Rover 75 - Lower Hub Joint
 

Hi all

Today I revisited an historic project to replace the front shocks on my Rover. After MUCH effort I have finally completed the offside (broken pinch bolt resulting, finally, in new hub carrier and bearing - long story). Today I tackled the nearside and within 2 1/2 hours had successfully removed, re-built and re-installed the strut assembly. It was going so well up to that point.

I then struggled and failed miserably to get the lower hub joint back together - I cannot fathom how to get the pin (or whatever it's called) to line up with the hole in the hub carrier. Does anyone have any suggestions?

To make matters worse in my efforts to get the thing to fit I managed to pull the driveshaft loose at the middle joint - it became rather floppy and clearly wasn't connected with anything within the rubber gator. It does push back in but am rather concerned that I may have damaged it. Should I be worried?

Many thanks :)

with the pin, I think just "gentle slow shaking" of the strut while pushing up on the underside of the arm helps.

For some reason they can be a cow to get apart and put back together, then a gentle "shake" and hey presto.

macafee2

Thanks Macafee2 - I'm not sure what the problem was with my set-up but gentle shaking, after about 40 minutes, turned into more forceful pulling, pushing and cursing! ( which is when the driveshaft dropped out). I'll be trying again this weekend so hopefully a fresh day will yield results.

Cheers

Many will laugh at this, but here we go !

The orientation of the ball joint to the hub carrier is set in a specific position and it is for this reason, the hub nut MUST still be tight-ish to pull the hub carrier into the correct orientation. If this is ignored it is likely that the joint pin will engage back into the hub carrier, but consumes plenty of manipulation and even more swearing.
I have done enough clutches, lower arms and coil spring changes to enable the theory to be best practice, also it never hurts to share an easier way to do stuff.
Any critique of this, should try it before making stupid meaningless statements on this subject.
It is understood that some B-J's simply fall out of the pinch area, and similarly go back in the same way, but some simply don't !
Finally, please remember that if you spread the jaws of the hub carrier, it will most likely become deformed and not allow for a proper clamping effect with an ovalised pinch.