rear suspension arm

[nige]

am quite mindfull of the fact that if i remove the rear suspension arms for new bearings and things they maybe so far knackered that the car never gets wheels attached again!
Does anyone know of any or where i can get some secondhand arms to recondition?

[Tinkley]

You'd be very unlucky to have a knackered arm, they are ductile cast iron. The bearings may be completely disintegrated (one of mine had the rollers explode into shards) but the arm itself will mostly be fine. If the wheels are splayed at 20 degrees out, they might be gone..... but seriously even a 5 degree splay and the arm is most likely fine. Watch out for the spacer shims when you remove the long bolt, these are specific to each arm (ie side) and car.

[nige]

ahh thats good news thanks..anything to beware of removing the arms.. is it a pig of a job? - looks quite straight forward in the haynes book..those guys have history of making tough things read easy though!

[Tinkley]

I had no particular problems doing one car - both sides. Main thing is to remember the arms are quite heavy, so make sure you have enough supports ie wood blocks/pads etc to hand. Also I seem to remember washing stuff down with paraffin etc making sure no dirt or grit got back in there. I did however use the 'Kit' which had new bolts, seals as well as bearings. These kits (SKF) are still about and are not a lot more than a set of good bearings.

If you have a very corroded bolt you may need to spend some time easing the nut off, also be gentle with the rear brake pipe connector. There's quite a bit of info on doing the arms in the tech section if you search.

[rutter123]

Worth checking the condition of the rear curly brake pipes whilst your there esp where they go thru the clamps. Once you have the rear arms off break the plastic tube tube out then you can get a long punch in to knock the outer bearings out they should come out quite easily grease the new plastic tube and knock it in with a big socket just done mine on the t/d took about 4 hrs with new brake pipes fitted as well. Good luck.

[rmattila]

Removal: http://www.rmattila.com/images/remontit ... a_irrotus/
Installation of new bearings: http://www.rmattila.com/images/remontit ... akerointi/

[themildbunch]

is probably the best explanation I've seen and covers all the job but in reality you don't need all the great tools and MIG that Riku has used - When I did them on my estate most of the dried up bearings just fell out and the races I managed to knock out with a long hammer through flat head screwdriver... For installation I used some large sockets and lots of marine grease...

The only thing that could render the arms scrap or need extra work is where they can get ground away making the hole ovular... you can see this starting to happen here:




It doesn't usually get as far as where the race goes but it can stop the seals being a nice firm fit - I think on mine I just packed it out as much as I could with grease.

I seem to remember that some one in the past has filled this gap with weld and then ground it out.

[Vanny]

I seem to remember that some one in the past has filled this gap with weld and then ground it out.

Its quite a common practise in big industry, typically requires a submerged arc welding machine to build up the surface. Sub merging the arc ensures no inclusions. Then it get machines back down.


I've seen a number of arms that have been eaten away once the bearings escape there cage, but in every case the cars have had a terrible rear wheel lean and groan really loudly as they go up and down. This is the reason i typically keep a set of ABS and non ABS arms in stock. It also allows you to prep the arms before going the job which seems to half the time it takes to do the swap.

If you dont have a huge rear wheel lean, or significant groaning on going usually from high to low, then you probably wont need rear arms.

[rmattila]

If you want to fill them by welding, you should use a nickel electrode. Otherwise the weld will become so hard it is very difficult to shape.

I once made a tool for machining the welds on a lathe: http://www.rmattila.com/images/projekti ... 9.JPG.html
That works if the weld does not become too hard. For harder cases, I made a holder for Dremel so that you can accurately rotate it on a lathe and grind the hole.

But for all practical purposes, Plastic Padding works just as well. I just wanted to see if the races can be returned to the original look (which turned out to be the case).

EDIT: The Dremel holder: http://www.rmattila.com/images/sekalais ... yokalu.jpg