Guide: Front suspension/spring/coilover change

[ginge191]

Yeh; compress the springs. It's a long job by hand, but persevere!

And yeh, be careful, I find it easiest moving the hub side to side, you'll find you can roll it slightly which allows more space to drop the strut down!
Good luck!

[Frosty]

I'm being completely stupid but on lowering spring do the coils closer together go at the top or bottom?

[306Puggy]

Doesn't matter bud. I wondered the same thing when I went to KrisB to get mine done and he said it doesn't matter as long as both sides are the same.

[C.A.R.]

Going to undertake this in the next few weeks.

I've bought some new top mount bearings cos they were cheap, but is it really necessary to change the whole top mount? I don't have any clicking / knocking from the front, I was just going to do the bearings as a matter of course.

Am I right in thinking you can drop the whole shock / spring unit out without having to compress the spring at all? Then I can clamp the spring and remove the top mount whilst the whole assembly is off the car?

I'm going to order new pinch bolts too, just because they're cheap and could be corroded to buggery.

Worth getting a mate to come over and help?

[ginge191]

Going to undertake this in the next few weeks.

I've bought some new top mount bearings cos they were cheap, but is it really necessary to change the whole top mount? I don't have any clicking / knocking from the front, I was just going to do the bearings as a matter of course.

Am I right in thinking you can drop the whole shock / spring unit out without having to compress the spring at all? Then I can clamp the spring and remove the top mount whilst the whole assembly is off the car?

I'm going to order new pinch bolts too, just because they're cheap and could be corroded to buggery.

Worth getting a mate to come over and help?

Seeing as you have new top mounts, just pop them onto the coilovers, assuming that's what's replacing it.

Then yeh, no need to compress springs, old lot off, new lot on. you can single hand it, get an axle stand so the driveshafts/hubs dont fall too far if it's your first time

[Alan_M]

Couple of tips for ya;

Get a wire brush on those exposed threads before trying to undo them. You'd be surprised how a tiny piece of crud can bind up a nut, no matter how much penetrating spray (or WD40 if that's your thing) you put on.

Leave the nut on the track rod end ball joint thread, just undo it till it's at the end before smacking it with a hammer. But, there is no need if you hold a hammer face tight against the BJ body, and smack the other side of the BJ with another hammer. Comes out all time for me and no need to smack the threaded part. Or you can buy a BJ seperator...

When seperating the hub from the strut, use a sump plug tool. Simply put the 8mm sqaure end into the gap at the strut clamp and turn 90'. It'll spread the clamp allowing the hub to come away from the strut with mere hand power. Plus, if you leave the sump plug tool in the hub, it makes it easy to put back on.

[kelvsere]

How does she handle now ?

[silverzx]

When I did mine the other day I only removed the drop link (16/17mm) and the pinch nut that holdes the strut near the hub.

Didn't need to undo or remove the other bits.

Seemed like it wasn't going to budge until I started hitting the bracket the drop link goes through with a hammer.

Also grease was useful when refitting new struts.

Piece of piss really but the design of how the strut connects to the hub is pretty poor.

Datsun engineering is far superior.

[RetroPug]

Bumping. Do you not need to remove the BJ from the wishbone? I've bashed the hub down pretty far and the shock is nearly out but the wishbone won't go any lower as it is now sitting on the subframe.

How did you get around this?

[bashbarnard]

Sometimes that happens depending on what shocks you have. Usually not an issue but I have come across it. Bash it back on. Tighten up. Remove bj. Bash it down and support hub during the change over. Hope this helps. Ps 206s are the worst for it usually though.

[RetroPug]

I managed to get the strut out without removing the BJ. I went and bought a BJ fork and bashed it with a BFOH for ages and ages and it didn't budge.

So, I jacked the hub up until the spring was quite compressed then put spring compressors on. This mean that when the hub went backt down the bottom of the strut was just about high enough to get out.

Driveshaft wept a bit of gearbox oil before I quickly jacked the hub back up (let it drop too much). Leaking appears to have stopped. Do I need to do anything other than not let it drop again or does it need relocating or something?

Thanks for the help.

[Jonny81191]

I managed to get the strut out without removing the BJ. I went and bought a BJ fork and bashed it with a BFOH for ages and ages and it didn't budge.

So, I jacked the hub up until the spring was quite compressed then put spring compressors on. This mean that when the hub went backt down the bottom of the strut was just about high enough to get out.

Driveshaft wept a bit of gearbox oil before I quickly jacked the hub back up (let it drop too much). Leaking appears to have stopped. Do I need to do anything other than not let it drop again or does it need relocating or something?

Thanks for the help.

Should be OK, as long as the leak has stopped. It might be worth topping up/changing the gearbox oil though, depends how much you've lost.

[RetroPug]

Probably not more than 100ml. I might have a bit in the garage. Cheers.