Rebuilding front struts, 20 degree angle?

[clarkey1984]

Hi all, I'm now in the process of building up my new struts, consisting of nearly new sachs shocks that I bought from Gatos some time ago, and the h and r springs from Antz, and now I'm at the point where I remember something about some marks on the upper spring cup and the bottom of the shock spring cup, and instead of fitting things so the marks line up, a twenty degree angle between these marks may be necessary depending on if my cars a sport or not, mine is a t4 s on the logbook, and I've never rebuilt normal struts up on these before, the orange one had coilovers so no such part, or marks were involved.

How important is this, as I have them so the marks are aligned at the moment and all looks good, plus I don't have a protractor haha

Many thanks in advance

[Clan]

Originally Posted by clarkey1984

Hi all, I'm now in the process of building up my new struts, consisting of nearly new sachs shocks that I bought from Gatos some time ago, and the h and r springs from Antz, and now I'm at the point where I remember something about some marks on the upper spring cup and the bottom of the shock spring cup, and instead of fitting things so the marks line up, a twenty degree angle between these marks may be necessary depending on if my cars a sport or not, mine is a t4 s on the logbook, and I've never rebuilt normal struts up on these before, the orange one had coilovers so no such part, or marks were involved.

How important is this, as I have them so the marks are aligned at the moment and all looks good, plus I don't have a protractor haha

Many thanks in advance

the correct way is to line up the marks , otherwise the spring can foul the chassis , it is pretty close at the best of times .

[clarkey1984]

Due to the existing suspension that was already on the car having the angle set at 20 degrees off centre as per the info I found before, and the new ones also being set the same, I opted to stick with it and after a repaint I fitted them to the very nearly new shocks that I've had a while, all on the car now, passengers side is fine, drivers side is not so, no problems on the regular undulations you get on country roads, and nothing if you forcibly bounce the front of the car, but anything that causes the suspension to react suddenly, like a pot hole or a kerb at low speed (my drive doesn't have a dropped kerb) there's a huge metallic heavy thud like someone's hitting the strut tower with a club hammer.

I removed the leg and there is clear evidence of the spring touching the inside of the tower quite high up, paint from the springs is on there, so I took it all apart, replaced the upper spring cup, top mount and bearing with other known good ones (I know dead mounts make a horrible sound) set the angle at precisely 20 degrees as the original suspension was (and the other side is) and it still bangs.

No idea what to try now.

[Clan]

Originally Posted by clarkey1984

Due to the existing suspension that was already on the car having the angle set at 20 degrees off centre as per the info I found before, and the new ones also being set the same, I opted to stick with it and after a repaint I fitted them to the very nearly new shocks that I've had a while, all on the car now, passengers side is fine, drivers side is not so, no problems on the regular undulations you get on country roads, and nothing if you forcibly bounce the front of the car, but anything that causes the suspension to react suddenly, like a pot hole or a kerb at low speed (my drive doesn't have a dropped kerb) there's a huge metallic heavy thud like someone's hitting the strut tower with a club hammer.

I removed the leg and there is clear evidence of the spring touching the inside of the tower quite high up, paint from the springs is on there, so I took it all apart, replaced the upper spring cup, top mount and bearing with other known good ones (I know dead mounts make a horrible sound) set the angle at precisely 20 degrees as the original suspension was (and the other side is) and it still bangs.

No idea what to try now.

the two marker pips must line up not be 20 degrees to anything ..

[clarkey1984]

Correct, unless it has dynamic or sports suspension, in which case the top plate must be rotated 20 degrees clockwise, I was dubious of doing it as well, but as the suspension on the car and the new suspension were all set to 20 degrees I just went with it, although if anything this should actually give me more clearance between the chassis and the spring, everything is in as it should be and all I've done is transfer everything over to new shocks, plus the passengers side is fine, I don't understand it. I'll just say bugger the 20 degrees and put it so the marks align next I think, then if it cures it I'll do the other side to match it.

[magnuz]

I don't know if its relevant, but all the parts listings for front springs that i've seen, list the same spring for both sides, but on my P2 V40, the springs are "handed", as in the diagram you've shown.

If you go down the spring from top to bottom, the LH one goes down in anti clockwise direction, & the RH one goes down in a clockwise direction.

I know it may not be the case for all models but, If you have 2 springs the same, one of them may not fit properly on one side ?

[clarkey1984]

Yes they are indeed handed, the only thing I could think of is that I've got the spring in upside down, but then it'd never fit surely, plus the writing would be upside down which it's not, I don't understand.

[clarkey1984]

On 2nd inspection there's paint on both turrets but only noise from the drivers side so I must have done that when I fitted the struts, I'm inclined to blame the shorter droplinks now, I'm gonna take them off and then drive round the yard at work a few times as there are bumps aplenty, then if it is that I'll order original Volvo ones and not the shorter civic ones currently on there.

[clarkey1984]

Fixed fixed fixed!

Firstly, the spring was about 10mm away from the stop on the bottom seat, must have rotated when I released the spring compressors, managed to heave ho it round while on the car still and tack welded it to the stop, and secondly, the end of the anti roll bar was bent too far round for some reason, about 5mm or so out, which resulted in the drop link being over too close to the chassis, droplink removed and a big adjustable spanner with a pole on the end of it pulled it back to where it's supposed to be, all refitted and fine apart from a very faint creak/squeak, I can live with that.