Hi,

I have just bought an A7'special' in bits. I need to get the front wheels steering to help move it about. I went to fit the track arms into their respective holes only to hit a problem. Literally. The arms wont go in. They hit the kingpin bush which projects slightly into the hole. Is this normal? The holes also appear to be tapered, whilst the arm 'pins' are not. Again, is this normal?

Any advice would be most gratefully received.

Location: Essex/Suffolk border

When you fit new king pin bushes you need to ream the material you can see to allow the track rod arms to go through, the holes are normally parallel.

You have to file the bush until the arm goes past it.

The Woodrow manual shows this recess. Worth getting, if you haven't already.

I am fairly sure the arms are not tapered.

Simon

Location: On a hill in Wiltshire

Tony, just in case you need to know N/S cross tube lever is part no.1A-4004 and O/S is no.1A-4003 and are parallel where they go in the bush. Ian M

Tony,
If you've got an independant suspension unit rather than the Austin beam axle you should note that the holes in the end of the modified IFS arms should be distinctly tapered to take track rod ends from the Ford 8/10. The track rod itself will be much flatter than the swept Austin. It's possible to fit the track arms to the wrong side and upside down, the correct way is with them inclined downwards and pointing in towards the chassis, the track rod end tapers then enter from the bottom which lowers the cross tube so it doesn’t foul on the chassis. All of which has no relevance if you've got a beam axle!

Dave

Thanks all. Is that a bush out job or could I ream the hole insitu?

No doubt I will be asking lots more questions, so I hope you guys don't mind a non-mechanic like me popping up from time to time asking about stuff.

I've only had the car since Sunday and the list of parts missing is growing by the minute. No wonder the previous owner sold it! :-)
Brakes will be next, they are totally missing, so I feel another question coming on soon!

Insitu Tony, if your good with a round file forget the hassle of getting a reamer? Ian M