Cotters and Spindles

[Larry & Marilyn]

Hi Everyone Thank you all for suggestions on how to remove the king pin cotters. I did not want to beat them out so I took someone's suggestion and pressed them out with a big c-clamp. It worked, but there was one little problem. The metal is so soft that the c-clamp compressed the threads. They are unusable. I am amazed that any kind of steel is that soft. Oh well, new ones on the way from Abbingdon. Good new though. No cracks in my original spindles. TC4703 has had an easy life. Driven only 38,000 miles by a lawyer on Southern California highways. No racing or Gymkhanas. We have had 4703 for almost a year. What a joy. I wanted a TC for 50 years before we bought one. I don' t know why we waited so long. We could have got one any time after I graduated university. (Berkeley 58) So far I have found two instances of incredibly incompetent work. 1. The steering gear box had been assembled with one of bearing races cocked so the bearing failed and left little pieces of metal roaming around inside. Scary when the steering locks up. 2. The Drag link and tie rod ends were assembled incorrectly. Hard to understand how anybody could get that wrong. And a case of malfeasance. All 10 the grease fittings in the front suspension had been broken off. That happens, but what really ticked me off was someone had stuck smaller fitting into the broken off fittings. As far as I can tell the POs did not do any of their own work. One of them was screwed by an unscrupulous mechanic. I am sure you all have stories like that. Well Summer is here (for us guy and girls up north) so we are looking forward to some fun motoring. Larry & Marilyn TC4703 From the mountains of far North Eastern California [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]