JamesMaxwell
New member
Sorry if this is a long one, I'm gauging the forum, if you want to hear about this I'm happy to talk you through my project, I'll judge by the response i get. 
This weekend i took on the suspension! I had an easy goal, tidy the workshop Friday and think about how to jack the car, start work on Saturday with a view to do an achievable 1 side and see where we were at the end of the day. This turned out to be a good decision.
I watched a few YouTube videos and read a bit one line, took some advice from the very helpful chaps at Design911 as well as the super helpful technicians at the place that did my service AddSpeed in Horsham.
I got the job done, it took me 8 hours, with 1 trip out to buy a ball joint breaker, and another trip out to get a local garage to help me remove the 16 year old rusty nuts.
The plan was to take off all the nuts attached to the wheel, (apologies i have no idea what a lot of these are called) and only leave a connection where the hub connects to the control arm, then compress the strut and bend it out under the wing to replace. All the nuts and arms came off easily with some wd40 and a breaker bar, the only thing i had a problem with was not having a ball joint splitter for the track rod end. I did find a great motor-factors my Dad introduced me to, https://www.roseautosupplies.com/ on Manor Royal. once we had this it was all in bits and ready to compress.
I compressed the springs, used some other clamps to compress the strut, protected the wing with tape and pushed. I found shoving the ball joint splitter at the bottom of the control arm and using this like a pedal I could leaver enough force on the arm to get it out.
Once the strut was out, I realized i did not have a new nut, top and bottom washers, or a rubber washer that sits at the top of the spring. I took this down to Tyre Pros on Birches industrial estate in Felbridge and the guys did me a favor for some beer money to get these bits removed as i did not have the tools to get a 16 year old rusty nut off a rotating strut.
Reversing the process was a lot easier than removal, i torqued every nut on every arm up to 65ft/lb as that felt reasonable and went down the road and back to make sure nothing fell off. Hazzar! it worked, including the PASM! Once I've done the other side and the CV joint, It'll be back off to AddSpeed for them to check all my work and align the wheels before I drive properly.
Challenges, errors, and triumphs...
- Underestimating the force required to compress the strut after the spring was compressed. Using other clamps and the ball joint splitter was essential, just wish it hadn't taken me so long to figure it out.
- A few people said this was a 2 person job, but i went it alone, I should have listened.
- Did not get a ball joint splitter from the start, had to get one in the middle.
- Definitely get spring compressors, glad i had these prepared. I had no idea until talking to the garage now dangerous these were, if you plan on doing this please read the guides and stories online and if you don't feel comfortable with he risk don't take the job on.
- Protect your paint, so glad i this this or I'd have rash under the wing.
- Major triumph, 1st time I've attempted a job like this and after some lateral thinking got it done!!! (until AddSpeed tell me i did something dangerous, lol)
This weekend i took on the suspension! I had an easy goal, tidy the workshop Friday and think about how to jack the car, start work on Saturday with a view to do an achievable 1 side and see where we were at the end of the day. This turned out to be a good decision.
I watched a few YouTube videos and read a bit one line, took some advice from the very helpful chaps at Design911 as well as the super helpful technicians at the place that did my service AddSpeed in Horsham.
I got the job done, it took me 8 hours, with 1 trip out to buy a ball joint breaker, and another trip out to get a local garage to help me remove the 16 year old rusty nuts.
The plan was to take off all the nuts attached to the wheel, (apologies i have no idea what a lot of these are called) and only leave a connection where the hub connects to the control arm, then compress the strut and bend it out under the wing to replace. All the nuts and arms came off easily with some wd40 and a breaker bar, the only thing i had a problem with was not having a ball joint splitter for the track rod end. I did find a great motor-factors my Dad introduced me to, https://www.roseautosupplies.com/ on Manor Royal. once we had this it was all in bits and ready to compress.
I compressed the springs, used some other clamps to compress the strut, protected the wing with tape and pushed. I found shoving the ball joint splitter at the bottom of the control arm and using this like a pedal I could leaver enough force on the arm to get it out.
Once the strut was out, I realized i did not have a new nut, top and bottom washers, or a rubber washer that sits at the top of the spring. I took this down to Tyre Pros on Birches industrial estate in Felbridge and the guys did me a favor for some beer money to get these bits removed as i did not have the tools to get a 16 year old rusty nut off a rotating strut.
Reversing the process was a lot easier than removal, i torqued every nut on every arm up to 65ft/lb as that felt reasonable and went down the road and back to make sure nothing fell off. Hazzar! it worked, including the PASM! Once I've done the other side and the CV joint, It'll be back off to AddSpeed for them to check all my work and align the wheels before I drive properly.
Challenges, errors, and triumphs...
- Underestimating the force required to compress the strut after the spring was compressed. Using other clamps and the ball joint splitter was essential, just wish it hadn't taken me so long to figure it out.
- A few people said this was a 2 person job, but i went it alone, I should have listened.
- Did not get a ball joint splitter from the start, had to get one in the middle.
- Definitely get spring compressors, glad i had these prepared. I had no idea until talking to the garage now dangerous these were, if you plan on doing this please read the guides and stories online and if you don't feel comfortable with he risk don't take the job on.
- Protect your paint, so glad i this this or I'd have rash under the wing.
- Major triumph, 1st time I've attempted a job like this and after some lateral thinking got it done!!! (until AddSpeed tell me i did something dangerous, lol)
