Alfa 147 lower wishbone replacement

[Campbeli]

Have not staked the hub nit but yet as my impact wrench is not as strong as Citroenbenders so it does not bring the nut back to the position is was before.
So I'm thinking about whether that is ok or I should get hold of a stronger impact wrench for the final tighten.




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[bazzbazz]

Really needs to be set to the correct torque or at least back to the original position.

[Campbeli]

All coming together nicely.......and  whilst making sure everything is tightened up I've managed to strip the nuts on the front connection point of the LHS wishbone . Grrrrr
Now I've gotta work out how to get those two bolts out of the stripped nuts, remove the wishbone (again), buy a new wishbone and do it all again.




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[bazzbazz]

Just get slightly longer bolts and put a nut on top of the captive welded bolts and torque up.

[Citroënbender]

I'd come at it a different way if the following is physically possible.

•Drill out the thread, do one bolt at a time
•Fit a socket head capscrew 10.9 grade or better, from the top, poking down
•Mark and trim length to be 1.5mm longer than needed for hardened steel washer and 10.9 rated Nyloc
•Be generous with waterproof grease, reassemble and torque up

[Campbeli]

Thanks for the advice gents.
Looks like for either method I'll need to drill out the captured nuts.
First step is to get the bolts out.



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[Campbeli]

Progress - got some high tensile bolts and lock nuts from cedrays and it seems to have worked - now for another careful tighten up


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[bazzbazz]

That'll work just fine. 

[Kay_147_GTA]

I've been doing this today, booked 3 hours at a place where I could rent a hoist, what an absolute **** of a job!

Got hub nut off fine with impact wrench, replaced inner and outer CV boots, swapped out top wishbone (turns out ball joint was buggered and was the cause of the clunking noise), new drop links went in fine but then we had to get the new lower wishbone on. Could not for the life of us get it in, then tried to put old one back in which was also a **** and ended stripping the threads off the bolts. Also managed to bugger the thread on the lower wishbone ball joint.

Ended up taking 7 hours and a tow to garage

[bazzbazz]

Kay_147_GTA, did we remember to loosen off the anti-roll bar bolts fully before trying to fit the new lower arm? 

[Campbeli]

Kay_147_GTA - I feel your pain!
Did you strip the bolts only, or the nuts and aluminium blocks of the wishbone too?
I actually ordered a set of bolts from EB spares as I was going to use the longer rear one as a replacement for the middle sized one i stripped.
They have not come yet, and it looks like I won't need them, so if you do, send me a pm


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[Campbeli]

Citroenbender and BazzBazz, very grateful for your help and advice. Wheels on tomorrow and a test drive


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[Campbeli]

Did we remember to loosen off the anti-roll bar bolts fully before trying to fit the new lower arm? 

I took mine completely out for maximum movement - tricky to get back on though.


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[Citroënbender]

Glad it's coming together.

I remember sweating and swearing many years back on my first serious suspension job - replacing the lower arms on my '64 Falcon; no chassis stands, sloping road, summer heat, all sorts of hair raising risks. Don't underrate your shady, dry, secure and level workspace. 

[Kay_147_GTA]

@bazz no, didn't realise that, we also changed the inner and outer CV boots and the inner one that I ordered was wrong (it was the same as the inner) so spent a while chasing around to find the correct one. Mauceri motors happened to have one which was great but we ended up wasting a bunch of time getting that. As a result we were running short on time and failed to check videos / instructions

@campbelli we couldn't get new one so decided to put old one back on and that's the one we stripped the 2 short outer bolts on. Luckily the new arm is still good, will hopefully just need new bolts.

Ended up towing car to Mauceri motors, will get them to do the rest of the work tomorrow. I gave it a red hot go but was defeated in the end