Darren S
ClioSport Club Member
Further to the thread....
http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showthread.php?t=373832
...I will never, ever darken the area of my front suspension ever again! Its taken the best part of 2 days to get both front shocks swapped out - though admitedly, the 2nd shock only took around 3 hours - lol.
The plus side is that I learnt shitloads about what goes where and how things work inside those wheel-arches.
The key problem, was the top mounts - pure and simple. Those threads on the 6mm hex spindles were corroded quite badly and after spending hours trying to get the first one off yesterday, I simply lost patience today after struggling with the second. Nearly an hour gone with various grips ripping shards out of the suspension shaft while the 21mm socket and long-arm combo simply span that central spindle around. The 6mm hex insert had the toughness of microwaved chocolate and I'd given up on pursuing that idea ages ago.
So, acknowledging that I simply didn't have the kit to do it myself, I put the wheel back on, and drove about 1/2 mile to the nearest tyre place. Walked in and asked the bloke behind the counter if he could do me a favour! Gave him the 21mm socket and asked if he could air-gun the top mount off. Sure enough, one b*****d spin of the air-gun got it off and then I just got it back on finger-tight for the 1/2 mile trip back.
Learning from the mistakes of yesterday, the build-up of the 2nd shock went through really quickly - even more so because the track-rod end on the driver's side was ok. The nearside one was fecked yesterday (split boot for a start), so I needed to get another one of those. From Reno Manchester back to Ashton-under-Lyne (approx 7 miles) took an hour-and-ten in rush-hour traffic. :dapprove:
So, anyways, it's all back together now. I also popped into the local garage guys to get the tracking realigned - I didn't want to trust my best guesstimate - lol.
Frustrating in many ways, but quite rewarding and worth it in others. I would strongly, strongly advise anyone thinking of doing anything similar (on their own) to not bother - unless they have an air-gun to use. If I'd had one of those handy, I would have had the car back to normal in a fraction of the time.
Thanks (it must be said) go to my dad for providing the drive-way, extra tools and another pair of hands for the job - and to Chris & Nic (again!) for sorting me out the replacement Reno shocks. Cheers guys. :approve:
D.
http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showthread.php?t=373832
...I will never, ever darken the area of my front suspension ever again! Its taken the best part of 2 days to get both front shocks swapped out - though admitedly, the 2nd shock only took around 3 hours - lol.
The plus side is that I learnt shitloads about what goes where and how things work inside those wheel-arches.
The key problem, was the top mounts - pure and simple. Those threads on the 6mm hex spindles were corroded quite badly and after spending hours trying to get the first one off yesterday, I simply lost patience today after struggling with the second. Nearly an hour gone with various grips ripping shards out of the suspension shaft while the 21mm socket and long-arm combo simply span that central spindle around. The 6mm hex insert had the toughness of microwaved chocolate and I'd given up on pursuing that idea ages ago.
So, acknowledging that I simply didn't have the kit to do it myself, I put the wheel back on, and drove about 1/2 mile to the nearest tyre place. Walked in and asked the bloke behind the counter if he could do me a favour! Gave him the 21mm socket and asked if he could air-gun the top mount off. Sure enough, one b*****d spin of the air-gun got it off and then I just got it back on finger-tight for the 1/2 mile trip back.
Learning from the mistakes of yesterday, the build-up of the 2nd shock went through really quickly - even more so because the track-rod end on the driver's side was ok. The nearside one was fecked yesterday (split boot for a start), so I needed to get another one of those. From Reno Manchester back to Ashton-under-Lyne (approx 7 miles) took an hour-and-ten in rush-hour traffic. :dapprove:
So, anyways, it's all back together now. I also popped into the local garage guys to get the tracking realigned - I didn't want to trust my best guesstimate - lol.
Frustrating in many ways, but quite rewarding and worth it in others. I would strongly, strongly advise anyone thinking of doing anything similar (on their own) to not bother - unless they have an air-gun to use. If I'd had one of those handy, I would have had the car back to normal in a fraction of the time.
Thanks (it must be said) go to my dad for providing the drive-way, extra tools and another pair of hands for the job - and to Chris & Nic (again!) for sorting me out the replacement Reno shocks. Cheers guys. :approve:
D.
