Stanky's Car Fixing Thread - New Battery Day 25/10

[Andyrew]

Have a crane you are welcome to borrow but im located in Dunstable so a fair trek away. 

 

[Talbot]

17 minutes ago, Stanky said:

Does anyone have an engine crane I could borrow?

Yes, and it's a decent size one too, which in theory could pick up the entire car in one go if you asked it to.

For as long as you need it.

[Talbot]

On 6/6/2021 at 9:14 PM, Stanky said:

the reluctance of the handbrake warning light to go off on the dashboard for a while,

Also, while I remember.

Speaking to the specialist I know, the switch on these is operated by the pedal, rather than anything further "downstream", so there's a chance that it's just pedal misalignment or a sticky/gummed up mechanism.  Obviously the cables need to be working properly too, but if you pull the release lever and the lamp stays on, then the pedal has not (or likely has not) come back up all the way.

[Stanky]

7 minutes ago, Talbot said:

Yes, and it's a decent size one too, which in theory could pick up the entire car in one go if you asked it to.

For as long as you need it.

Thank you, that would be a huge help.

5 minutes ago, Talbot said:

Also, while I remember.

Speaking to the specialist I know, the switch on these is operated by the pedal, rather than anything further "downstream", so there's a chance that it's just pedal misalignment or a sticky/gummed up mechanism.  Obviously the cables need to be working properly too, but if you pull the release lever and the lamp stays on, then the pedal has not (or likely has not) come back up all the way.

Do you happen to know where the cable goes, and how hard it is to get at? I assume (probably wrongly) that its a bowden cable that routes down the centre console, i.e. on the inside of the car, before joining the lever arm thing under the rear seats somewhere?

[Talbot]

12 minutes ago, Stanky said:

Do you happen to know where the cable goes, and how hard it is to get at? I assume (probably wrongly) that its a bowden cable that routes down the centre console, i.e. on the inside of the car, before joining the lever arm thing under the rear seats somewhere?

I believe that is absolutely correct.  What I'm not sure is where the cable(s) go from inside the car to outside.  However, there is a scrap (or at least soon-to-be-scrap) C180 at the garage I go to, so I can have a look without worrying if I damage anything.

[Matty]

33 minutes ago, Talbot said:

Yes, and it's a decent size one too, which in theory could pick up the entire car in one go if you asked it to.

For as long as you need it.

Keep offering, someone will take it off your hands eventually 😁

[Talbot]

2 minutes ago, Matty said:

Keep offering, someone will take it off your hands eventually 😁

I know... I have offered it rather a few times recently.  The main reason being that it's currently in storage, so I'm not using it.  I also currently have nowhere to use it, so someone else might as well benefit from it.

[Matty]

Only kidding. As always it's a generous offer

[Stanky]

Spent some time the last 2 nights working on the front suspension of the Daihatsu. Yesterday I set to with penetrating oil and a socket, more in hope than anything, to see if I could get any movement on the u-clamp bolts and the nuts on the treaded sections on the two ends of the ARB itself.

To my astonishment, with a bit of careful application of a long bar and penetrating oil all 4 bolts and both nuts loosened up fine. I ran out of time yesterday so did it all up again and left it, but tonight I went out and had another go.

My main concern was the tension on the ARB - it wasn't obvious to me whether the bar was under tension with the wheels on the floor, or with the front off the ground and suspension at full extension, or somewhere in between. I decided that the bar wanted to be horizontal with where it locates through the lower suspension arm bushes, and that this roughly equated to the front lifted up, but not as far as to lift the tyres off the ground. I left the nuts on the threaded ends of the ARB and carefully undid the u-clamp bolts on the leading edge of the subframe cradle. I watched to see if the bolts undid and exposed the threads, or if the tension of the ARB was pushing the metal u-clamp off the subframe, luckily I had guessed about right and the bolts undid and u-clamps dropped off without the ARB smashing my teeth out.

I dropped the u-clamps off and cleaned up the threads of the bolts with a wire brush and the bolts in a vice. They are 'handed' so I set them to one side for safe keeping.

I then lifted the car up, took both front wheels off and undid the nuts on the end of the threaded sections, took off the large washers and wiggled the rear top-hat bushes out. Then bashed the ends of the threaded section through the voids with a rubber mallet so I didn't mushroom the ends.

I was then able to pull the ARB out from the front of the car, hooray!

