1886 replies to this topic

[Heath]

Just because some people got bad batches doesn't mean that all the advantages of more solid bushes are abolished. I made an educated decision to use a urethane bush. IIRC rubber bushes were marginally cheaper.

I pulled the car apart again yesterday and raised the front. I left the hub assembled, left the steering arm on and everything, adjusted some springs and dropped the top ball joints and installed them. You can do this without too much trouble BUT you need to go full lock one way to get the spring out, then hang the setup back up by starting the nut on the upper ball joint, go full lock the OTHER way and then work on the opposite side. With the springs I installed in the car last weekend, I could get the nuts on both balljoints BY HAND i.e. no jack or spring compressor required lol. These ones took an internal spring compressor to seat them and a jack to preload them to get the balljoint nut on.

The result of the work is that I got it sitting with 290mm between the hub centre and the wheel arch on all four corners with a 70-75kg bloke in the driver's seat (i.e. me), so that is sorted how I wanted it, BUT now I have a noise coming from the right of the front end and I don't know what it is. I retorqued it all a second time at ride height but the problem hasn't gone away. I'm just going to persist and hope that karma owes me some success with my car, as I want to drive it up to Rob Roy tomorrow for a historics event but at the moment I'm scared a balljoint is going to pop out or something!

[rodomo]

BUT now I have a noise coming from the right of the front end and I don't know what it is.

Check to make sure the spring is seated correctly.

[Heath]

Well how far out would it have to be to make a noise? I made sure that all I could see through the little pin-hole (i guess it's a drain hole) in the spring cup area of the lower arm was the spring coil hard up against it. But that is the type of noise it resembles. Gotta say though (lol), I was driving around with springs that weren't seated properly for over a year and there were no problems like this. Ohh god I can't believe I just said that on a public forum

[Heath]

Well it's got me f'd. I've torqued everything up at ride height twice now. I tightened everything up a little tighter. I cut a shim to sit behind the nut on the upper balljoint of the side making the noise, because I was a bit worried there wasn't enough preload on the taper (I find the castle nuts frustratingly coarse in their adjustment). Took it for a drive to a mate's place and it didn't make a noise. But when I pulled into a servo on the way back, it was clear the noise hadn't gone. It may have reduced though? Only thing I can think of is pulling the shocks out and taking it for a drive and seeing if the noise goes away.

[MRLXSS]

What type of noise is it making? A knock, a squeek or something else?

Sometimes it can be seated ok at the bottom, but on the top it might be a funny angle and rub on the sides. Maddy's UC daily did it, had to put the springs in again and it fixed the problem... bloody annoying! I can tell you that.

[76lxhatch]

I've had springs that move around just a little even when seated correctly (nothing dangerous and they don't go anywhere), they generally quiet down after a bit. Perhaps get it up on ramps or a hoist when you can safely get under it while someone pushes the suspension around and see if you can pinpoint the noise. Don't try driving it without the shocks.

[LXCHEV]

At a minimum, remove the shock, and then have a look up and see if the spring is seated at the top. At least that's just a quick easy check.

[Heath]

lol yeah I've checked everything I can think of that could be a significant thing. If the spring is just turning a fraction as the transient load does its thing, that's fine. It seems to be shutting up anyway after giving it some stick over some speed humps

Sanded back the roof today and manually polished it... doesn't look that great yet. Plenty of elbow grease required haha

[rodomo]

Sanded back the roof today and manually polished it... doesn't look that great yet. Plenty of elbow grease required haha

Sand blast and start again.

[Heath]

800-1200-2000 then polish but I do wonder how well the really fine wet paper actually works with acrylic paint. I think I need to get my hands on some higher quality polishing products. I'll give you a call Mick

[Heath]

As per Mick's advice, I bought myself some Auto Glym stuff (I could have spent about $500 with all the products they had available) and had a little play with it; far better results. Tomorrow he's gonna come around and lend me a hand for a little bit and share advice etc. Should be good

I swapped my alternator over as well today. Old one was making intermittent bearing noise and charging at 13.8V @ warm idle, this replacement is providing 14.1V @ warm idle so it should be good. But I'm tempted to rebuild one at some stage, or perhaps upgrade to one with a higher amp rating if I get bored. Enough things on my plate at the moment but it feels good ticking a problem off the list.

[Heath]

lol it isn't that alternator, just from another Torana. And since replacing the alternator, I have realised that a noise that I thought was alternator bearings is actually (perhaps in addition to) a problem with the extractors sitting close to the engine mount and occasionally vibrating against them. No biggie because they are getting replaced soon anyway, just gives me more reason to do that soon.

Matt, in response to your comment. This is how low the car was:

lol

This is it fixed:


Yesterday I took the car in for a wheel alignment. The third time I've paid someone to do work on my car. After buggering around with the upper arms and putting them on left to right (they are theoretically symmetrical - not UC arms - just obviously distorted a bit from braking forces I dare say) it was pretty clear I had some negative caster, and I could see the toe was up the shit because of the tie rod angle after altering the ride height. Good thing I didn't piss fart around or I would have stuffed a pair of tyres haha




So yeah, a bit of toe-in (which I can easily adjust myself if I want to follow 76lxhatch's advice), some positive caster and negative camber (all around lol half a degree on the rear wheels wooo!)

So that and the polishing overall puts me in a position where I am pretty happy with how things are with the car. Because I was so happy with the car, I took it down to a car show in Narre Warren today at the Retro Speed Shop (where I organized to meet BlownOutlaw too as he was in Melbourne today)

And to avoid confusion, I should say that no that isn't his car, just one that parked next to me at one point during the day - his is still in the works

Edited by Heath, 29 August 2010 - 08:28 PM.

[Heath]

Ohh yeah and on the way home I went through an industrial area and got myself some photos that I think are alright. I borrowed my friend's Lumix - it's just a bridge of some description and just did some really basic editing in Photoshop

[MRLXSS]

Great Stuff Heath! The new ride height is better than before... That side shot shows how silly it was... Especially being on 13's...