WAS:Front end refurb NOW:Suspension rebuild, rad and gearbox

[woody]

The 2 hex bolts on the top are starting to round though so that smaller piece is still attached to the hub for now.

Why are you removing the steering arm, to paint it? Got to be honest, it's cast, so a bit of surface rust won't do any harm. I'd leave it on if you've no access to heat & have the place doing the Geo deal with it as required. Even with heat, wouldn't want too much on the bearing - I'm assuming the bearings are good and you're leaving them in? If they are I wouldn't remove them for the sake of it from the alloy hubs. Also, the hubs aren't painted & are not anodized, they're fine as they are but will look nicer if you're concerned about cleaning them (I wasn't).

[Corranga]

Basically for cleaning, and setting the geometry up. I might just take the hub into the garage I used and see if he can remove them off the car, might be easier than when I take it back in and ask him to set up the geometry -the problems with the guy that'll set it up being a friend

Bearings are good, so I was planning to leave them in.

More progress:
Last night, I managed to get the passenger side dismantled. Similar to the drivers side, the top wishbone is in worse condition than the bottom, though I'd say these are both better condition than the drivers side - which I thought would be the opposite due to the passenger side driving through all the crap at the side of the road all its life..
Same as drivers side, I couldn't get either of the 19mm nyloc nuts off, so removed both wishbones and the hub as a single unit, then put them in my vice to get the ball joints off.

Kinda regretting not having 4 axle stands to hand (I seem to have either lost 2 or leant them to someone and not got them back)and doing the rear at the same time.
I have another pair on order, but I think that getting the rear of the car on stands whilst the front is already on stands is probably not possible? (only ever did it 1 side at a time).

[campbell]

I have 2 stands sitting idle if need be. Not the most local to you though

[Corranga]

I have 2 stands sitting idle if need be. Not the most local to you though

Thanks for the offer, but I'll hold off until mine arrive.

My issue is that I've only ever put the car on stands 1 side at a time, not sure I can get enough life - and stability to get rear stands in - In my head the process of a car on front stands, and wheels at the back plus a jack on 1 side seems rather precarious!

Also, vinegar update - it seems that soaking a wishbone in vinegar for 3 days doesn't clean all the rust off
I'm now looking for a local(ish) electroplaters who can use something a little more potent to pickle my wishbones, then do zinc passivation.

[woody]

I have 2 stands sitting idle if need be. Not the most local to you though

Thanks for the offer, but I'll hold off until mine arrive.

My issue is that I've only ever put the car on stands 1 side at a time, not sure I can get enough life - and stability to get rear stands in - In my head the process of a car on front stands, and wheels at the back plus a jack on 1 side seems rather precarious!

Also, vinegar update - it seems that soaking a wishbone in vinegar for 3 days doesn't clean all the rust off
I'm now looking for a local(ish) electroplaters who can use something a little more potent to pickle my wishbones, then do zinc passivation.

I plastic media blasted mine, but not sure how commonly available that is? The elise is probably one of the easier cars to place on 4 stands tbh.

[Corranga]

So, tonight was about cleaning...

I started off by cleaning up the corroded area where the S2 damper bracket was fitted.
Stupidly, I didn't do before and after shots, but here is one of the passenger side which I haven't cleaned yet:


and the cleaned up drivers side, doesn't look all that bad. There is some pitting.


Question time:- Do I have to do anything with this, or am I ok to just Duralac it prior to fitting the bracket?

I gave the chassis a bit of a scrub, I'm not being too precious about it, just a quick clean




and the front crash structure.


Just to show that I'm not going cleaning mad, here is the other side of the garage


and finally, I thought I'd stick up a photo of my hardtop hanger. I made it about a year ago, and it's happily held the weight of my roof, along with the retaining bar, and bolts in the little pouch at the top

[woody]

Can you do me a favour please Corranga? What size are the bolts that hold in the tow post? Need the diameter of the threaded part only.

[Corranga]

They are M8 x 12

[woody]

Cheers! Need to get the apprentices to finish off the one they're making for me.

[Corranga]

Haha, now that sounds like a good plan

[Corranga]

Ok, so my front end refurb has taken a bit of a turn, as my new pair of axle stands arrived yesterday, so today, I put the car up on these too so it's completely off the ground, and started with dismantling the rear suspension.

