TC 5850 Lives - Again

[DougPulver@aol.com]

In restoring TC 5850, I took some shortcuts. Big mistake. For example, since the shocks were working fine before I took the car apart, I assumed they would work fine once it was back together - wrong assumption. In exactly the same way, I assumed that the steering, king pins, spindles etc. would continue to work just fine as well. Turns out I was wrong again. Before I continue my front end saga, let me suggest to all who are attempting this crazy process - ASSUME NOTHING. REPAIR, RESTORE, REPLACE EVERYTHING (probably in that order). (In fact, there is a sign in the restoration shop of the San Diego Aerospace Museum which reads "Repair rather than restore, restore rather than replace" - sounds like the right approach to me.) I had the BC steering box rebuilt and added a Tompkins kit. I replaced the springs and spring bushings. Took all the linkages apart, cleaned the threads, painted, regreased and replaced all the grease fittings. Took the steering knuckles to a machine shop to press in the new bearings and to ream for the new king pins. Because I actually do pay attention to this group, I asked that the spindles and pitman arm be magnafluxed. Good news, the pitman arm was fine. Bad news, the spindles were cracked just where Mike Sherrell said they would be. Since a little cracked must be like being a little pregnant, I decided that the only sane option was to have the "Sherrell fix" performed. Turns out Bob Grunau is the man. Because my buddy from Canada (restores English cars for a living) was returning home within a few days, Bob overnighted the replacement spindles and knuckles and we were able to complete the front-end rebuild before he left. THANK YOU BOB GRUNAU! I can't say enough good things about him. Yesterday, I took my wife for a ride in TC 5850 which performed wonderfully and certainly steered very nicely. We drove to La Jolla to look at an M-Type for sale. Since she used to own one, I thought she might be interested in this one. Her vote is still out, so I guess we'll have to see about that. (If any of you own an M-type please contact me off list as this car needs a couple of things and I haven't looked for parts in a while.) Meanwhile let me ask how much free play should there be in the steering wheel? I have about an inch or so in the straight ahead position and to me that seems like too much. It may be that I can't fix that without making the outer lock positions too tight. Any advice would be appreciated. So, now that I'm back on the road, guess I'll have to start tending to some of my other shortcuts. Thanks to all of you for your support. It's good to know we're not alone. Doug Pulver TC 5850 San Diego, California [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]