Another Suspension Refresh

[mambosasa]

So, I finally managed to get the buggers off. I used a combination of the suggestions above and heated the bugger out of nuts with a propane torch and jammed the assembly with a bar to create more friction as per Brian's instructions and slowly, but surely they came off!!

 

Front nearside is completely off the car now.

Lessons learnt!

 

I must ensure that I undo all bolts (ie completely off), before splitting the balljoints!

 

We are on our way!

 

Thank you all.

[Phil S1]

I'm not brave/skilled enough to do a full refresh, but my son & I did jack the car up a few weeks ago & paint all the wishbones etc in situ, just to give a bit of rust protection. One day I will get round to doing it properly, so I'm following all you lot with interest.

 

It's not particularly hard, you just need a few special tools and plenty of time.

 

So, I finally managed to get the buggers off. I used a combination of the suggestions above and heated the bugger out of nuts with a propane torch and jammed the assembly with a bar to create more friction as per Brian's instructions and slowly, but surely they came off!!

 

Front nearside is completely off the car now.

Lessons learnt!

 

I must ensure that I undo all bolts (ie completely off), before splitting the balljoints!

 

We are on our way!

 

Thank you all.

 

Good to hear you got it sorted Bis. Strangely I just discovered this morning that 2 of my balljoints didn't have the hex socket in them, the 2 Lotus OE ones. All the other 6 from Eliseparts did

Ended up having a similar problem to you, only in reverse, where I couldn't tighten it without it spinning. Found a way round it as you'll see in the next photo update

[kayj_prod]

Well done BIs. I'm hoping for similar help...

So I'm lagging a bit behind all the other suspension refreshers... but I don't get my parts until Christmas Day.

 

Anyway, my front clam is almost ready to come off except for one stubborn bugger of a bolt. It doesn't look corroded and I've applied plenty of penetrating fluid. It just feels bloomin tight! Any suggestions for getting it moving? I'm worried if I attack it any more I'm just going to end up rounding it out.

 

Its this one...

[Phil S1]

Keith,

I have yet to remove my front clam so can't really advise you too much on that one other than to make sure you've got a good allen key that's not rounded off. I like to use hexagonal bits fitted into a socket wrench where possible.

 

I've not completely finished the rear suspension on mine, mainly because I'm waiting for some replacement slider bellows from Eliseparts, for the offside rear caliper. So today I made a start on the offside front and anti-roll bar.

Back on page 1, Martin made reference to the potential corrosion issue regarding the hardened inserts at the suspension mounting points. I've cleaned the chassis area around them and fortunately can't see any corrosion issues on mine. As Martin suggested, as a precaution, I got some ACF-50 and gave everywhere a good coating with that.

ACF-50. Notice how I carefully took a photo of the side that wasn't in English :-

 

Top front mount:-

 

Top rear mount:-

 

Bottom rear mount:-

 

Bottom front mount:-

 

That last photo shows the 2 bolts that secure the anti roll bar and the method I used to tighten the upper one. I didn't have a sufficient assortment of tools to get the torque wrench on this one so let's just say it's tight plus it's secured with Permabond as per the manual.

 

When I had taken the anti-roll bar off originally it was the centre section that was most corroded which at the time seemed a bit strange to me. Now I think I understand why. The centre section is the part that's going to be constantly twisting so the coating would crack over time. On top of this, as I have now found out, all the crap and moisture that gets drawn in to the air intake plus any rainwater draining through the radiator all drains out of the front crash structure through two holes, you guessed it, directly above the anti-roll bar!

