Hi everyone,

 

In the next few days the old felly will be treated to a new front suspension wishbone; and I have a couple of queries relating to this.

 

First, there is a pop rivet that needs to be drilled out at the rear bush mounting; when fitting the new assembly, is it crucial that a new rivet is fitted?

 

Secondly, in the event that genuine parts are not readily available: it would be handy to know the dimensions and thread details of A) the ball joint pinch bolt and, the front pivot bolt. Does anyone have this info?

 

Any help/ advice much appreciated.

My 1.3 pickup has been treated to two brand new ones, I questioned the garage when it came back with no rivets but they have said it's because it didn't have any to start with, the holes were empty. Now I thought it did, but I doubt they'd forget drilling them out! I'd like to know the true answer but they obviously believe it to be safe and I have done around 200miles no problem, I wondered if they were either safety nuts or locating rivets during manufacturer, the Haynes manual says later models came with nuts instead. Hope this is of some use!

Eurocar parts has 1.3 arms on special last time I looked, £60 an arm. I managed to get one genuine arm on ebay for £30 brand new clearance too. Do you have anti roll bars, arms are slightly different but tbf most have the fittings and if you don't have ARBs they fit anyway (it's the other way round that's the problem!)

Some information on the ball joint bolt here http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/331838-ball-joint-nut/

The front pivot bolt, with part number :

N 10438701

         

fitted bolt, hexagon head / for models with reinforced body
M10X1,25X30 /

 

Cheap Pop riveters can be bought for less than a tenner, seem to remember wicks do one for £7.99

The pop rivet does not have to be drilled out. When installing the bracket for the rear bush, a 6 mm diameter centering drift has to be inserted into the rivet hole. After the bracket is centered  and two M12 bolts are torqued, the drift is removed from the hole. I thought it is obvious a puny pop rivet does nothing near a massive 12mm bolt. It's a centering hole.

Okay, cheers people. The Haynes book states drilling the pop rivet. (I've not replaced a wishbone with a pop rivet fitted before); and yes, it must be there, as I suspected, for alignment purposes. Bizarrely, referring back to the Haynes, it actually states fitting the new rivet after fitting and torquing up the two bolts! Seems a bit of an afterthought that...

 

Incidentally, the complete assembly cost €46 all in from www.irishautoparts.ie, (about £33 sterling and better value than euro car parts by the sound of it)!

Haynes... yeah...