As you can see its got quite a bit of surface rust on, so after unpeeling the split (intentionally) front bushes from the ARB I sanded it down, wiped the rust/dust off with a wet sponge and painted it with vactan, and left it propped up against the front wheel to dry

The bushes look to be original and are a bit crusty

These are the ones under the u-clamps on the leading part/straight bit of the ARB. I had to guess which u-clamp bushes to get as they come in 23mm inner diameter and 23.5mm, I went for the 23.5mm ones on the basis my car likely has a thicker ARB because its the SPROTS VERSHUN - a test with my calipers measured 23.37mm so with a lick of paint that will be 23.5mm I'm sure. I suspect the 23mm ones would have been fine in reality.

And these are the much crustier top-hat bushes that allow the ends of the ARB to locate through the lower arms - these were super easy to remove which bodes well for when I replace them with the PU ones that are on their way to me from Vladivostok right now.

The only ones I've not yet touched are the bushes that go on the inner end of the lower suspension arm because they look like they'll be a right old war to remove from where they sit, and I really need a balljoint separator to get the lower arm off the car entirely to remove the old ones and replace with the new ones on order. I might look at this tomorrow night if I fancy it, or leave until its next MOT and ask the garage to do it with a press and whatnot.

I'll leave the ARb overnight for the vactan to dry properly and then paint it with aerosol black enamel tomorrow evening in prep for the bushes arriving hopefully next week.

[Stanky]

I had some more time tonight so had a go at removing the drivers side lower suspension arm. The balljoint dust covers were an advisory at the last MOT anyway and I needed to get the arms off to be able to remove the old bushes and press the new PU ones in when they pitch up. 

Access isn't too bad with the wheel removed and the ARB detached

I had undone the 17mm nut on the threaded section of the balljoint end - as you can see, the dust cover is split at least halfway around here. I used a crowbar and hammer to lever the arm off the bottom of the hub

On the left you can see the cylindrical bit that the bush goes into, this is held onto the subframe with a stout 17mm bolt which was easy to remove with no tension on the arm

This is the arm itself which came out without too much struggle. the balljoint dust cover was wrecked by being removed so that will get replaced with one from the bag that are on their way back from @Lankytim. The arm itself has some surface rust but is otherwise fine. The next task was getting the bush on the left end of this arm out. JFW what a pig of a job.

In the end I used a pillar drill to drill holes through the rubber until it was weakened enough that I could hammer the bush out with a drift, but not before I'd lost three drill bits to snapping, tried 2 g-clamps with sockets in to try and push the bush out, a hole saw and a LOT of hammering. Safe to say they are a 'snug fit' in the void!

This is it with the bush removed

I cleaned up the void with a wire brush attachment in the pillar drill, and also cleaned up the other hole that the ARB mounts through while I was at it. Its not super-clear in this pic but I have managed to do a bit of damage to the inner edge of the void that the new bush will go into with the drill. I hope this doesn't matter too much, as the bushes don't rotate at all in the arm - they are pushed in and grip like limpets - with the PU bush, there is a chromed metal tube that the bolt goes through which is what moves, when the bushes arrive I will slide the tube out, silicone grease the inside and outside and slide it back into the PU bit.

I utterly fucked the old bush getting it out, and don't particularly fancy wrecking the new one trying to get it in. I shall take the arms and bushes over the road to the mechanics there and see if they'll press them in to the arms for me for a contribution to the tea and biscuits* fund with a proper press.

I was also able to paint the ARB with black enamel and thats drying in the corner for now. 

I'll have a go at doing the same to the passenger side tomorrow, I may wuss out of removing the old bush and potentially damaging the inner edge of the void again, if I'm getting a pro to put the new bushes in with a press then its not likely to be much more effort (cost) to press the old one out first before putting the new one in. 

Oh, and the clutch kit arrived today too.

[Stanky]

Just watched a guide that you can use a hub puller to push the bush out of the arm - I'll give this a shot tomorrow on the other one as it looks like you can apply quite a bit of force and gently push it out without needing to drill the rubber out, b0rk all your drill bits and damage the inner face of the void like a ham fisted moron by doing it this way.

[Talbot]

Two thoughts:

For tightening up bushes, always do this with the vehicle weight on it's wheels.  That means the bushes are under mimimum stress for the vast majority of their life.

To get particularly troublesome bushes out, especially old ones where the rubber has gone hard and is stuck solid in the arm:  Burn them out.  Very effective.  Very quick.

