Late night mechanicing anticts

[future]

Hey, thought i would post this up just incase it is of use to anyone.

I have had some "race" density bushes sat around the house for the old girl for a while now, so me and rob (vrbob) decided it was time to get my **** into gear and get them on.

So i rocked up to robs about 9 (thanks mate) and we got started with it looking like this:

So we jacked her up and realised the suspension may already be a wee bit on the stiff side :s

Once i had changed my now soiled pants from the jacking moment we set about dropping the sub frame, which if im honest is not a bad job at all. So about 30 mins later it looked like this:

List of bolts to remove is -
3 x 16mm's on the ball joint
4 x 13mm's holding the steering rack to the sub frame
4 x 21mm's holding the sub frame to the chassis
2 x 18mm's ARB - drop links
and finally the dog bone mount

Then arms and ARB off and fit new bushes:

Re assembled:

At this point we removed the dogbone mount completely to easer re fitting and she is ready to go back in:

Then to get the subframe back in we found it easiest to put the ball joints in loosely with the subframe jacked in place. Then re attach the steering rack (drivers side first) and she slots back in nicely do the rest of the bolts and shes good as new!

The difference is night and day and the car holds the road so much better now! If anyone would like links and things to the bushes i used feel free to pm me :thumbsup:


Hope this is helpful
Tom

 

[superkarl]

Great work!
You'l need alignment doing now.

 

[future]

thanks karl! its booked in for alignment next week but i am waiting for my new top mounts to arrive first so everything is nice and settled

 

[vfr800]

Good work. Hope you cleaned that subframe before putting back in?

 

[future]

Good work. Hope you cleaned that subframe before putting back in?

ha ha i spent a while cleaning it, but i was at robs parents house pretty late at this point so didnt want to take the **** too much!

 

[s3gazz]

your other bushes nackered then mate or just wanted new ones on great work pal

 

[future]

your other bushes nackered then mate or just wanted new ones on great work pal

thank you the other bushes weren't nearly as bad as i thought they would be, but there was a few little lines starting to appear on them.
The difference the new bushes made is unreal though. Before gravity would move the suspension arm up and down freely but now its held perfectly in place and takes a decent bit of force to move it!

 

[Paradox1]

Nice one mate,where you get the bushes from?

 

[Westy]

I love to see Late Night Mechanics. I do miss it

Top job lads :thumbsup:

 

[Dan-Jnr]

Nice update. Maybe one to add to my list.

 

[s3gazz]

i want to do this too any info mate thanks

 

[ScottD3]

Hey, thought i would post this up just incase it is of use to anyone.

I have had some "race" density bushes sat around the house for the old girl for a while now, so me and rob (vrbob) decided it was time to get my **** into gear and get them on.

So i rocked up to robs about 9 (thanks mate) and we got started with it looking like this:

So we jacked her up and realised the suspension may already be a wee bit on the stiff side :s

Once i had changed my now soiled pants from the jacking moment we set about dropping the sub frame, which if im honest is not a bad job at all. So about 30 mins later it looked like this:

List of bolts to remove is -
3 x 16mm's on the ball joint
4 x 13mm's holding the steering rack to the sub frame
4 x 21mm's holding the sub frame to the chassis
2 x 18mm's ARB - drop links
and finally the dog bone mount

Then arms and ARB off and fit new bushes:

Re assembled:

At this point we removed the dogbone mount completely to easer re fitting and she is ready to go back in:

Then to get the subframe back in we found it easiest to put the ball joints in loosely with the subframe jacked in place. Then re attach the steering rack (drivers side first) and she slots back in nicely do the rest of the bolts and shes good as new!

The difference is night and day and the car holds the road so much better now! If anyone would like links and things to the bushes i used feel free to pm me :thumbsup:


Hope this is helpful
Tom

i want to do this too any info mate thanks

 

[future]

thanks for all the comments!

westy you are welcome to come join us next time :icon_thumright:

The only painful bit is getting the old bushes out! But a jr hacksaw and fire put pay to them!

