displaying posts 1 to 19 of 19

Author Subject: suspension fitting nightmares.
luke89

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Location: Preston

Registered: 28 Aug 2014

Posts: 486

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Post #1
Hi folks.

Do you ever have one of those days where you wish you just hadn't started? Well today I did.
I've been collecting parts for a suspension over haul for a few weeks now and today was my first and only day off for months so I jacked the car up and got to work... Sadly absolutely everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.

Firstly it took 2 hours to remove the drop link, it just kept spinning and I ended up sawing the bolt and driving 15 miles to get new drop links.

I decided to just loosen the track rod end in the hope it would give me enough movement in the hub to remove the strut, this turned out to be a mistake as once I'd knocked down the tre the hub didn't have enough movement to get the strut out and the tre just spun when I tried to remove it fully, I ended up retightening it then completely undoing the nut. Then my next mistake, by this time it was dark and when I went to hit the tre out with my rubber mallet I had actually picked up my metal hammer which resulted in me ruining the threads on the tre AND smashing what I assume is a ceramic heat shield?


That still didn't give me enough wiggle room so I turned my attention to the ball joint, I removed the bolt without issue but no matter how much pressure I put on the lower wishbone I can't get the ball joint to fully separate, at this point (half 9) I called it a day.



So the state of play is, I need to find a new tre in the morning, work out how to split the ball joint and push the lower wishbone down and work out what it was I smashed. The plan was to change the ball ,p bushes and front bushes whilst I'm doing the springs and top mount bearings but after this faff and having seen the state of the ball joint mounting hardware I'm starting to think I shouldn't have bothered.


Any advice or just encouragement would be a great help!
Posted 28th Nov 2014 at 22:41
jord294

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Location: somewhere in north wales

Registered: 09 Nov 2009

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Post #2
Sounds like you had a mare!

I've been caught out in the past with simple enough tasks. It's a good job I have other modes of transport, as if I didn't, and I was left without use of my car, I would proper see my backside.

ECP offer lemforder tre at very reasonable cost at mo

I have a TRW used but excellent tre you could have for nowt. If you wanted it, you would have to collect from ch7, but you could also collect 2 more wishbone bushes

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Posted 28th Nov 2014 at 23:23
luke89

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Location: Preston

Registered: 28 Aug 2014

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Post #3
Cheers Jord that's a very generous offer but 1. This is my only car and 2. Sadly I'm at the family home in Blackpool.

I think I'm going to go and get a tre in the morning from the nearest motor factor then just get stuck in.

A couple of questions, firstly does the ball joint have to be fully seperared to give enough room to remove the strut? Secondly, my old ball joint seems to have 3 rivet style fittings so how would I go about removing it? Finally, what was the ceramic thing I mullered? ABS sensor heat shield maybe?


I think I'll decide in the morning whether to go the whole hog and do the p bushes and ball joints this time round.
Posted 28th Nov 2014 at 23:36
jon boy

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Location: high wycombe

Registered: 24 May 2008

Posts: 202

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Post #4
The aftermarket balljoints are held on with rivets that need grinding/cutting off IIRC. Peugeot used torx head bolts and nylocs to attach the balljoints to arms, a motor factors maybe able to supply these, if not you can get them from the Peugeot dealers.
Have you used a balljoint removal tool to detach the balljoints? The wedgey fork ones are quite cheap and work well enough.
Posted 28th Nov 2014 at 23:43
luke89

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Location: Preston

Registered: 28 Aug 2014

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Post #5
I have lemforder ball joints complete with fittings ready to go on, is the only option to grind off the rivet as I don't have a grinder.
Posted 28th Nov 2014 at 23:49
jon boy

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Location: high wycombe

Registered: 24 May 2008

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Post #6
From memory as it was a while ago I did what you are doing now, they will need grinding or drilling out of some sort to remove as I don't think you can 'undo' them in any way.
Posted 29th Nov 2014 at 00:27
luke89

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Location: Preston

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Post #7
Balls, might be able to drill them I guess. I need to measure them to, the new ones are 16mm and being a pass 3 I fear I may need 18mm ones.
Posted 29th Nov 2014 at 00:32
jon boy

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Post #8
Pretty sure for phase 3 it is 18mm, sorry Thumbs down
Posted 29th Nov 2014 at 00:45
jord294

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Location: somewhere in north wales

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Post #9
Much easier to remove the wishbone, and to do that I suggest you get a balljoint splitter fork

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Posted 29th Nov 2014 at 01:32
Mossy1985

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Location: Darlington

Registered: 04 Nov 2014

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Post #10
When doing bottom ball joints and they are riveted on I don't even bother messing around I just fit new complete arms. Unless you are buying the parts from the stealers the price difference isn't too bad at all between the ball joint and arm. Think normally the joints are roughly 10 quid and the arms are like 30 quid? You may say that's 3 times as much but really when you think how much material you are getting for your money plus once you have your 2 anchor points removed the bottom ball joint wont give you much hassle

Dave
Posted 29th Nov 2014 at 05:22
jamiek_uk2000

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Location: Llanelli

Registered: 18 Apr 2009

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Post #11
Well failed indeed!

