Hi everyone,

I am currently lowering my SDi with just springs.

I have so far completed the back and last night got cracking with the front.

Now, I have started on the drivers side and I disconnected the droplink, and then undid the nut securing the hub to the bottom of the hub and split the hub. Once done I undid the three nuts holding the top of the strut and the strut a good old whack upwards out of the hub. However it has got to a point now where the strut is still in the hub by about 10mil but cant be persuaded to move any further up as there isnt any space.

How do I go about it (how did you guys get around it?)

Many thanks

Stu

Disconnect the bottom steering arm.

18mm nut if i remember correctly.

That'll give you the room to take it out.

Ah I was fearing you would say that! I have started to undo said nut but got stuck when the thread started to turn with the nut. If I get stuck could I get it off by removing the track rod from the steering rack without removing the track rod from the hub (if that makes sense)

Ps love your car! black fabia's look awesome

there is an allen key bolt on top of the ball joint which may hold the thread while u undo the nut. i had this problem on both sides and ended up cuttin the nuts of both track rod ends and replacin with new ones

No, you dont need to disconnect it.

Just get some leverage on the arm, possibly jack up at the bottom of the arm then try and take it out again.

If tat fails, you might need to get some heat on the nut, heat it untill it glows, then it should be for comming off.

You only need to take the bottom arm off on the drivers side.

The other side should be ok because of the shorter driveshaft im sure.

Cheers for the comment.

Ah nice one! I'll have a crack at it when I get home. Was fuming last night in the rain as i couldnt understand why it wouldnt budge!!!

they love to test us, these little cars dont they??

there is an allen key bolt on top of the ball joint which may hold the thread while u undo the nut. i had this problem on both sides and ended up cuttin the nuts of both track rod ends and replacin with new ones

From what I can tell this allen key bolt has rounded off as i tried putting a 6mm allen key in the top and it just turned!

Yeah the allen sockets on the steering arms are crap.

I tried it once, rounded it.

Then never tried it again.

Is there anyone else on briskoda stupid enough to tinker with an SDi do you know?

Stuart_Hatch.

Quite a cool SDI.

http://briskoda.net/fabia-i/latest-pics-my-fabia/122565/

Looks a bit different to that now though.

All the newer pictures have been deleted. :confused:

Haha! must be something about Stu's and SDi's!!! although I assumed that his was a VRs!!! how wrong was I!

If you put lots of heat on the track rod end they IMHO you should consider replacing it as chances are you'll have melted all the grease.

From what I can tell this allen key bolt has rounded off as i tried putting a 6mm allen key in the top and it just turned!

I thought it was 7mm?

These can be buggars to get off - I ended up with the top hole not rounding but bulging and splitting - I think that you will find that it is the selflocking nylon element that has gone very hard and the exposed track rod end thread has gone rusty and rough - a fatal combination. I hacksawed the nylon top section off with lots of horizontal and vertical cuts - you'll need new track rod ends and securing nuts. Oh and as you have found, you need to disconnect the driver's side drive shaft so that you can pull the strut and hub out a bit before dropping the hub down off the strut as the drive shaft fouls the crossmember(?) - remember to buy a new hub nut. Good luck - these jobs are really mid summer long warm dry nights affairs - but you will have worked that out by now!

Before trying to remove a track rod end I find it better to wire brush the threads and then spray with WD40.

Spring compressors?

CHT224 3piece Coil Spring Compressor - Machine Mart

right well I did it!! need took the whole unit out in the end (drive shaft and all!) only to find I had b***ered the track rod end and drop link too!!

So they've been replaced and its all road going again!!!

which is a shame really as I was using the girlfriends corrado until it was done!

Thanks for all your help!