Top Mounts Need Replacing?

[bicyclerepairman 3]

How much movement should there be in the centre part of the front suspension top mounts? I had the front of the car in the air yesterday, to have a look at the tracking, and noticed that the centre part of the mounts moved around quite a bit when I turned the wheel.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[eddie bullit 37]

Get yourself some new bearings and rubbers from GSF et all. Should move/turn as the steering lock is added either way. If they have never been changed I'd probably replace em anyway..not expensive or hard to do.

Edd

[bicyclerepairman 3]

Will do, what's involved in changing them?

[dcc 855]

Spring clamps, spanners and allenkeys... And some testicles...

[bicyclerepairman 3]

Sweet. I have all of those.

 

I'm sure the Haynes will make it all clear, but when turning the nut on top of the mount, what stops the damper rod turning too??

[ORB 227 1 Cars]

Allen key in the top, go look, it's there!

[bicyclerepairman 3]

Ah ok, I didn't look that closely. Thanks for all the answers, will ask around at work for some spring compressors and give it a go. How hard can it be??

[kee 22]

My advise here would be to slacken the top nut whilst still on the car, only enough so it's easy to get off though, not enough for it to be anywhere near falling off.

Trying to hold the shock in position, an allen key and a big spanner altogether whilst applying force to all 3 is awkward without a bench vise handy.

 

if you've never removed shocks from the car, take care on the passenger side or you'll have gearbox oil all over the floor. Compress the springs in situ and carefully shove the hub down away from the shock and pull the shock out, it can be quite awkward, my mk1 fiesta was much easier with a 2 bolt hub connection instead of the 205 arrangement.

 

Careful with the spring compressors too, they can be lethal if not fitted properly.

[bicyclerepairman 3]

Another question on a similar topic-how accurately does the rack need to be centered? I noticed that full lock in one direction is around 1/8th of a turn further round than in the other direction (ie, I'd have to move the rack by the equivalent of 1/16th of a turn to correct it). how much of an effect will this have?

[welshpug 1,646]

quite a bit on a nice handling car like a 205 which is pretty sensitive to inaccurate geometry, it's probably easier to turn one way than the other.

[bicyclerepairman 3]

Yep it is, it's harder to turn right, and it pulls to the left.

[bicyclerepairman 3]

Yet more questions! I will get around to actually doing this eventually.

 

My Haynes turned up today (99p, bargain!), and it says that I'll need a new top mounting nut when re-assembling. Is this true??

 

Also, I know the parts I need are called the suspension bearings and rubbers, but exactly which parts are these in the numbered diagram? (I'm looking at the diagram in the Haynes of the disassembled front strut). If I ask for front strut bearings and rubbers at my local motor factors, presumably they'll give me all the bits I need, or do I have to know exactly which parts??(I'm new to this car maintenance thing, does it show??)

 

All advice appreciated!