Tracing a knock from the front

[mat_fenwick]

That's what I would have thought, as surely the amount of thread wouldn't be that marginal. Maybe they just didn't tighten them on Tim's?

[docchevron]

sounds like it, there's enough thread to away with the bracket AND chop a bit out of the sliders. Dont ask why I know this.

[BX-pert]

Knocking over bumps is usually the anti roll bar drop link, even if you can't detect play there.

[hvanman]

I am tempted to change them anyway, since they are not too expensive. I have tried a 5 foot metal bar under the wheel and giving it a lifting up and down, while looking and feeling for movement in joints, but no sign, but still the knock..... very frustrating.....

My earlier caliper knocks were down to worn sliding pins and bushes, so in the end changing the whole caliper was the way forward (I picked up two new ones at a decent price, so now have lots of spare used ones if anyone is in need..)

[Dollywobbler]

Well, just to complicate matters, I've just put a pair of washers on the caliper bolts of my BX (rather than re-fit a broken duct brace thing) and the knock has entirely gone away. I didn't touch anything else. The caliper bolts were tight, the wheel nuts were tight.

I'm no longer scared to drive over a cat's eye!

[Defender110]

I reckon it's a dirt shield, unless mine is missing a vital bit of equipment?

You must be as they are definitley fitted with cooling air deflectors, all mine have always been plastic I've never seen metal ones before.

[docchevron]

I've seen both, I think the earlier cars had metal and the later had plasric, certainly, my July '89 diesel had metal deflectors, whereas the Sep. '90 Valver has plastic..

[mat_fenwick]

I reckon it's a dirt shield, unless mine is missing a vital bit of equipment?

You must be as they are definitley fitted with cooling air deflectors, all mine have always been plastic I've never seen metal ones before.

Yeah, I've definitely got the plastic things, but just assumed (wrongly) that they were for dirt shields rather than cooling air. I've only seen metal ones on early cars too. Still can't understand why washers made a difference Ian; was the caliper actually loose when you started?

[Tim Leech]

I reckon it's a dirt shield, unless mine is missing a vital bit of equipment?

You must be as they are definitley fitted with cooling air deflectors, all mine have always been plastic I've never seen metal ones before.

They must be different on a Mk1 then.

[Dollywobbler]

My Mk1 has metal. Was checking that over this morning and that does still have the scoop.

Mat - the caliper did clonk when I pulled at it on the car. With the washers fitted, all is well. Perhaps the heads of the bolts are just not sufficient on their own to prevent a little play? Not like it was moving to a huge degree, just enough to allow it to make a noise.

[Tim Leech]

Getting back to the original topic, I had to replace the steerin rack arms on my 16TRS last year for the MOT which was causing a knock, these fit between the rack and the track control arms.

[BX-pert]

Had a think, and the only other 'regular' knocks I remember are lack of anti rattle springs on the pads, and the lower engine mount horizontal bolt can wear, but that is usually a knock when 'on & off' the throttle.
Had a horrible noise once in a customers BX that turned out to be nothing more than a badly routed throttle cable transmitting engine vibes to the bulkhead.

[hvanman]

The steering/track rods are also an unknown on this car now, as I swaped them over with the rack, but unlike on my silver RD, these don't "seem" to have any movement, but once I get it up in the air I will be giving them a good look over as well. I do also have an annoying knock from the rear silencer, where it is hitting on the strengthing (?) plate that it passes by, but at least that's the other end of the car, but does still add to the general collection of knocks....!

[Geoffrey Gould]

Hello if I have read this correctly then the car is jacked up under the sub-frame mounts, now if the bolts are loose then play wont show up because the weight of the car is keeping the mountings from moving. Would it be possible to jack the car up not on the sub-frame and see if the bolts are loose, they do work loose.
Geoff.

[hvanman]

The challenge is to find somewhere to jack on that does not cause damage, maybe lengths of wood to spread the load along the "chassis" type rails. As it happens, I have just changed the sub frame so I know the bolts are good luckily, but otherwise it's a good thing to check as well, as my old sub frame had lost one of it's fixing bolts and another was loose (these were actually the ones that go through the anti-roll bar, but all are worth a check).