Time To Get Intimate (because Your Worth It)

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

With the mot approaching and all 4 disks looking pretty ropey , handbrake almost non existent and a distinct lack of brake dust on the rear n/s wheel means i've dug deep and parted with a few beer tokens.

 

this weekend i shall mostly be under a 205.

 

i want standard ride height which the front is already, but the rear sits too low. I dont think its ever been lowered, just sagged a bit over the last 2 decades. With Tom's torsion bar extraction tool in hand i'm going to reset height and probably drop a new set of bearings and seals into the beam too.

 

Its a standard car and staying that way , so bog standard disks and pads all round, strip and clean all 4 calipers and possibly a lick of paint. new brake fluid and a general look around for possible mot fail points. I didnt do the brakes last year and the discs didnt look great then, but pretty much replaced most of the front suspension so that shouldnt be too bad.

 

I've a year of trouble free motoring with limited mileage. The old girl usually starts first turn of the key after sitting for 4 weeks when i've been at work,and has never let me down. I bet you couldnt say that about a lot of 20 year old cars

 

wish me luck! anybody else got any big jobs on this weekend?

 

 

Al

[welshpug 1,657]

Good luck! one word that may spoil your weekend though, NIPPLES

 

I carried out the very same task back in January for my 205's MOT, surprising difference in behaviour under braking, especially with the ride hight corrected

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

Good luck! one word that may spoil your weekend though, NIPPLES

 

I carried out the very same task back in January for my 205's MOT, surprising difference in behaviour under braking, especially with the ride hight corrected

 

aaarggghh , you said the dreaded N word damn you . I have brand new rear calipers and a full gti6 setup ready to go onto my other 205 . i also have a full gaz suspension setup too and you dont know how hard its been to resist fitting everything onto this one . A broken N****E could just sway me !

[damien 22 1 Cars]

ive got my MOT on friday (today) with my local pug dealer (they had a offfer of MOT's for £30).

had a good nose round the old girl on thursday and found...

 

some play in the passinger wheel (wheel bearings maybe??)

a split in the cv joint

headlights looking too low

there seems to be alot of oil around the diff area, maybe from the cv joint but unsure if its a MOT fail

and a poor idle when cold

 

other than that i think she is looking good

[platty 1]

I'll mostly be under a 205 also. The front subframe is coming off for a clean up and rebuild, so that'll be me all caked in grease again.

 

I don't envy you playing with a rear beam. Im avoiding mine at all costs(Thanks to Anthony )

 

On the wheel bearing note, I may as well change the front pair whilst its in bits, are they pressed in?

[damien 22 1 Cars]

i think they are pressed in, 95% sure of it.

 

just got back from the MOT and she failed (suprise suprise)

 

- offside front brake hose stretched

- exhaust emissions, carbon monoxide content excessive

 

advisory notes

 

- nearside front brake pipe slightly corroded

- offside front brake pipe

- nearside rear brake pipe

- offside rear brake pipe

- nearside front brake hose slightly deteriorated

- centre exhaust has minor leak of exhaust gases

- offside front constant velocity joint gaiter deterorated

- oil leak

- offside drop link slightly deteriorated

- offside rear brake disc slightly pitted

 

so how do i go about sorting the emissions? it failed on co level, it was 3.65 so i need to get it down to 3.50

would some braided brake lines sort out the brake pipe problems?

i know i'll need new droplinks and cv gaiters but how do you sort this "pitted" brake disc?

 

thanks

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

If everything is working properly you should be able to tweak the emissions down with the adjuster on the air flow meter.

 

Braided lines will sort the "hoses" but I'd take pipes to mean the solid pipes are corroded. If they have advised it this time then most likely it will fail on them next year so you are probably as well to do them now.

 

Pitted brake disc is a common one now that I'd never heard of before about 12 months ago. Solution is to bin it and fit a new one.

[damien 22 1 Cars]

thanks, will have a search about replacing the soild pipes.

replacing the discs seems abit harsh, there are only a year old as i had to replace them for the last MOT

 

thanks

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

well the good news so far is that Toms torsion bar tool works a treat, very impressive and worth every penny. The bad news is that the rear beam is gone. Not just a little bit, both sides completely eaten away including the tube. didn't see that one coming! camber looked fine too.

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

I think the appropriate phrase here is "BUGGER".

 

However this wear would go someway to explaining the low ride height you mentioned.

Edited September 5, 2008 by Tom Fenton

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

stripped my old 1.6 beam tonight . its been sat in my garage for a couple of years and was a known good one. i rebuilt it years ago and must have done about 40k on it until it was removed. It could be doing with new seals and it wont hurt to do the bearings too, so its off to the main dealers tommorrow. I need to swap the drums over to the discs and i haven't been near the brakes yet.

 

I havent had so much fun since a urine infection back in 2001.

 

 

but i must say again that the Tom's extractor has now stripped 2 beams . no heat required. The coarse threads of the large bolt stop you pulling too hard on the m8 bolt. Soak the bar ends in wd40 and fit the extractor. tighten up as much as possible then give the torsion bar,splined socket area a good thump with the hammer, tighten the nut again and repeat. You start to get more and more turns on the nut between hammering until it winds the bar out all the way. First one i did took the longest, i went for 2 cups of tea inbetween attempts , leaving the ends to soak in wd40 and on the 3rd attempt it gave way.

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

ok, so the main dealer only had 1 outer bearing and 1 seal, Fortunately that was all i needed. Ideally i would have replaced everything but i need my car this coming week. swapped the drums out on the good beam for disks and refit. Set the beam to 330mm (standard).get going with the brakes and snapped both nipples on the rear calipers. 1 came out with a drill and easyout. the other came out but damaged the threads a bit, so i made a good caliper out of an old one i had lying around. got the car back on the ground to find that the back of the car was stupidly high. So reset the beam to 320mm - perfect.

Front brakes were a doddle because i refurbed the calipers last year.

 

been a busy weekend , but the car is now handling and stopping very well .

 

pile of resulting scrap! (look at the condition of the inside of the old front disks )

 

[welshpug 1,657]

Good work getting it don in a weekend!

 

bit late now but those front brackets from the beam to the body are offset on a 1.9, they place the beam further forward than the 1.6 ones, the 1.9 Tyres are slightly bigger overall and may rub on the bumper on 1.9 brackets.

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

Good work getting it don in a weekend!

 

bit late now but those front brackets from the beam to the body are offset on a 1.9, they place the beam further forward than the 1.6 ones, the 1.9 Tyres are slightly bigger overall and may rub on the bumper on 1.9 brackets.

 

yes i noticed that and swapped the 1.9 brackets onto the 1.6 beam, didn't know the reason though. i also put the original stays to the rear mounts onto the new beam as the 1.6 ones were pretty rotten

 

so the 1.9 must have a shorter wheelbase then?

 

cheers, Al

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

heres the 1.9 ones that came off and went onto the other beam .

 

You sure you dont mean the 1.9 beam is further back to clear the front of the arch?