
Glad your wheels are on the way to being sorted! I was at the stage of doubting the machine but it's never lied before. Am glad we went with it in the end though as it seemed to have made a difference when we had it out.
David.
Moderators: RichardW, myglaren
Good point - it was on high at the time I checked. If I rock the steering wheel back and forth vigorously with the wheels on the ground there is a clonk from somewhere that can be felt on the steering wheel...RichardW wrote:I've found that putting the suspension on high can mask play in TRE - I'd re-check with the wheels on the ground. Give the wheel a good shake on the horizontal axis, if there's play in the TRE you'll hear it clonking.
I suppose it could be an inner track rod joint too. There is definitely steering kickback if you hit certain types of corrugations - especially if you hit them at an angle or if you're turning right into the corrugation. A drop link shouldn't cause that but swivel joint or either track rod joint potentially could.Drop links can be noisy, even when new if cheap, but yes, shouldn't contribute to steering kick back. How's the tracking looking? Changing the inner track rod joint on mine cured a lot of noise....
I helped my Dad change the lower balljoint (and lower arm) on his Xantia and we did it on the car without removing the hub, but I can't remember the exact details of what we did as it was 9 years ago now...If the bottom BJ does need doing, I've got big bar and extender, and vice to hold it if required - but I'm also thinking of buying one of these which I reckon would fetch it out no bother. Just need an excuse really![]()
I can see where you're coming from Simon but I doubt. You still really need to counter-hold the hub in my opinion. Even using a rattle gun I think the temptation for it to turn the whole hub and exert force on the steering rack will be very strong.Mandrake wrote: If I use a breaker bar on the bottom balljoint (with the correct tool) the force of me pulling on the bar will also (unless supported at the pivot) try to pull the hub sideways and potentially damage the strut top rubber, however if I was to use that same socket tool on the rattle gun and hold the rattle gun steady, it would impart only rotational force with no side thrust on the strut assembly ?
Thus the rattle gun combined with the right tool to fit the balljoint outer should be able to undo it without any extra support of the hub besides me holding the rattle gun steady ??
Got one here Mike. My grandad's old blacksmith's vice..superloopy wrote:But then you need an industrial sized vice mounted extremely rigidly to be able to withstand a mighty amount of torque needed to separate said bottom joint from hub.
I think I agree with Simon here, the mass of the hub and carrier is enough that the torque reaction through the steering will be no more than the torque through the handle of the rattle gun.CitroJim wrote:I can see where you're coming from Simon but I doubt. You still really need to counter-hold the hub in my opinion. Even using a rattle gun I think the temptation for it to turn the whole hub and exert force on the steering rack will be very strong.Mandrake wrote: If I use a breaker bar on the bottom balljoint (with the correct tool) the force of me pulling on the bar will also (unless supported at the pivot) try to pull the hub sideways and potentially damage the strut top rubber, however if I was to use that same socket tool on the rattle gun and hold the rattle gun steady, it would impart only rotational force with no side thrust on the strut assembly ?
Thus the rattle gun combined with the right tool to fit the balljoint outer should be able to undo it without any extra support of the hub besides me holding the rattle gun steady ??
Chris and I looked at this problem at the weekend and decided the only way would be to put a bar bolted across the hub flange to hold it as we felt the forces put on the steering rack would otherwise be too great...
It's not a hard job by any means to have the whole hub off...
How much force is going through the steering components on a fast bend at 100+mph though ? That's within the car's design limits. I realise it's a different sort of force, but these components are pretty strong.CitroJim wrote:We need a definitive answer to this![]()
I'll admit I don't like to use too much force on steering components so I may well be being very conservative here...
When I fitted my vice I welded up a frame of angle iron and bolted the vice down through that, and put in a 4x2 support under the edge of the bench. Not had any problems with it trying to movesuperloopy wrote:Bolt it down with bolts of biblical proportions also thenCitroJim wrote:It's well bolted Mike and if they are extremely tight the whole bench moves...superloopy wrote: Must be bolted to a bench with biblical sized bolts then .... my vice was whimpishly inadequate