Triumph Stag Project: Front Bushes Done

Today I finished up the front end bushing replacement with the wishbone, radius rod, and anti-roll bar. The big bushing in the radius rod required another threaded rod setup to retract it (1 1/4" and 1 7/8" sockets work well). The old bushings were pretty stubborn because they were one piece, whereas the new ones are two piece...much easier to deal with. The nut on the backside of the radius rod is always a pain, especially when the car is on my kind of lift with the wheels hanging down. This produces an angle on the nut that makes it almost impossible to get a socket on. I've found it's easier to go ahead and disconnect it from the wishbone and then be free to move the outer end to a higher position, giving better purchase on the nut. The problem then becomes keeping the whole thing from turning as you honk on the nut. I solved this using a monkey wrench (see pictures).

It finally occurred to me that I should remove the lower fan shroud to more easily access the nuts on top of the u-bolts for the anti-roll bar after I had already gotten one of them off. Definitely worth the time to do this, although there aren't alot of Stags left with this shroud anyway. The new poly bushes (yellow) took some persuading to get over the ends of the bar, but a little patience, a couple of screwdrivers and some WD-40 finally won the day.They do not fit under the original metal clamp brackets, but I think they were mainly to give the OEM rubber bushes a little more lateral strength which should not be needed with the poly. I left them off.