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Triumph TR3 - Removing Leaf Spring Eye Bolt

Ok...I didn't actually remove everything in the rear end yet. The last item to pull was/is the leaf spring on the right side. After a relatively smooth extraction of the spring eye bolt on the left side, it's only fair that this one would be a struggle. It won't budge.

I'm ready to receive any and all home-remedies or voodoo incantations that might summon the bolt home. I've been applying Liquid Wrench for the last 24 hours, and I even tried the old "oversized socket, washer and screw" trick to see if I could pull it out through a "reverse press."

I've no wish to cut a hole in the body to drive it out with a drift. Any other ideas? I'm ready to attack with a propane torch, but the options for selective heating appear limited. Having loosened the spring from the shackle mounts and wiggled it up and down, it's clear the spring eye bushing is NOT rotating on the bolt.

Thanks for any suggestions that don't require me to convert religion or vote Republican.

Bill Stagg
1960 TR3A
Bill Stagg

Bill - Leave it in place. I did this when I broke a leaf spring 7 miles from home coming back from a 7220 miles trip to VTR in Portland Oregon in 2000.

Unbolt and remove the rear bumperettes and brackets. Loosen all the floor bolts. 2 in the rear floor area about in line with the bolt in question. Lift the seats cushions and seat pans + carpets out. 4 on each side under where the seats were near the "A" and "B" posts just inside the doors. 2 on the front floor about where your feet go (one on each side) Loosen the 2 on each side under the carbs and the distributor. Loosen the 2 under the front just behind the valance.

Remove the bolts up to the 2 in the foot well. Just loosen the 6 up front.

Then use a rolling jack and a piece of wood for body protection and carefully jack up the rear corner on the side in question. When the rear corner is about 4 to 6" off the frame, there will be enough space to clear the body and you can remove the spring.

If you do all this, you may need to use a lot of penetrant and heat, a grinder or die-grinder to get out some bolts or nuts depending on how rusty they are. Replace them with new ones from Ace Hardware, Stainless if you are rich, or use lots of silvery coloured anti-seize on the threads if you use cad plated hardware.

OR LEAVE IT AS IS AND REMOVE IT (NO SWEAT) WHEN YOU ARE DOING THE FULL BODY-OFF JOB IN A FEW YEARS FROM NOW !

Don Elliott, 1958 TR3A
Don Elliott

Bill - On second thought, leave it till later. If you break off - or grind off any bolt heads in the floor area, it won't be easy to get the threaded remains of the bolts out. With the body completely off, you can drill the remains out, use heat etc and then you can clean up the threads and use new bolts after you do the full body-off job.

Don
Don Elliott

Don,

Thanks for the details on raising the body. I was wondering about that myself. Sounds like quite an operation.

Before I give up, what's the absolute best I can do to put leverage on the 5/16" bolt I have threaded into the spring eye bolt? I've been using a short (approx. 18") crow bar, but I can't put much force on it. I'm thinking about a much longer crow bar and a better fulcrum against which to lever. Part of the problem is having the crowbar slip off the 5/16" bolt head.

Unless my eyes are deceiving me, it looks as though the inner metal bushing pressed into the spring eye is actually protuding a bit into the shaft which holds the spring eye bolt. Is that possible?

Are there any advantages to applying heat? Can it help promote the dispersion of the Liquid Wrench penetrant, or can heat help "break" the "rust seal" between the spring eye bolt and the inner bushing of the spring eye? Can heat damage anything, such as the temper of the bolt, spring or mounting shaft?

Thanks for your help on this one.

Bill
Bill Stagg

On mine with s/steel bolts it took about an hour or less to have it up at the rear.

Max Jaffe of Pacific Palisades south of LA told how he welded a hook onto the head of a bolt that fits into the inner threaded hole facing the center of the frame and attached an eyebolt and turnbuckle to apply continuous force towards the frame on the far side. With penetrant and heat, it took a week but it came out. then he had to do the other dside. It wouldn't work on mine.

Once the nut and "D" flat washer are off, the bushing will slide off the bolt staying inside the spring loop. Once you have the springs off, take them to a shop with a 6 to 10 ton hydraulic press and they'll push right out. Don't try to use your vice. I broke my 5" cast iron one trying. Now I need to pay $100.00 to get a new one this Saturday. My neighbour across the street has just such a press, giraffe, engine stand, lathe, etc.

I doubt if the heat would do any damage to the bolt or weaked it.
Don Elliott

So that's why it takes so long to do a frame-off!
Wish I had some ideas for you, Bill. I doubt a local mechanic would have much better input than Don, since he's been there already. Maybe an old-timer has a few tricks up his sleeve if you know of one nearby.
Guess I know what I'm in for if I ever do a full resto.

BTW, leave it as is before you vote republican...
M.G. '56 TR3
Mike Gambordella

Mike,

I thought Don was our resident old-timer! Not that he looks the part...

