Front wishbone dismanteling

[pink_floyd]

Just started what I thought would be a quick job, I should know better.
I wanted to remove the wishbones and front hub carrier to clean them up and POR15 them. The problem is that the brake pipe to the front brake goes through a bracket at the back of the hub carrier, does this mean I have to takeoff the brake pipes to remove the front upright(hub carrier) from the car, and then bleed the brakes when I reassemble them. Also the pipe goes through a grommet in the plate, it all very tight how do you get the pipe in and out as the metal ends are bigger than the pipe.
The car is a 1998 S reg 4.0ltr chim. Any help much appreciated.

[chassis 33]

For the sake of an extra half hours work its worth disconnecting the brake pipes and bleeding the system afterwards. The trick is to fish the grommet out first, the resulting hole in the metal is large enough to get the hose end through.

Regards
Iain

[biggiles]

I recently spent some time getting acquainted with the lower wishbone. Watch out for the hub assembly and how it fits on to the wishbone- it's a taper fitting and doesn't like rust, (probably POR) and will be a pain to get back together again.

If you look back at my thread "front wheel forked" you'll find a video of the wishbones and lots of flickr photographs which may be useful when you put it all back together again.

BTW, I'm about to do a similar thing, but using "Rust Bullet" from the states- seems even better than POR15.

[pink_floyd]

Thanks for the info, tried getting the bottom joint appart but it won't budge. I didn't realise that it was tapered, so proably need to hit it a bit harder. Out of interest how much was the lower wishbone, and did it come with the bushes included/fitted.

[neejah]

You should really use a ball joint seperator for this rather than a big hammer!

[pupp]

neejah said:

You should really use a ball joint seperator for this rather than a big hammer!

This is the ONLY job I've ever done on any vehicle where I specifically went out and bought a bigger hammer

[pink_floyd]

It was the bottom joint with the 3 small bolts rather than the ball joint to carrier I was trying to take apart. Anyway decided to leave it all together and work on it as a complete assembly.

[pink_floyd]

Having got it all out, what is the best way of removing the powder coating? Some of it flakes off because of the rust underneath, the rest is stuck firm and solid. Is it better to leave the good stuck on coating on and just paint with POR15, or should I get it all back to bare metal?

[biggiles]

pink_floyd said:

Having got it all out, what is the best way of removing the powder coating? Some of it flakes off because of the rust underneath, the rest is stuck firm and solid. Is it better to leave the good stuck on coating on and just paint with POR15, or should I get it all back to bare metal?

I believe in 2001 or so TVR finally managed to do decent powder coating. Otherwise, best to get it all off. Having looked at my chassis rails, I can see rust has travelled under the powder coating- it's just sealed in the rust.

POR15 works by "bonding" with the metal- if something can get between it and the metal, you may as well use double cream instead of POR15. So don't leave any TVR powder coating on there.

If it really is solid, you could leave it on there, but you'll have to sort it out one day. Make sure you don't paint over it, otherwise the rust may still happen but you won't be able to see it.

BTW, what are you using to remove the rust? flap wheel? wire brush on a drill?