Ed's wagon

[ScottieJ]

Must try and remember to measure the ride height somehow, before and after.

Niiiccceee! measure between the bottom of the chassis and ground

[Edweird]

Went on a rescue mission today. My brother's Megane broke down while he was on his way to work so I went down and gave him a lift to work and then wait with his car for the recovery people. I had a poke around myself and found that the card reader (it's got one of those fob things like a thick credit card) had fallen out of its slot.
Recovery bloke and I couldn't get a peep out of it even after getting the card into the reader, so he loaded it up and took it to the local garage because my brother has a friend that works there.

On my way back from where the Renault has stopped though, my SJ started making a funny noise.

I did a little bit of experimenting and it seems to be a torque thing. It's find when the engine's revving and the gearbox is in neutral, but accelerating in 1st and going on and off the throttle in 1st cause this strange 'plonk' noise. If you continue to accelerate it will do it 3 or 4 times until you start to run out of revs. If will sometimes do it in 2nd too.

I can feel it through the seat as well as hear it.

Once I'd established that I drove the rest of the way home really gently and it didn't do it.

Any ideas? It doesn't sound good and I really need to get whatever it is sorted before I go back to Uni in January.

[ScottieJ]

tbox or engine mount? you need to remove the engine mounts to see of they are broken. Does the gear/transfer lever wobble around more than normal under load?

kind've hard to tell from a 'plonk'

Just give everything a good check over underneath.

[Edweird]

tbox or engine mount? you need to remove the engine mounts to see of they are broken. Does the gear/transfer lever wobble around more than normal under load?

kind've hard to tell from a 'plonk'

Just give everything a good check over underneath.

Yeah, I know it's not much to go on. I'll check the mounts. One of the T-box mounts wasn't too happy when I had it in bits trying to fit the 5 speed before I realised I needed a different prop, which I still don't have.

[Edweird]

Turned out the knocking was a t-box mount. The one on the passenger side, so when I accelerated the t-box side of the mount was clattering against the floor-pan.

Used an exhaust mounting bush my dad had lying around to replace the dead bush.

New springs are on and my brakes appear to be fine, just dirty so I used air gun and compressor to clean them off.

Pictures and more detail to follow as soon as I work out how to get my stupid new phone to transfer the photos. My old one used to just plug in like a memory stick this one's a f*cker.

[Jordi]

Whats the difference with the new springs ed? How much lift did they give. Mine are now sat at interlink waiting for collection.

I could bleat on all day about not being home to fit them. But this is your thread, lol. Roll on Monday. Cos' if im not home by then i'll be divorced!

Jordi

[Edweird]

I'm just sorting out the pictures now, but she's about 2.5 inches higher at the front and 1.5 inches higher at the rear. These Lesgofors springs weigh a lot more than the Suzuki originals. The +1 leaf on the rears is easily twice maybe even three times thicker.

I reckon they'll settle a bit though because the front looks really high at the moment. I'm uploading the pictures to a Facebook album on the club page. I'll link a few here once I'm done.

[Edweird]

Okay, here's a link to all of the photographs I took: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 906&type=1

I'll keep the info short and sweet because I'm sure most of the users on here are way ahead of me when it comes to taking their Zook to pieces.

First thing I did was replace the t-box mount that had broken. Simple job. Unbolt the bush from both parts of the mounting, unbolt the mounting on the T-box, fetch out the two halves of the knackered bush and jiffle the new one in, bolt it back up and done. Managed to mangle my left thumb when a bolt came loose suddenly and got blood all over Dad's spanners. I did the job at Dad's because he has three good 2 ton jacks whereas I've got one cheap 2 ton and three Land Rover bottle jacks. A bit of paper roll and some tightly wrapped electrical tape stopped the bleeding. I put some gloves of after that.

Springs were a simple game really:

Lift it up using a jack either side to lift both front or both rear wheels off the ground, wheels off for more space and less weight
Then undo the U-bolts, undo the two nuts on the shackle and the big spring bolt, drop it out, get the new one underneath, grease threads and bushes etc., bolt the new spring on the chassis, then do the same on the other side, U-bolts, spring off, new spring on
Then I got the axle seats to sit on the bolt heads on the springs (the new springs were such a different shape I couldn't do one spring at a time because the axle wouldn't move onto the aligning bolt in the spring), use the third jack to compress the spring on one side and get the spring plate, which I left attached to the shock, into the right place (aligns on the other end of the same bolt as the axle), U-bolts on loosely, then drop jack 3 and do the other side, after that I tightened the U-bolts all the way up, wheels on and that's one axle done.

I mentioned it in a previous post but just so folks don't miss it: The front end is sitting 2 and a half inches higher and the rear end is 1 and a half inches higher than it was with the old springs. I measured the change by measuring the distance from the centre of the wheel to the wheel-arch above it. (@Scottie: I didn't do it between the chassis and ground because the chassis is curved above the axles and there's lots of crap to get in the way) The springs will probably settle a bit now they've got weight on them and drop down after a while.

One thing I did come across with the rear springs I think might be worth pointing out; the but and bolt in the middle of the rear springs was upside down when the springs arrived. If I hadn't taken the bolts out and put them back in the other way up they would have stopped me from bolting the axle down to the spring properly. Just something to keep an eye out for with Lesgofor springs possibly.

So long as nothing else breaks, I'm all set for Kirton!

[dan_2k_uk]

Good lad. Will be interesting to see how much they settle.

Looks great.

Dan

[andyrew]

looking good ed, how the ride now with the new springs?

i lowered mine down from an add a leaf to brand new standard height springs, so much nicer to drive.


one thing i would say tho........... give that sj a bath and a good wax!!!