refitting Macphers strut

[jgra1]

chaps, I need a bit of guidance here..

I have replaced a strut upper bearing on a psa (206).. taking the strut out, I decided to break the outer bottom ball joint, to allow the hub to go low enough to get the strut out..

refitted all and I cannot for the life of me get the hub up enough, and the lower arm low enough, for engagement.. cost 2 hours and got nowhere..

this is often a pain on a PSA but I have managed it before..

I guess my question is : Is it possible to refit the strut, without breaking that joint?
I almost feel like finding a BOL! either to burn it to get warm, or even read-up on this section..


John..who has forgotten how cars cause aches....

[jgra1]

ignore all of that..

I have a plan

[Deanxm]

Is it a cunning plan?

D

[red_dwarfers]

Me and Toby had this problem on his 406. If I remember rightly, we used a long metal bar pivoting under the subframe to push the wishbone down then popped the hub in.

[myglaren]

[jgra1]

Dean, for some reason I decided to leave the shock upper nut kinda loose until the car's weight was on it.. the few threads remaining could be 10mm of strut shrinkage that I need.. so - all back out of car tomorrow, sort the strut out and refit..

Kev
I tried 4 different types of long lever - and working on my own all I could do was eject the driveshaft from the box, and watch the oil.. it's hard to explain, but there isn't an easy way of lever the hub over the joint without mess and swearing ... I tried 6 times at jacking wood under the disc, but again the hub goes up, and either doesn't then move over the joint, or worse pulls away from it etc.. also, I keep finding the lower extent of the wishbone travel, and it's till not enough to get under the hub..

Steve, if I had one of those, i may have used it

[red_dwarfers]

Sledgehammer always reminds me of this advert for the Mk3 Cav. I do like Vauxhall's old adverts.


The amount of innuendo in that song

I guess it is easier with two. Like you say, got to be some give in the strut somewhere.

[HDI]

Simple, put a jack under the lower arm and jack it up until the ball joint can be fitted.

[jgra1]

HDI the lower arm needs to get lower to engage with the hub, or the hub higher.. so that doesn't work ..

All sorted now, strut off, rebuilt on the bench and the 10mm I gained from that was enough.. a good morning on that, drop links and rear brakes.. but then the cambelt job.. more in the pug forum..
thanks for all suggestions on this though.
John

[addo]

There are two approaches not mentioned here. I'm assuming the droplink was well out the way.

One is to remove the lower arm off its subframe, tack onto the hub by a few threads and then jack under the balljoint stump until your lower arm mounts are within coo-ee. Although it sounds extra work, sometimes it's fastest.

Other approach is to make up a length of flat angle iron in 2×2 or 2×3 that fastens across the upper two bolts of the hub with the broader flat section sticking out. Thi is used as a lip to catch the jack cup and therefore raise the whole strut/hub assembly.

[citronut]

so are you sayung you did not seperate the lower swivle, this in its self makes for a harder job,

you must have had one almighty strugle getting the strut out of the hub in the first place,

my old boss always used to say the longer route is usualy the quicker route,

regards malcolm

[jgra1]

hi Malcolm, I did choose to seperate hub from swivel, before knocking hub off the strut.. the problem I had was getting the swivel back into the hub.. the lower arm wouldnt go any lower and I couldn't raise the hub on my own, effectively..

The main problem was that i did not do the strut upper nut fully tight (I was leaving it until all was fitted) so the whole strut was about 10-15mm longer than it should have been.. it only took a few mins to get strut out again, recheck the new upper bearing, and tighten all up.. back in car, bolted the top bearing up with the 3x13mm, then it was reasonably straightforward to get the hub back on to it, and the lower swivel back into the hub..

the strut top bearing was.. interesting.. one ball bearing remained, and that was old and brown.. the other ?15 were awol the bearing seat had partial destruction..

pics soon.. its a wonder he ever managed to turn left..

Adam it has one of those lower arms, that sits within the subframe? looks a pain to remove to be honest (unlike xants etc) - it has two flat donut bushes instead of 1 and a P.

[addo]

We almost never crack the strut to hub mount. Sometimes the outer tie rod is unhooked to allow more freedom of wiggling.

[jgra1]

I was doing the drop links, so it helped having those out of the way.. was thinking about breaking the outer tie rod etc.. but got away without

[addo]

We've got one that seems to have been discontinued by Blue Point. It's a dual horseshoe design that has one thread only to compress the strut spring. Lots simpler than the dual clamps most people faff about with.

Much like this: http://www.costplustools.com/Sir-Tools- ... _7277.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;