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After much faffing about swapping out the old shocks and finding that one side of the lower shock mount bolt had a striped thread and the nut was held in place by a split pin (now fixed), I stood back to admire my work, it looked good. A few sharp pushes on the rear of the cat proved that the effort was not in vain. The car quickly bounced back instead of wobbling about like a hot water bottle filled with week old porridge. SUCCESS!
But alas, what was wrong with the rear wheel? Its bleedin' wonky mate! What's going on 'ere? There's certainly a few degrees too much toe going on!
I'm assuming maybe the rear most bushing has failed? or maybe the bearing has given up the ghost?
So my question to you, what do you chaps think?
Now I'm aware that I have a tad too much negative camber too, although I believe that spring sag is the main culprit for that.
Something is seriously wrong there !! If you replaced the shocks and (of course) swapped the springs onto the new shocks, maybe the spring seats were not secure, so the spring has released itself and the car is no longer supported.
Of course when you get the road wheel off, you'll see what the score is ! I would not have thought a wheel bearing or UJ joint would give that sort of movement.
Hi Doug thanks for the reply. I get almost no play when I do the ol' push pull on the ol' 9 'n' 3 and 12 'n'6 which leads me the believe that something is bent.
The wheel spins and the toe in stays steady, as opposed to moving with the rotation. This tells me that the bend is coming from somewhere closer to the diff.
The hub is sturdy, that doesn't budge an inch.
So I'm lead back to my original thoughts of a crushed bearing in the control arm?
I guess I could take off the radius arm (although I swore I'd never do that again) and see if that releases the forward pressure on the control arm. At which point I could again test for lateral movement.
Something is seriously wrong there !! If you replaced the shocks and (of course) swapped the springs onto the new shocks, maybe the spring seats were not secure, so the spring has released itself and the car is no longer supported.
Of course when you get the road wheel off, you'll see what the score is ! I would not have thought a wheel bearing or UJ joint would give that sort of movement.
Did you dismantle anything else in that area ?
Hi Fraser thanks for the reply, I haven't dismantled anything else in that area.
The springs both are both seated well and they both seem to be identical.
The bearing I suspect is labeled as number 46 on the image in the link below.
EDIT: OK, so... I took off the road wheel, the radius arm (which I will regret, those are SO hard to get back on.) and took both of the shocks off of the lower shock mount pin.
After pulling all this off, hoping that maybe one of these items is pulling the trailing arm (control arm) forward, I found that none of it seems to be doing any thing of the sort.
Now my options are starting to look dire, a bent control arm, or a completely munted bearing as mentioned above, Im hoping the latter its easier to replace.
Next step is to pull off the control arm to allow for better inspection. Is there any hidden tricks to this? Im hoping that its not too much of a PITA.
I guess the idea would be to remove, inspect bearings and try to find a way to see is the control arm is bent.
What do we think?
Last edited by Harry Dredge; Sep 15, 2015 at 01:33 AM.
Reason: Adding more info
I have to say that the hub bearings can produce a lot of play when they are shot. I had a lot on my 1980 Series 3 when they failed. Did you put the little spacer back onto the drive shaft, when you reassembled ?
I have to say that the hub bearings can produce a lot of play when they are shot. I had a lot on my 1980 Series 3 when they failed. Did you put the little spacer back onto the drive shaft, when you reassembled ?
Do you mean the spacer that sits between the forwards most rear shock and the control arm? I most certainly put that back. Ill attach some photos but its quite hard to see the issue with out some distance to use your calibrated eyeball on.
Keep in mind that the shocks and springs are just hanging there, they are unattached from the control arm, as is the radius arm.
Im wondering if i should pull the control arm off to inspect the bearings.
EDIT: Ok so I've pulled the hub off, those bearings look good, although its not the type of bearing that I was imagining. Ive attached all the images to this post.
Last edited by Harry Dredge; Sep 16, 2015 at 04:58 AM.
Reason: Adding Photos
There should be a little spacer on the drive shaft before it is pushed into the hub to give the correct bearing play. Absence of this could cause your problem.
Look on this diagram. The spacers were available in various thicknesses so the bearing play could be adjusted. Is there one on your driver shaft ?
There should be a little spacer on the drive shaft before it is pushed into the hub to give the correct bearing play. Absence of this could cause your problem.
Look on this diagram. The spacers were available in various thicknesses so the bearing play could be adjusted. Is there one on your driver shaft ?
Ill have to have a look, do you think that enough pressure could come through from the half shaft to cause the whole hub to sit out of place like that? The reason I say the whole hub is out of place, (and hence checking for a bent wishbone) is because if you spin the wheel it doesn't spin like it is unbalanced and wobble about, it seems to spin in place with out the toe angle changing at all.
I'm currently looking at the wishbone (as named on SNG) bearings and haven't disconnected the hub from the half shaft yet. I've checked out the wishbone bearings in the hub, that's what the images are. I'm somewhat confused as I don't seem to have the same amount of parts as both SNG and SC Parts suggest should be in there, however it all fits in there pretty snug.
I'm gonna continue on the wish bone inspection path and check the bearings that are closest to the diff and report back. If I still cant seem to find the issue Ill start looking at the actual hub bearings.
Sorry for Dredging this old thread up :P Witty yea? Not really, anyhow...
Ok so after reading this thread (link below) I have come across an idea, I know that the fulcrum shims (circled red) are not meant to adjust toe in and out but I have a feeling that someone may have had IRS apart and not correctly placed the shims on the rebuild and then forced the inner shaft though with the help of a BFH.
That would account for the wishbone being straight and the hub having no play, I'm pretty sure that I've eliminated the hub and wishbone as the problem. However I still haven't checked the inner most bearings (circled green) on the wishbone.
I could not tell if the issue was in toe or camber from the picture. But, I'll take your version, toe!!!
My idea applies either way. Roger Mabry reported a similar mystery on his car. He found a specialty shop in SOCAL that dealt with adapting this IRS for the hot rod guys. He had a jig for the lower arms. C36138 from the very helpful diagram.
Roger's was clearly bent. Not seen by the eye alone. A verified pair and all went in the right direction.
Alternately, those shims could sure do it. Toe or camber....
Whoa! When did that happen?!
