Broken rear spring

[grout20]

I just replaced both rear springs, having heard the nearside one "ping" a week or so ago.

In fact I found on removal (I think) the coil had also snapped a while ago and this was the second snap. You can see a shiny break and also a rusty break in one of the pictures .... both in the "bottom" coil of the spring.

A few observations etc including tips used from other contributors to this thread, and elsewhere....

I'd been spraying Plusgas on the appropriate nuts for a week and they all came undone nicely (phew!)

I undid the anti roll bar (ARB) bracket on the nearside to give a bit more room but felt I needed a bit more. The ARB rested on the exhaust (2.5 V6 saloon) and as I knew I would be forcing the upper arm down later I wanted to minimise the risk of damaging something. I made more room by loosening the ARB upper drop link nut/bolt and disconnected the bottom drop link ball joint from the ARB so the ARB would leave the exhaust alone.

Doing the offside coil was easier (no exhaust) but I still removed the ARB bracket and the bottom ARB droplink ball joint nut anyway.

Because the nearside spring break(s) were low down it left a small bit of coil still attached to the bottom rubber mount.
A: it was bluddy difficult twisting the bottom rubber mount out of the upper arm because there was little to grab hold of and it was obviously filthy mucky in there ... and
B: after getting it out, it was a nightmare getting the small broken bit of coil out of the mount for fear of damaging the rubber mount. Lots of lubrication, effort and swearing required!

The springs from DMGRS are good (thanks guys) although if you can find/get new mounting rubbers for the coils, or find a supplier of good springs that already have the rubber mounts on, then it will save a lot of lubrication, effort and swearing.....!

As suggested by GaryGee above, I used the Rover scissor jack to push the lower arm down when refitting.

I did the nearside first and tbh it scared the sh!t out of me when I realised how far I had pushed the arm down to get the new coil in. Of course with the lower damper bolt removed it allows the suspension to go totally out of shape. I thought I MUST have broken or bent something! but no ... it all regained its shape as you connect everything back up, and went back together fine. Another phew!

The offside new coil seemed to go in more easily .... perhaps just because I felt more confident having done one side...?

Lots of Bilt Hamber anti corrosion spray administered to the arms etc.

All bolts/nuts went back on nipped up, I jacked up the suspension as if it was on its wheels to put it under load, and then torque'd up everything properly. Wheels back on and test drive was good and both sides now equal height off the ground!

Took about 5 hours all told working on the drive with lots of tea n biscuits. A satisfying day...

A few pics attached fyi.

Thanks to all for their previous advice and tips.

I wonder how many people have been put off having a go at this job themselves by the somewhat complicated Haynes Manual.......?

Happy roving all

John

[grout20]

Originally Posted by peelaaa

Just wondering if this is an alternative way to remove the spring?

I would think it's possible .... but if you are worried about the bottom bolt wirebrush it well, soak both ends in Plusgas (see my previous post) get a hexagonal 18mm socket and a good long socket/breaker bar and it should loosen.

Good luck.

John

[AndrewJames]

Very nice. Are these rubber mounts still available? I was doing my rear brakes the other day and while my head was in the area I noticed one of these rubber pieces was rather goosed. I had a brief look on ebay that night but didn't see any.

[grout20]

Originally Posted by AndrewJames

Very nice. Are these rubber mounts still available? I was doing my rear brakes the other day and while my head was in the area I noticed one of these rubber pieces was rather goosed. I had a brief look on ebay that night but didn't see any.

Hello Andrew

I did have a quick look around when I ordered the DMGRS springs but didn't find any mounts.

If I'd known I'd fill up the swear box removing and reusing my own ones I might have looked harder!

My nearside bottom one had a couple of small cracks in one spot but still perfectly usable.

Hope yours aren't too bad. Pouring very hot water over them helped removal, lots of grease when refitting too.

Good luck
John

[peelaaa]

Originally Posted by grout20

I would think it's possible .... but if you are worried about the bottom bolt wirebrush it well, soak both ends in Plusgas (see my previous post) get a hexagonal 18mm socket and a good long socket/breaker bar and it should loosen.

Good luck.

John

I ask this as a friend's 75 has a warped rear noise absorber that attaches to the bottom bolt of the shocker. He must have hit something in the past that bashed it.
The hub bolt head is inaccessible to a hex socket as half is covered by the noise absorber. Unless the noise absorber is either cut off or somehow pushed back into place then could he do the spring removal by just removing the top bolts of the shocker instead?

[AndrewJames]

I can't think of a reason why undoing it from the boot/top wouldn't work... Interested to hear if anyone says otherwise.

[Arctic]

Remove the lower bolt to the rear strut.
1

Undo the nut to the rear drop link.
2

Remove the drop link from the arm, this gives you chance to inspect the drop links, and change them if needed, personally for the price i would swap them out anyways.
3

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/150994209353

With both those undone and removed foot on the brake drum and push down, twisting the spring as you remove it.
4

5

Clean out the cups after and before re-fitting the new spring.
6

7

This spring on this car back in 2011 must have been broken for sometime before i noticed it, which i only did because i had not long bought the car and was going through changing the brake pads and discs as i do on all my cars when first bought.
8

9

10

Re-fitting is the reverse of removing.

[malcolm the piano man]

Well thanks for all the help folks. Not been here for a while and I am surprised to have seen all this interest. The first two replies from Trikey and Ducati750 were enough to enable me to do the job. Reading through the rest of the replies there is just one thing that no one has mentioned that is a good idea to do. On the trailing link (at least UK drivers side) there is a brake hose fastened with a clip on the inside face. Good idea to unbolt this as you will be stretching the hose.

A couple of pictures: