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Stripping Front Suspension - Only the Spherical Bearing left to do, but help needed!


StuB

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Suggestions needed, have got it all apart or at least loose, except for one of the upper wishbones where it goes through the wing stay onto the wheel hub (please excuse the lack of technical terms). Anyway, I've removed the nut and it's stuck fast, I can't get it to budge. 

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance. 

Stu

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I've used the trick SM25T mentions and it works very well.

However, holding the bolt steady while using the spanner is a bit of a nightmare so I made a tool to make it easier:

http://i1170.photobucket.com/albums/r538/underhay/003_skcc/ball_joint_tool.jpg

The flat end with the tube goes under the ball joint thread, and the curved end goes on top of the upright underneath. I hope this helps *smile*

Duncan

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I've done a similar thing but with no access to welding just locked two nuts together on one end of a threaded rod cut to length . These go at the bottom and are held steady with a ring spanner , turn the nut at the other end and the taper pops out .

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Thanks all for the suggestions, funny thing is that managed to remove everything on the drivers side without too much hassle. Passenger side is proving to be a real pig. Tried a ball joint splitter with no luck (except to muller the rubber cap), managed to remove to wing stay then a few sharp taps to the underside of the bolt, with the nut on, to reduce the chance of damaging the thread and it popped out. Was also given a tip of using an SDS drill on hammer setting in the same way and that would have been my next step. 

Now just struggling with the nut on the bottom of the hub, the one through the spherical bearing, again only an issue on the pass side! Have a glamorous assistant coming around to help tomorrow night so I'm hoping that I should be able to take a trip to Kelcoat later in the week with my bits. 

Stu

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As the revised title, have just spent a few hours trying to get the suspension bushes removed - thanks to Colin Heseltine for his help.

Unfortunatley the clip that holds in the spherical bearing has rusted in place.  Can't get anything in to prise out the clip.  Currently have it soaking in PlusGas but any other suggestions appreciated.

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If you get underneath with a light you will see there is a little recess in the edge of the socket that the bearing and spring clip goes into, you just need to poke a tiny screwdriver into here and you should be able to lever the spring clip out. On mine this was the easy bit, getting the bearing out was a bit of a faff though.

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Cheers all, got them out eventually, this is turning into a much longer job than originally anticipated 

I called Caterham Midlands yesterday to see if they had any tips. The answer was that they find it a problem removing them too. They advised that it may be easier and cheaper (by the time I've factored in the cost of new powder coating) just to buy a new set of lower wishbones. I was then given a price of £170 each! Now I know that my man maths is bad but WTF!

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