A few more pic's of progress with my ST

S

ste_eck

Well-known user
May 11, 2008
318
9
Had the car on the road now for 10 days and everything seems fine. I've booked her in for a total respray next week, as by then all work will be finished, except for a remap with Collins Eng and getting my new reg plate sorted with DVLA.

However, after seeing Active's thread re: last batch of Eibach dampers. I decided that now is the time to replace the suspension and also change the front wheel bearings. My decision that now is the time, basically came down to the fact that Eibach have now discontinued manufacture for the Cougar, so its simply a case of 'grab em while you can'. I would have preffered to use the Eibach springs as well, but they are like rocking horse cack and the only place I found them was on German ebay at over ?ú200 + delivery, so I decided the PI springs, again from Mitesh, would be ample for my needs. In the back of my mind I was also thinking that the dampers on any car are really only good for around 30k miles and they will progressively deteriorate. You wont likely notice any difference as you are driving the car everyday, everything will seem just the same, until that is, when you happen to use (or sit in) another motor with replaced struts and realise just how much your car wallows and leans on them bends.

So my cash cleared with Mitesh on Friday (BTW top deal m8 on the package price, many thanks), he then informed me that he would send out this morning so that the parts wern't sat in a Parcelforce warehouse over the weekend. The PI springs arrived this morning (along with the wheel bearings from ebay).

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So after a kip on the couch I decided at 4.30pm to strip down the fronts.

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In just under an hour, the fronts are off

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I would have done the rears as well, but having only 1 set of axle stands, they will have to wait until I finished the fronts.

While removing the n/s I noticed a puddle of oil

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Looking closely, the n/s diff oil seal is leaking (I must have snagged it when putting the d/s back in, oops!).

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So now its another trip to Fraud in the morning to get ripped with a diff oilseal, at least everything is stripped down making the job easy. If I wern't replacing the suspension I'd have been proper ragged off with having to just replace the seal on the diff. I must try remember while I'm getting shafted again by Fraud to get a couple of trackrod end nuts, as I'm not happy reusing old one's, like I ended up doing after the main refit.

I will post back tomorrow when the struts arrive, I need also repaint the hubs and fit the wheel bearings. The front end running gear will then be 100% brand new. Once all's complete, I just need fit the st200 alloys and get the wheel alignment sorted (and do the backs and fit the st200 antiroll bar and bushes).

Many thanks to Mitesh for doing me a cracking deal and for his speedy service and for keeping me up to date on my order progess. Top service bud, couldn't expect any better!

Cheers

Ste
 
Ste, you're very welcome... :)

Thanks for sharing the photos, keep up the good work... :)
 
As usual Ste, excellent work and great pics on progress.
Will you be bringing your beast to CougarFest?
Click to expand...

Afraid not m8, as I have to pick up the missis from T2 at Manc airport on Saturday as she's coming back from Turkey. I just hope I've completed the suspension in time as I can't get 2 passengers in my van and her 206cc bootspace is a joke! So the 206 is a deffo no-no, but the back of the van maybe an option!.

I wouldn't want to attend any meet anyway until I've had the respray done. I cant see any point in sharing my work until its completed.

Cheers

Ste
 
It has been 10 days since I've touched the car, so today when I got home from work sun was shining, so here's where I'm upto:

I used brute force and a lump hammer to remove the bearings from the wheel knuckles and hubs, here's the state of the knuckles before cleaning up.

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I attacked the knuckles with a hammer and chisel in attempt to remove the brake dust/rusty scabs, then finished of with a good wirebrushing.

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Here's a before and after shot.

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I fitted the new bearings to the knuckles again by brute force with the help of my lump hammer, 1st 1 going in.

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I used one of the old bearings as a drift to hammer in the new one's, paying attention to centralising it on the new bearing, as the bearing land is very narrow, 1 foul swipe and the bearing cage would have been knackered and so would the bearing.

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Here's no.1 fitted (the old bearing on n/s did not have the outer circlip fitted!). So this bearing has been changed in the past, but not by me over the last 6 years and 50k miles.

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Here's the other knuckle all cleaned up and new bearing fitted.

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It took me 4 hours to strip/clean/refit the knuckles. It only took just under an hour to remove the front end suspension. I suppose detailing takes all the time!

When I drifted out the 1st hub stubshaft, I was really surprised how easy it knocked out. I was even more surprised that the inner race on the stubshaft was loose!

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The inner races had been spinning on the stubshaft and knackered it up. If you look close at the above pic, you can see the lip on the end of the shaft, the lip diameter is 40.02mm, this is what the stubshaft should be along its length. It was only 39.68mm dia! Fortunately I had a spare hub from the Mondy, shaft dia 40.02mm all along and perfectly round too!

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The other hub stubshaft also has some damage, see.

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But the inner race was still dead tight all the way, so I'm hoping it will be usable, will measure it tomorrow to check (I have 1 last hub from teh Mondy).

To remove the inner races that are left on the hub stubshaft when you knock the bearing off and out I always use an angle grinder and grind down carefully until I see the bearing race metal go purple, meaning its bloody hot and there's not much metal left to take off. I then use a chisel and rattle the inner race just to the side of where I've grinded away, the races being hardened will always fracture at the weak point (i.e. where I've just ground it down to next to nothing). Once it fractures (splits), its then dead easy to lever the inner race from the shaft,see.

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Reason I made the above comment is, how are you supposed to remove the inner race when there is no shoulder at the back of it to use a puller? Is it common practice to split the race by 1 method or another?

So thats about it for today, tomorrow is make sure the hub stubshafts are in tolerance, then paint the inside flange face of the hubs and knuckles and again use brute force and my lump hammer to fit the hubs. Then finish paint the knuckles/hubs and time permitting (and weather) start the refit of the new front suspension.

Will post back tomorrow.

Cheers

Ste
 
You lost me a bit there but as long as someone like Jamie or Tony knows what you're talking about, I'm happy.:LOL::LOL::LOL:

Once again, good work and nice detailed pics. (y)
 
Ste wrote:
Reason I made the above comment is, how are you supposed to remove the inner race when there is no shoulder at the back of it to use a puller? Is it common practice to split the race by 1 method or another?

Thats the way i've always done it, with the collars (soft mild steel) i would put a drill into it then thump it with a good sharp cold chisel. (y)
 
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