 

[future]

And paradox i will send you over some links when i find them

 

[Westy]

thanks for all the comments!

westy you are welcome to come join us next time :icon_thumright:

The only painful bit is getting the old bushes out! But a jr hacksaw and fire put pay to them!

Bournemouth is a tad far for me but thanks for the offer. My grand parents live in Christchurch so I might come see you lot if i'm down there any time.

 

[jojo]

Good effort in such a tight space! How the hell did you get the droplinks off? I had my car on axle stands, and couldn't get enough space to use my extended bar! A ratchet or ring spanner wouldn't work!!

 

[vrbob]

Was a good day

Me n Tom had lots of fun and learned alot about the difference between his Pre-faclift and my post-facelift as we had the subframe off mine to do the downpipe and cat the week before.

A few minor hiuccups on the way but all was sorted and Tom left a happy guy as we went for a quick spin to make sure all was back together and it goes round corners with alomost no body roll now lol

We only changed one wishbone bush and the 2 arb`s as Tom had already fitted one of his wishbones to pass his MOT. So with the subfram off its a peice of cake to do the ARB (just remember what it looks like before you take it apart (Tom knows what i mean by this lol) As for the wishbone bushes getting out the old ones is a bit of a mission but brute force and a hacksaw prevails. We were gonna burn out the 2 other bushes on the subframe but my dad wasnt happy with the idea of a rubber bonfire on his driveway so we left those as to be honest they were still pretty damn solid so will do them next time. Getting the new yellow (very hard) bush in was also proving difficult as we tried to use a vice to press it in place but it wouldnt work even with brute force. So a bit of lateral thinking and we decided to remove a bit of the lip of the bush with a stanley knife so we didnt have loads of material in the way when pressing into the wishbone and voila new bush fitted using the vice as a press.

To say we were quite proud of ourselves is an understatement

 

[vrbob]

Good effort in such a tight space! How the hell did you get the droplinks off? I had my car on axle stands, and couldn't get enough space to use my extended bar! A ratchet or ring spanner wouldn't work!!

We undid the 3 bolts on the base of the ball joints to remove the subframe as for the drop links its a 18mm socket for the nut and a 17mm open ended spanner to hold it if the drop link spins.

Tom an i used halfords pro tools and on the ratchet stuff where it was very tight we extended them using some metal pipe for leverage.

 

[ZAS]

Nice, can one person manage?

 

[vrbob]

Nice, can one person manage?

It can be done with one person as i had to drop my subframe last week to fix a power steering pipe i had a mini accident with. defo easier with 2 people as it can be a bit of a mission lining everything up on your own but its defo not impossible

 

[jojo]

We undid the 3 bolts on the base of the ball joints to remove the subframe as for the drop links its a 18mm socket for the nut and a 17mm open ended spanner to hold it if the drop link spins.

Tom an i used halfords pro tools and on the ratchet stuff where it was very tight we extended them using some metal pipe for leverage.

Yes, I half a Halfords pro tool kit aswell, and a 1/2" 3ft breaker bar, there wasn't enough room to lever the 18mm bolts, I could get to it with a ratchet, but they wasn't coming off with just the ratchet! lol Maybe my car wasn't high enough? I still think it's a ramp only job!

Good stuff though.

 

[future]

Bournemouth is a tad far for me but thanks for the offer. My grand parents live in Christchurch so I might come see you lot if i'm down there any time.

I live in highcliffe so if you do come down would be rude not to go for a beer

Just brute strength and ignorance really jojo, and then when you put them back on a wee smear of copper grease does the trick.

 

[vrbob]

I live in highcliffe so if you do come down would be rude not to go for a beer

Just brute strength and ignorance really jojo, and then when you put them back on a wee smear of copper grease does the trick.

More bits ordered Tom so defo need to do some more home mechanics

And yeah Westy if your down that way and you have time to meet Tom for a beer i will pop along to say Hi too

 

[future]

its intercooler time! should probably get some pics up of mine now i have a 'proper' one

 

[Gops]

I want to do this soon. I got a clunk noise so bushes need changing.. If my dad doesnt help me, I'll be offering a curry to those who do (and beer.

 

[Gops]

Oh and did you for those facelift lights mate!? They look lush!

