Swirl Arm low cost repair!

[galloot633]

Yes, I found an o ring that was a snug fit on the ball and super glued it to the arm, I bought some 8mm dia 1.5 mm wall thickness ally tube from eBay , cut the arm in half and " whittle " the two halves down so the slide up the tube , then I found a spring in my local handy man's that slipped over the tube and cut it and hooked the ends around the arm sockets
Dave

[springbokrugby]

Originally Posted by bic1

Hi, I'm new to the forum and some this will help some of you! I have had the dreaded Swirl arm problem and many attempts at a repair left the parts so loose the the assembly only lasted a few miles before coming apart. I noticed the initial problem (broken link) was caused by the stepper motor being "overdriven" in order to calibrate the mechanism about every fifth time the engine was stopped. This is quite a common technique (I am an electronic engineer) for this type of arrangement. Anyway, the torque of the motor (when being overdriven) is sufficient to cause the linkage to break in time.
Once I understood this, I came up with the following solution, which has been rock solid for 6 months/10,000 miles.
(I hope the photo has uploaded OK)
Basically, I went to B+Q and got some right/angled aluminium extrusion and a rubber "foot" as a buffer. I cut a short length and drilled a hole in it so that the part could be fitted using one of the motor fixing points. I filed the hole so that it was a slot so that the position could be adjusted.
Next, I fitted the rubber foot as a buffer.
Finally, I fitted the part and adjusted it's position so that, when the calibration (overdrive) of the mechanism occurred, it used my part as a "bump-stop", instead of straining/breaking the mechanism. It is important the position is adjusted so that correct calibration is achieved, i.e. it stops the mechanism when fully extended, but JUST before it strains the arm.
No more trouble, simple to fit and costs only a couple of pounds.

Any chance you could post a picture of your modified arm? That would be very useful indeed.

Thanks in advance

[rxtian]

Originally Posted by springbokrugby

Any chance you could post a picture of your modified arm? That would be very useful indeed.

Thanks in advance

Hi,

I've got BIC1's car now, the modified arm is still working well 100k miles later! I'll get a pic when I get home.

[Robestringer]

Hi.
This post will potentially help me a lot.... when I eventually logged in the pictures had disappeared. Any chance you still have them.
Thanks Rob

[Thassos]

Hi Rob e

Heres a couple of pics from the scrapbook, this was an alu angle bracket with a rubber block glued onto it, still going strong after 5+ years and 60k.. well worth fitting it to avoid the £700 bill and aggro !

[beyoto75]

Hi all,

It’s been really useful to read your posts, I have managed to refit the arm in the engine side with a thin bolt and nut, but the car is still lacking power. I’ve started and stopped the engine several times (more than 5) hoping the motor would recalibrate the lever’s position, but when I stop it I only hear it buzzing while in the rearward position (towards the engine), but it is not moving. On the other hand, when I start the engine I see it is in a different position, slightly forward, so it seems the motor is actually able to move, but I would expect when it calibrates it would move completely backwards and forwards a few times, but it hasn’t. Has anyone seen this too? Do I need to wait or do something more? Thanks in advance

[JRL]

You should be able to see the motor pulling the rod back and forwards fully. Are you sure the rod is free to move on the engine side? You haven't tightened the nut and bolt up too much? If not then it may be the stepper motor itself which has seized. You should be able to pick one up from a scrapyard.

[beyoto75]

It was free to move, I made sure before attaching back the actuator end of the arm. Anyone know any scrap yards in Dorking area? Thanks

[beyoto75]

Finally managed to get it fixed, the swirl arm servo motor needed resetting which a local mechanic did by plugging the machine to the car. But that wasn’t the main reason for the loss of power, it happened to be the throttle valve. Reading other posts about power loss I recognised the description of the metallic noise, and the mechanic checked and confirmed it. Thanks to my research in the forum I already knew the part numbers of the throttle valve, so I bought a used one in eBay for £90 and once arrived the mechanic took about 45 min. to replace it and recalibrate it with the computer, and now the car is great and no more messages appear.

I attach a couple of pictures of the removed throttle valve, we opened it to confirm the cause, I was pleased to find the smoking gun.

[red baron]

Hi All,

Having the ball joint issues now, would it be possible to fit a small rod end and threaded bar type assembly to replace the original plastic arm? Seems a bit more of a robust solution?