|
I want to declare my appreciate and a public thanks to one of the Board's active members for helping me through a very tough repair this past weekend. John Sargent is known to many from his contributions and he gave me generously of his time to supplement his excellent contribution to the FAQ section on FRONT SUSPENSION, as I struggled to replace a failed passenger side shock absorber.
The story itself might be of interest to those who have done or contemplate doing that job.
Its not simple.
In my case the complexity was compounded by the fact that every fitting I needed to take apart defied most methods known to separate the parts. I won't labor the details, except to say the last confounding fitting was the gland nut on the strut tube that received the shock absorber cartridge. I gave up and only returned as a desperate last attempt. I applied MAP gas heat over a period of about 40 minutes and finally the nut gave way.
I had prepared by reading the entire FAQ section on front suspension, reading Haynes and studying the various components inboard of the removed front wheel and rotor. At the beginning one of my difficulties was understanding the terminology and distinguishing one part from another.
Even now, I'm not sure I'm identifying parts correctly, but here goes.
The rod angled 45 degrees backward from the strut assembly, the one with the cone shaped rubber (or neoprene) bushings at the front is the "control rod" sometimes referred to as the control arm or control strut. The shorter one at right angles to the strut is the "radius rod".
BTW, the "strut" is the entire mechanism that goes from under the top of the wheel well to the bottom where the rotor is attached. The "strut" is vertical, almost, in its orientation. It contains the spring, the shock absorber, a rubber bumper at the top and a ball bearing assembly, also at the top which allow it to rotate as needed. At the bottom the brake dust shield is located and in my experience this is almost always entirely rusted through (a result of being in Boston weather). Also attached at the bottom is the geared ABS sensor wheel, the ABS sensor itself and probably other things I haven't mentioned.
Back to the strut and rods. Attaching the sway bar to the radius rod is a short, maybe 8 inch rod with two pair of small cone shaped or mushroom head shaped bushings. This is called the "?". I don't know what that's called but it is short, vertical and easily identified because it connects the sway bar and the radius rod and it is the only thing that does.
Forward of the radius rod is the "tie rod". This is also easy to identify because it has the accordion boot and it is obvious that it moved the wheel from side to side when steering. What was not obvious to me and gave me considerable pause in my attack to remove it from the strut, was the fact that it has an unseen ball and socket joint on the steering rack end, which permits it to move considerably. I was reluctant to force it out of its seating on the wheel end, for fear it would brake. These are the kind of things that aren't described anywhere on the assumption that anyone who gets to this point, knows what a steering tie rod is and how it functions. That assumption was not warranted in my case and made the job take much much longer than it should have.
By the way. That steering tie rod is also broker down to the inner tie rod and the outer tie rod. The outer portion is that 5 inch long section nearest to the wheel that has a female thread and a lock nut to lock the adjustment. It also contains the ball joint that connects to the wheel. To remove this joint from the bottom of the strut - what I've been referring to as the "wheel" - is no small task. At least it wasn't in my case. But finally after a lot of hammering it popped. I couldn't use heat because I had not replacement part for the end tie rod and it has a rubber bushing that would have melted, even using a wrap of wet cloth because the rubber is right where the heat needs to be applied.
I'm going to short cut the rest of the story, but I'll try to write it up for the FAQs. Meanwhile anyone contemplating a front shock replacement on a 940, is welcome to contact me off the forum and I'll try to transfer the benefit of my 20 hour repair weekend. As the expression goes, your mileage may vary, but after 40 years of amateur mechanical work, this was at or very near the top of my list of hard things to do. This includes rebuilding a couple of 940s that had been pretty badly smashed up in front end collisions as basis of comparison.
The good news is the clunk is gone. The bad news is the steering wheel still wobbles and its not from bad rotors. I wobbles continually at slow neighborhood speeds. Tires are good, pressure is equal. The wobble is gentle, but quite noticeable. I doubt very much it has to do with older bushings in some of the parts I've been describing. And some of those bushings, but not all, have been renewed.
[That sway bar to radius rod connector. I think I'll just call it the "sway bar connector".
All suggestions welcome, but I'm not taking off the damn strut again. I have a new shock for the other side but I'll need some time to let the pain of the weekend subside before I even think about attempting the same job on the driver side. And, there are a lot of parts at the top of the strut that I probably should have replaced, but didn't have.
Sorry for the long wind.
Bob Franklin
robertmfranklin@gmail.com
|
