Front drops with REALLY loud creaking

Mandrake · Post by **Mandrake** » 17 Jul 2005, 05:33

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Chrispy

Righto, in addition to changing my front drop link today (O/S) I changed my anti sink sphere. After lowering the car all the way and releasing the pressure from the acc sphere (which gave a lovely gurgly hiss this time unlike before I changed it) I made a start. First bother was getting the arse jacked up with the suspension set to low. There's not a lot of room under there for a jack! I ended up using my trolley jack under the rear towing eye on the N/S which got it high enough to put an axle stand under the read subframe mount.
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[:D]
I'd highly recommend a couple of steel drive-up wheel ramps/stands, thats what I use for any work like this. For that particular job (which I'll probably be doing soon) I would just drive the back wheels up the ramps to the top, chock the other wheels, and depressurize the suspension on the spot - car goes down, then you're ready to work with no mucking around jacking things up, with plenty of room to work. (A bit over half a metre with the suspension right down)
Very easy, very safe, even if the front wheels were to come unchocked and the handbrake somehow failed, as long as you are lying between the stands and not in from the side, the car would roll right past you without running you over or falling on you [;)]
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Also, my fecking Citroen jack folded up on me as I was trying to lift the sill with it and so went in the bin. Why they supply you with a jack not stong enough to lift the car is beyond me.....PSA muppets.
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Heh...was that a scissor jack ? Useless things.... because of the suspension they're not designed to lift the weight of the car from right down, but rather to be placed under the car while the suspension is right up, with the jack already extended, then let the suspension down...
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The nut attaching the sphere to the LHM pipe is a 9mm too(which I didn't have so a trip to Halfrauds was in order).
Anyway, whilst I was at Halfrauds getting my 9mm spanner etc for the sphere nut, I got a 1.5 ton Draper scissor jack (£15.99) which is really flat and fits perfectly under the sill with the car on the lowest setting! Nice....
T'was all fairly easy after that but still required a hammer and chisel to crack the sphere free from its mounting. My strap wrench once again failed me and just creaked and slipped.
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Doesn't sound like a very good strap wrench, the one we use never slips, but sometimes it can be difficult to get the rust bond to release without a good thump on the housing from a lump hammer as well...
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New sphere on (hand tight), nut tightened up, and engine started. 9 bouts of Citerobics and all is well.
Hopefully this will stop the bloody thing from dropping like a stone after I start it. It seems to be behaving itself so far....
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Good luck..
Regards,
Simon

Chrispy · Post by **Chrispy** » 17 Jul 2005, 13:24

Yeah, bloody stupid jack....but that Draper one is great...slides under the car perfectly when it's all the way down!
So far the car doesn't sink when you start it, or when you get out for that matter. It seems to stay at a constant height and when you get in it and start it, the height doesn't drop, but now re-rises to compensate for the extra weight of you getting in. This must mean it does sink a little when you get out, but not noticably so like before where it used to drop several inches before the AS valve kicked in.
As for my strap wrench, its one of those that simply is a socket with a strap attached to it, that you attach to a ratchet. The strap wraps round the socket as you turn.
I'm tempted to buy a proper chain wrench and some rubber for the next one just to have some extra GRIP. [:)]

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 17 Jul 2005, 14:06

I broke 2 chain filter wrenches and a strap one was creaking ominously so I too the hexagonal bar from one of the chain wrenches and welded a steel band (1.5mm) to the 2 opposite faces so that when force is applied to the hex bar it wraps and self tightens.
Works every time and takes longer to fit than to loosen the sphere!
jeremy

Mandrake · Post by **Mandrake** » 17 Jul 2005, 16:50

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Chrispy

Yeah, bloody stupid jack....but that Draper one is great...slides under the car perfectly when it's all the way down!
So far the car doesn't sink when you start it, or when you get out for that matter. It seems to stay at a constant height and when you get in it and start it, the height doesn't drop, but now re-rises to compensate for the extra weight of you getting in. This must mean it does sink a little when you get out, but not noticably so like before where it used to drop several inches before the AS valve kicked in.
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Thats good news. It's nice to see some feedback to find out if doing XYZ did indeed solve problem ABC... [:)]
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As for my strap wrench, its one of those that simply is a socket with a strap attached to it, that you attach to a ratchet. The strap wraps round the socket as you turn.
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Ah ok, I know the kind you mean. I've seen one that uses seatbelt material and has a fitting for attaching to a ratchet - we tried it on a couple of spheres, and no chance at all. The one we use is designed for truck oil filters, and has a round steel band about an inch across, a handle about 10 inches long which sticks out at right angles, and a lever mechanism which tightens the strap when you push the handle the right way. It never slips, but even so it sometimes needs the extra jolt of a block hammer hit on the housing to let the rust bond between the sphere and the mounting break free.
Regards,
Simon

Kowalski · Post by **Kowalski** » 17 Jul 2005, 17:23

I've got a strap wrench that uses a webbing strap, and it doesn't slip on spheres. The problem I get is wind up, it has stretch in it so that half a turn on the wratchet doesn't get the thing tight enough to shift a sphere (if I could get it tight enough it probably would slip). It's really good for removing oil filters but absolutely useless on anything like a sphere that needs a lot of force.

Chrispy · Post by **Chrispy** » 17 Jul 2005, 22:05

Yup, all is confirmed, the car no longer sinks when starting it, and the creaking has gone away as it doesn't plummet any more with the engine running.
I managed to get it to creak a couple of times when doing citerobics (when first lowering from max height) but it was only slight creaking from the front struts).
I also tried pumping the brake pedal whilst doing citerobics to see what the effect was and if it would bleed my brakes a bit (the farting pedal is still there). When all the way down on the bump stops, there is no pressure behind the pedal and it feels almost dead and empty, whereas if you fully raise it to the top, the farting re-appears. Wierd.... As everyone says, I'm sure it is air in the system somewhere (probably from a leaky sphere) and something tells me it's at the back as when doing citerobics, obviously, one end is in the air with the other on the floor for a short moment. When the front was down and the rear up, the farting was there, but when the whole car was on the floor there was no farting. Brake bleeding time next me thinks.
So, moral of the story is boys and girls, if your car sinks when starting the engine (not when left for a little while with the engine off), then re-rises again in like a yo yo fashion, change your anti sink sphere (and accumulator sphere to be on the safe side). Reason I say accumluator spere too, is that chances are, both need to be tip top to stop your car misbehaving [:)].