[Stanky]

Some more progress. As I now know what I'm doing* the other side came out in 20 minutes, I had a go with the hub puller I got in a jumble sale for £2 two years ago to press the bush out

Which was an amazing success - the only fiddly bit was lining the three legs of the puller up on the rim of the void that the bush locates into, then just pushed it out by tightening the spindle of the puller up. The job took all of 2 minutes to do and I managed to not damage the inner face of the void at all.

However, what I DID manage to damage was the thread on the balljoint extrusion. Now there is more resistance in the nut tightening on the threded section than there is for the balljoint to spin in its socket, and with no visible means to lock the balljoint the arm is scrap - I'll not be able to tighten the nut back up after I have pressed in the new bush on the car, and even if I did manage to tighten it up, there is zero change of it coming off again without a session with the angle grinder in a very tight space.

So I've bitten the bullet and ordered a pair of new lower arms as these come with new nuts, new clevis pins, new prefitted balljoint dust covers and I know its going to be easy to press the rubber bushes out and fit the new PU bushes using the hub puller anyway. They were only £28 each - 'Firstline' brand? Apparently they make loads of aftermarket stuff and are generally pretty good. Can't say I've heard of them, but then I've also never heard of the other options including KAVA, Febest, Japanparts, Ashika, Oyodo, NTY or various others. 

I also put another coat of black enamel on the ARB itself.

I can't do any more until the bushes arrive really so hopefully that'll be early next week and then it can start going back together. I might try and rock the car forward and see if I can use the hub puller to press out the rear bushes in situ which would make life a lot easier in prep for the new ones arriving

[Talbot]

14 hours ago, Stanky said:

However, what I DID manage to damage was the thread on the balljoint extrusion. Now there is more resistance in the nut tightening on the threded section than there is for the balljoint to spin in its socket, and with no visible means to lock the balljoint the arm is scrap

To fix that, you need either a triangle file to clean-up the thread, or if you want to be very posh, a set of thread files to get them perfect.  You can recover some astonishingly fucked threads with a set of thread files.

[Stanky]

1 hour ago, Talbot said:

To fix that, you need either a triangle file to clean-up the thread, or if you want to be very posh, a set of thread files to get them perfect.  You can recover some astonishingly fucked threads with a set of thread files.

At risk of sounding even more stupid - how do you use a thread file like this?

For example

[Talbot]

Like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTDgCVgjuLg

[Stanky]

DHL have just messaged me to say the new bushes will be here on Monday, hopefully along with the new suspension arms as well and I can rebuild the front suspension on Monday evening. I R XCITE

[Stanky]

From Russia, with love DHL

Check out my new bush(es)

VRY XITE

I hope the new suspension arms pitch up shortly too, then I'll go and get my local garage to press out the old ones and press in the new ones I think - saves me hamming the job right up and wrecking the lovely new parts. 

[Stanky]

Front end completely rebuilt, the arms arrived about 25 minutes after the PU bushes, I called my pet garage about pressing in the new bushes and they said they were stacked and it'd be 2 weeks time at the earliest so I had a stab at doing them myself with the hub puller. I was purple with rage due to a dire morning of work issues so didn't get any pics, but was able to press the rubber bushes out of the lower arms with the press, lubed up the voids (fnarr) with silicone grease and pressed the new PU bushes in with minimal fuss. I then loosely bolted the arms into the subframe, tapped the locating rod bit of the balljoint into the bottoms of the hubs and did up the castellated nuts to tighten them into position, then fitted the split pins to keep them in place.

Then I fitted the ARB bushes, put the ARB ends through the new lower arms and did the nuts up a bit to keep it in place. Then I sliced the u-clamp bushes, wrapped them around the leading edge of the freshly painted ARB, and clamped them down with the metal clamps.

I then went and did the nuts on the ends of the ARB up tight to pull the ARB > lower arm top hat bushes into position properly.

It all went together fine which was a big relief. So thats the front end refurbed with all new bushes and arms which should help a lot.

I tilted the nose of the car down and took one back wheel off, the rear beam bushes are a bit trickier as I don't really want to drop the rear beam entirely, and the bolts that hold the leading edge of the rear beam to the body mounts are super tight. I'll go out in a bit and see if I can get the ugga dugga on them to see if that will tempt them out. Then I need to carefully support it all on the trolley jack and try to press out the existing bush in situ, then put the new ones in one at a time.

We're nearly there though

[Talbot]

3 hours ago, Stanky said:

Check out my new bush(es)

That looks like part of the lyrics to the theme tune for Only Fools 'n' Horses.

