Drag strut question.

[DMT]

Afternoon Folks

I am looking into knocking coming from the front suspension and have gone through the normal culprits, and now need it bit of help please.

Do these drag struts mountings look normal as per below?

Regards

Dave

Drag strut 2.jpg Drag strut 1.jpg

[trunt]

It may be the picture but the bottom one looks a bit funky?

[MB]

They are fitted the wrong way around. Should be making a ball either side of the bulkhead with the circular side of the bush against the washer/strut.

[nigele]

That looks wrong to me. The large flat faces of the bush should face the chassis on each side, and the domed ends should face the washers on the strut.

Nigel

[wilf]

^this, definitely.

[DMT]

Absolutely brill chaps. This is really appreciated.

Can I be a complete Nob and ask some kind person to take a pic of a correct fitting.

It didn't look correct when I first worked on the suspension but I thought it was just 1974 engineering.

Thanks again

Dave

[trunt]

Duhhh. I was just looking at condition.. Missed that! May as well get new ones if you are going there..

[DMT]

Thanks Terry. I will see if I can get some Superflex ones. Is it a big job?

Dave

[sujitroy]

if the bolt on the other end of the drag strut was correctly installed (Top to bottom) you may have to jack the hub up enough so u can remove the bolt. strength also helps moving things around to take it off.

[Lingen]

Dave. If you are going to change to polybushes, make sure they are not too hard. I have seen severe metal fatigue in that area as a result of their lack of flexibility compared to the rubber ones.
Mike.

[RNF]

Thanks Terry. I will see if I can get some Superflex ones. Is it a big job?

Dave

Not with the correct tools. Make sure to have some swivels and extensions and it's pretty easy. After lifting the car, remove the wheel so you have less unsprung weight. I don't think you need to remove the suspension side of of the drag strut, just the body-side.

To remove the drag strut, I believe I used a 1/2" drive so I could hit it with an impact driver and easily remove it, with a 6" swivel extension. I could be wrong, but I think it was 7/8" deep socket.....or was it 5/8"?? I forget. You'll figure that out pretty quickly. Once the body-side nut is removed, you should be able to pull that drag strut out and replace the bushings. You can remove the existing bushings, replace, and put back together and retorque to spec.

You will want to realign the car after as things will have changed.

[DMT]

Thanks John.

[singapore stag]

When my drag struts were tighten down including the castle nuts the clunking and other noise dissappeared. The centre of the wheel to the arch measured 15 1/4" front and driver side was 15". Now they measure 14" front and 14.5" rear.
No noise

[trunt]

You may indeed be able to move the suspension out enough to replace them without having to undo the bolt on the wishbone end but I seem to remember that I had to, maybe due to me having poly bushings all round? I also had issues getting a socket onto the body side nut and even starting that nut with the suspension down was difficult due to its angle so I had to jack up the suspension to get that nut started and tightened.

[mole42]

You may indeed be able to move the suspension out enough to replace them without having to undo the bolt on the wishbone end but I seem to remember that I had to, maybe due to me having poly bushings all round? I also had issues getting a socket onto the body side nut and even starting that nut with the suspension down was difficult due to its angle so I had to jack up the suspension to get that nut started and tightened.

Absolutely. ROM section 60.10.16 describes the correct (and easiest) procedure (helpfully shown in reply #4). It's highly likely that you'll need to remove the bolt at the leading end of the radius arm to enable moving it forwards away from the chassis leg. It's often neccessary to raise the front hub to nearly the operating position before you can get a socket on the rear end of the arm. I did many of these back in the 80's before poly bushes were used and it's impossible to pull the strut forwards enough to release the rear of the arm.