Yesterday I started dismantling the pintle assembly, to assess the damage and start considering plan for rebuild. The poor state of the spring leaves was immediately obvious, as they were 'fanning' out from each other, with a good 1/8" of rust scale between any two leaves. The nuts on the leaf retaining brackets were very badly corroded, and had to be removed by slicing down with the cut-off wheel & grinder. The brackets have had so much force applied by the expanding rust, that the bolt ends were no longer parallel, and now the threads were moderately damaged from the grinder. This was looking like it would be a REAL big headache to remedy.
On the up side, while the pintle itself was seized, I have another which is working fine and has no visible corrosion or other damage. Then I had a second bit of good luck! While looking for my other two rear spring brackets, I found a second pintle spring set that I had forgotten about.
It's in great shape, and will only require sand blasting prior to painting.
Now, every episode of good luck seems to be accompanied by a corresponding and equally significant piece of BAD luck, so I wasn't entirely surprised when I located the spring brackets I was after, only to find that one of the set did not belong.
Two spring brackets are already finished and ready to install (when I get bolts. Once again, bloody public holidays). Reason for this is simply because I wanted to have a pair available for the engineers to temporarily attach for checking cross member location. They were painted and could have remained on the chassis, if they hadn't managed to spray white paint all over them. Anyhoo........
This is the type of brackets I
should have. Three of the 4 are this type.
And here's the one which isn't right! If it were used, the spring height would be different, due to the reduced amount that the bracket hangs below the chassis. Damn it! Guess I start making phone calls tomorrow, searching for a replacement bracket.
Beware the '
Easy' Job
ADDIT: Yep, Macs have the required brake block! I'll order it tomorrow, once I decide what else to order, since they charge the same shipping, whether I order a full $30 or just the $13 for the brake part!