Next job on the list... Upper rear arms, which had worn ball joints.
IMG_8955-2 by
Chris, on Flickr
On the face of it, it seemed a relatively easy task, undo the ball joint (19mm nut) and the nut/bolt (22mm) through the bushes.
Of course, it's not that easy. We had to drop the rear subframe by around 15mm (but still keeping it on it's mounting bolts) to get the rearmost bush mounting bolts out. They have various C shaped shims either side of the arm inside of the mount, which is something to be aware of if you choose to do this yourself.
IMG_8959 by
Chris, on Flickr
The ball joint is an odd setup too. The 19mm nut is a prevailing torque nut for a start, bit it needs to be;
IMG_8970 by
Chris, on Flickr
The stud needs to unwind and come out from the ball joint socket, the prevailing torque nut means that this happens, in theory. The same applies when it comes to refitting it. The stud should wind into the ball joint, bottom out and then the nut should tighten up.
Thing about all this is, in order for it to come apart as it should, it needs to be free of corrosion.
The same applies to the nuts and bolts through the upper arms. I was talking to Stuart at Trident Spares and he was saying that in the case of these, they can corrode, expand and crack the pivot points open... Which is a bit worrying.
Fortunately, whoever replaced the arms before us (they were date stamped 2006, car is 2005) used a suitable assembly lube and it all came apart as it should;
IMG_8961 by
Chris, on Flickr
And we put it back together with the new arms using copper slip... But I forgot to take a pic of it reassembled.
Next job was to put the rear end - bumper, heat shields, boot floor, electrics, battery & interior trim back in.
I'd made a half hearted attempt to clean the bumper one evening last week;
IMG_1467 by
Chris, on Flickr
And the heatshield needed a clean as well;
IMG_1471 by
Chris, on Flickr
The heat shield was easy enough, 10 min with some degreaser and a stiff brush was all it took. I also made some repairs around one of the mounts to the boot floor.
As for the bumper, I left it at my parent's house and as if by magic...
IMG_1473-2 by
Chris, on Flickr
IMG_1478-3 by
Chris, on Flickr
I also gave the exhaust pipes a bit of a clean;
IMG_1475 by
Chris, on Flickr
IMG_1477 by
Chris, on Flickr
Finally back in one piece;
IMG_1480 by
Chris, on Flickr
IMG_1479 by
Chris, on Flickr
It's now nearly at a point where I'm happy with it, mechanically.
It could probably do with a service and a gearbox oil change.
The brakes are OK..
Back tyres are nearly on the wear bars, new ones have been ordered.
And it needs a new N/S track rod. I'm going to order that this week and once that's been fitted, get it in for tracking - It will have needed to be done after the rears arms, so it makes sense to do it all in one go.