JDNSW
1st January 2018, 09:09 AM
The self levelling strut on my County has not worked for a couple of decades, and I have long since fitted the standard springs for non-levelling models. However, recently, the ball joint at the bottom has developed significant play, making a significant rattle in the right conditions.
So I decided it had to come off. To get better access I decided to jack up the back, and to pressure wash underneath.
On Saturday, the hi-lift jack slipped as I was lifting it and the top hit my right thumb and head. No serious damage, but bled freely, so that was it for Saturday.
Yesterday I jacked it up with a sulky jack under the rear crossmember and put stands under the chassis. Pressure washed it and left it to dry over lunch.
Spent the whole afternoon removing it. The first issue was the ball joint nut refused to move despite a large spanner, heat, and eventually a hammer and punch. Solved with an angle grinder.
Then it was a simple matter of removing the top bracket, held by four clearly visible bolts. Ha!
I came to the conclusion the top bracket was fitted before the body, and certainly before the auxiliary fuel tank. The head is accessible up a 30mm gap between the crossmember and the fuel tank (means the bolts cant be removed), have to use a flat OE spanner on them. The nuts, on the other hand, while clearly visible, are almost impossible to access with a long enough spanner to move them - they are tight! The wobble drive extension I bought in November earned it's keep. As the nuts are nyloc, and the bolts about 25mm longer than necessary, removing and replacing them was a slow business.
When I got the strut off, it was clear that the top ball joint also had plenty of play, and this was likely to be the source of the noise rather than the bottom one.
So I decided it had to come off. To get better access I decided to jack up the back, and to pressure wash underneath.
On Saturday, the hi-lift jack slipped as I was lifting it and the top hit my right thumb and head. No serious damage, but bled freely, so that was it for Saturday.
Yesterday I jacked it up with a sulky jack under the rear crossmember and put stands under the chassis. Pressure washed it and left it to dry over lunch.
Spent the whole afternoon removing it. The first issue was the ball joint nut refused to move despite a large spanner, heat, and eventually a hammer and punch. Solved with an angle grinder.
Then it was a simple matter of removing the top bracket, held by four clearly visible bolts. Ha!
I came to the conclusion the top bracket was fitted before the body, and certainly before the auxiliary fuel tank. The head is accessible up a 30mm gap between the crossmember and the fuel tank (means the bolts cant be removed), have to use a flat OE spanner on them. The nuts, on the other hand, while clearly visible, are almost impossible to access with a long enough spanner to move them - they are tight! The wobble drive extension I bought in November earned it's keep. As the nuts are nyloc, and the bolts about 25mm longer than necessary, removing and replacing them was a slow business.
When I got the strut off, it was clear that the top ball joint also had plenty of play, and this was likely to be the source of the noise rather than the bottom one.