Boring CMax gone over the bridge

[rainagain]

6 hours ago, sierraman said:

I spilt about a million quids worth the other month. Really though unless the perennially leaking pump union is leaking then you shouldn’t need to top it up. 

Any more info on this union so I can check it? 

[rainagain]

Went to order some wishbones for this, someone posted a tip from the Haynes manual to work out what ballpoint size you have:

Mine are rusty coloured:

 

I took a gamble on the 2003 build date courtesy of the VIN to order the earlier 18mm size. I’ve ordered no name ones  from eBay, I’ve not have any luck in the past with cheap wishbones so I’m not sure what to expect when they turn up. Whilst I was under there I noticed the gearbox was leaking oil from driveshaft seal so that’s something else to add to the list. 

[sierraman]

9 hours ago, rainagain said:

Went to order some wishbones for this, someone posted a tip from the Haynes manual to work out what ballpoint size you have:

Mine are rusty coloured:

 

I took a gamble on the 2003 build date courtesy of the VIN to order the earlier 18mm size. I’ve ordered no name ones  from eBay, I’ve not have any luck in the past with cheap wishbones so I’m not sure what to expect when they turn up. Whilst I was under there I noticed the gearbox was leaking oil from driveshaft seal so that’s something else to add to the list. 

Watch the driveshaft hasn’t seized into the hub, I have had that before on a Focus. 

[rainagain]

7 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Watch the driveshaft hasn’t seized into the hub, I have had that before on a Focus. 

I’ve heard that elsewhere as well. My plan is if I can get a driveshaft seal before I start the wishbones, I was thinking of just disconnecting the hub from the strut and this will let me pull the driveshaft and the hub out as one unit. 

[sierraman]

18 minutes ago, rainagain said:

I’ve heard that elsewhere as well. My plan is if I can get a driveshaft seal before I start the wishbones, I was thinking of just disconnecting the hub from the strut and this will let me pull the driveshaft and the hub out as one unit. 

I would go with dropping the strut, means undoing all the shit round the scuttle but the pinch bolt holding the strut on personally I would avoid touching as there’s a good chance it might snap. 

[rainagain]

8 minutes ago, sierraman said:

I would go with dropping the strut, means undoing all the shit round the scuttle but the pinch bolt holding the strut on personally I would avoid touching as there’s a good chance it might snap. 

Ah ok, I’m assuming I couldn’t just disconnect the lower ball joint, track rod end and drop link and pull the strut away from the car whilst twisting it to pull the drive shaft out the gearbox? There’s some dire warnings in the factory manual about pulling the strut away from the vertical. I take it this could damage the top mount? 

[sierraman]

8 minutes ago, rainagain said:

Ah ok, I’m assuming I couldn’t just disconnect the lower ball joint, track rod end and drop link and pull the strut away from the car whilst twisting it to pull the drive shaft out the gearbox? There’s some dire warnings in the factory manual about pulling the strut away from the vertical. I take it this could damage the top mount? 

If you undo the above you would just drop the strut/hub/driveshaft assembly out together. Doubtful it will bollocks the top mount up. Wouldn’t surprise me if it was a bit ‘gritty’ when you pulled the top mount out anyway. All this is assuming the shaft won’t just pull out of course. 

[rainagain]

I’ve been busy with life so I haven’t touched this. I went out and fitted the new front number plate. God knows how the old one made it through the last mot

However my new one has a big hair stuck between the backing and the plate, it looks like a crack but it’s a hair. Would it be a dick move to ask the seller to send me another one? 

 

[Daviemck2006]

I’ve been busy with life so I haven’t touched this. I went out and fitted the new front number plate. God knows how the old one made it through the last mot

However my new one has a big hair stuck between the backing and the plate, it looks like a crack but it’s a hair. Would it be a dick move to ask the seller to send me another one? 

 

No

Sent from my SM-A125F using Tapatalk

[Dobloseven]

1 hour ago, rainagain said:

I’ve been busy with life so I haven’t touched this. I went out and fitted the new front number plate. God knows how the old one made it through the last mot

However my new one has a big hair stuck between the backing and the plate, it looks like a crack but it’s a hair. Would it be a dick move to ask the seller to send me another one? 

 

How much was it, if you don't mind me asking? 

[Dobloseven]

5 hours ago, Dobloseven said:

How much was it, if you don't mind me asking? 

I mean the plate. Think I paid about 13 quid for one for a trailer last year. 

[rainagain]

4 minutes ago, Dobloseven said:

I mean the plate. Think I paid about 13 quid for one for a trailer last year. 

£14 delivered for the pair, the hair was free. I had a look at the rear one and the backing has been put on slightly squint. An obviously quality product! 

[Dobloseven]

1 minute ago, rainagain said:

£14 delivered for the pair, the hair was free. I had a look at the rear one and the backing has been put on slightly squint. An obviously quality product! 

Possibly a case of getting what you paid for then!Mine was an artisan product, with two screws into the price. Whoever makes them should be made to have their hair tucked up in those net things, like they do in kitchens!

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 minute ago, Dobloseven said:

Possibly a case of getting what you paid for then!Mine was an artisan product, with two screws into the price. Whoever makes them should be made to have their hair tucked up in those net things, like they do in kitchens!

