Rear Suspension

So, onto the rear uprights.

The uprights were not in great shape. One was a poor casting and had suffered quite badly with electrolytic corrosion. So I replaced this one with a spare. However, the spare didn't have the correct length pivot bar, so the rod needed replacing.

Some Vixens use only one shock absorber/spring unit each side at the rear. These use a shorter pivot rod, but the same casting. The Series 1 uses two shock absorbers each side; one either side of the casting, and so needs a longer pivot rod.

The second upright wasn't too bad but the pivot rod had been cut, presumably to get the dampers off, so the pivot rod needed changing on this one too. There was also a seized stud in this one, I got the stud out by welding a nut to the top and turning it out with a spanner. Then I ran a tap through each tread to clean them up and bought 12 new studs to replace the manky old ones,

I managed to get the upper bushes out by cutting off one end, carefully drilling out some of the rubber and then pressing out the tube. After that the bush pushed out easily. Getting the old bearing shells out was not so easy. One of them came out with judicious tapping from behind, but the other three could not be moved, so at this point I took the uprights off to a local engineering shop to get the pivot rods pressed out and new bearing shells pressed in.

So heres what the parts of the pivot bar assembly look like. You can see the pegs with the cut outs to take the rod in the middle of the picture.

clearer view of the pegs

The pegs go in the holes at the bottom of the casting, with the cut out facing up. Its not as clear a picture as I thought, but I think you can see what I mean.

Then the pivot rod is fed through the cut outs

Tightening the nuts grips the rod and holds it firmly.

This is as far as I've got at the moment, because I am having difficulty getting the hubs pulled off  the quill shaft so that I can clean them up. So far I have broken one puller and got nowhere. I did have one sticky moment when I thought the quill shaft spines were worn - the flange clicked slightly when rotated. Happily it turned out to be the splines in the drive flange which is of softer material. I feel another visit to the engineers coming on.