Hold(en) my beer - Monaro, Ute and Commodore content
Discussion
So the Monaro is back in the garage and popped it up in the air last night. Those bearings ordered from RockAuto Wednesday evening are arriving TODAY which is just silly.
Measured my ride height at all 4 corners in preparation for fitting this array of goodies...
Full Shockworks coilover setup
People rave about how good these are on the VEs (including a few UK owners) and I've never heard or found a bad word said about them, so took the plunge. Chatted to them in advance (really helpful guys) and have had them valved for a fairly comfortable ride. The dampers are still adjustable so I can firm them up but I'm excited to see how they feel.
There'll be a pair of rear springs arriving in a few weeks, my rear ride height is a little higher than they usually do (and I can't / don't want to go lower due to looks / getting on/off the drive) so some taller springs are getting made.
Likely to be the only Monaro over here with this setup, couldn't find very much at all about VT-VZs with the Shockworks so looking forward to seeing how they feel!
Made a bit of a start today, naturally some fun (but not unexpected) hurdles, in the familiar form of allen head bolts.
No, I don't need to change the front bearings / wheel hubs, but they're here now, they're shiny, so apart it comes.
In theory though, because the three bolts that hold the bearing into the knuckle are 10mm allen heads. Which is great except of course they are corroded into oblivion, and red loctited too! Brilliant combo.
I got one of them out, the first one, so was feeling cautiously optimistic and then of course the 2nd one eventually rounds having not budged at all despite the blow torch, the penetrant and all sorts.
Decided to just take the knuckle out so I can get the bolts out using whatever means necessary (replacement knuckles are unobtainium it seems)
Not much else fought back which was nice, plenty needed heat but ultimately it came apart OK. Have ordered some SuperPro lower arms because why not, the ball joints will be old, there's a Pedders bush in the middle but it looked like possibly still a (black) factory original bush where it mounts to the subframe.
I was careless tapping the track rod end out of the knuckle and managed to chip the thread so the castle nut won't thread back on, but once again figured why not just replace them whilst it's apart, for the sake of £25 a side at this point... They're a bit worn out compared to new so it'll be a small improvement.
Can see the allens have been utterly obliterated now as I've tried all sorts to get them loose. Will get some of those bitey weapons or possibly drill them out or something. Going to be easier off the car anyway.
And no, honestly, it hasn't been recovered from the ocean floor.
After a bit of a break, I set about the other side, and lo' and behold, bolts came out no problem on this side...
Still, opted to take it all apart as will replace the lower arm and so on. I got to use this ball joint splitter that I mistakenly bought about 12 years ago, but definitely saved my bacon today!
The drop link nuts were comically stuck as well, so the grinder came out to butcher the nut off. Not the most efficient method but naturally have replacement drop links that came with the Shockworks kit so no need to save the old ones!
Another pic of all the nice bits that'll be going in
The top mount cap on the Shockworks won't sit alongside the strut bar so will possibly swap it for a standard one, but not too fussed about that at the moment.
Passenger side also stripped apart, will wait for bits to arrive and generally butcher those bolts out.
Will measure some wire resistances and things next I think with regards the ABS fault, must try and get the tech2 software working again to actually get a proper reading of what it thinks is wrong...
No, I don't need to change the front bearings / wheel hubs, but they're here now, they're shiny, so apart it comes.
In theory though, because the three bolts that hold the bearing into the knuckle are 10mm allen heads. Which is great except of course they are corroded into oblivion, and red loctited too! Brilliant combo.
I got one of them out, the first one, so was feeling cautiously optimistic and then of course the 2nd one eventually rounds having not budged at all despite the blow torch, the penetrant and all sorts.
Decided to just take the knuckle out so I can get the bolts out using whatever means necessary (replacement knuckles are unobtainium it seems)
Not much else fought back which was nice, plenty needed heat but ultimately it came apart OK. Have ordered some SuperPro lower arms because why not, the ball joints will be old, there's a Pedders bush in the middle but it looked like possibly still a (black) factory original bush where it mounts to the subframe.
I was careless tapping the track rod end out of the knuckle and managed to chip the thread so the castle nut won't thread back on, but once again figured why not just replace them whilst it's apart, for the sake of £25 a side at this point... They're a bit worn out compared to new so it'll be a small improvement.
Can see the allens have been utterly obliterated now as I've tried all sorts to get them loose. Will get some of those bitey weapons or possibly drill them out or something. Going to be easier off the car anyway.
