the steering and you can get at the front a-arm nuts and that's all there is up front.  At the back, the radius arms are so long, the bushings hardly rotate at all.  They can be tightened as long as the shocks are in place.

Haven't addressed the rears yet.  That's after I get the lump out  (get at the donuts easier; have a pair on the shelf) and back together.