202 front suspension travel when doing springs

[stevesey]

Swapped my front spring pads for #1s today.

Did the passenger side first, disconnected roll bar and shock, but top arm was still preventing enough travel to get the compressed spring out, so split the top ball joint and carried on.

On the driver side, the once I had disconnected the shock and roll bar, the suspension dropped right down and I was able to slip the spring out without needing to split the ball joint.

So which side is normal and should I be checking something out?

 

[Number_Cruncher]

>>which side is normal

Carefully check the coil spring ends. They should be cut flat and square - if you find anything other, you have a broken spring on that side.

 

[stevesey]

>>which side is normal

Carefully check the coil spring ends. They should be cut flat and square - if you find anything other, you have a broken spring on that side.

Springs where fine (and although a broken one would be slightly easier to get out it wouldn't make any difference to how far the top/bottom arms drop).

 

[Dieselman]

Normally with tensioned spring you will need to apply some downward pressure to the lower arm as the inner bush holds it up, but there should then be enough clearance to retrieve the spring.

Check the bushes are installed correctly and not split.

 

[stevesey]

Normally with tensioned spring you will need to apply some downward pressure tot eh lower arm as hte inner bush holds it up, but there should then be enough clearance to retrieve the spring.

Check the bushes are installed correctly and not split.

So it would be normal to be able to remove the spring without splitting one of the ball joints?

On the passenger side the top arm did not want to drop enough to allow this.

 

[Dieselman]

As long as the spring is well compressed and is an original spring, not a 'Rodeo special', it should come out.
Have you compared the spring lengths.?

 

[stevesey]

As long as the spring is well compressed and is an original spring, not a 'Rodeo special', it should come out.
Have you compared the spring lengths.?

Will - you are missing the point slightly, it's not the springs I'm questioning but the degree of suspension travel.

On the driver side (which I did second) the top and bottom arm (with the roll bar and shock disconnected) dropped quite easily so that with a little further downward the compressed spring could be worked out.

On the passenger side the arms did not drop easily, so I split the ball top ball joint - with a bit of hand pressure the bottom arm could then be pushed down and the spring worked out. So it appears that the passenger side top arm is stiff, or the driver side loose. So I'm wondering which is normal.

Finished the job yesterday lunchtime before the rain set in. Not much opportunity to poke around after that.

 

[Dieselman]

I understood the issue, but given your reason for doing this job was an unlevel car, have you checked the springs are the same length.

If the n/s one is longer it will be harder to remove given the same clearance.

My first post covered the upper and lower wishbone travel. Normally there will be enough travel but you may need to press the lower arm down due to the bushes holding it up.
The upper arm shouldn't be an issue.

 

[stevesey]

I understood the issue, but given your reason for doing this job was an unlevel car, have you checked the springs are the same length.

If the n/s one is longer it will be harder to remove given the same clearance.

Ah - some catch info (and clearer explaination) needed. Drivers rear has been "padded" up by one pad size to compensate to the slight sag on that corner (and car has been sitting nice and level at the rear since then). Mission yesterday was to drop the front onto #1 pads, just to get it that little bit lower.

Anyway, irrespective of the spring length the drivers side arms dropped with very little help, until the top arm was at (let's say) a 45 degree angle, then a quick push to get the extra distance needed to get the spring out. On the passenger side the top arm didn't want to go much beyond 25 degrees below horizontal, which doesn't give enough gap to maneuver a compressed spring out (the extra angle gives another 1-2 inches).

I didn't try too hard to push the passenger side down further as is was the first side I'd done so I just grabbed the ball joint splitter and popped the top joint - once split the lower arm then dropped to a similar point the drivers did and the spring could be freed in much the same way as the other side.

Given no-one has mentioned the need to split the ball joints - I'm tending towards the passenger top arm being stiff for some reason. Wondering it could be "pre-loaded" in some way by being tighted up in the wrong place at some point. Thinking about loosening the nut, going for a short drive and then re-tighening (after a visual inspection for any obvious reasons why it's stiffer than the other side).