Front Off Side Suspension

So, I have taken another week off work to do some more work on the car and the first thing on the agenda is to fit the front suspension.  This is a fairly straight forward task.  The first thing to do is to clean out all the mounting points where the bolts go through as these will be slightly reduced by the powder coating.  You have 4 options for doing this, a 10mm reamer, a round file, a Dremel type drill with appropriate sanding bit or a 10mm drill bit.  As I don't have a 10mm reamer, I used a combination of the other 3.  Took a while but it has to be done.

First job was to fix the lower ball joint to the lower wishbone.  For some reason this mounts underneath the wishbone and not on top, I suspect it is to do with the steering geometry in some way shape or form, but I don't know what it is!!  Next, the lower wishbone can be fitted.  The mounting points will need packing out with washers so the wishbone is nice and snug.

Edit - April 2012: Following the IVA check at the factory, I discovered that I used the wrong sized washers for packing the suspension.  In the image below (of the upper shock mounting) you can see that the washers are a smaller diameter than the neoprene bush.  They must be the same size or bigger to prevent the bushes from wearing out prematurely.  I have got to re-build my suspension at some point soon to rectify this.

The upper wishbone is next, making sure you get the orientation right.  This is also the time to fit the upper ball joint and this has to be wound in so the distance between the end of the wishbone arm and the centre of the top of the ball joint is 43mm (well I am pretty sure that is what I was told by the factory).  Before you fit this, make sure you add some IVA cover so you don't have to take it off again later.

Next is the wheel hub.  This simply sits over the lower ball joint on the bottom, but the top is a different affair.  Here you need to add the front mudguard mounting bracket which is attached to a mushroom piece that fits in to the top of the wheel hub.  The upper steering ball joint fits into that  mushroom piece and it all bolts together.  

Finally, the shock absorber/damper, whatever you want to call it, can be fitted.  Like the wishbones, this will need packing with washers to line it up right.  You can see this in the picture.

The whole process takes a few hours of fiddling about and is not that easy to describe but the picture below, showing the nearly finished set up, should explain it a little better.  I still need to add the steering rack and a pinch bolt but it is not far off.

  

I wanted to move on and do the near side but I was missing 2 longer suspension bolts from the original pack I was given.  I have asked the factory to send me 2 more, but I am still waiting on them.