You can just about see them both in this photo from underneath:-

 

With the anti-roll bar fitted, I re-fitted the cover plate, as discussed earlier, using stainless nuts and bolts rather than the original rivets:-

 

Re-fitting the upper front wishbone is the most fiddly, because of all the various washers that set the caster angle, but it wasn't too bad. I got the larger washers fitted into the forward mount first, notice that the rubber faced snubber washer is the one that fits up against the wishbone bush:-

 

I then fitted the smaller washers on the rear mount. As suggested, I superglued together the 3 washers that fit to the rear of the bush and having passed the bolt through these and the bush just had to prise the last washer in to the front. Sorry this photo's a bit blurry but you can see the 3 washers to the rear easy enough. This is just before fitting that last washer:-

 

The lower wishbone is a doddle in comparison so I won't bore you with that but, as I mentioned in my last post, I ran into the same problem as Bis, where the balljoint had no hexagon socket and was spinning, preventing me from tightening it to the plinth. I got round this using the balljoint splitter as a makeshift clamp, in order to pull the plinth onto the balljoint's taper:-

 

My last photo for today shows a mistake I've made before, so should've known better

Having torque tightened the plinth onto the balljoint, I came to refit the alloy upright, which is secured with 4 bolts fitted from underneath. One of the 4 bolt positions is too close to the wishbone to allow the bolt to be inserted, no matter how you spin the plinth around. Anyone know any tricks for this, other than shortening the bolt slightly or using a very large hammer?

 

I ended up separating the joint so that I could get that one bolt in, prior to torque tightening it all back up again

[mambosasa]

Excellent progress Phil.

 

A couple of comments. Firstly, I see that you have a marker (arrow) on the plinth bolt hole. Was this done for specific reason or was it just for our benefit?

 

Secondly, how clean is your chassis? Bloody hell man, get the car dirty once in a while

 

My only update for the day is that once I sorted out the troubled side, the far side took 1 tenth of the time! It goes to show that experience counts eh? I refrain from posting too many photos as your thread reads well for all future 'refreshers'

 

Bis.

 

Well done BIs. I'm hoping for similar help...

So I'm lagging a bit behind all the other suspension refreshers... but I don't get my parts until Christmas Day.

 

Anyway, my front clam is almost ready to come off except for one stubborn bugger of a bolt. It doesn't look corroded and I've applied plenty of penetrating fluid. It just feels bloomin tight! Any suggestions for getting it moving? I'm worried if I attack it any more I'm just going to end up rounding it out.

 

Its this one...

 

Hey Keith. If everything was smooth, it wouldn't be fun at all.

 

With regards to your bolt, make sure you use good hex bits on a wrench to ensure that you have maximum control and reduce the possibility of slipping out and damaging the head. If you are using something smaller, you may find by switching to a socket wrench, its not as tight as you think.

[Phil S1]

Excellent progress Phil.

 

A couple of comments. Firstly, I see that you have a marker (arrow) on the plinth bolt hole. Was this done for specific reason or was it just for our benefit?

 

Secondly, how clean is your chassis? Bloody hell man, get the car dirty once in a while

 

My only update for the day is that once I sorted out the troubled side, the far side took 1 tenth of the time! It goes to show that experience counts eh? I refrain from posting too many photos as your thread reads well for all future 'refreshers'

 

Bis.

 

 

The marker arrow was purely for the benefit of mloc Bis

I did however put one on the plinth for the near side front so I don't forget AGAIN

 

The car does get dirty now and again but I'll admit I rarely drive it when the roads are wet, apart from Rockingham this year when it p****d down all day

Not much to report on mine today but the replacement bellows for my rear caliper arrived from Eliseparts.

[mambosasa]

A quick update from me.

 

I finally finished all the prep work on the front and managed to get the front nearside bolted back together this morning. Those shims were a bit of a mare to get in and lined up, but managed it in the end. I was also pretty surprised how tight the bottom wishbone was when it came to slotting it back in. It took longer than I thought it should.

 

Front far side tomorrow...

[Phil S1]

A quick update from me.

 

I finally finished all the prep work on the front and managed to get the front nearside bolted back together this morning. Those shims were a bit of a mare to get in and lined up, but managed it in the end. I was also pretty surprised how tight the bottom wishbone was when it came to slotting it back in. It took longer than I thought it should.

 

Front far side tomorrow...

 

Good work Bis,

The front is definitely more awkward than the rear, albeit there isn't the driveshaft to deal with.

