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Spring has sprung :o(

Spent an enjoyable day trialing. Just about to go and use the hose pipe to cover our drive in mud.

Anyway, having now had a check round on getting home I find the near-side rear shock absorber has mainly disappeared (there is a stub left on the chassis) and the spring on the same corner is half out of its seat on the chassis.

If I jack up on the rear bumper (hi-lift) with another (trolley) jack under the diff, and then take off the wheel and lower the trolley jack will that give me enough play to get the spring back in its socket? Will this work?

Also, the loss of a shock absorber seems to have made no difference to the vehicle at all (I thought it was driving better than normal on the way home). Any problems with my leaving it a few days until I can replace both back ones as a pair? The vehicle is never heavily laden. Any recommendations for shocks for a 90? :0)

Thanks.

M.

Reply to
McBad
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Loosen the wheel nuts first, then just lift the bumper with the hi-lift until the weight is off the wheel, take wheel off and raise until spring will pop back in. Beware - heavy weights and strong boingy things involved. Take care not to strain things like brake lines. It's quite possible, though - done it several times. However...

Yes, lots of problems. Apart from the fact that you will almost certainly be driving uninsured, the handling will be totally unpredictable. It will seem fine on a flat, straight road, but come to a pothole/wet corner/speed bump/emergency braking situation and that corner of the car will bounce around out of sync with the rest of the car and probably spit you out.. And you won't know until it's too late. Don't take the risk - use the bus for a few days and keep yourself and the 90 in one piece. (Don't ask me how I know this.)

OE were good when I did mine.

HTH

Reply to
Richard Brookman

The shock keeps the axel from overextending hence the spring comming out.

Reply to
PeterG.

OE, ProComp or OME... do shout if you want a quote :)

Reply to
Niamh Holding

You don't need to take the wheel off. Lift up with high lift until the wheel is starting to come off the ground, and lever the spring back into position with a crow-bar or similar. The whole thing's slightly safer leaving the wheel on as it all can't fall so far if it falls off the high lift.

While it's lifted and once the spring's back, put a couple of jubilee clips round the top of the spring and chassis bracket to stop it unseating in the future.

We (three drivers, two 90s) were averaging a dead shock every other trial until we changed all the rear ones to Pro-Comp ES... with the 2 inch extra travel.

"Tying" the springs on may be enough by itself to save the shocks, you might want to try that before splashing out with cash.

Like you I've never noticed any different on the road with broken shocks; I suspect it's not so critical with the rear ones as it probably is with the fronts. I can, though, tell that the combination of a loose (very) rear radius arm nut and a caravan made for an intersting journey home from the Nationals this year!

Gordon

Reply to
Gordon

This procedure worked easy peasy; didn't even need the crowbar - just gave it a firm shove. Put a jubillee clip on one but forgot to do the other, so I'll see if one pops out and the other doesn't. JC looks a bit feeble to support the weight of the wheel, axle, etc.

Couldn't detect any difference in handling with the broken shock and seeing I'd driven home 20 miles over all sorts of roads and up to motor-way speeds I took the view that I wasn't going to kill myself (or anyone else) by driving it to work and back for a couple of days. Replaced both the rear shocks last night in the rain (doesn't it always?) and still can't detect any change. :o(

Thanks for your help.

Cheers,

M
Reply to
McBad

I still think deliberately driving with a shocker missing could invalidate your insurance. Give 'em any excuse...

Glad it worked out.

Reply to
Richard Brookman

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