Having now done 3 of the air bags I have noticed that 3 of the wheel nuts are damaged & were difficult to remove.
Where is the best place to get replacements?
John
Take your pick, https://www.lrdirect.com/ANR3679-Wheel-Nuts-Alloy-New-R.R./
After having issues with 3 bags completed, I confidently went out this evening expecting to back inside in 2 hours, oh foolish man.
This car cannot have anything done on the suspension in years.
Took me 20 minutes to hammer the rear wheel off the NS, this did not bode well. On the n/s there were 4 pipes in front of the air pipe connection which made getting to the connection much more difficult. The top pin was stuck & then broke, & because of the 4 pipes it was not easy to just stick a chisel in & belt it. Then the bottom pin took some getting out, but eventually it was out.
But I now cannot get the new bag to protrude through the top for me to get the pin in, so at 10.15 pm I have called it a day. I will have to get the angle grinder to clean up the underside where the top of the bag locates as there is plenty of rust there, & hope that does the trick.
This may not be a difficult job in terms of know how, but it sure can be awkward when rust plays its hand.
Vicar wrote:
After having issues with 3 bags completed, I confidently went out this evening expecting to back inside in 2 hours, oh foolish man.
This car cannot have anything done on the suspension in years.
Took me 20 minutes to hammer the rear wheel off the NS, this did not bode well. On the n/s there were 4 pipes in front of the air pipe connection which made getting to the connection much more difficult. The top pin was stuck & then broke, & because of the 4 pipes it was not easy to just stick a chisel in & belt it. Then the bottom pin took some getting out, but eventually it was out.
But I now cannot get the new bag to protrude through the top for me to get the pin in, so at 10.15 pm I have called it a day. I will have to get the angle grinder to clean up the underside where the top of the bag locates as there is plenty of rust there, & hope that does the trick.
This may not be a difficult job in terms of know how, but it sure can be awkward when rust plays its hand.
Drill with wire brush might be better as it is tight in there.
You need all that rust gone and the surface back to how it was originally. If the bag goes in at too much of an angle the rubber can pull out of the cap. Always fit new pins. If the bottom cap is ally make sure the paint is good. Probably worth curing the rust and Hammerite.
I managed to get the angle grinder in the other side as I had the same issue, but it was not as bad.
I tried the drill & wire bit first but it was not effective enough. I did think of hammerite funnily enough. Once I have cleaned it all up I will put some on later & hopefully finish the job tomorrow morning when I am off.
Thanks for the tip
John
After a further 3 hours tonight I have got no further & I am at a loss to know what to do, so any advice would be appreciated.
I have had the angle grinder under the air bag top mounting cleaned it all out, but still the hole for the clip does not protrude enough. I managed to just get the clip in but it will not come out of the other side, & ultimately whilst trying to force it the bag just dropped & it became clear that was not going to work. Particularly as there is so little room to work in.
Comparing the old bag to then new one the old one clearly has an advantage of 1-2mm in the section that protrudes through when the top of the bag mates with the mounting, & that is the difference between getting the clip in & not.
Initially I tried this bag on the other side but when it looked difficult to fit I tried the other airbag & it went on OK. Could this be a defective airbag? Difficult to see how in all reality but I am clutching at straws, I have even considered filing down the top of the plastic where it mates with the mounting, that's how desperate I am!
All 4 have been difficult in different ways but I have no answer to this so I am hoping someone out there can offer something that will work.
John
So I do not know what to do, any thoughts?
So this morning with the vernier gauge I have measured the tops of the 2 air bags, old & new, & they are identical, so much for my eyesight!
I have pushed the old one back onto position & it is barely much better than the new one, but enough to get the pin in. But this explains why I had such trouble removing the pin & hence it breaking.
Still at a loss to know what to do though.
I haven't been near the rear of my car yet (it's still on axle stands waiting for me to finish the front!) but I have bought new rear ones, so I've been following this thread.
My front ones sound much like yours - a real hassle getting the off-side pin out. Ended up cutting the bag in half; then a hacksaw; and a dremel! So I'm not looking forward to the rear ones at all. I've also bought some stainless steel wire of the right thickness to form into replacement clips just in case I ever find myself doing this again.
But....back to your question. Is it possible that rust in the top mount for the spring has 'swollen' the mounting location? In which case a drill and wire brush might just polish some swollen rust, rather than removing it. I say this because when working on my front 'knuckles' and on the ends of the axles I've been using a hammer and chisel to remove swollen/blown rust. It can make quite a difference. Easily the mm or two which could be causing you grief.
As I say, I haven't tackled this yet, so I don't really know that part of the car, or what access is like, but if you've had that much grief, then it's at least possible that a rust build up could be getting in your way?
Whilst access is tight I managed to get the angle grinder into remove 90% of the rust, & then used a wire brush & chisel to remove all the rest that I could see.
But I intend to give it another go tomorrow.
In the mean time I fitted a cutting tool to the drill and reduced the 'rim' on the top [where it meets the underside of the suspension mount/plate] of the old air bag by about 1 mm. I then tried it & it fitted straight away. Although it was not exactly level around the whole of the circumference [the surface it was meeting was not exactly level either due to rust & rust removal], So if trying to remove any excess rust/indentations etc does not work tomorrow, then I am going to apply the same idea to the new air bag.
I will let you know what happens.
John
Wow. What a headache!
When I converted mine from springs back to air I had similar problems but minor compare to yours.
I cleaned all the rust away which was minor, killed it with Kurust and used hammerite. The air springs certainly needed a firm push into position to enable the pins to go in, it was very tight, no play at all!
Sit the air spring in as far as you can, connect the air line, start the engine then put the pin in when the weight of the car has shoved the air spring into place.
I did think about that, but what holds the bag in place after connecting the air line?
Do you jack up the axle to keep it in place?
If so is it safe to start up the car with the jack/axle stand under the axle?
Air pressure should keep it in place. There shouldn't be any problem running the engine with the jackstand under the axle. It's what I've done anyway.
Hallelujah, done it.
As advised, I put the bottom pin in, jacked up the rear axle a bit [put an axle stand under as well] to hold it in place & connected the pipe. I then started it up & the top of the bag protruded through the gap the extra 1-2 mm required to get the pin in comfortably.
Many thanks for the advice over the last few days, next its the compressor which I aim to refurbish this week.
John