[Stanky]

Here are some 'this man has just run me over' style photos of the finished job

As you can see, I sanded down, vactan'd and enamel painted the ARB itself and the u-clamps in matte black, the new bushes are bright yellow which gives a nice contrast

Its quite a simple setup, but entirely effective.

I took it out for a very quick run and initial impressions are good, the ride is no more firm, but there is less clonking over poor road surfaces than before - at least from the front end. It's also helpfully dealt with the advisory for perished lower balljoint dust covers as I've replaced the entire arms.

I had a go at the rears which was an abject failure - I can't get the nut to release from the through bolt that holds the rear beam on, even with the ugga dugga. Its an awkward spot on the passenger side (access is better for the drivers side actually) due to the location of the fuel tank so I'll have a think about what to do with that. It might be a job for a proper garage potentially? I'll call my pet garage up tomorrow and ask them when they might be able to have a look and quote for the work. I don't imagine it'll be particularly cheap to do if they want to drop the whole rear beam off for access

[Stanky]

I took the Sirion over to my local garage for them to have a look at the rear beam bushes. They reckoned it’d be a couple of hours for them to do, and they would not need to drop out the entire rear beam to do it, so I’ll get them to change them at the next MOT I think. I mentioned to them about the knocking noise over poor road surfaces, and the mechanic said casually “oh yeah, thats because your dampers aren’t done up tight” then proceeded to show me that the bottom bolt on the drivers side had loads of play in it

<Facepalm.gif>

Yep, guilty as charged! I’d not done the bottom nut & bolt up tight enough, letting the damper rattle about. Whoops! Took it home, whipped the rear wheel off and tightened up the nut & bolt a couple of turns and took the car out for a quick spin, and the knocking is gone. That's a result.

I’m taking the car up to a local custom exhaust place in 2 weeks time to talk to them about getting a manifold-back stainless exhaust made up and fitted, as the current one leaks around the manifold > Centre pipe joint. I could get a pattern one in mild steel for £100 or so, but they’re a bit crap and rust out really fast. I’ll see how much the stainless one comes in at, especially as it will allow me to go up from 1.75" to 2.25" for a slightly ‘throatier’ exhaust note I hope. 4" fart cannon here we come! (no, just no)

[Stanky]

I'll bring this issue back into the main thread to avoid blathering on in multiple places about the same thing. The passenger side front CV joint boot had a nick in it, possibly (probably) from me replacing the lower suspension arms. This lead to lots of CV joint grease escapaing and coating the inside of the wheel rim and the hub and things with black gunge.

I stripped it all down to this

Then rather than fight with the greasy cone of perversity to stretch the new boot over the CV joint, I opted to take the CV joint off the end of the driveshaft, making access loads easier. The new boot went on fine, the clips were done up and pinched and I then reassembled everything. CV joint splined end into wheel hub, track rod end fitted to hub, lower suspension arm refitted, disc back on, brake caliper fitted to hub, hub nut done up and wheel back on. I took it for a test drive and got to the heady heights of 20mph before a horrible scraping noise (which turned out to be the disc backing plate rubbing the disc as it turned) and an even worse grumbing vibration caused me to turn round and head for home. Total distance covered <500m.

having stripped it all back down again there are a few issues. 

1. I've b0rked the end of the threaded section of the CV joint that the hub nut does up into, either from whacking it with a hammer to get it to sit on the splined section of driveshaft, or from something else. I tried cleaning it up with a thread file which has made it better, but I think I've also buggered the thread on the hub nut too and I can't fit the thread file in there.

2. After removing the CV joint for the second time, I have broken the c-clip that holds the CV joint onto the driveshaft. Its now in 2 pieces

3. The hub nut is totally b0rked, its all chewed up from careless handling so thats game over'd

4. The brake caliper is very rough, the rubber seal seems to have got trapped in the pad at some point in the past and its allowed the piston to corrode by the looks of it. The sliders were a bit grim but have come up OK with lots of silicone grease and working back & forth lots.

probably other things as well. Anyway, I think I've mangled it sufficiently comprehensively to warrant a new CV joint kit and just start over. Sadly I can't seem to find anywhere that sells entire driveshafts, as that would be a lot easier I suspect, but there.

