205 front suspension

ralph · Post by **ralph** » 06 Jul 2004, 19:35

Help - I've rekon I've got alignment problems after replacing the front suspension arms on my 205 diesel.
To replace the arms, I had to slacken off the clamps holding the anti-roll bar.
Now after it's all back together, my nearside front tyre is scrubbing on its outer edge.
My girlfriend took the car to get the tracking done - apparently this isn't causing the tyre to scrub.
I checked the anti-roll bar guide bar length and it's the required 33ins in length - although I didn't release its clamp when I had the anti-roll bar slackened so I don't see how it would have got longer or shorter. (I'm following Haynes here, they say to measure the guide bar length).
Is it possible the anti-roll bar is causing the problem and is now sitting too far to the left or right?
Also the steering wobbles over 50mph - as if the wheels are unbalanced. Though this might be the case, could this wobble be related to the scrubbing tyre?

JohnD · Post by **JohnD** » 06 Jul 2004, 23:30

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by ralph</i>

Help
I checked the anti-roll bar guide bar length and it's the required 33ins in length -
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
I hope you mean 330mm - not 33 inches. Did you have the car's weight on the suspension when you tightened all the nuts and bolts?

ralph · Post by **ralph** » 06 Jul 2004, 23:44

John - You're right, I meant 330mm! Or 13 ins.
Tightening it up I followed Haynes - I tightened the suspension arms' inner pivot bolts and anti-roll bar bolts when the car was back on its wheels.
Is it worth freeing it all off then going through the tightening procedure again?

JohnD · Post by **JohnD** » 07 Jul 2004, 23:39

You didn't need to slacken the anti-roll bar clamps to replace the lower arms. You can lever the roll bar down far enough to break the ball joint. Make sure you've got the lower ball joint correctly positioned in the bottom of the hub carrier.

ralph · Post by **ralph** » 09 Jul 2004, 15:26

I replaced the arms three months ago at MoT time - the anti-roll bar was slackened when I was fighting to drill off the inner sleeve of the lower arm bush which had welded itself onto the bar.
Lower ball joint was seated ok, so I slackened it all off again (roll bar clamps, guide bar clamp and inner pivot bolts) and jumped up and down on the bonnet before tightening it back up. Fingers crossed.
By the way, the guide bar clamp bolt was impossible to release because you can't get a spanner on the top of the bolt while its nut is turned because of the shape of the clamp.
I hacksawed it off and replaced it with a cap bolt with an 8mm allen head on it - much easier. I'm hoping the guide bar and a badly positioned roll bar was to blame for scrubbing the tyre. Thanks for the pointers John.