3 minutes ago, J.R. said:

Oh and buy a long reach hexagon drive to be able to retain the piston rod while you remove the nut using a 14mm spark plug socket with a hexagon end to the body, no room for a ring spanner and Allen key.

Ive bought a set of laser strut nut sockets because my new struts have a 22mm top nut & its a torx that holds the piston on the B4s.

 

I will use a 22mm pass through socket & spanner to do the initial tightening & then change to the laser socket so i can use my torque wrench.

 

You are a great help by the way, thank you!

1 hour ago, OccySport said:

I have all the correct tools for the torque values & I also have the knuckle spreader socket.

 

My idea of jacking the strut out comes from this video

 

 

That could work but could quickly get nasty once (or if) the strut comes out as it would be free to swing around & the wooden block would almost certainly dislodge.

 

I tried doing a similar thing but less dangerous by using my slim spring clamps inside the wheelarch to reduce the effective length of the strut, it does not need much to clear the knuckle, however having taken the spring load off the top bearing that is when I was showered with its ball bearings 🥴.

 

There wasn't really room for the spring clamps & I'm not sure it would have worked, when I had the bearings I removed the knuckle from the driveshaft & it wasn't a big deal in the end.

 

The safe & secure way to reduce the strut length is to thread a pair of ratchet straps though the coil spring 180° apart, jack up the lower arm until the vehicle starts to lift from the axle stand, tighten both straps and then release the jack, it's a variation on how I would safely remove coil over springs from 7's where I would compress the unit in my drill press & secure the spring with the ratchet strap to remove the retaining collar or compress & secure the spring before fitting.

18 minutes ago, J.R. said:

That could work but could quickly get nasty once (or if) the strut comes out as it would be free to swing around & the wooden block would almost certainly dislodge.

 

I tried doing a similar thing but less dangerous by using my slim spring clamps inside the wheelarch to reduce the effective length of the strut, it does not need much to clear the knuckle, however having taken the spring load off the top bearing that is when I was showered with its ball bearings 🥴.

 

There wasn't really room for the spring clamps & I'm not sure it would have worked, when I had the bearings I removed the knuckle from the driveshaft & it wasn't a big deal in the end.

 

The safe & secure way to reduce the strut length is to thread a pair of ratchet straps though the coil spring 180° apart, jack up the lower arm until the vehicle starts to lift from the axle stand, tighten both straps and then release the jack, it's a variation on how I would safely remove coil over springs from 7's where I would compress the unit in my drill press & secure the spring with the ratchet strap to remove the retaining collar or compress & secure the spring before fitting.

Excellent idea I actually have some brand new ratchet straps.

 

So, I will jack the lower arm & secure the spring with ratchet straps then use another jack with the wood as in the video to hold along with the straps & then let the lower arm back down & hopefully the strut will be free. Undo the ratchet straps then slowly let the other jack down.

14 hours ago, OccySport said:

Do you actually need to replace top mounts & bearings or are you just going all out the belt & braces way.

Just doing belts and braces for what they cost. If either of them fail you have to take the whole lot off again. Plus my car has done 86000 miles so at some point they would eventually fault. 

The damper will not swing round as it is still secured by the top mount, so stops it flexing.

12 hours ago, Ecomatt said:

Just doing belts and braces for what they cost. If either of them fail you have to take the whole lot off again. Plus my car has done 86000 miles so at some point they would eventually fault. 

I fitted my front shocks today along with all four pro kit springs & it took two of us 7 hours to do. The top mounts & bearings were all good on mine, car is only on 21k but still rusty on a few bolts & I wire brushed them off in a drill & reused them because I had no choice to get the job done as alignment is booked in for Friday.

 

I done the front struts without removing the axle bolts & think they would need to be slackened off in a garage anyway because they looked very rusty.

 

I have a full list of PR codes for my car & one of those codes are saying that it has sports supension fitted & I was very shocked of the size difference from those original sport springs against the Eibach springs. I didn't need to use spring compressors on the new springs & the strut went together really easy.

 

I will hopefully be fitting the B4 shocks tomorrow evening if the weather is nice. Had some rain today but got it done in the end.

 

Photo of the front springs side by side.

23 hours ago, Ecomatt said:

The damper will not swing round as it is still secured by the top mount, so stops it flexing.

 

Yeah right, after all the raison d'etre of a Macpherson Strut rubber to metal bonded top mounting is to not be able to flex 🤣

10 hours ago, OccySport said:

I done did the front struts without removing the axle bolts

What bolts are you referring to?

 

7 hours and you still have not refitted the struts or have I misunderstood?

 

If you did not need to use spring compressors on the front strut springs then you are going to be in for a surprise when you put the car back on its wheels, I hope you like Lowriders!

11 hours ago, J.R. said:

What bolts are you referring to?

