Lude Generation

See that little tab thing at the bottom of the suspension strut that locates it into the fork thing at the bottom in the gap where the pinch-bolt is? How important is it - does it serve a purpose other than helping slide the strut into the fork?

Well, I hope not. Because I just hacksawed it off because it didn't line up (about 5mm out - the springs have just been changed on these shocks, so presumably something was slightly out of line when the tops were tightened). Also, the shocks are off a 5g, and my car's a 4g - there may be a slightly different location on each?

Notably, 5g struts don't have the brackets for the brake hose, but nothing that clever use of cable ties canna sort out.

The strut is fully located into the fork and everything is done up tight. Am I safe to drive, or have I buggered it up?

the peg acts as a keyway and aligns the fork to the shock. the idea of the peg is so you know the indentation in the bottom of the shock is aligned so the bolt lines up and pinches the shock in the correct possition. are you sure you fitted the shock to the correct side?

Good question.

However - the other side lined up nicely (I did it first), so I don't think it was a case of putting it on the wrong side or the first one wouldn't have lined up either.

The pinch-bolt went in fully quite happily, and the whole thing is nice and snug i.e. the damper is fully located into the fork. I took it out for a cautious drive and nothing fell off. Surely it shouldn't move laterally anyway, being that the strut-top is bolted to the car, and the fork is bolted to the lower control arm?

The non-lining-up of the tab concerned me to start with, but I couldn't see that it'd be a problem. But I thought I'd best ask to see if anyone knew better.

technically it shouldnt be a problem, as long as the bolt went in ok, and the brake pipe bolted to the 2 positions on the leg ok, and the shock dropped to the stop on the fork.

Well, as far as I can make out it all looks OK.

That is, apart from there being no brackets on the leg to bolt the brake hose to as there are on my 4g originals ... but the metal brackets on the hose itself are holding it away from the leg (good strong cable ties through the bolt holes in them and around the "lip" bit of the leg above the fork, securely held in place) so they shouldn't rub.

Looking on Lings' diagrams, the 5g legs don't seem to have the brackets.

oh, never knew that, was going by the 4th gen, as i only removed some 2 weeks ago.

While you're there - is it necessary to remove any the top wishbone balljoint to do the rears? I can't remember if I've swapped them out before or not. But if I have I must've just levered things out of the way to get the strut out and back in, because I don't have a balljoint splitter (either that or I just whacked it out).

Or I could just undo the top wishbone from inside the boot and swing the lot out of the way, I guess.

You can, I've swapped all 4 struts previously without touching a single ball joint.

Good stuff.

Thanks.

Vtecmec wrote:You can, I've swapped all 4 struts previously without touching a single ball joint.

So there you are don't fiddle with your balls!