And no, honestly, it hasn't been recovered from the ocean floor.
After a bit of a break, I set about the other side, and lo' and behold, bolts came out no problem on this side...
Still, opted to take it all apart as will replace the lower arm and so on. I got to use this ball joint splitter that I mistakenly bought about 12 years ago, but definitely saved my bacon today!
The drop link nuts were comically stuck as well, so the grinder came out to butcher the nut off. Not the most efficient method but naturally have replacement drop links that came with the Shockworks kit so no need to save the old ones!
Another pic of all the nice bits that'll be going in
The top mount cap on the Shockworks won't sit alongside the strut bar so will possibly swap it for a standard one, but not too fussed about that at the moment.
Passenger side also stripped apart, will wait for bits to arrive and generally butcher those bolts out.
Will measure some wire resistances and things next I think with regards the ABS fault, must try and get the tech2 software working again to actually get a proper reading of what it thinks is wrong...
Good progress, I do the same these days - most crusty suspension bits just get cut off and new ones in their place.
For the Allen head bolts on the knuckles, have you access to a welder? Thing to do would be to fill the Allen cap with weld, then weld a big hex nut on the top. The heat will help loosen the loctite and corrosion, and the hex is a good surface to attack for removal.
I've tried the removal tools etc but this is the quickest and simplest way ime
For the Allen head bolts on the knuckles, have you access to a welder? Thing to do would be to fill the Allen cap with weld, then weld a big hex nut on the top. The heat will help loosen the loctite and corrosion, and the hex is a good surface to attack for removal.
I've tried the removal tools etc but this is the quickest and simplest way ime
Krikkit said:
Good progress, I do the same these days - most crusty suspension bits just get cut off and new ones in their place.
For the Allen head bolts on the knuckles, have you access to a welder? Thing to do would be to fill the Allen cap with weld, then weld a big hex nut on the top. The heat will help loosen the loctite and corrosion, and the hex is a good surface to attack for removal.
I've tried the removal tools etc but this is the quickest and simplest way ime
I don't at the moment no, and have never welded, but I was thinking welding a nut to them would be probably the best solution...For the Allen head bolts on the knuckles, have you access to a welder? Thing to do would be to fill the Allen cap with weld, then weld a big hex nut on the top. The heat will help loosen the loctite and corrosion, and the hex is a good surface to attack for removal.
I've tried the removal tools etc but this is the quickest and simplest way ime
I may try the removal tools just until I can get to a mate that can weld
SturdyHSV said:
I don't at the moment no, and have never welded, but I was thinking welding a nut to them would be probably the best solution...
I may try the removal tools just until I can get to a mate that can weld
The welding thing rarely works, you cant weld to rust. Believe me, the multitude of motorcycle exhaust studs I've dealt with in my career always just come out with the drill. I may try the removal tools just until I can get to a mate that can weld
Did you go with the caster adjstable front control arm bush as well? more caster is always good. The coilovers look decent , what kg rear springs do they come with ?
Was kind hoping the pile of leaves in the video were going to get blown all about !!
Edited by fred bloggs on Wednesday 13th December 17:46
fred bloggs said:
The welding thing rarely works, you cant weld to rust. Believe me, the multitude of motorcycle exhaust studs I've dealt with in my career always just come out with the drill.
Correct, you can't weld to rust, you just hit it with the grinder until you see steel... It works perfectly well and much quicker/easier than drilling.Krikkit said:
fred bloggs said:
The welding thing rarely works, you cant weld to rust. Believe me, the multitude of motorcycle exhaust studs I've dealt with in my career always just come out with the drill.
Correct, you can't weld to rust, you just hit it with the grinder until you see steel... It works perfectly well and much quicker/easier than drilling.B'stard Child said:
Krikkit said:
fred bloggs said:
The welding thing rarely works, you cant weld to rust. Believe me, the multitude of motorcycle exhaust studs I've dealt with in my career always just come out with the drill.
Correct, you can't weld to rust, you just hit it with the grinder until you see steel... It works perfectly well and much quicker/easier than drilling.SuperPro lower arms have arrived, as have the Pedders track rod ends.
Quite the parts haul built up!
Not car related as such, but had team photos and things taken yesterday, a lot of celebration going on, so here's a photo of a photographer taking a photo
Krikkit said:
Correct, you can't weld to rust, you just hit it with the grinder until you see steel... It works perfectly well and much quicker/easier than drilling.
