In the process of de rusting the sub frame I have come accross a potential rust problem area.
On the photo above you will notice, just under the point where the anti roll bar is mounted that I have opened up a small area. This was full of rust as it appears there was a lighter guage metal bracket under the heavier one. I really do not see the need for it as the entire box section was blocked up with the decaying metal of this lighter bracket.
I chipped it all away and when painting ensured there was plenty of paint to seal it properly.
As I had already removed the sub frame with the lower arms intact I subsequently could not free off the inner ball joint from the sub frame.
I have since found that it is best to use the vehicles own weight to free off this joint, however as the ball joints were surprisingly still in good condition even at 118k miles this was not a problem.
I still wanted to re grease the old joints and to ensure there was no dirt inside them as one of the rubbers had split.
The outer ones were easy to remove, clean and re grease with new rubbers fitted.
The inner ones were a little more awkward to do but after doing the first one it was easy to do the other.
This is the inner joint before starting showing the rubber retaining clips in place.
Carefully remove the larger clip which is coiled, over the top of the rubber as shown below.
Then flip the rubber inside out to gain access for cleaning out the old grease as shown below.
Then it's just a case of appying some fresh grease into the ball joint, flipping the rubber back over then re fitting the coiled securing clip.
Finally clean up any excess grease.
I have now got the sub frame built up with the anti roll bar and new rear bushes as supplied by "Jules".
I just had to give the lower arms a little spit and polish to make them look good so here is the complete unit ready for re fitting to the car.
I have also rebuilt the front struts using new spring protectors.
Here they are along with the old spring protectors which I will keep as spares for now.
I have also removed 10 years of tar etc from the wheel arch liners which will be re fitted with some new studs as some of the old ones simply broke off when removing.
I will now get the front suspension re fitted back into the car in readiness for getting it back onto its wheels.
JYJ