At 06:06 PM 6/24/2007 -0700, Chad Pagel wrote:
>>"I had to purchase a new right steering arm (new meaning used on ebay). It seemed like car was hit and messed it up. No body damage or anything like that and my dad owned it since 70 and said it was never in a wreck."
Fairly common to skid into a curb on wet pavement and bend a swivel pin or steering arm.

>>"I looked at my old one and it looked bent, I tried to get it out and no success."

Screw the nut on flush with end of thread. Camp the knuckle in a vise. Heat the knuckle at the thinnest point near the hole for the steering arm. Heat quickly with acetylene torch to dull red, then tap the nut with a heavy hammer to remove the arm.

>>"Would it be possible to straighten it?"

Probably yes. To straighten a forging, clamp it in a vice, heat with acetylene torch to dull red (or brighter) in the area of the bend. Straighten it with a big wrench or heavy hammer.

At 08:42 AM 6/15/2007 -0500, George Goeppner wrote:
>>"The taper on the late model 1500 arm is larger than the early model arm, that is, larger in diameters at both ends, the taper angle may be the same."

That checks. The early and late arms and knuckles must be used as matched sets.

>>"That makes the swivel pins not interchangeable between early/late 1500's since the relief machined in the swivel pin for the taper on the steering arm is slightly larger on the later model. "

Now that's wierd. According to the factory parts book the swivel pin never changed from beginning of MGTD production (Nov 1949) to end of MGA production (Jun 1962). There is only one part number for each side. I took this to mean that when the taper on the arm got fatter the hole for the arm was displaced slightly farther away from the swivel pin so as to fit in the same depth of notch in the swivel pin. All of the current sources for replacement swivel pins likewise list only one part number for each side for all TD. TF, and MGA.

There may be another explanation. It could be that the notch in the swivel pin was not finish machined. It may have been intended to be finish machined in assembly to eliminate a bunch of tolerance build-ups. If the notch in the swivel pin was too deep it would not lock the pin in place. If the notch in the swivel pin was to shallow it would not allow the arm to seat properly in the knuckle. The idea would be to insert a new swivel pin into the knuckle, then hit it with a tapered reamer to finish machine the notch into the swivel pin to achieve a perfect match to the conical surface in the knuckle.

>>"I'm replacing my damaged swivel with an early model swivel however, so I can machine the relief to suit."

If you have in your posession both early and late knuckles, it would be nice to carefully measure the distance between the centerlines of the arm and swivel pin bores. Also record the taper angle and diameter(s) of the horizontal hole (or large end, small end, and length of bore). The point of primary interest is the amount of overlap between the two holes. If these parts have to be machined in assembly, I would like to know the taper angle for the required reamer (may also be measured from any steering arm).

This could be very intriuging if there was another part number for the swivel pin never recorded by the factory (not likely).