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Herald rear tub positioning?


Stuart R

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Hello,

 

I'd like to improve the door fit on my Herald - it gets an advisory on the MoT every year about the sticking doors and I'm sure things are getting worse as the rubber packers deform.

 

I've armed myself with the Triumph slide show notes on body alignment and Scans 1-4 from a recent thread here about door alignment.

 

All notes seem to be about getting the door fit right by adjusting the tilt of the scuttle and rear tub with packers.  Certainly the angle between drop glass and B post suggests the rear tub should be raised at the rear, but surely the fore/aft position of the rear tub will come into play to some extent?  My door is a close fit all along the quaterlight-to-windscreen channel and is rubbing the paint inside the door frame on the B-post.  I've got the door set as far forward as it will go.  I can't help but think that sliding the rear tub backwards would help a little.

 

I've loosened the 8 screws along the floor join by the front seats, the 2 on top of the axle 'hump' in the boot, two in each corner of the boot floor and removed the 2 bolts on each side side rail that join to the rear tub.  I've released the handbrake, but not disconnected it.

 

However, every time I try to gently jack up the body to insert packers, the chassis seems to come up with it.  A lot of jacking only opens enough gap for a flat washer, rather than a rubber packer.   Am I missing something?  Should it be possible to separate the two with minimal effort, or do I need to be more brutal?  I don't want to start bending the floor.

 

I've tried levering gently with a bit of wood between chassis and rear body but all that seems to do is move the chassis downward.  Maybe tomorrow's job is to try this again with the chassis propped on axle stands.

 

The car has had a lot of bodywork done by me but to my knowledge the chassis and body has never been separated.  I've replaced all outriggers and outer rails as well as various critical bits of floor around A and B posts and boot floor, so the chances of things meeting workshop measurements will be are minimal.  However I do know that the body is no longer welded to the side rail on one side as it was when purchased!  The worse side for door fit is where I've done minimal repair work. 

 

Any pointers welcome.  Thanks!

 

Stuart.

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Best to also undo the dummy B post even take the roof off, the glass makes a good bonder

 

have you put a pry bar in each mount to get some lift and check seperation of each mount

and its quite heavy if you jack it up the chassis will continue to rise until the weight is reduced

 

pete

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Steve P was right, there are two top-hat shaped brackets on top of the narrow part of the chassis by the propshaft.  The seat belt 'eyelets' mount through the floor into captive nuts on these brackets.  I thought I knew the chassis of my Herald quite well, but clearly not enough.

 

I double checked my workshop manual which describes Body Adjustment requiring slackening of bolts D,E,F,G,H & J when referring to Figure 1.  Nice and easy, but Figure 1 has nothing marked G and no reference to seat belt bolts either.

 

Sprayed some WD40 on these seat belt mounts but will have to return to this in the future.

 

If I need to add more packers, I will run out of thread on the outer rail bolts.  I think I bought 3" set screws on a like-for-like basis of what was removed.  I notice that a new body mounting kit brought from Stoneleigh has 3 1/2" ones.  That should help. 

 

Thanks for the tips.  It'll be a while before I can report back.

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Think its normal to fit two solid moints on the diff x member amd also the front baulkhead

only one rubber pad on the others with any form of solid packer to align things

 

most kits dont have enough parts , something that always puzzled me

 

its worth making a earth bond wire between all body sections and the chassis

 

you may have a later chassis the tunnel mounts appear as evolution progressed

No idea when that was though,.

pete

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I wouldn't be using rubber washers. The original rubber ones were very tough and reinforced. The new ones seem to be soft and squidgy and will deform.

 

Why not use metal washers? Aluminium ones were used from the factory, I have a collection of originals. And if you slot/cut a section out you can fit them without taking the bolts right out.

Can't see the rubber washers helping in terms of refinement at all.....but if worried then you could use a poly type?

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I hole saw cut some from Truck canvass rubber mud flap

 

but agree with clive its pretty pointless and when we got a gap for the door we used a sized hole under the tread trim to hide two countersunk bolts or the first speed hump and pot hole and it all moves back

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am doing all my body mounts with stainless steel discs I cut out and stainless steel washers.

To lift the body while packing I am using air wedges that I purchased of Ebay, easier on the body and chassis.

Google them

 

Adrian

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