You couldn't make it up!!!!!!

Little bit of vibration front steering this morning. Jacked it up and found that the track rod boot is split and i have very minor play rocking the wheels at the 9 and 3 position. Track rod is the only bit I haven't replaced. Oh and of course it's the non replaceable end.

I'm sure someone is sabotaging my car.

Trying to steer a little back on topic with some info for whoever may one day need it...

Trailing arms were easy once i'd got the bolt out. Undo the bottom shock absorber bolt and push it up out of the way. Release height sensor from rubber mount on the trailing arm. Stand under axle off centre towards the side you're working, jack just behind wheel hub, Axle stand under chassis next to where the bolt goes through the bush. Take the wheel off. It's easier to get at the axle bolt behind the shock absorber.

Not sure if it would apply to everyone but i have side steps and I had to cut a notch out of the inside of the step in order to undo the bolt all the way out of the bush in order to drop the arm.

The trailing arm bushes i used were by FloFlex and are a perfect fit. They are a 2 part bush cut at an angle as seen in the picture.

If you have a stuck axle bolt, then God be with you trying to get it out. lol. The part number for a replacement is ANR3313 but is discontinued by Landrover. John Craddock have a couple but they're £12. If you want to source your own cheaper, its a 125mm M12 Flanged head bolt, half thread with a tensile strength of 10.9.

Hope this helps someone. :-)

Well that was a right mission. Began drilling at 8 this morning. Eventually breaking through but still wouldnt hammer out. Luckily my mate has a good setup of gear including a big Clark pillar drill so we stuck it on that. Still took some drilling though.

All back on now with new bush installed. Just the other side to do now but at least the bolts are free.

Finally got the trailing arm off.

Had to cut the rear most bolt as it just wouldn't come out. Even with it off the car, plastered with penetrating oil, braying like mad and having heat on it, i still can't get it out. I'm up shit creek here cause clearly the car is now in dry dock until i can fix it. Any ideas how i can get it out please?????

Not on Poly's. Front radius are standards and I haven't done the trailing arms yet. That's the weekend job. Only Poly's fitted at the moment are Panhard bushes front and back.

PM sent to Robbo. Don't be stealing my sale Gilbert. :-)

FFS.

As if you've previously fitted Terrafirma's and didnt enlighten us. Mind you, experience is sometimes best earned than given.

Yeah i'll have to replace the ones i robbed this morning.

Stiff doesn't begin to describe. I don't think the cars heavy enough to compress them. Felt like i'd nailed the chassis to the axle. lol. I suppose the giveaway is that they were ridiculously hard to compress to fit, whereas the standards just push in and stay there.

well since you ask.

We were discussing poly bushes and shocks further up the thread. Talking about durability and ride comfort etc. I've been going through my whole suspension and everything i've changed has made a great improvement.

I saw some New Terrafirma shocks going cheap on ebay so i bought them after reading quite alot of good things on Google. I fitted the rears the other day and all seemed well. I fitted the fronts last night and all i can say is "NO, NO, NO, NO!!!!!!"

Absolutely 100% dreadful! Do not fit these to a P38. You can feel absolutely everything.

Luckily the father in law just happened to have 4 brand new OEM shocks in his boot ready to be fitted. I've quickly relieved him of these this morning and have just finished fitting them on the car.

So i have 4 brand new Terrafirma shocks for sale if anyone's interested? lol

hello

Terrafirma shocks in bin. OEM ones fitted.

Dont ask. Lol.

I see you're on the fence then Clive! lol

Google will tell us that Poly bushes will last 5 minutes. Google also tells us Poly bushes will last forever. I find reading reading one search result quickly contradicts the next and usually to the opposite end of the scale. Both can't be wrong! Orangebean claims he has 7 year old Poly bushes still in good working order. So Scientifically which is it? No-one appears to be able to say that polys last as long or longer or perform as good or better than OEM bushes. As to which feels better, again no one seems to be able to give a definitive answer either way. I'd say that was down to preference. Albeit if not perhaps as the manufacturer originally intended.

A get together to drive other peoples Range Rovers would be a great comparable test of the differences although we couldn't put the question of lifespan to bed. Range Rover orgy keys in a bowl anyone?

The father in law currently has problems with his car. He's booked in at his local garage in December to have new bits and bobs fitted. I'll look forward to driving his as a comparison as he's all standard.

