Swapping out my Ohlins

[davidpingu]

Hi all, well I've been banging on about it for some time now but tomorrow I'm finally getting around to removing the ohlins and putting in oem struts mated with spoon springs.
Not done this particular work before so just looking for any tips you guys may have?
Only problems I can foresee are separating the upper ball joint at the end of the tie rod from the front struts and getting access to the top of the rear struts. Does access to the rear top bolts involve removing the back seats? Are the ball joints easy to seperate too? Hoping it will just require a bit of a tap with a hammer? Any other tips you may have would be good. Cheers!

 

[tricker_luke]

Pretty sure when I separated the tie rod ball joints I just unscrewed the nut until it was flush with the end of the thread then hit it with a hammer til it popped out.

The rears you just need to take the moulded carpets out and lower the rear seats. The side carpet bits have a few clips along the top edge, you just have to pop them out. The rear plastic piece will need removing first though, but it is all straight forward.

 

[davidpingu]

Nice one mate cheers

 

[George K]

Don't hit the end of the vthreaded section of the track rod ends, as it may well collapse across the split pin holes, even if the nut is flush, but use a heavy hammer on the steering arm to shock it loose.

 

[davidpingu]

Thanks again. I almost forgot actually, are the split pins easily obtainable from a motor factors? The ones in there now don't look like I can save them

 

[tricker_luke]

They should be, or even Halfords.

 

[davidpingu]

Cool. I expect I'll end up spending £10 on about 500 of them even though I only need two!

 

[C&S Evo7]

good advice from george there that is the best way to remove them,

 

[donkeykong]

i hope your rear absorber bolts are easy to take out, can be a pain in the ***

 

[davidpingu]

i hope your rear absorber bolts are easy to take out, can be a pain in the ***

You're not wrong! The one side came out ok but the other side took forever! No clearance from the other side to tap the bolt out and it was hugged up inside that bottom bush well tight!

Well I think I genuinely have a one of a kind set up now. Rear oem shocks with spoon springs and ohlins coilovers up front! Lol

I ran out of time and didn't get around to doing the fronts. Luckily I adjusted the height of the ohlins up front a while back so it doesn't look like a hot rod!

Half the job was just getting to the top of those rear struts. Half the boot out, rear seats, metal bracket type things just to get enough clearance for any kind of ratchet on those top mount bolts. Nightmare!!!

The units going in we're a lot longer than the ones coming out too so with absolutely no help to apply downward pressure to the rear arms i ended up using a jack to compress the strut up enough and a tow rope wrapped around the strut to pull it in to place. Getting those bottom bushes to line up to get the bolt back through took a few attempts! Not the easiest way of doing it I'm sure but got there in the end. Probably could have saved myself hours with an extra pair of hands. Nevermind, winge over! Lol

 

[Vindots]

There is a universal ball joint separator around. I bought mine for only NZ$50
Saves your strength, easy to use, and safe for your strut steering arm .