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Sunday 2 May 2010

Strut Gaiter Replacement

I replaced the Front Strut Gaitors on the DHC on Saturday, not a job I was looking forward to. I did not want to wrestle with removing the bottom ball joints and the track rod ends, so I firstly removed the tie rod ends from the calipers and hub on both sides, unbolted the track arm from the subframe, removed the front anti roll bar, and unbolted the strut assembly from Turret, propping it up at an angle on axle stand and bricks without stretching the flexi brake too much.
Hub Assembly dropped from Turret.

Next I removed the spring pans, using a spring compressor to release the tension on spring, then removed the split gaitor, bump stop and spring.
Spring Pan Removed.

Whilst suspension was off the car I applied a fair amount of waxoil to the turret/wheelarch area, plus a fair bit over myself!!! Hate the stuff.
Waxoil on Turrets/Inner Wing.

Re-assembly was next, alwys harder than removal! I replaced the nylon bushes on the spring pan with needle roller bearings from S and S Preparations for better slow speed manouvering.
New Gaitor attached to Spring Pan, showing needle roller bearing in place of nylon bush on spring pan, the shocker sticks up through the hole locating on bearing inner face.

Spring, Gaitor/Spring pan and bumpstop where then placed in postion over the strut, then cone and upper mounting fitted and nyloc nut attached to hold in position before removing spring compressor. The strut was then re-assembled loosely to turret and track arm loosely fitted to sub frame.
Next the suspension was compressed by trolley jack to enable the bottom of strut gaitor to be eased over its location on top of strut tube, a tricky and fiddly job, then held in place by tie wrap.
I then repeated for the other side, before wrestling the front anti roll bar in place, I am never sure of the correct way to fit the anti roll bar easily, however I usually compress suspension on both sides so that track arm is at its max outward swing point, I place one end of anti roll bar loosely in one track arm, then with someone under car to guide the other end in, I place one foot firmly on the end, back against my fence, and push like hell, those in Norfolk CT will know of my back problem, so with much grumbling Gill had to do this bit whilst I guided the anti roll bar end in.
Next was to fasten Anti roll bar back to subrame, with anti dive kit blocks and U brackets which did not give any problems, then tightened up all fixings, and fitted track control arms back on.
Job Complete.

I was going to apply some paint to the struts and clean the wheels on Sunday morning but rain has stopped play for a while

Gills FHC came off SORN on Saturday, so we picked that up from the Barn, dumping her Citreon there for 6 months, on the drive back everything seemed OK, so we have now got two Triumphs at home.

Had a few hours of clear weather in the end today, so finished off by painting the front struts, a good clean up of the alloys, then a little spin to check out everything. The needle rollers in the spring pans really do help with slow speed manouvering, parking, etc. Much easier on the arms, by way of checking I also did the same manouveres on Gills FHC which is much harder to park with standard setup.

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