My 33's broken

[colcol]

Today i went on the Great Ocean Road drive in the 33 after it had been off the road for 6 months, not broken down but some 'improvements', so it was good to take it out, on the G.O.R. drive it was all good till i hit the loaded front wheel on a massive bump in the middle of the road, the suspension bottomed, and then it started tracking to one side with the steering wheel out 45 degrees, not good, pulled out a suspension joint or cracked chassis rail has opened up , but no, the shock absorber had pulled out of the top mount, and the top of the suspension is flopping around every where, ok still not good but slow drive back to Melbourne, thank you to all the Ausalfa type drivers that pulled up to help but, i'll be able to limp back to Melbourne, so i turned it around and drove about 50 metres, and the front suspension collapsed, bang!, so i spun the L.H.S. wheel to get it off the road, took the wheel off , the shock absorber had fallen into the strut, the coil spring had come out, and i had no R.H. suspension, and no mobile coverage, [thanks vodafone], so i can't call a freind even if i had one, next thing would be Brother, but no coverage, so it looked like i had to try and fix it, cut the rubber gaitor off the strut so i could see what i was doing, and tried to push piston up through top mounting, but every thing is at the wrong angle, i thought maybe i could remove the strut and do it at the side of the road, but i couldn't lift the car high enough to get the strut out, so i went for a walk up the road, and found a rock that was about the right size, to be contiued, Colin.

[colcol]

continued, so i jacked the car high as i could with the rock placed under bits, this continued for it seems like hours, until i got it high enough off the ground, with suspension on maximum droop, undid the tie rod, these are terrible, but i took it off about 3 months ago for a wheel alignment, so it come off easy, next, the 4 bolts that hold the strut to the bearing housing, remember there is no spring pressure, because it has fallen out, undid the 4 nuts that hold the strut in and presto, out she falls, so then i assemble it on the ground and the spring won't compress enough to go in, so i leave a few things like rubber insulators, and put washers in back to front so i can get a bit of length from the shocker, and Bobs your uncle i managed to start the nut, but not the original nut as its long gone and the shocker fine thread is damaged, so i used aircon course nut and used it as a self tapper to get the nut on and pull it down, then the strut is all assembled and i put it back in the car without too much drama, with bits back to front and other bits missing, let the car down, which seem to take hours, jack up car, remove rock, let down jack to next rock, move jack, jack up car, remove rock, etc, put tyre back on car, done up bolts, to be continued, Colin.

[colcol]

Continued, let car down off jack, bounce car a few times, seems ok, slightly lower on right due to missing parts, started car, drove so slow, i was being hounded by Toyota's for driving so slow!, had a great lunch at Pub, then played a game of pool with Ella, drove back to Melbourne slowly, got home at 6pm, i think sometimes with the current speed kills hysteria at the moment, what about the state of our roads?, the roads down that way are falling apart, but i am sure Vicroads won't get their bums kicked, the suspension could have broken on a high speed corner, and then the accident would be put down to excessive speed, but geez i had a great day, it could have been much worse, i could be still down there trying to fix it, as it was it took two and a half hours to fix, and you always get a kick out of fixing something and getting home, Colin.

[Ray Pignataro]

But are you home yet?

[Ray Pignataro]

sorry asked the question before your last post

[Evan Bottcher]

[dehne]

there is a 33 on ebay thats going for $20 at the moment if you want to get any parts and its a 1.7

[colcol]

Hey Evan, who is the man with the plane, is he some sort of 33 rescuer, with a plane load of spares?, Colin.

[aggie57]

Hey Evan, who is the man with the plane, is he some sort of 33 rescuer, with a plane load of spares?, Colin.

Yes Evan - is he the guy who used to work at the Alfasud plant and who still seems to somehow have a really good supply of NOS Sud and 33 parts?  

[colcol]

Reminds me of the Johnny Cash song about the bloke that worked on the Chevrolet production line, and everyday he took a part home to build his own car, speaking of car parts, anyone have any front Koni shock absorbers to suit a 1984 33?, Colin.

[Miss Alfa Sprint]

Colin i am so glad you were able to fix it and get home safe, eventually, actually me and AGM155 had stopped at a petrol station in Werribee and he saw you driving past on the freeway. We realized when we got to Apollo bay none of us had your mobile number to check on you 

I hope the 33 gets well soon!

[colcol]

Thanks Miss Alfa Sprint, no point in ringing me, as there is no Vodafone coverage down there, when i worked out it was a bigger problem than 1st thought, i was going to phone my brother, but couldn't due to no phone signal, so i had to fix it, geez that bump i hit was mean, suprised the shock didn't come through the bonnet, but we Alfa people help each other out, thanks again, and i will be driving the 33 to work this week until i can get my hands on a new front shock absorber, 33's you can't kill them!, Colin.

[aggie57]

Colin - I had a front shock top mount pull out on my GTV6 once driving down the Nepean Highway. Just started rattling for no obvious reason so popped the bonnet open and the top of the shock was floating around in the engine bay.

Not the drama you had - it didn't hold the suspension to the body - but it must have been cracked for some Ike beforehand.

[colcol]

The shock absorber has a nut, [long gone] holding the shocker to the top mount, the thread on the shocker is stripped, so i don't whether the nut gradually come loose or the bump in the road yanked it out, i suspect the bump did it, because if it was coming loose you would hear it rattling around, and the steering wheel would gradually move off centre, as the strut alignment changed, Colin.

[Evan Bottcher]

Hey Evan, who is the man with the plane, is he some sort of 33 rescuer, with a plane load of spares?, Colin.

Does this one jog your memory?  You fixed your 33 with just a rock, and some paper clips, pipe cleaners and hand cleaner.