Front anti-rollbar droplinks & bushes

[kevinod]

Had a go at the anti roll bar bushes last night, one done, one to go tonight.

Took off the wheels, and droplinks, handy out no problem. Next went to drop the suspension subframe to get at that arb bush clamp. Had to take off both sides or it didn't drop enough to do much, but once I'd done that I could get at it, just about. Didn't drop much at all, but enough to get into the bolt. Only had one spanner that would fit into the gap though, one with a slanted end (not quite as angled as this but you get the idea), ignore the dots, doesn't come out right otherwise
......._
...../
.../

rather than a standard say ring spanner shape which was fouling on the bottom of the inner wheel arch:
............._
....____/
._/

If I could have got a socket and rachet in there it would have been nice but there just wasn't enough space.

It was a case of 1/8 turn by 1/8 turn opening the bolt (tap of hammer on the spanner to loosen it originally) but got there eventually.

Second side left to do, spent about 4 hours at it last night, taking my time to make sure I didn't do anything stoopid, but the car is in place, jacked up (in garage) so all the setup is done, and suspension subframe is dropped a bit so it should be fairly straight forward and (knocking on wood) quick to do this evening to finish it off.

DISCLAIMER: this is just my experience, if you have a go on the basis of this and it doesn't work out don't be blaming me

[CJ]

Kev, I can only assume this is referring to the fronts, the rears can be done in less than half and hour. Well done on getting in there, its not the easiest of jobs!

CJ

[kevinod]

Yup, its the fronts alright, must check the back ones but I just need to sort this out for the NCT retest so I'll leave the back ones alone for now.

Kev.

[kevinod]

Did the second side last night, handy enough apart from the droplink, one of the bolts was on cross-threaded, so a sore thumb from the ratchet slipping a few times and a few quid for the swear jar, but beyond that it was cool enough.

Getting the suspension subframe back up was simply a matter of screwing in the bolts, and it pulled it back up into place, so very handy. Bottle jacks gave it that extra bit of support putting it back up too.

Took her for a test spin after, felt very solid, and less leaning around corners, not that there was much to begin with, but it definately feels more solid, more positive. Great satisfaction from that kinda of job, putting a few hours into something and getting an instant reward with the improved handling!

Booked my NCT retest, had a slot for just before lunchtime tomorrow, so hopefully the third disc slot will be filled then!

[soc]

[quote="kevinod"]Did the second side last night, handy enough apart from the droplink, one of the bolts was on cross-threaded, so a sore thumb from the ratchet slipping a few times and a few quid for the swear jar, but beyond that it was cool enough.

Getting the suspension subframe back up was simply a matter of screwing in the bolts, and it pulled it back up into place, so very handy. Bottle jacks gave it that extra bit of support putting it back up too.

Took her for a test spin after, felt very solid, and less leaning around corners, not that there was much to begin with, but it definately feels more solid, more positive. Great satisfaction from that kinda of job, putting a few hours into something and getting an instant reward with the improved handling!

Booked my NCT retest, had a slot fo


Fair play mate - wish I had (a) the space and (b) more importantly, the get up and go to do a job like that - not the easiest of jobs be any means -


maybe you could do cut price front arb bushing changes for other owners

[kevinod]

Fair play mate - wish I had (a) the space and (b) more importantly, the get up and go to do a job like that - not the easiest of jobs be any means -

maybe you could do cut price front arb bushing changes for other owners

Cheers... ya, lucky Dad's been into mechanics and cars since he was young, and built a huge big garage (if empty you'd fit 4 or more cars in there I reckon) with a pit so ideal for this kinda carry on!

One of the reasons I got the 95 FTO was so I could start doing things like this, not to mention its a gorgeous car... my last 2 cars were 'new' demo models and I didn't trust myself to do much with them, perfect before I got there so wanted them to stay that way!

Heh, could nearly b tempted, but how much is this work normally done for?

Kev.