Good luck getting a grinder on those bolt heads. All the 6 bolts on my 130k 1999 hubs came out fine. But what do I know about getting rusty bolts out : )
Edited by fred bloggs on Thursday 14th December 15:21
Edited by fred bloggs on Thursday 14th December 15:22
fred bloggs said:
Krikkit said:
Correct, you can't weld to rust, you just hit it with the grinder until you see steel... It works perfectly well and much quicker/easier than drilling.
Good luck getting a grinder on those bolt heads. All the 6 bolts on my 130k 1999 hubs came out fine. But what do I know about getting rusty bolts out : )
Just have to be able to get it to bright steel and there is always more than one way to skin the proverbial cat
Great success!
I basically drilled a smaller hole down into the middle of the bolt and sacrificed a couple of halfords bits by basically hammering them right down into the newly made hole, then sent the impact gun at them at 1000Nm.
As we can see, one of them it just snapped the bolt in half where it had been drilled through, the other interestingly was actually another 10mm allen, but crucially this one was rusty and hammered in slightly off angle so it is now one with the bolt, but gripped enough that it broke the bolt loose and out it came!
Nice work! Getting rusty / crusty / s
tty bolts out is always a PITA!
Sooooooooo, when do I bring the M5 around for fitting my coilovers? Seriously though, do you think I could pop round at some point to maybe make use of your ramp to do them please? I've never fitted them before but I'd like to give it a bash!
tty bolts out is always a PITA!Sooooooooo, when do I bring the M5 around for fitting my coilovers?
Seriously though, do you think I could pop round at some point to maybe make use of your ramp to do them please? I've never fitted them before but I'd like to give it a bash!SturdyHSV said:
Great success!
I basically drilled a smaller hole down into the middle of the bolt and sacrificed a couple of halfords bits by basically hammering them right down into the newly made hole, then sent the impact gun at them at 1000Nm.
As we can see, one of them it just snapped the bolt in half where it had been drilled through, the other interestingly was actually another 10mm allen, but crucially this one was rusty and hammered in slightly off angle so it is now one with the bolt, but gripped enough that it broke the bolt loose and out it came!
Krikkit said:
Nice work! Good result.
Cheers, was a satisfying step, as at this point I think that's all of the likely obstacles out of the way, should be mostly downhill from here!TheAngryDog said:
Nice work! Getting rusty / crusty / stty bolts out is always a PITA!
Sooooooooo, when do I bring the M5 around for fitting my coilovers? Seriously though, do you think I could pop round at some point to maybe make use of your ramp to do them please? I've never fitted them before but I'd like to give it a bash!
Yeah absolutely mate, you're very welcome!!tty bolts out is always a PITA!Sooooooooo, when do I bring the M5 around for fitting my coilovers?
Seriously though, do you think I could pop round at some point to maybe make use of your ramp to do them please? I've never fitted them before but I'd like to give it a bash!It's a bit awkward in the garage width wise so it might be something better done on the driveway, so I'd say it's probably mostly weather dependent depending on how hardy you're feeling at the time
I'm off between Christmas and New Year so if you're really keen (and on the assumption I've got somewhere to mount 4 wheels on the Monaro!) we could give it a punt then?
I'll have a bit of a google into the process on an E60 just in case there's some sort of magic tool needed or some evil German gotcha that'll mean I'm sadly stuck with a 680hp V10 on my drive
fred bloggs said:
Bolts in winter time. Mine came out when I pre heated them for 15 mins with a heat gun.
Annoyingly though, two X the offside replacement ones went noisy after a few thousand miles. The third one( a different brand) seems good.
Maybe I should have spent longer cooking them first time round, I had the torch on the exposed end of the thread and the general hub area where the loctite is for a good couple of minutes but certainly potential to get it hotter, soemthing to bear in mind.Annoyingly though, two X the offside replacement ones went noisy after a few thousand miles. The third one( a different brand) seems good.
Do you know what brands they were you had? I'm hoping going for Timken ones they'll be reasonable quality.
Yep, they gotta get really hot , Even better if you have oxy/acetylene. We don't anymore as BOC are wanting over £600 per year for the bottle rental, but the plumbers butane torches are good enough, you just have to sit with it a good while.
I think the third bearing was a timken one, and is fine.
I think the third bearing was a timken one, and is fine.
Edited by fred bloggs on Saturday 16th December 10:51
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff