Front suspension refitting

[Nigeyboy]

Hi all

It's been a little while since I have made any real progress on my Stag rebuild, dur to a knee operation and then summer hols / work. But I'm back in the garage a bit now.

So anyway, I have fully assembled the front struts / brake disks / calipers / crossmember (with new rack) and am trying to contemplate the best way to fit it all back to the car. I have trial fitted the crossmember incl radius rod and lower wishbone, but now I offer up the strut/brake assembly this looks like the lower wisbone/radius rod wont drop low enough to get the strut/brake assembly in place. So I'm assuming there is a better way to do this, keeping most of the reassembled parts together, but my ROM only seems to talk about each section seperately.

What is the best method to refit all the front crossmember / suspension that has worked for you guys?

Nigel

[john 4d]

Nigel,
I do recall assembling everything in bit form, assemblies were to heavy and cumbersome to manage by myself. As for the problem you've encountered, are you fighting against an uncompressed spring? Not that you really have a choice, I don't think there's enough space in the turret for spring clamps. I may have borrowed someone of some size to sit on the wing while jacking the brake assembly end of the strut, compressing the spring, to a position where the connection to the rest of the linkage could be made. I'm already forgetting to many details of that stage of my rebuild, I can only think that I didn't have that much of a problem for it to register.
100920091623.jpgRegards
John4D

[73stagman]

I reassembled mine piece by piece into the wheel arch aswell All fitted together like a meccano set.
it was much lighter then when I took it all out as an assembly.

[73stagman]

Mine might have been a bit easier when refitting the lower ball joint due to the fact that I have shorter springs because of the Rover V8 engine. It was a doddle though and only took a couple of hours refit the strut unit (once it was fitted with its new insert) and the remaining components. (I already had the cross member and the lower arm in place and just had to fit the dust cover to the hub carrier which was sitting loosely on the lower ball joint.)
This firsat pic just shows a trial assembly to make sure I had all the spacers and shims. I was short of shocks springs bushes and washers at this stage!
264.jpg

Then it came together with a huge injection of money

275.jpg

[jleyton]

Yep, I did mine with subframe first, without lower arm, (8 nuts & bolts - some a bit tricky); strut (3 nuts) ; drag link (1 nut); lower arm (1 nut & 1bolt)

Simples.

Cheers

Julian

[Nigeyboy]

Yep, I did mine with subframe first, without lower arm, (8 nuts & bolts - some a bit tricky); strut (3 nuts) ; drag link (1 nut); lower arm (1 nut & 1bolt)

Simples.

Cheers

Julian

Thanks all, but SIMPLES it never is......

[jleyton]

Thanks all, but SIMPLES it never is......

I know what you mean, however (possibly apart from the subframe bolts) it was one of the easier jobs that I've ever done on my car

Good luck.

Cheers

Julian