Firstly, off with the rear undertray. This has always caused me grief, as the spire clips that hold it to the clam seem to rust at the first sign of being used! Last year I hatched a plan... I drilled the holes very slightly larger (actually, some were already big enough!) and fitted alloy rivnuts to the clam and sill fitments. I then used stainless bolts with plenty of coper grease on them. I was considering using greased nylon bolts, but never got around to it.
So today was the first trial of removing it, and it come off with ease

Anyway, after some messing around with the jack, the car was safely up on 4 stands (I hope!) Wheels off, I took a few photos on my phone so I could remember what it al looks like in one piece

I started by spraying plus gas on everything, then undoing the 2x clips (brake flexi pipe and hand brake cable - plus a cable tie and electrical connector for the speedo wiring on the drivers side..). This also got the 10mm socket out of the way!
It's also worth removing the 10mm bolt holding the speedo sensor bracket in place otherwise the top ball joint bolt will fowl on it as I found out...


I also took out the wheel arch liners, though I don't think this would be required. It allowed me to get a ring spanner on the top damper bolt, plus I'll keep it out as the car will be going in for a cam belt change once it's all back together.

Next I took out the pin that secures the hand brake cable, and took it out of the slot in the caliper. I then spent the best part of 15 minutes trying to get the rest of the hand brake cable out of the caliper - the bit that essentially just sits in the hole with no fixing at all After that, a bit of wriggling saw the caliper come free, and I used a couple of cable ties to suspended it out of the way, hanging from the exhaust hanger bracket, with no stress on the the flexi pipe.

Next, I started to loosen off the bolts, I found this approach helped with my sanity at the front passenger side as it meant I could concentrate on one thing at a time, either loosening OR removing. It also meant I had all the right tools to hand as I seemed to need a mixture of 2x 17mm spaners, 15mm spanner plus 17mm spanner, 17mm socket plus spanner, 19mm spanner for ball joint, and a hex bit (8mm I think it was?).

Actually, I took the damper off before loosening the front of the top wishbone, this also allows better access to the bottom ball joint bolt.
The chassis leg is in much better condition than the front, with very little corrosion:



So, wishbone wise, things look pretty straight forward, but i do have a couple of issues...

1. Driveshafts - what exactly do I do with these?
The service manual says not to pull on them, I suspect I'd end up with a garage floor covered in transmission fluid if I did, is this right? What are my options?



2. Rear bottom wishbone front bolt How do I get this out? I looks like removing the whole bracket from the rear subframe might be easier than somehow getting a spanner in around the back of that bracket?


3. The bottom mount on my roll bar looks rather rust what's everyone's opinions and what are my options? Is it ok to leave for now, not sure I can face taking the rear clam off too

[Corranga]

Just searched and realised that in answer to 2. above - it's a captive nut welded to the back of the bracket - doh!

[woody]

Bottom mount on the roll bar; undo the bolt, prise it up and issuing under with duralac. Can treat the curtain on the steel of the bar with a wire brush & por15 if you want.

Driveshafts; you should have undone the nut that holds them into the hub when the wishbones were still fully in place. As you didn't, drain the gearbox oil, pull them out with the outboard end still in the hub. Refil the box with new oil & have an improved shift while you're there (assuming it's still original).

[Corranga]

Managed to get the drive shaft nuts out tonight despite them not being attached to wishbone. A simple case of getting the right tool for the job, and borrowing my mechanic friends Snap On impact wrench!

Really amazing piece of kit, the driveshaft barely moved despite the car not being in gear and me being able to turn them by hand!

[Corranga]

Progress! I now have a car with no wishbones

I still have 1 ball joint to pop but I'll do that in the vice. Then it's time to attempt removal of bushes and ball joints.. I bought the Elise parts tools as the more I thought about it, the less I wanted to be messing around with sockets!

I spent some time cleaning up the corrosion on the passenger side, its a bit worse than the drivers side, but not too bad to my eye.

I've also managed to all of the remaining inner wheel arch bolts and holders, but still need to get the hole saw out to sort out the clam fixings.

So, silly questions time:

Is this thick metal pipe where a PRT gets fitted?
Also
What should be attached to the bolt and small bracket on the right / in the centre of the photo?
At a guess, this is from the original exhaust, possibly a heat shield, that was removed when I fitted the 4-2-1? That was 5 years ago, on a dark evening, and in a driveway though so can someone confirm, so I can remove and bin it...?




What's this....?


Also, final question for now, how high does an Elise have to be off the ground to allow gearbox removal...