Help - rear suspension repair

[sib8292]

Disaster struck this morning. Having finished a small job under my (wife's to make it worse) car this morning I started to lower it without realising I hadn't fully removed one of the axle stands from under the car. The whole weight was taken on one of the rear lower control arms, the one which has a ball joint at the hub end, and which cracked as a result and will need to be replaced.

Leave aside the marital advice!

It looks reasonably straightforward, but that I will to remove or at least loosen the anti roll bar to allow the bolt through the inner end to be withdrawn.

Any help on the process would be gratefully received. Also the torque settings for the various nuts and bolts if any one has them.

Stupid, stupid, stupid....

 

[deMort]

Mistakes happen .. i've made plenty over the years so not something to worry about .

Its not a hard job .. really a geo is needed afterwards but if you mark the original settings and refit to the same place then you can just about get away with it .

To be honest though a geo every few years is imho a good idea .

The only issue you might have is the inner bolt seizing .. if that has happened then it has to be cut out .. then it becomes a very unpleasant job but fingers crossed it won't be .

Torque setting .. i think .. are below but to be honest .. tight is tight .

 

[sib8292]

Thanks Iain. Surprisingly my wife's reaction to the news that I had damaged her car was quite relaxed!

Can I ask for a bit more help - from you or anyone else who can assist?

First do I have to remove the anti roll bar to get at the head of the inner bolt which secures the control arm, or is there another solution? In its present position it blocks access to the head

At present the car is supported on the near side with the wheels on the off side on the ground and therefore carrying weight. Should I put some load on the near side rear so that the anti roll bar is under tension both sides? Or should I take the weight off the offside rear wheel too?

I am a bit limited for space on the offside so would prefer to leave the car as it is if I can, but don't want to risk a further problem by just unbolting the bar if the set up isn't right.

Obviously my knowledge of suspension matters is limited (very) so any input from anyone with more experience than me will be appreciated.

 

[deMort]

I have a 19mm spanner that fits on the track inner bolt for geo adjustment , but not every spanner will fit to be fair .

As you are replacing this arm then the bolt needs to be removed .. this as far as i'm aware will require the removal of the x4 13mm bolts holding the anti roll bar in place... i can't see it coming out without this being done .

You wont need to disconnect the link rods .

Now then .. one wheel hanging and the other on the floor will put tension on the roll bar ..

I always do jobs like this on a ramp so have little knowledge of doing it this way ....

You could try undoing the link rod that side to relieve pressure but it might be a struggle to remove and refit .. i'm unsure there .

Best way is both wheels hanging , undo the 4 bolts , lower the bar then remove the bolt and arm .

Under load and you will have tension .. how much i can't say .

You will need a ball joint splitter for the outer ball joint .. tuning fork is ok as you are not refitting the old arm so boot damage doesn't matter .

 

[sib8292]

Thanks again Iain and for confirming what I suspcetd that load needs to be removed from the anti roll bar first. Having done that I managed to free 3 of the 4 bolts holding the clamps. The fourth is very tight winding in and out and I suspect some corrosion has affected it. Fortunately its on the other side of the car to where I need to work and by removing the other clamp the bar has dropped out of place sufficiently to allow me access to the inner control bar through bolt. I don't want to risk stripping the thread in the alloy frame...or shearing off the bolt...

Amazingly both the inner nut and bolt and the ball joint at the outer end have all come undone quite easily so now the broken part is out and tomorrow I shall be cleaning up the fixings and installing the replacement control bar,

As you've said Iain the geo will need to be re-set, a shame as it was only done about 18 months ago and the car hasn't had a lot of use since. But it needs to be right.

I will take some pics to publish so that anyone faced with the same job for the first time can see what is involved.

Thanks again Iain

 

[deMort]

The inner bolt coming undone is the main thing .. i can say hand on heart cutting these is Not a pleasant job and i've done a few !

If you ever need an engine drop or clutch then the roll bar will need to be removed .. its not a hard job for a garage to drill and time sert the damaged bolt hole .. just something to bear in mind going forward .

geo and as mentioned you can just about get away with marking it but personally i prefer a geo check afterwards ... tyres are not cheap .