I'm not promoting polybushes by the way as i have no real benchmark. I only know whats worked for me. At the moment i can say with confidence that it's like riding a magic carpet on the moon as opposed to a bin bag on an escalator. Not that it drove horribly to begin with. I just feel i'ts gone in the right direction and drives solidly as a 4x4 should but wafts along gently on air when required. I did each change on it's own so i could feel the before and after difference in the component i was changing. The one that suprised me was the front panhard rod as when i took it off, there was nothing wrong at all with the oem bushes. I just decided in for a penny in for a pound and put the polys in. Without a doubt a significant improvement.

I was all for fitting standard bushes until the knob head at the first garage cocked it all up, ripped them to shreds and caused me no end of grief and wasted cash.

I've had standard bushes put on the front radius arms cause the man at the corner garage swore he could do it right. Which he did but at a cost of £100 + bushes.

Since then, i discovered pretty much all the bushes were garbage so decided to replace them all. If i'd have known they were all like that to start with, i'd have definitely bought the poly kit for the whole car. Would've worked out cheaper in the long run.

I figure with Polys, once the prep is done, you can replace them yourself in no time at all whenever you want. No need to pay for pressing them in/out and you know the job is done right.

My panhard polys are the black Bearmach 2 piece ones at £12 a set delivered. Trailing arms are FloFlex and were £30. Even if i only got a year out of them, the parts cost half the price of the labour to fit 1 pair of radius arm bushes.

Polybush gets my vote but probably down to the fact i've been burned by dodgy garage work.

Think we've got a bit off the original topic of the "Tracking" but i guess this is all related as the bushes were actually the reason why it wouldn't track. And since it's suspension related, here's a new shock next to the old pitted one.

You saying that's a good thing or bad thing?

Yeah they're notched. I used an extension bar to get them out and back in. Lining the hole up was the hard work. Tryna hold the shock and jiggle it whilst looking on the other side eyeing up when it's inline. I didn't take the wheels off which made it a bit harder as i had to reach around. Passenger side was ok as i could fit it all from underneath. Drivers side, you cant get your hand up to put the bolt in due to the obstructions so you have to do it through the liner.

had to put the bottom mount on first to get it to angle correctly for the top bolt but the shocks just kept expanding. Unlike the ones that came off that would stay where you compressed them too. That's why i had to use a pry bar to push it back down on the passenger side to line the hole up. Would've been quicker with 2 people. Took me about 90 mins all in. 15 of which was spent effing and blinding because i'd put the nut down somewhere and couldn't find it.

Robbo1 wrote:

I fitted new Terrafirma shocks to the front of my car and it was the same so only used one washer. No problems so far. Just need to do the rear now.
Rob.

Cheers Rob. I did think i was right as the old ones only have 1 washer but i thought best to check.

Doing the fronts tomorrow. Bit tricky getting the shock to lineup with the hole on the drivers side rear as there's no access underneath for your hand to the bolt. I got a thin bar in the end, fed it through the top of the wheel arch liner and levered it down whilst having the bolt ready to thread on an extension bar.

Top tip which no doubt everyone knows. Don't cut the plastic packing band until you've got the top in. Proper hard work trying to re-compress it to get it in the hole. lol

Just done rear shocks. Only issue i had was they came with big metal washers for both sides of the rubbers whereas the ones i took off didn't No where near enough thread to get the nut started so i took them off and just left it with 2 as was fitted beforehand. I assume that's right. No other way of doing it.

This was my thought so i looked in the dryer first. Desiccant like new. Like polystyrene ball size. All free moving. Then there was a bit of filter on top, then a metal grate and then the spring. I maybe should have taken the bottom pipe off and blown through it to check resistance. Should there be any?

Could do with a benchmark if someone wants to change a ride height whilst timing their compressor for me. :-)

Im just ruling out it struggling. Might be some resistance somewhete making it take longer. Dryer?

So, the last problem ive got is i reckon the compressor is running longer than usual.

Ive put a spare compressor on but that seems to be the same. I am 100% leak free. When it blows up, it stays up and doesnt move a millimeter. Confirmed by removing the delay timer and measuring.

It seems to take ages to put air back in. For example, if i move it from standard to extended, it goes up straight away obviously using whats in the tank. Then the compressor kicks in to refill the tank. This is taking approximately 1 minute. Same goes for moving between low and standard. Is 1 minute about right to replace the air used in a height change?

in fairness i wasn't as mine are still in working condition if not for looking like they came from the bottom of the sea. But i saw the Terrafirmas for £29 and couldn't not. So i did. Although they were £36 in the end. Still a bargain.