 

[future]

thanks for the reply gops only just seen this they are original hella ones, but before i fitted them i used tufty's restoration guide which i believe is in the stickies

 

[future]

bit of an update to our late night mechanicing antics as some of you may have seen my steering rack decided to make a hole in itself last week, so had a bit of a session with rob (vrbob) and josh (jtothed) and got a few important bits done!

As every i hope this helps people concidering these jobs and nice to keep a little diary! and one last thing before i start, a massive thank you to rob josh and robs parents for putting up with me for more than 10 minutes!!

So to start, the car looked a bit pis**ed off and angry outside robs parents house ready for a rather large overhaul

We got it in the garage and took the front bumper, crash bar, headlights and subframe off as we also fitted my front mount cooler normally you would need to drain the pas system, but as mine had no fluid it wasnt a problem!

Next we undid the tie rods and knocked them out of the hub (this did take a little persuasion!)

Next you need to undo the banjo bolts from the rack to the pipework and pump. I couldnt picture this very well under the car, so in the pictures you can see where they are on the spare rack (one on either side)

Now i stupidly didnt take any photos of this last stage, but in the drivers side footwell, remove the footrest (1 x t20 torx bit and a big plastic screw) and you will see the steering joint, undo the (13mm iirc) bolt and with a bit of persuasion the rack will drop free.

Have a coffee and bask in your amazingness for 5


Then i took my nice shiny VW motorsport R32 rack and put it back on in true haynes manual style, "fitting is the reverse of removal". But we found it easier to bolt the pipework to the rack, then subframe to the rack, then lastly put the tie rods in

It is worth noting though that the steering wheel needs to be straight when removing and fitting, and if fitting new tie rods with the rack, you need to check the length to keep the toe sensible and get your alignment done afterwards.

Now fill the pas system up and let it settle for a while, when you fire the car up dont be alarmed by the horrible screech, as, if like mine, your pump will have lots of air in it! Keep topping up the fluid whilst doing lock to locks and the jobs a good'un!



With that job done is was time to fit fun things The list for the intercooler is:
- Delta fin cooler (600x300x65mm) with 63mm end tanks
- 4 x Silicon 63mm 90 degree bends
- 2 x alloy 63mm 90 degree alloy bends
- 1 x alloy 63mm joiner
- 10 x 55-70mm clips

I used a bar of alloy angle to mount the cooler to and m8 bolts..

Mocked up the cooler height and mounted 2 x L brackets to hold the alloy angle

Then bolted the angle to the tabs and cooler to the angle...

Then bolted up all the pipework making sure to keep the 2 x 90 degree bends that come straight off of the cooler as close to the radiator as possible to retain the fogs...Seen here without grills yet

A quick trim of the inner line of the insert and she fits perfect
Havent had a chance to log intake temperatures yet, but even after 4/5 long pulls the intake fanimold is as cold as before i switched the engine on


Hope this helps a few people and more to come!

 

[ChrisS385]

Was brilliant to read great write up reminds me of working till stupid o'clock on my starlet gt can't wait to start modding my s3 roll on pay day

 

[future]

Was brilliant to read great write up reminds me of working till stupid o'clock on my starlet gt can't wait to start modding my s3 roll on pay day

thanks chris! I love doing it now and again got a few more updates to do when i get a chance to sit down...

 

[Danny Cawsey]

Looking good mate. Will have to meet up when I get the s3 back from the garage.

 

[future]

yea that would be good danny! somehow we also managed to take off and re seal robs downpipe along with other bits but more on that to come

 

[Westy]

Good work lads. I do miss late night mechanics and the laughs of working on the car with a few mates and beers

It's all about the Late Night Decorating at the moment

 

[voorhees]

Good work lads. I do miss late night mechanics and the laughs of working on the car with a few mates and beers

It's all about the Late Night Decorating at the moment

Welcome to my life

 

[future]

Good work lads. I do miss late night mechanics and the laughs of working on the car with a few mates and beers

It's all about the Late Night Decorating at the moment

ahh not the late night decorating!! ive been lucky enough to steer well clear of that