I’m changing the bushes on my car and am struggling with removing the front suspension lower wishbone bolts (the cam adjuster bolts), and am wondering what is the best way to do it.
Whilst you can get a socket and breaker bar on the bolt heads, there doesn’t seem to be enough clearance to use a socket and breaker bar on the nuts. The only tool I’ve got that can get at the nuts is a standard length combination spanner, but there is no way I can apply sufficient force to it to crack the nuts. I increased leverage by fastening the handle from my trolley jack to the spanner using a couple of hose clips and whilst it did the job I felt there was a real danger of breaking the spanner or rounding off the nuts.
Is there a better way of doing this?
Ring spanner to lock it up,while you crack the other side with the breaker bar.
For normal bolts yes, but I imagine doing this with the adjuster bolts would risk damaging the bolts or cams. Surely turning the bolt head will attempt to turn the adjustment cams which probably won’t want to move due to friction which will result in damage to the tab that ‘keys’ the cams to the bolt?
On a related note, how do you torque up these bolts during reassembly - turning the bolt head will cause the suspension alignment to change so you would surely have to tighten the nut only. Do people just tighten the nut as tight as possible using a spanner?
You will never get them back has they were in your garage or drive way,Which ever way you look at this after you have finished, you will need to take her for a 3G alignment, so they can reset everything right,you will not be able to do this yourself.
Get them changed, lock them back up as near as you can,(pic’s and tipex) and run her in, it will be one of the best things you will have done on your roadster,it makes a hell of a difference to how she will drive
I recommend everyone have it done every 12 months
I’m renewing all bushes and fitting coilovers, so yes it will need aligned properly afterwards, I’ve no intention of doing it myself. I was just curious how you torque these nuts given you can’t get at them with a normal socket/torque wrench - how do the alignment specialists do it.
Not sure how tight they would have to be but if a ring spanner fits then I imagine it could be re-torqued by using a “crowfoot” on a torque wrench.
Thanks for the suggestion, I haven’t come accross these crowsfoot spanners before but yes I imagine that will be how its done.
It been quite a while since I started this topic, and I only finished last week…
You are right about the commitment though, its a major job and not one I’d be keen to repeat. Its taken about 2 months to do and cost at least £1200 (coilovers, OEM bushess, drop links, nuts & bolts, tools, 4 wheel alignment).
These are some of the problems I’ve had:
- Front alignment bolts very seized, had to apply serious force with a home made 4 foot spanner to get them to budge. Due to the length of the spanner I could only turn them about 1/8 turn at a time, took ages to remove.
- Several bolts were so seized, the force required to remove them destroyed the threads so they had to be replaced, which soon adds up at £5+ per bolt.
- Managed to remove the bushes from the rear upper wishbones easily using threaded rod and sockets as a homemade press, couldn't budge any of the others - snapped a couple of threaded rods. Had trouble finding a garage that would do the job but in the end found one that only charged me £20 to remove them all (bargain). They couldn't budge the bushes with their hydraulic press though and ended up burning them out with blow torch.
The worst job by far though was removing the rear lower wishbone to hub bolts. Got the nuts off but the bolts were seized, I could just about rotate the bolts by jumping up and down on a breaker bar with my 18st weight but couldn't remove them. I wanted to remove the hub and wishbone as a unit and get the garage to deal with the seized bolts but the drive shaft was seized to the hub, I ended up breaking two hub puller tools trying to separate them. Next idea was to remove the lower wishbone, hub and driveshaft as a unit but it took me a week to get the driveshafts free of the diff (mine are the press in type) and I ended up damaging the oil seals in the process - another £20.
In the end I decided to have another go at removing the wishbone to hub bolts and tried an impact wrench which didn’t work, but eventually suceeded after beating them with the largest sledge hammer I could find - a high risk strategy because it would be disasterous to damage the bolts and still not be able to remove them. Needless to say the bolts and nuts had to be replaced (£15 each).
I reckon people will reconsider doing that job unless really necessary.
That sounds like a propper nightmare! I’m looking to fit poly bushes all round on mine and coil overs!
Do you think it would be easier to just cut the bolts off and buy new ones? Hope I have a little more luck!
As long as you get the bolts to crack, it should not be that hard, easiest way to get the old bushes out is use a heat gun and melt them a little and push them out, with the wishbones of the roadster,make sure you clean the inside(rust etc) before fitting the new bushes, plenty of red rubber grease and copper slip on rebuilding up.
With the tools we have here, we have done the lot in a day and half which included cutting a couple of bolts out and back on all her shoes for a full G,anyone who as not done this before or who are driveway DIY’ers give yourself plenty of time ,as you will not have half the tools we have here to attack this nightmare of a job, there will be a lot of swearing(trust me on that one) have some spare bolts to hand, because you will be very lucky not to cut some out, don’t rush,take your time and do it right, there are no prizes for who can do it the fastest, be careful and use common sense when working on axle stands and chucks.
M-m