The CV joint is off the driveshaft and near the scrap metals pile. The boot has been removed but can probably be reused (i have one spare from the J&R kit anyway, and the new CV joint kit comes with another) with new clips. I'll order the new joint kit shortly for arrival some time next week. I'm not sure what I did wrong, probably mis-seated the clip somehow and didn't hammer the new CV joint onto the driveshaft far enough as a result. 

I'll also probably take both front calipers off and send them to Bigg Red for refurbishment. They quoted £135.00 all in for the work, I have quotes I'm waiting for from two other companies, BCR and BCS so we'll see. Bigg Red are the ones I have heard most about so are likely to get my business. Assuming I do this, whats the best way to stop all the brake fluid leaking out with the calipers away for work for probably 10 days? Clamp the flexi section with a g-clamp each side? Is that likely to damage the flexi section much? Is there a better way? The ends where the flexi joins the caliper is a banjo bolt so I can't easily seal that up I don't think? Unless I made some sort of rubber washer+ nut&bolt arrangement? 

All in all, not my finest work.

[mitsisigma01]

Uncork a two litre bottle of good wine, whilst allowing the wine to breath, shave down the cork to fit inside the banjo, drink half a litre, drill small hole in cork, drink, find bolt to fit in hole, drink, push in cork, drink, wind in bolt, drink, clear up spillage, drink, drink, find silicon or mastic, drink, drink, smother it everywhere to create a messy seal, drink, drink, open new bottle, sit back and observe for leaks, drink, drink, finish second bottle, sleep, it's only a bit of fluid anyway 🙃

[The Moog]

Is it worth asking JR if they can make you some? It can't be too hard for them as driveshafts are hardly bespoke.

Sounds good for the caliper rebuilds.

When I changed the SMART brakes I used it as a reason to change the fluid and let it drop into a bucket.  Then just presure bleed once it is done.

[mitsisigma01]

Small g-clamp, two small bits of rubber, two small bits of wood, make a banjo sandwich, tighten. 👍

Always give it plenty of fresh fluid to flush through the old 👍

[Stanky]

Minor update here. I ordered what I believed was the right CV joint from Micks Garage, it took a week to arrive and turns out is wrong - its for the Mk2 sirion and has a smaller diameter splined section. FFS.

I've asked on a daihatsu specific forum and got the OEM part number and ordered what might be the right one from Germany. I also spotted a guy in Devon breaking another Rally 2 so got a complete used driveshaft assembly with both inner and outer CV joints attached for £20 delivered, so that can be plan B. If everything goes to plan, the new CV joint will be correct, and I can fit it and get the car mobile again; Then I can order another one and fit that to the used driveshaft to make up a nearly new driveshaft assembly as well as a spare with new boots and outer CV joint and things, but all built up on the workbench rather than in situ which is a chore to be honest.

What this has taught me, painfully, is that niche cars can be a PITA to get parts for when needed, or when I;ve been ham-fisted. Its fine as the Sirion is a 3rd car, but has brought the idea of replacing the Merc with a JDM import Stagea as a main family car into sharp focus, it'd be a painful experience if this fiasco was occurring with the main car, with parts needing shipping in from the far east to get me mobile again. 

In another thread someone recommended Brakes International so I had a look and they sell new calipers and slider bolt kits for the daihatsu for £140 all in (after surcharge refund) so I am leaning towards that instead of Bigg Red as it means I can order the new calipers and swap the old to the new in one go rather than having no calipers for 2 weeks while they are posted to BR, refurbed, and sent back, but thats a job for later once I sort this CV joint disaster out.

 

[lisbon_road]

Some good work Stanky.  I'd be up for helping as you asked above but would need to check closer to the time. 

[Stanky]

Thanks @lisbon_road - I have all the parts I need now, but need to fix this CV joint to get the car to roll again, as it will need to be pushed back a bit more to get access to take the engine out with the crane.

The plan is that I'll collect a toolchest that is currently stored at Mutha_Stanky's house in Suffolk, bring it back and exchange it with @Talbot for use of his engine crane. I was planning on being up in Suffolk next weekend but for a variety of reasons that hasn't happened and is likely to be postponed until next month. 

Once I have the requisite bits and the car is movable again I'll get a proper thread up and arrange a date for an open weekend with tea and biscuits and bacon sandwiches and things

[The Moog]

Glad you have got some options

As you say relying on niche cars as dailies is always going to be a struggle. which is why we all need N+1 cars. 

Sometimes it isn't getting bits, it is the getting bits right now rather than waiting a week for it to be delivered then finding out it is slightly wrong.