The guy who made up the plate for my trailer at TMS was bald. I imagine that makes the job easier.

[timolloyd]

At least it isn’t a pube.

[Split_Pin]

I bought a smiley shaped plate for my 75 from the supposedly go-to guy for these. I paid quite a bit to get the MG Rover logo at the bottom too. It has about 3 bubbles in it. I can't really complain as I can fix this myself but it's still annoying.

Plates are the first thing to bring a car up so if they're squint or something in particular is wrong with them,  it can really bug you! No harm I going back to the seller.

[rainagain]

I had some free time last night so I thought I’d whip off the front wheel to put some penetrating fluid on the bolts to allow me to get the wishbone off. The only tools I had were the ones the car came with. I was a bit confused when the wheel brace only fitted two of the nuts. From googling this problem, it seems it’s suffering from Ford Swollen nut disease. I’ve had to order a 19.5mm socket from eBay to get them off. I could actually have gotten this cheaper from Amazon but their search is so shite it kept showing me all the sockets in the world despite me putting 19.5mm in speech marks. 

I gave up and used eBay. It was only after I’d ordered it that I did a quick google and found a link straight to the same socket on Amazon, slightly cheaper and with next day delivery. I’m just hoping it will turn up soon so I can actually start sorting this. I’ve not had the local travellers around yet asking about it, which the cheeky buggers did about my Saab!

[rainagain]

Finally actually did some ‘work’ on this if you can call it that. Thanks to the wonderful design I easily took out both headlamps and was able to clean them up in the comfort of my kitchen.

Before

During

One side done

I used this stuff which I got as part of a kit. I’ve got nothing to preserve them after cleaning, I was thinking either a spray with lacquer or car wax?

 

[Split_Pin]

Those are the lights that hinge forward and you don't need to take off the bumper aren't they?

[rainagain]

Just now, Split_Pin said:

Those are the lights that hinge forward and you don't need to take off the bumper aren't they?

No even easier than that, one bolt at the top then pull them forward. I did have a wee bit of hassle with the N/S one though as the connector didn’t want to realise. But a wiggle with a screwdriver sorted it. Both connectors were given a spray with silicon before being reassembled so they should be no problem next time. 

[Split_Pin]

My neighbour had a 57 plate Focus like that. This was around the same time I had a MK4 Astra on which I was changing the headlights and had hoped not to have to remove the bumper (I did).

[sierraman]

They don’t seem to cloud up on the focus like the C-max does. 

[rainagain]

Once the frost has cleared up this morning I decided to try and start the wishbone change. Off to a flying start, despite having sprayed all the nuts with penetrating fluid three times over the last week and even using a six sided socket the nut holding the track rod end did this.

Luckily I had the angry grinder and chopped off one side of it, I then used a cold chisel to knock it round, until it was off.

 

[sierraman]

Did the axial rod seize to the TRE? Quite a few times I’ve had them literally lock on, no amount of heat, just ended up pulling the full rod out of the rack. 

[rainagain]

1 hour ago, sierraman said:

Did the axial rod seize to the TRE? Quite a few times I’ve had them literally lock on, no amount of heat, just ended up pulling the full rod out of the rack. 

Once I got the nut off the TRE was released from the hub with just one whack from Thor. 

[rainagain]

The lower ball joint nut was and still is a bit of a bastard. It loosened off ok but it is stupidly tight. I’m talking two hands on the spanner for each turn tight. I’m not sure if someone went mental with thread lock when they fitted it or it’s just the thread is badly corroded. I had to give up in the end as I needed to get to the dentist. I’ll have another go soon. 

[rainagain]

Managed to grab another half an hour on this last night. No ideal what’s going on with the lower ball joint nut. I tried to start undoing it again and despite it previously moving, it wasn’t going anywhere. Even belting it with a mallet did nothing. I had to grab the angry grinder again and cut some slits in the nut to get it going again. 
 

I tried my scissor ball joint splitter on the lower ball joint, but it kept slipping off, as I’m not going to be re-using the ball joint I just hammered in my fork splitter and out it came. 

I then struggled to wiggle the wishbone out, bit of great design where the strut gets in the way of removing the wishbone, I’m assuming in the factory they slot in the wishbone horizontally and then fit the strut. I’m pretty sure the back bush isn’t supposed to be rotate like this.

[sierraman]

It’ll have been seized on the rust on the threads. 

[RoverFolkUs]

On 11/4/2022 at 3:45 PM, rainagain said:

It loosened off ok but it is stupidly tight. I’m talking two hands on the spanner for each turn tight

I suspect you might have been turning the ball joint on its taper rather than actually undoing the thread

Bit of a pain in the ass to get those arms in. You need to get the rear bush in and start the threads, and then get the front bush and finally the lower ball joint in. You won't get the rear bush in without doing that!

[rainagain]

7 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

I suspect you might have been turning the ball joint on its taper rather than actually undoing the thread

Bit of a pain in the ass to get those arms in. You need to get the rear bush in and start the threads, and then get the front bush and finally the lower ball joint in. You won't get the rear bush in without doing that!

I'll get there with this, it's just frustrating being unable to work on it due to the weather and also having to work on grass. I wish I had some money so I could knock up some sort of car port to work under.