Front struts

[paulheritage]

Was putting new springs, shocks and rubbers on the front struts today on the '76 TR7 and after cleaning up the top of the struts I noticed that there was lots of corrosion and very close to the top section (from the spring mount) breaking off completely. Seems water had been sitting at the bottom of springs for the last 35 years and eaten through nearly entirely. The actual lip where the spring sits was about 3rd gone and very brittle.

Not sure what would actually happen if it failed but considering I'd been doing 70 mph earlier I dread to think if I'd hit some bump and the spring dropped down the strut.

It wasn't obvious from looking at it on the car so pleased I'd decided to renew some parts as part of a refresh.

Cheers Paul,

1976 TR7 FHC (ACG 3115)
1977 TR7V8 3.9 FHC rally car (ACG 35005)
1980 TR7V8 3.5 DHC

www.Triumph-Cars.co.uk

[Beans]

The struts I used for my coilovers were also completely rusted through at the top.
And as I have seen this several times in the past I pressume this to be a fairly common problem.

But always good to check suspension parts on a regular basis.


<center>
<font color="blue"><i>1980 TR7 DHC (my first car, now restored and back on the road)
1981 TR7 FHC Sprint (better known as 't Kreng)</font id="blue">
<b>[url="http://www.tr7beans.blogspot.com/"]<u><b><font size="3"><font color="red">My Weblog</font id="red"></font id="size3"></b></u>[/url]</b></i></center>

[tr7sprint1]

any pictures of the troubled area?




<b>"GETTING SPEED OUT OF A LOW POWERED CAR IS OFTEN MORE REWARDING, THAN WITH TIRE-SMOKING BRUTES" </b>
<h4><center>http://cliffstr7sprintconversion.blogspot.com/</center></h4>

[paulheritage]

Picture of the offending near side strut!



Cheers Paul,

1976 TR7 FHC (ACG 3115)
1977 TR7V8 3.9 FHC rally car (ACG 35005)
1980 TR7V8 3.5 DHC

www.Triumph-Cars.co.uk

[FI Spyder]

Wow..that's scary. Even the struts I got off of Launie (former forum member until he sent his coupe back to the auto wreckers) looked like new after I got them sandblasted and they were off a reject car and had been sitting out in the rain in the back yard for a couple of years.

- - - - TR7 Spider - - - - - - - - 1978 Spitfire - - - - - - 1976 Spitfire - - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra - - Yellow TCT

[Beans]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by paulheritage</i>

Picture of the offending near side strut! ... <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
I thought I had seen a few fairly bad ones.
But this one beats them all easily.
Good thing you found it before it collapsed.

<center>
<font color="blue"><i>1980 TR7 DHC (my first car, now restored and back on the road)
1981 TR7 FHC Sprint (better known as 't Kreng)</font id="blue">
<b>[url="http://www.tr7beans.blogspot.com/"]<u><b><font size="3"><font color="red">My Weblog</font id="red"></font id="size3"></b></u>[/url]</b></i></center>

[paulheritage]

The rest of the car is in great shape ant having not being restored. only 3 owners with full service history and the last owner of 7 years only did 1000 miles and kept it garaged (as I have). Makes me wonder if most of this corrosion happened early on, but not seen anything that bad before.

Thanks to S&S I got 2 perfect used ones that have come up like new.

Cheers Paul,

1976 TR7 FHC (ACG 3115)
1977 TR7V8 3.9 FHC rally car (ACG 35005)
1980 TR7V8 3.5 DHC

www.Triumph-Cars.co.uk