Car going great. Thanks all!

[BiggestNizzy]

take them off and replace the ball joints at least. Put a 12" rule across all the componants and check everything is square.

[robin]

Hmm. I'm not convinced anything is bent there; possibly the threaded sections of the inboard and outboard balljoints of the toe link, but doesn't really look like it on all the photos, just one - so probably an optical illusion.

When you say the car is pulling to the left, how exactly does this manifest itself - I assume you need to steer right in order to counter it, but where does the steering wheel end up when travelling straight - actually turned to the right, or just locked in the straight ahead position.

If you go for a little drive (no more than one mile - a few hundred meters will probably be enough) and then quickly check how much heat is coming off the rear brakes - hold the palm of your hand right up against the wheels - if one is a lot warmer than the other then your handbrake is sticking on, though if it was the right side handbrake, it would pull to the right.

Does the pull to the right change as you ride over the bumps on the road (indicates a bent wishbone)?

Does the steering wheel move left if you let go of it? If so, how far (roughly)?

If you can, I might be inclined to take the car somewhere that they can laser measure all the wheel geometry - of course we don't know what you started with, but odd ball toe angles will stick out like a sore thumb.

Cheers,
Robin

BTW, assuming the impact was at the drivers side rear quarter there is very little chance you have bent the chassis - ordinarily you would break some suspension components in any impact large enough to do that kind of damage - the chassis is pretty tough - so whatever it is that's causing the steering pull, I doubt it will be serious.

[Gourlay83]

Might be an optical illusion but the threads on the ball joints of your toe links look bent to me.

As said above I would remove the Toe Links and replace the Ball Joints & Bolts, after that get your suspension set up. Might have a bit of bother removing the ball joints from the threaded rod, i had to use a little heat on mine then clean up the threads (Which was a waste of time as I then decided to uprate them).

Cheers
Alan

[Corranga]

Robin:

When I drive straight, the steering wheel sits at approx 30 degrees to the right.

When I let go of the wheel, the car starts to pull itself to the left (not violently, more gradually). It naturally wants to sit with the steering wheel very near straight which is where it would normally have been.

On bumps the car seems to drive as it does when on a flat road, no sudden changes of direction, or certainly no more so than when hitting a pothole.

Am I right in saying if I change the toe links (am considering the eliseparts uprated kit) that the car could end up point in any direction anyway!?

Chris

[BiggestNizzy]

sounds like your wheel alignment is out, something is bent, the screwed bar on the toe link is prime suspect

[robin]

Yes, so not an optical illusion then; the rear right toe link is bent and subsequently a bit shorter; this results in toeing out the rear right wheel which wants to turn the car to the left.

The front alignment is fine - the wheels want to point straight (hence steering wheel wants to be straight ahead at which point car starts to turn left). You need to create an opposing turning force by actually steering right to balance the rear turning force.

As others have said, you deffo want to replace the inner and outer ball joints on the toe link. If you decide to fit uprated toe links then obviously you can just discard the bar too.

Whatever you do now, you'll need to get the geometry reset before the car will drive straight again.

It might make sense to remove all the suspension bolts on that corner and either inspect them or just replace them on spec. I don't know how big the impact was and whether there is any real risk of having bent or damaged a bolt, but the cost of one failing could be quite high ...

Cheers,
Robin

[Corranga]

Eliseparts toe link upgrasde kit has arrived and I set about taking things off this evening and i'm stuck already

I need to remove the rear caliper to remove the bolt that holds the outer toe link rod end thingy to the hub.
Possible good news is this bolt seems to be bent!
Bad news is I can't get the capiler off!

I've taken out the top bolt, popped out the retaining pin and taken out the pads.
I've removed the hand brake spring to get at the hex bolt that seems to be what holds the caliper on the slider (?)
It's nice and round on the inside though.

Do I...
Try to cut the head off the bolt so I can just pull it out the bottom. The Eliseparts instructions say the new bolt goes in upwards (bolt holds on the new bracket part), and I reckon i'll get the nylock nust between the hub and the caliper easily enough.
or
Take the bolt off, and if so how!

Chris

[robin]

IIRC you can slide the whole caliper off the lower bolt without removing that from the upright. Of course if the bolt is bent, then maybe not.

The disk should come off the hub now and that'll let you see the other end of that bolt.

The lower bolt is a cap-head bolt that you undo with an allen key (or the equivalent thing that's like a socket with the end of an allen key sticking out of it).

Cheers,
Robin

[fd]

You sure it's round and not just dirty/rusty ?

Usually you have to tap a hex key into it with a small hammer if it hasn't been removed for a while . . .

Fd

[Corranga]

The disk should come off the hub now and that'll let you see the other end of that bolt.

I had a feeling the disc should come off, but mine is properly stuck on. I figure it's probably not been off since the car was made back in 98. I couldn't decide if the central nut (I assume this holds the wheel bearing etc together) held the disc on or not but I assume the disc is basically held in place by the wheel?.

Didn't really want to go hammering at the disc in case I damage it. Will give it another go tonight (weather dependant)

Chris

[BiggestNizzy]

I couldn't decide if the central nut (I assume this holds the wheel bearing etc together) held the disc on or not but I assume the disc is basically held in place by the wheel?.

yes the disk is held on by the wheel, the central nut is the driveshaft nut and holds all that gubbins in place.

Use a soft face hammer (nylon or rubber not copper) and gently tap left, right, top, bottom, back, forward gentle increasing the force used up until your knocking 7 shades of sh*t out of it. it will come off.

with cap head screws (allen key ones) fill the head of the cap screw with high temp silicon so that when you goto replace it next time it aint rusty and full of crap.

[Corranga]

Cheers guys, hex key is definitely looking round so I moved onto removing the disc. Took about 10 minutes of bashing as it ended up rocking back and forth rather than coming off!

With the disc off, the caliper was clear, and a little knocking later and the rod end retaining bolt was out. As far as bolts go, this one was fairly bent so this might be what was causing things to be out.

Taking it easy to ensure everything is done right, I managed to fit the alloy hub strengthening bracket and 1 of the rod ends (that needs to be fitted to fit said bracket).

I have a couple of new questions though:

Behind the brake disc was a lot of brittle yellow stuff, like some sort of dried glue. Is this something I should be cleaning and replacing, or maybe some copper grease in there or something ?!

How do I know what length to make the rod, or am I not fully appreciating the genius of the toe rod, and once it's all together it can be lengthened or shortened by turning the rod / not removing the ends?

Chris

[roadboy]

The yellow brittle stuff is Duralac. I would just clean it off and put some copper grease on if you don't have MMCs. If you have MMcs I would get some Duralac to put between the discs and hub flange.

The toe-link rods ends have opposite threads (one left hand, one right hand) so you can just fit it all up and turn the bar to adjust the length, as ong as the lock nuts are loose.

HTH

Dan

[tut]

Hi Dan, if you are reading could you give me a call on 01771 622971 please.

Cheers

tut

[Corranga]

Thanks Dan, in my mind that's how the toe link rod works, nice to see i'm not completely making things up!

I'm on MMCs so will pick up some duralac before re-fitting the discs.

Chris