Cannot believe this took well over 4 hours. After a good couple of days soaking in plus gas the 15mm impact socket felt a good fit on the strut pinch bolt, Oh how wrong I was, I could feel this rounding off as soon as I put any force on a 12" Tbar.
Next weapon of choice was a 14mm impact socket and a 3lb lump hammer!
Managed to get this on right up to the shoulder of the nut but the Tbar would not move it, even with a few well placed hits from the lump hammer. Finally took a 36" breaker bar on the end of the impact socket and slowly but surely applied more and more pressure.
We all know that feeling when you feel the bolt "give"
but after the escapade with the rear subframe a while ago I learnt my lesson and it was forwards and backwards 1/8 of a turn at a time, this took well over 40 mins. Something I learnt today. using a breaker bar straight onto a socket you really don't want to remove from the bolt you have to be able to move the bar through 90degrees to be able to remove it from the socket and refit to continue turning. due to the length of the bar I couldn't achieve 90degree movement. A short extension has the 1/2 drive fittings at either end staggered at 45 degree so by repeatedly fitting and removing the short extension I was able to move the pinch bolt back and forth in 45 degree amounts
As the spring was broken it was an easy task to angle grind through the drop link and remove the old strut. Now, I was hoping to leave the spring compressors on to keep the strut compressed and avoid having to remove the hub to arm pinch bolt to lower the hub but there just wasn't enough room (after trying for quite a while
). So the second pinch bolt was brought into the firing line.
Pretty certain the second pinch bolt had taken lessons from the first as I first thought I would be able to crack this off as it looked to be in quite good condition, Nope, back to the next size down impact socket, lump hammer and breaker bar. And, another 30 to 40 mins being oh so nice to a pig of a bolt. Managed to split the joint without damaging the rubber boot as well
.
As usual putting things back together is always a lot easier but I still feel uncomfortable with spring compressors
, I use three as opposed to two, equally spaced to help eliminate slipping and I always count my fingers before and after use,
anyway from my goodie box, new strut, spring, top mount, drop link and spring protector and no harder than expected but one thing is for certain, I'm getting too old to be doing this sort of stuff in the cold on the drive
. Still got the other side to change the spring on in the not too distant but it looks in good condition so I'm torn at the moment as I ache and I'm cold, so it will wait.
Worth noting I last did this spring 5 yr ago and I took out what I presume where the original pinch bolts. they would have been 15 yr old then. I replaced them as you do but the replacements have certainly not lasted anywhere as long before becoming a problem to remove. I have replaced them again with bolts from rimmers but I have no intention of doing them again in another 5
.
To the others that have still to do this, good luck with the strut and hub pinch bolts. And do not attempt it if you don't have 6 sided impact sockets ( and a lump hammer
)