If you were doing a suspension overhaul, why weren't you changing the droplinks anyway? They are pennies. If your trying to turn anything on the suspension (bolts, nuts etc) and they spin, if you jack up under the hub which is in effect loading the suspension, it'll normally give the bolt tension so you can undo it.

My car is a p3 and has one 18mm and one 16mm ball joint! Someone done a great repair in the past!

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Posted 29th Nov 2014 at 08:37
fatlapit

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Location: STOCKSFIELD

Registered: 02 Nov 2010

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Post #12
drop links = grinder
bbj = nut n bolt out chissel in the gap n hit the wish bone down over
tre = undo nut/ remove nut n hit hub housing out she pops
3 bolts on the top amnd voila

or undo the hub pinch bolt and knock the hub of the strut then undo 3 top bolts job done

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Posted 29th Nov 2014 at 08:59
welshpug!

Capt Pedantic

Location: Bigend, Wales.

Registered: 27 Mar 2007

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Post #13
NEVER wedge a chisel in the balljoint clamp, sure fire way to f**k them, neither do you need a balljojnt splitter.

its a straight pin, so will slide straight down when you apply inward pressure on the hub and lever the wishbone down.

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Posted 29th Nov 2014 at 09:07
fatlapit

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Post #14
well ive always done that ive never broke one

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Posted 29th Nov 2014 at 09:10
pug_306

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Location: Great Hockham

Registered: 28 May 2013

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Post #15
welshpug! wrote:
NEVER wedge a chisel in the balljoint clamp, sure fire way to f**k them, neither do you need a balljojnt splitter.

its a straight pin, so will slide straight down when you apply inward pressure on the hub and lever the wishbone down.


Yep little pressure pushing bottom of the hub inwards and a lever on the arm always gets them out easy with no damage.

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Posted 29th Nov 2014 at 09:13
luke89

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Location: Preston

Registered: 28 Aug 2014

Posts: 486

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Post #16
Ok so Suspension nightmare part 2.

Today has gone a little better, I managed to get the strut out and the spring off, I have fitted the new springs and top mount bearings, I've got the strut back in but when going to refit the ball joint pinch bolt I noticed it was in no shape to be refitted so I had a go at changing the track rod end. I can't get the locking nut to come undone, does it turn clockwise or anti-clockwise?I also noticed the top mount is now very very hard to turn,almost impossible by hand, the top nut isn't done up too tight so I don't know if its just meant to be like that or whether I've sodded something else.


So state of play at the end of day 2, shock is back on but I'm going to have to order a new pinch bolt, track rod end isn't fitted and the top mount bearing seems very very stiff.
Posted 30th Nov 2014 at 02:38
welshpug!

Capt Pedantic

Location: Bigend, Wales.

Registered: 27 Mar 2007

Posts: 25,817

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Post #17
you have a big f.o spring clamping it, not surprised that you can't turn it.

track rods are standard rh threads

________________________________________

need a part number? get on here - http://public.servicebox.peugeot.com

Bring on the Trumpets.

Posted 30th Nov 2014 at 09:15
luke89

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Location: Preston

Registered: 28 Aug 2014

Posts: 486

Status: Offline

Post #18
OK so it shouldn't turn by hand anyway, that's something then!
Posted 30th Nov 2014 at 12:21
dangti6

aka JKshooter

Location: Taunton, Somerset

Registered: 15 Jun 2006

Posts: 10,305

Status: Offline

Post #19
Get a 21mm spanner on the track rod end retaining nut and grip the actual track rod with a spanner. There are flats on them for this purpose.

Drop link wise, if they were OE you could have slid a spanner between the boot and link to hold it still whilst you wound the nut off. 15 or 16mm iirc. Many of the aftermarket ones have a torx head in the end of the stud which you can also grip. Obviously too late for that now, but something to think about for next time!

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