Front Suspension: Time now to get the running gear sorted, after a bit of research amongst owners of TR7s I was advised to update the Brakes, Suspension, and Suspension Bushes.

I took this advise and purchased a set of 200lb springs lowered by 1" complemented by Spax heavy duty front shock absorber inserts and Spax rear adjustable shock absorbers. A full set of Hard bushes where also purchased. The Front stub axles, track arms, anti roll bar, brake plates, and subframe where all shot blasted, taking care not to damage axle shaft. They where then painted with chassis paint and rebuilding commenced. The subframe was first mounted to body with hard bushes and new bolts, anti roll bar was then temporally fixed, again with hard bushes, at this stage I fitted an anti-dive kit. This adds an extra 1" to the anti roll bar mounting, thus stiffening up the bar.

The track arm assy was then fitted with hard bushes and new ball joint and temporally bolted in position, these are slid onto the anti roll bar and bolt through the subframe. The stub axles then had the Spax inserts fitted, springs fitted, new gaiters, and a new mounting cone fitted. The gaiters are a tricky little job and need a bit of dexterity and patience.

                                 Assembled Front Strut

I then cleaned and painted brake dust shield and wheel hubs, Dust shields where fitted first, then wheel bearings where then added and the wheel hub along with thicker discs fitted and torqued to correct setting, next reconditioned 4 pot callipers where fitted along with the steering arm, new armoured flexible hoses where added, along with the brake pipes and 2 way adapter which came with the callipers. For information, these are refurbished Austin Princess caliper’s, these have the original locating holes welded up, and re-drilled slightly inboard to suit TR7 stub axle, a spacer is also fitted to suit larger thickness disc.

The whole assy is then offered up to the turret, loosly bolted to turret top, track arms connected to anti roll bar and then fixed to the track arm ball joint.You may have to wrestle the assembly into the ball joint here, due to the anti roll bar, this is slightly easier when all items are loosely bolted.

Now all the front suspension is tightened and correct torque applied from official BL manual.

   4 Pot Caliper showing adapter and brake hoses

The steering rack was then stripped, cleaned, and painted, then reassembled after checking for wear, new gaiters and track rod ends where applied, and then steering rack is bolted to subframe and track rod ends fitted to steering arms.

Before moving on to the rear suspension, the fuel tank has to be re-fitted, this had been thoroughly cleaned, re-painted externally and sealed inside with a tank sealer, this is available from the Complete Automobilist. It is simply poured into the steam cleaned tank, then you seal the external outlets with masking tape, and roll the tank around to get complete coverage of the sealer inside, then unblock holes and drain away excess, ensure petrol pickup pipes are clear by gently blowing air through. When cured this will fill any pin prick holes and rusty joints. The tank gauge unit was also fitted and wired as it is easier to access at this stage.

Link to The Complete Automobilist 

Rear Suspension: All old bushes where removed from rear suspension arms and tie rods, and then shotblasted and painted. The tie rods where then fitted with hard bushes and assembled to body mounting points, followed by the rear trailing arms, again with uprated bushes.

The rear axle was then attacked with wire brush and sandpaper, taking care to plug the vent hole to stop debris intake, once cleaned up the drive shafts and old bearings where removed, back plate removed to check condition of differential, which at the time seemed ok.  

The diff unit was then flushed clean with gunk and petrol, new gasket applied to backplate and rebolted and repainted. All brackets where then rebolted to axle.

The drive shafts where not worn, so a new set of rear wheel bearings where applied and driveshafts re-fitted prior to painting the axle which was then placed under car ready for assembly to trailing arms and tie bars..

                              Axle ready for Re-assembly

The axle was then supported on axle stands, and bolted to the trailing arms, axle is then jacked up and tie bars where then bolted on, an old screwdriver shaft is useful here for aligining holes when inserting bolts.

Next task is to attach dampers to rear deck, I used Spax uprated adjutable dampers, then pull them out to their limit and attach to rear axle. Fit spring rubbers to trailing arm and body, and use a spring compressor if required to fit springs.

The rear anti roll bar was then cleaned and painted, and fitted to trailing arms, and that is the car back on its wheels ready for the paint shop.

                                Damper and Spring in Position

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