I'm working out the design of a more serious puller, one that won't slip off the head of the bolt. There have to be lots of ways to apply more force than I've yet brought to bear. I'm also going in search of better chemical solutions than Liquid Wrench.

I will say this...spending hours under the rear end of the car with the axle, diff, springs and shocks removed has given me a whole new perspective on the condition of my underbody. That "frame off" may not be far off. I'll chase some of those issues in a new thread.

My plan is that, when I finally decide to remove the body and go for it, I will have rebuilt or refurbished virtually every other component accessible with the car still in rolling condition. That way, the frame-off should go that much faster. Or so the theory goes...

More updates on the spring eye bolt as work progresses.

Thanks all!

Bill

Bill Stagg

One of the best motivators I read about resoration was in the Intro in a book I bought in Atlanta in 1986 or '87, It was entitled," How to restore your (here you insert Mike Gambordella's initials)".

It read :- "This little old British car was designed by man, the parts were made by man, the car was assembled by man, it was driven by man and ruined by man and now that you want to restore it, remember it can be taken apart by man. Maybe you have to use penetrant and heat to get some bolts apart. Other bolts you may have to use a nut-cracker. Or you can torch of the heads of the bolts. Or grind them off. Or hack-saw them off. Or use a die grinder (larger than a Dremmel). But remember that, one way or another, after about a week or six, it can be taken apart and restored. Don't give up ! It may take a year or six but don't give up !"

The guy who wrote this was right. But he made no apologies to the lady restorers or to the equal rights for women groups. These were his words, not mine.

Don Elliott, 1958 TR3A
Don Elliott

I FINALLY removed the frozen spring eye bolt on the right side of my TR3A. It was a bear of a job, so I thought I would offer what appears to be the "solution" that worked for me. Having tried so many things, it's hard to know what combination actually did the trick, but here's the path that seemed to work for me.

First, I did everything except raise the body and use a BFH to drive out the evil bolt. I used PB-Blaster, heat (propane and MAPP), crow bar, bolt/washers/socket puller, etc. Don't ask me what happens to your carpeting when you get that MAPP gas really fired up, because I can now speak from experience.

Using the propane, I burned out the rubber portion between the inner and outer bushings in the spring eye. Good ventilation in the garage is a must. With the rubber essentially gone or loose, I pried the spring assembly toward the outside of the car some 2 inches, exposing the inner bushing. I then used a cutting wheel on a drill to slice upward and outward through the bushing and spring eye bolt. (I had already decided to replace the bolt once I removed it because of all the heat applications). My theory was that, in cutting off as much of the exposed bolt/bushing as possible, I would reduce the "gripping area" by some 35 percent. After cutting the bolt, the leaf spring assembly could be completely removed, and it left a diagonally cut section of the bolt protruding from the frame approximately 3/4 inch. Using a 2.5 lb hammer sideways, I was able to tap the bolt inward, exposing the head by a good 1/2" on the other side of the frame. I was then able to extract it a bit further with a pry bar. I finished the extraction with a slide-hammer affair I had rigged up by cutting 5/16-24 threads into a 3-foot rod, threading one end into the head of the spring eye bolt, placing a lead hammer head on the shaft (after drilling a hole through it lengthwise), and capping the end with two nuts, against which I could slide the weight and "hammer" out the bolt. In my case, I believe the spring eye bushing was providing most of the "grip" that was freezing the bolt and preventing extraction.

Job finished.

Thanks to everyone for help on this!

Bill Stagg
1969 TR3A
Bill Stagg

I am doing a frame off. The frame is stripped but during the process of removing the leaf spring I damaged one of the bolts similar to that mentioned above. Looking at the inside of the frame it looks like the bolt is welded to the frame. Am I imaging this? I banged it a few times with a hammer and of course the bolt didn't move. Before I get more aggressive I thought I would ask if anyone else had these bolts weldeed to the chassis. Again maybe it just looks like they are welded. Any thoughts?

Thanks Jerry
JB Barone

Jerry,

It can look as though the bolt is welded. I believe what you're seeing may be the weld around the tube in the frame through which the bolt passes. Are you driving the bolt from the outside of the frame, hammering toward the centerline of the car? If you have the other bolt off, all this will already be apparent. If not, know that the head of the bolt is flat on one side, so the bolt cannot rotate in the frame/tube when it is fully seated.

Heat and penetrant...

Good luck,

Bill
Bill Stagg

Pulling would be better. Hammering will not only ruin the threads but it will cause the bolt to "barrel" out to a larger diameter and it'll never slide through towards the middle of the TR.

I like what Bill did. Cut it off and use a drill and a die grinder to get must of the bolt material all out the hole through the frame and then drift the almost empty shell out towards the center of the TR.

I may do that on the frame of the body-off restoration that I'm soing now. I'll be easy with the body off.

Don Elliott, 1958 TR3A

Don Elliott

This thread was discussed between 18/02/2004 and 27/03/2004

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