revilla Posted May 14, 2013 Author Share Posted May 14, 2013 Eugene - Yes sorry, when a thread gets this long it gets a bit confusing. Sorry if my ramblings are a bit unclear, sometimes I'm just thinking out loud. I see what you are saying. I have fixed the panel contact (I think!) but the main knock is still there. I understand you are suggesting that the shock may be becoming fully extended (or alternatively compressed) and the knock is therefore coming from the internals of the shock reaching the stop. Although the drivers side shock is extended slightly more than the passenger side (Fishy Dave maybe you could confirm this and validate my comments?) I guess this is to compensate for my extra weight and is only really the case with me OUT if the car, when I sit in it surely I compress that spring back a bit more until everything is roughly level? We also had difficulty in raising the rear of the car as far as we wanted (due to the lack of any further circlip grooves in the shock body) so the shocks are certainly not extended to an unusual degree, so why mine might be topping out I don't know. The thing I'm struggling to understand is that, going back to the time when it was contacting the panel, the marks on the panel very clearly suggest the TOP of the shock was moving UP and DOWN (driver's side only, which is the side that is knocking, passenger side no sign of vertical movement just rubbing through contact). If the top of the shock is moving up and down, the only explanation I can come up with is the rubber bush allowing movement. When I took the shock out the bush looked OK, but I still can't think how else the top of the shock could be moving vertically if the bush was holding it firm. Hence my suggestion to poke some sort of "telltale" through the unused FIA bar hole to see if the ring mount on the top of the shock is actually kicking up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bio Posted May 14, 2013 Share Posted May 14, 2013 Could the bolt going upwards into the base of the roll bar be loose thus protruding down closer to the top of the shock, or the wrong bolt used in the first place ...should be a skinny head bolt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revilla Posted May 14, 2013 Author Share Posted May 14, 2013 BIO - I have the non-FIA bar - the bolt hole above the shock is unused - there is no bolt, but if there was, the sound I am hearing sounds exactly as I would expect if the shock was hitting it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k.russell Posted May 15, 2013 Share Posted May 15, 2013 had a knock for a while, couldnt put my finger on it, my de dion snapped in half in the meantime,, but the knock was still there. had my suspisions and just confirmed it was the ball joint on the end of the anti roll bar clicking and amplifying up the anti roll bar. have put some old ball joints on and the knock is gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revilla Posted June 12, 2013 Author Share Posted June 12, 2013 Well I finally admitted and defeat and handed the car over to Nick Potter for some professional investiagtion. As of yesterday night he had stripped the whole rear suspension and A-frame off and found absolutely nothing at all. He said that all of the bushes were as-new and even the nylon washers which go next to the A-frame bush and tend to wear were perfect. So I was beginning to think that I was just wasting everyone's time and it was a case of TADTS ... then he took it for a test drive this morning and reported back that as he went over the bumps in Foxton village he got CLONK-CLONK-CLONK "right next to his arse" as he put it, and it definitely wasn't normal. Anyway to cut a VERY long story short, he's had another good look and found that the edge of the brake caliper casting is catching on the front Watts linkage arm, with a clear polished metal witness mark (which we both missed on intial inspection). Having heard the noise, I can very well believe that's what I've been hearing. He told me that the brake pads in it look very new and are very thick, and that one good track day would probably be enough to stop it (until I next need new pads!), but as it's been used only on the road so far the rear pads have hardly worn at all. He also said that the rear ride height is set quite high and that will be making the problem worse, but when we flat-floored it we needed it set that high to get a reasonable sump clearance and some rake. He reckons that the spot that is catching (I haven't seen it yet, it's still in his workshop, so I'm still trying to picture all of this in my head) can easily and safely be filed down a bit and that is what he is going to do for me today, so hopefully all will be OK after that. I will report back whether it is finally cured when I get a chance to collect the car. In the meantime thank you everyone who tried to help me track this one down, it took a while and seems to have been a fairly obsure problem, but hopefully anyone who has similar problems in future will find this thread and have one more thing to check. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fil M Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 I had the same symptom on my SV roadsport 2001 de dion and it was the rear most rod end on the right offside Watts linkage. I could not have discovered it by pulling it about in situ. I got a replacement very reasonably ........ Strandbearings@tiscali.co.uk Part number XM 4 T -1/4''x5/16'' UNF Rod end. They were £15 each a couple of years ago. Tel No. 01903 241621. I bought two ...one in my garage for the future ... I put the other on the car. You will find CC's prices way over for the same thing. Very very easy to replace...10 minute job..i did it without removing the whole linkage ... knocking sound disappeared straight away. Tom New our local '7' garage owner pointed out the cause and remedy straight away. If your in doubt for the cost alone its worth a try to see if it does the trick. If you need more info BM me. Good luck cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revilla Posted June 12, 2013 Author Share Posted June 12, 2013 Caliper Filed - Knocking Cured - Case Closed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eugene Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mostro Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 Thank **** for that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry Auton Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 Quoting Fil M: I had the same symptom on my SV roadsport 2001 de dion and it was the rear most rod end on the right offside Watts linkage. I could not have discovered it by pulling it about in situ. I got a replacement very reasonably ........ Strandbearings@tiscali.co.uk Part number XM 4 T -1/4''x5/16'' UNF Rod end. They were £15 each a couple of years ago. Tel No. 01903 241621. I bought two ...one in my garage for the future ... I put the other on the car. You will find CC's prices way over for the same thing. Very very easy to replace...10 minute job..i did it without removing the whole linkage ... knocking sound disappeared straight away. Tom New our local '7' garage owner pointed out the cause and remedy straight away. If your in doubt for the cost alone its worth a try to see if it does the trick. If you need more info BM me. Good luck cheers Have just resolved the loud "Creaking" from the rear n/s of my 2005 SV by replacing the Watts Linkage Rod Ends. It was also the lower one which was the culprit. Thanks SM25T for the intro to Strand Bearings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stationary M25 Traveller Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 Good news. Amazing how much they can make isn't it !! Quick and easy fix too. They do seem to be consumable items .... worth changing every couple of years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry Auton Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 I now have a few "in stock" in anticipation of future failures Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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