 

7 hours and you still have not refitted the struts or have I misunderstood?

 

If you did not need to use spring compressors on the front strut springs then you are going to be in for a surprise when you put the car back on its wheels, I hope you like Lowriders!

The drive shaft bolts to be able to remove the hub carriers are what I was referring to.

The new front struts & all four new springs were fitted in the 7 hours but still need

to fit the new rear shocks, couldn't do them in the rain & was getting too late to

wait around until it stopped raining. Still not fitted them yet.

When I was rebuilding the front struts & didn't need the spring compressors, I

thought that I had been sent the wrong springs & was umming and ahing before

I actually went ahead with them. The car isn’t as low as I thought it was going to

be & looks like it could go a bit lower.

 

Photo of both front Eibach pro springs fitted & the standard height at the rear

OK, I had not realised that you were going for a lowered stance.

 

Nonetheless its not good form to have the springs become loose on their platforms on full rebound, I have a feeling that those front springs are going to be a lot stiffer as the drop is not as either of us expected considering the lack of preload.

 

Its really good to know that the strut will come out without removing the knuckle and that very very tight driveshaft retaining bolt, I am kicking myself for having given you a good suggestion re the ratchet straps yet when I did mine a few months back I was farting around with spring clamps which were too large for the space, then the bearing balls showering made me abandon the job and instead of using my head and thinking of the ratchet straps I copped out and removed the knuckles on attempt number 2.

38 minutes ago, J.R. said:

OK, I had not realised that you were going for a lowered stance.

 

Nonetheless its not good form to have the springs become loose on their platforms on full rebound, I have a feeling that those front springs are going to be a lot stiffer as the drop is not as either of us expected considering the lack of preload.

 

Its really good to know that the strut will come out without removing the knuckle and that very very tight driveshaft retaining bolt, I am kicking myself for having given you a good suggestion re the ratchet straps yet when I did mine a few months back I was farting around with spring clamps which were too large for the space, then the bearing balls showering made me abandon the job and instead of using my head and thinking of the ratchet straps I copped out and removed the knuckles on attempt number 2.

The springs aren't loose because they compressed slightly as the top strut nut was tightened, just enough thread to get started without spring compressors & any future removal should be easier.

 

I didn't use ratchet straps because my mate said that he wouldn't help me do the job if I did 😆

 

I took note of what you said about the bearings though & raised the suspension with a scissor jack under the brake disc & then used a trolley jack with the wood method to hold the tension before letting the scissor jack back down. Drivers side took some persuading with a mallet & was the more awkward side, passenger side literally fell out when the scissor jack was wound down.

 

Thanks for the heads up about the bearings & that is exactly why I joined this forum, so we can learn from each other 👍

 

Photo showing the knuckle dropping out when tension is released from the scissor jack on passenger side

 

 

 

 

9 hours ago, OccySport said:

I didn't use ratchet straps because my mate said that he wouldn't help me do the job if I did

I wouldn't have either. That's a good way to have to deal with an escaping coil spring.

8 hours ago, KenONeill said:

I wouldn't have either. That's a good way to have to deal with an escaping coil spring.

The spring wouldn't have gone anywhere because the strut would still have been built & fixed to the car by the top mounts. Could of hurt one of us though & wouldn't want any fingers squashed if a strap snapped because it was a hell of a lot of pressure hence the trolley jack to let it down really slowly.

20 minutes ago, OccySport said:

wouldn't want any fingers squashed if a strap snapped

Exactly. The only way I release strut springs from the clamps is if I'm replacing the springs rather than just the dampers.

9 hours ago, KenONeill said:

I wouldn't have either. That's a good way to have to deal with an escaping coil spring.

 

If you had read what I posted or perhaps had I explained it better it was to make the risky job that OCCYsport has just done much safer.

 

He was jacking up the strut with a block of would against the force of the spring while hammering/levering the steering knuckle away from underneath which would then leave the strut free to move sideways if the action of removing the knuckle did not do that anyway, the block of wood is balanced on a trolley jack and pushing off centre on the side of the spring platform, very likely for the wood to fly out sideways and the strut to shoot down where hands are probably moving the knuckle around.

 

My suggestion was that while the strut was jacked up and attached so "relatively" stable to use a pair of opposing ratchet straps to retain, not compress (the jack did that) the road spring, then the knuckle can be removed from the strut in complete safety, a pair of  ratchet straps unless they were like the flimsy tin can ones I bought on Ebay will more than cope with the 1 or 2 inches of compression needed to clear the knuckle and as Occy has said the spring will be retained within the strut.

 

I have never used ratchet straps to compress a road spring although would do so in an emergency, I use my drill press for 2" race springs and the hydraulic press for road springs and then use the straps to retain them in the compressed condition, I release the load on the press progressively to make sure they dont slide around the spring to the same side as each other.