[T3] Axle Beam Clamp Replacement

[Soren Jacobsen]

On Jan 14, 2014, at 3:14 PM, Gary Forsmo <gbforsmo at gmail.com> wrote:

>> Mike Fisher wrote:
>> They are big bolts, but i never had any trouble getting them apart.
> 
> Mike ... you say: "big bolts" ... are all the bolts the same size?
> Does the Bentley specify the size?  (I haven't looked, yet.  My book is
> kinda packed away.)
> 
> Is your experience working with "rust-belt" Type 3's?
> I know you've parted out lots of cars.
> Do you have the luxury of parting out those (desirable) west-coast cars?
> Or have some of them been the "rust buckets" we (almost) always see in the
> mid-west?
> 
> Have you ever removed those Axle Beam Clamps with the Axle Beam mounted *IN
> *the car?

During the past year and a half, I've parted out two T3s and swapped in four beams (don't ask) to my 65 Variant.  In my (West Coast rusty) experience, it's a piece of cake getting those clamps off.  Getting them back _on_ can be a bit of a pain if you don't have the beam positioned perfectly.  With the rubber pieces behind those clamps, it's easy to get things slightly out of position, which makes that upper bolt impossible to thread.  That said, it's not especially difficult to get the beam correctly positioned if you have it well-supported, and having a helper makes it much easier, since you need to sort of twist it in there just right.  I'd suggest doing one clamp at a time, hoping that your beam won't budge from its position.  The three long-term-installed beams I removed all took a bit of persuasion to free after removing the clamps, but a little bit of extra caution never hurts.

Soren