Any Advice, Part 2!

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Chris152

Thanks Dave - I'm obviously getting my lefts and rights confused! Tho I think I've finally learned what near and far side mean...

Just to clarify Chris, left is left as viewed from the driving position. Near side is the side nearest the kerb when driving normally and the off side is the opposite side.

[Chris152]

And even now I'm calling it the far side! Off side. Off side. I'll get there...

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Chris152

And even now I'm calling it the far side! Off side. Off side. I'll get there...

I'm led to believe it original came from the horsey fraternity Chris, horse near the kerb and led from the offside hence we drive on the left with the steering wheel on the right (aka correct) side.

Whether that's historically correct or not i have no idea but if you think of the horse being near the kerb and you leading it from the other side you're not on the kerb, you're on the off side......................... worked for me when i had the same trouble remembering.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

The right hand headlamp looks fine to me Chris :

The left one looks like it's dropped a fair bit though, #2 in your pic is an adjuster for the alignment and no idea why those aftermarket-looking covers are on the threads. Presumably someones attempt at protecting the thread from rusting.

I'd completely remove the left hand indicator/sidelight before trying to move the headlamp up though and then refit it afterwards once you've loosened the mounting nuts and pushed the headlamp up and tightened the nuts again.

Dave is right here Chris - it looks from the shup lines on the nearside (left) that the indicator/sidelight have dropped a bit as well. Something needs a bit of sorting out there and I think Dave's suggestion of taking it out and re-fitting everything properly is a good one.

Alan

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

Dave is right here Chris - it looks from the shup lines on the nearside (left) that the indicator/sidelight have dropped a bit as well. Something needs a bit of sorting out there and I think Dave's suggestion of taking it out and re-fitting everything properly is a good one.

Alan

If the 240 is anything like the 7/940, the sidelight/indicator slides/clips into the end of the headlamp assembly, removing the small light unit will allow more movement of the headlight itself and possibly reveal why it's skew-whiff - big hammer might be needed to "realign" the headlight but hopefully it's simply down to sloppy fitting by a lazy spanner-monkey.

[Chris152]

I know, it's like watching paint dry. But the connecting rods are now on, quite pleased with ourselves (see pic)! One thing we're learning is that however simple a job looks, there'll be tricky moments (mostly, trying to align the hole in the link for the lower bolt and the holes in the frame it attaches to).

We'll do the track rod ends last, but before we do - the MoT report said under 'Monitor (advisories)' 'Play in steering rack inner joints'. Do you think that means the connection between the steering rods themselves and the rack, inside the rubber bellows? If so, I had a go at moving them but couldn't see any play - but I can't find in Haynes how to check this. Any thoughts?

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Chris152

I know, it's like watching paint dry. But the connecting rods are now on, quite pleased with ourselves (see pic)! One thing we're learning is that however simple a job looks, there'll be tricky moments (mostly, trying to align the hole in the link for the lower bolt and the holes in the frame it attaches to).

We'll do the track rod ends last, but before we do - the MoT report said under 'Monitor (advisories)' 'Play in steering rack inner joints'. Do you think that means the connection between the steering rods themselves and the rack, inside the rubber bellows? If so, I had a go at moving them but couldn't see any play - but I can't find in Haynes how to check this. Any thoughts?

Well done Chris - all these jobs will all be much easier the second time you do them :-)

I'd put everything together without touching the internals parts of the PAS rack and see if that fixes the problem (I suspect it might well), if it is something amiss inside the rack mechanism that will be a much bigger job to sort - so eliminate everything else (as you almost have) first.

Alan

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

Well done Chris - all these jobs will all be much easier the second time you do them :-)

I'd put everything together without touching the internals parts of the PAS rack and see if that fixes the problem (I suspect it might well), if it is something amiss inside the rack mechanism that will be a much bigger job to sort - so eliminate everything else (as you almost have) first.

Alan

What Alan said ^^^^^ Chris, i wouldn't mind betting the MoT guy was doing a CYA thing and probably wasn't sure about the inner track rod ends which as you rightly summise are where the track rods join the main rack.

[Bugjam1999]

Chris,

The Mot tester is referring to the inner track rods, which screw onto the rack - the outer track rods screw onto their ends.

A simple way to test is to assemble the suspension with the new outer track rod ends you’re going to fit, then with the wheels replaced and just one front wheel jacked up off the floor, grab the jacked up wheel at the 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock position and see if you can feel any play if you try to wiggle the wheel left to right.

Note, if there’s any play in the wheel bearing you’ll feel that as well, but if you grab the wheel at the top and bottom and repeat the test any movement there will only be the wheel bearing.

You may feel some play, you may not. If you do feel some play there’s some benefit in replacing the inner joints now as replacing them later will require having the tracking set up again which you’ll already have to do after replacing the outer track rod ends.

This video is pretty good:

https://youtu.be/annFGgXvMc0


Cheers

[Chris152]

Thanks all.

I just jacked each side up and tried the wiggle test - there's slight knocking side-to-side, none top-to-bottom. So presumably the wheel bearings are ok. As to whether it's tie rod ends or the tie rod to rack attachment, I'm not sure - there doesn't appear to be any knocking movement from within the bellows when I move or try to wiggle them, but we'll explore that further when we remove the tie rod ends from the wheels, and before unscrewing them from the tie rods - that way, if the tie rods themselves do indeed have play, we can reattach the tie rod ends to the wheels without having to realign, and drive the car out the way, doing both rods and ends once the rods arrive in the post. If that makes sense.

I found this video helpful on diagnosis, in case anyone's interested...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DerpCk-nsvQ

Let me know if my thinking doesn't make sense?! Thanks.