 

I have as good as finished mine, all I need to do now is put the rear undertray, diffuser and all the wheels back on

 

I thought I'd add one more photo to show some of the stuff that people might need when tackling this job, over and above their everyday tools etc...

So we have:-

• On the left hand side - the Eliseparts ball joint removal tool, pretty much a necessity to both remove and install the balljoints.
• The black item on the right - a ball joint seperator to seperate the track rod ends from the steering arms and also to seperate each of the ball joints from their mating parts. Available from loads of places like Machine Mart (part number CHT222).
• At the bottom - an improvised tool to press the old bushes out of the wishbones and the new ones back in. For me this consisted of a 32mm and 21mm socket on some M10 threaded bar with loads of washers. A proper tool is available from Eliseparts...but costs more
• You'll need some copper grease (not shown) along the way but also some rubber-compatible grease for installing the new bushes and balljoints. I used Renolit red rubber grease but I assume cv joint grease would be equally suitable.
• Duralac is required wherever aluminium mates with steel components to prevent corrosion.
• Thread lock for bolts going into steel components.
• Permabond A131 for bolts going into aluminium components. This is actually a pipe sealant and is less severe than normal thread lock. Worth buying because the normal thread lock sets to be harder than the aluminium and would damage the thread the next time you undid it.
• A torque wrench.

 

Once the car's back together I'm going to drive it for a short while to let the suspension settle down and then I'll check the geometry to see if it's going to need some adjustment. I would assume the camber should be pretty much unchanged but I'm sure the alignment will need tweaking.

Apart from that, I'm done

Good luck to Keith, Bis and everyone else having a go.

[mambosasa]

So, got mine back in the road this morning. It drove like a dog! I tried really hard to ensure that the track rid ends (new ones) went back where the old ones where, however must have been way out as the steering was all over the shop.

 

Anyway, a short drive to Kwickfit, gave them my settings and £27 later, all is well again. All remaining clocks have all gone and the front feels soo much better.

 

The car is now off to topgear to get the rear hub flanges done, bearings and the rear bushes. The rear wishbones are in good nick as i sorted them out during the engine conversion. As for me, I am done. Thank you Phil and Co for your help.

 

Bis.

[Daniel]

Bis, well done - These kind of threads are always very cool and informative. Although i don't know how you did it without any help from me frankly

 

Happy New Year dude!!

[Phil S1]

Well done Bis, we're all here to help each other.

I've not actually driven mine yet.....I'm still waiting for the sun to shine

[kayj_prod]

Well I'm lagging way behind you guys. I have finally got the clam off though. As you might have seen in another thread, I now have headlights to replace too! Having spent the morning practising for New Years gigs tonight I plan to get outside and actually remove some parts this afternoon- bad day to bash knuckles though!

 

When you say 'settings' Bis, what do you mean? I understand why you'd replace the TREs as they came off, and I'm not daft enough to assume they would then be correct, but did you take some other measurements to give to Kwikfit?

 

I must admit to feeling a bit naive when it comes to this stuff, but its good to learn...

[kayj_prod]

I've done OK today until meeting my match with the brake callipers and the drop links. Callipers because I don't have an 8mm hex key and drop links because I can't find a way to stop the screw spinning as I turn the nut. The end just has a rounded dimple so its not like I can apply opposite force directly. Phil, you must have taken yours off?

 

Happy new year everybody!

[mambosasa]

Hi Kay

 

Good to hear that you are making progress. The geo settings are the details required to setup the suspension in a certain way. All specialist garages would have their own settings however, this would cost you in excess of £100. The alternative solution is to take the car to the likes if quickfit and let them 'align' the suspension to your settings. This usually cost less than £30.

 

Although not as comprehensive as having a garage do it, it may be okay for you. I am currently using Russell's setup.

 

With regards to your droplinks, you should be able to get a spanner just after the boot to hold it in place. Size 17 I think.

 

Happy New Year all!

 

Bis.

[Phil S1]

Keith,

As Bis says, there should be a couple of flats for you to get a spanner on. They are right up against the rubber boot so not easy to spot in situ.

This picture shows them:-

droplink