Trike rear spring

As the years go by, many of us seem to suffer from this, but enough of my personal problems, my trike has got it too.
Not unrelated is the steering, which, unless I've become too used to modern cars, is really dreadful and keeping it in a straight 1ine on overrun down a road that has trenches in it has become nerveracking. Then 1 had a go in Ke1s Hannahs car, and what a difference, so I knew it could be improved.
Jack up the back of the car under the tube, undo all the nuts and remove caps, use a large hammer and out comes the rear suspension. Three things were obviously wrong. First, the spring must have been a bit flat because it came out so easily. Then I noticed that the rubber shackle bush inside the spring mount had almost disintegrated, with the consequential up and down play, and lastly the felt on the sliding bush was worn so that there was some up and down movement.
Having some distant Scottish ancestry, I managed to look through my old spares and built up a very good rear spring set with a good curve on it. Also I managed to use the top felt from another bush, as it seems the bottom half wears much faster than the top. One tip is don't try and judge springs when they are on the arms.
I was fooled into thinking I had a good curve on one set, only to realise that it was a deep dish arm which is forged with a different spring angle to make them higher at the back than shallow dish arms.
The hub wheel bearing also had some wear so I decided to change them too. Again, after the event, the removal of these would have been easier had I left the arm in the car first. I've heard of the threads in some being the wrong way round due to people adapting Scout offside hubs, so check all threads with pins first. The dust cover is right hand thread, and grips and hammer soon get this off. A castle nut holds on the hub, and this is left hand thread. I found no need for a puller and managed to tap it off once the brake shoes were out of the way. The small bearing comes out with a drift from behind, but don't forget the spacer, small end towards small bearing.
The larger bearing is retained by a retaining ring and odd spring clip. I understand from old articles that this may be right hand thread, but mine was left hand. Reassembly of the hub is straightforward but easier if the brake shoes are put on before the hub unit. The large bearings are RLS9A or RLS9 and the smaller LS8 or RLS8, and cost about £20. (in 1992, psb) Why is it that there is never any grease in the rear hub when taking it apart? MOTs are normally obtained when driving alone. When loaded with all the junk for a rally the rear goes down (or not, if you read on) and the brakes go on. Ten miles down the road, what's that funny smell? Whoops, rear hub on fire! My answer is the footbrake operates the front brake, and the handbrake the rear brake.
I've got this thing about trikes handling better if high at the back (is it castor angles?), so what I did was to put in a packing piece about 3/8" thick and filed down to a wedge shape. This was put between the spring and the arm, and bolted through using the spring mounting bolts. This would have the effect of increasing the angle of dangle and raise the rear of the car to about the same as a deep dish arm.
The brass bearings are the next job, and these should be a reasonable fit (the Spares Scheme used to have them). You often find that the offside ones wear better than the nearside tubular ones, and it is possible to saw off the ends of offside ones and use them for the nearside. I was not a founder member of Bodger's Corner for nothing! Make sure all bearings are well greased before reassembling, as I always have doubts that any grease gets there afterwards. On the nearside bearing line up the grease nipple on the cap to the hole in the bearing.
It's best to wait a day before the next bit, or supply earmuffs to the neighbours! Knock the bolts back on the chassis, so in theory they don't damage the brass bearings. Grease the felt pads the day before to try and get as much soaked in as possible. Slide in the spring, and lo and behold, the bearings are at least two inches below the housing. Then I remembered where my old rear spring came from. I got it retempered years ago and realised it was so curved 1 couldn't get it in! 1 put a trolley jack with its wheels pointing down the chassis, and it moved only slightly before lifting the car off the supporting jack. What I needed was ballast, and plenty of it. I now had the wife and daughter seated in the car, and this time it started to get closer. From experience this is not the time to make jokes on the only advantage of the failure of diets.
By the way, remember to put the inner fibre disc on. Make a token effort to keep grease off. I cleaned it in paraffin and roughed it up with a wire brush.
Now comes the clever bit. Get two large G-clamps and hook one end on the top of the chassis and the screw-up end on to the caps that are protecting the brass bushes. Screw a bit each side at a time. It's not quite as easy as it sounds, and sometimes they slip off, but with the clamps and the jack, in they went. Bolt on the caps, re-attach the brake arm and fit the fibre disc on the shock absorber. Then do up the metal disc, and the large nut and locknut, and splitpin. Do these up tight, e.g. big hammer. Grease up the bearings, and I found I'd lost the grease nipple that lubricates the felt bearing bush that is located on the tube.
Back to my obsession with rear ride height. I've 4.50x19 tyres on the front, but when new I found I could not get them on the back, and if 1 did the tyre rubbed on the rear wheel cover. I therefore used a 4.00x19. Now the arm was down more at an angle I found I could use a part worn 4.50 on the back, which is a Dunlop flat pattern, which should put more rubber on the road.
The car was then let down, and what did I find? I was a good two or three inches better off than before (I'm also submitting this article to Penthouse). There is absolutely no movement at the back at all, try and lift the rear end and there is no give before the wheel comes off the ground. Now the test drive. What a difference! Hands off at 50, down hill, lift off, open eyes, and I'm still on the same side of the road!

Rear End Sag, by Ian Pinkney

lan Pinkney