Wishbone Tiebar replacement

[Benjy]

How do you get the hole in the tie-bar to align with the one in the bracket on the wishbone?

If I remove the (apparently necessary) thick square washer it goes together nicely, but with the spacer in place, I can't seem to get them to fit!

Any suggestions?

Also, when the inner bearing ineer race sticks on the stub axle, how do you get it off? I have tried a puller, but can get no purchase behind it, and I've also tried a small screwdriver as a wedge, but that didn't work either.

Thanks

Ben

[rayofleamington]

To line the tie bar hole up with the lower suspension arm bolt a slim croshead screwdriver, followed by a big phillips screwdriver usually does the job.
If the alignment isa long way out then it might be worth tightening up the clamp nut on the rubbers as this will pull the bar a bit further forwards.

[Willie]

Assuming that you will be replacing the old races with new ones
you could try clamping a 'Molegrip' tool in the groove of the inner
very tightly and then using that as somewhere to fit the puller to?
I have always been successful with a thin bladed screwdriver blade
and then a pin punch. The trick is to not move any one part too
much because the inner can then be too lop sided and seize on
its shaft so it's a question of move it a couple of thou and then go
to the opposite side etc. It's a slow job but your young!

[brixtonmorris]

for bearing ring
there is also expansion of the ring
u could try heating the ring with a blowlamp untill red.
heat uniformly
try not to heat the stub axel. this may help to free it.
or the is the trusted angle ginder, but again watch out for the stub axel
i hate angle grinders

[Benjy]

Yeah, the stub axle is new, so I'm not going to risk damaging it, but heat might help. I'd rather not replace the bearings at the moment as they're still in good nick, assuming pulling the races apart hasn't wrecked them - the balls still all look OK, so here's hoping...

Ray, I spent much time yesterday thinking how I could move the wishbone backwards, or the top of the swivel pin forwards, but did it occurr to me to tighten up that nut ? Oh well, we live and learn, I was getting a bit disheartened and not thinking as well as I should, perhpaps a fresh look will renew my enthusiasm?!

Willie, I don't feel young anymore !

Ben

[rayofleamington]

assuming pulling the races apart hasn't wrecked them

normally thats not a good sign.

For the lower suspesion arm and tie bar - one other thing that affects then alignment is how evenly spaced the 2 halves of the suspension are around the eyebolt.
This is a pain to mess with as you need a suspension strip down to change anything, but it's common to see the 2 arms slightly missaligned (the big arm slides on the torsion bar threads and the eyebolt pin is only connected to a plate washer which can also move allowing some missalignment). The manuals recommend to bolt the supension arms up before yoou load up the torsion bar, but this is unlikely to make the parts self align - this can take a bit of light persuasion (hammer) and a few re-attemps.
Of course if the 2 halves of the lower suspension arm are not evenly spaced to the eyebolt iut is not a disaster but it means one of the top hat bushes will split very quickly. If you're doing high miles then you have to be careful about that stuff but otherwise it's no big deal.

[Benjy]

Replacement bearings purchased, have yet to fit them though. Figured I'd just file a flat in the old race so the puller has something to grip to.

The screwdrivers lined up the holes OK, but as soon as the bolt went part way through, everything sprung back out of line.
In the end, I slackened off all the bolts holding the wishbone halves together and got a friend to pull the stub axle back (feet resting on the engine bay tie plates) whilst I dropped the bolt in - easy! Unfortunately the thread is going on the bolt after all that hammering, so I've got to do it again sometime soon.

[les]

Sounds to me that there is too much stress on the lower arm, if it took that much effort forcing it back, are you sure the front tie rod plate has not been knocked back at some time? Or if replaced, welded at the wrong angle? Reducing the length between the plate and lower arm.

[rayofleamington]

My first moggy was just like that. It had been extensively welded so maybe that was the reason.
I just put up with having to jimmy the torsion bar with screwdivers down the bolt hole for 11 years until I sold it.. It did make a bit of a mess of the threads on the bolt but I threaded it through rather than hammering it through (after I'd worked out that hammering it made a real mess.. the joys of being a teenager )