406oc.co.uk

Hello Everyone

I'm taking the spring/ shock absorber out of my 406 hdi 110(W Reg)tommorow as the spring has gone on the drivers side. What is the best way to split the lower balljoint? I've tried a balljoint splitter (the one with the bolt at the end that you tighten up) and also a balljoint separator which looks like a long fork with no success. I don't think i had this much trouble with balljoints on a pug 405 a few years ago. Theres also a protecting plate in front of the balljoint itself does that have to come off ? I'd be interested to know what methods other people use to do this as i just want to cracking with this tommorow and get the spring/shock out. It was a new balljoint last year so don't want to damage it with brute force. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Does your shock absorber not have a nut and bolt higher up the shock absorber?

I usually seperate the shocker from there, don't forget to remove the anti-roll bar linkage.

When you remove the nut and bolt, spray WD40 or penetrating oil around the joint and spread the gap a little with a chisel or something that will fit in the slot, then knock down on the lower part of the assembly until it all comes away.
When you refit the shocker, line up the peg that sticks out from the shocker with the slot.

If you must remove it from the ball joint, use the splitter with a bolt in it, tighten up the bolt as tight as possible, then hit the bottom arm, where the ball joint fits, very hard with a large hammer, this should shock the ball joint free.

I never use any sort of splitter, I just hit the side of where the ball joint fits, hard with my hammer, this shocks the taper free, never failed yet!Leave the nut screwed on a few threads in case you miss the bottom arm and hit the thread by mistake.

I'll give that a go tommorow. I've got some new bit's and pieces to pick up from peugeot tommorow. Not buying shocks or springs from them though their prices are too much. Found a motor factors nearby called GSF they seem to be quite reasonable pair of shocks is about £70, springs are about £65. Even if i put the car into an independent it would still cost a fair bit. Thanks for that bit of advice. Wasted 20 mins this afternoon with the balljoint. Sometimes you are better off leaving a job and coming back to it the next day!

Thanks

Had another go at it today took the disc & caliper off to get better access to the lower arm and used the hammer on it. Believe it or not it still won't split. Only thing i haven't tried is a big iron bar. I was wondering if the fact that the spring snapped isn't helping me much with this as usually there would be a bit more tension in the suspension & the spring is completly expanded at the moment.

Maybe i'm going about this the wrong way? The balljoint splitters that i've got seem to be a waste of time as they only go so far around the balljoint then when you tighten the bolt on the end it gets so far and then it pings off the balljoint.

When i did exactly the same thing on a pug 405 dt a couple of years ago (replaced struts/springs) i don't remember having any bother with the lower balljoint. It is a fairly similar setup as well!
Any ideas would be appreciated.........
Thanks

Cant remember of the top of my head what the front end of a 406 looks like, and touch wood have never had to seperate the ball joint.

On the saxo I tend to wedge an old torsion bar against the wishbone and seperate it this way. Has worked fine on the saxo, but cant guarentee it will work ok on the 406.

The way we used to do them was to put some weight on the lower arm (trolley jack handle?) then belt either side of the joint with the two biggest hammers you've got at the same time.

I'll have another go at it tommorow with 2 hammers. It's not exactly ideal where its parked right on the road outside. Probably a lot easier in a garage on the ramps. These things are sent to try us i think! Once its split the rest of it will be a doddle.
Thanks

Can you not seperate the strut from the nut and bolt fitting higher up?

Take the bolt out then knock down on the solid metal bit behind the disc shroud, as I said before, lots of WD40 and open the split a little. you need the anti roll bar link off and a large metal bar to lever the bottom section down when you get the top half seperated.

Be aware of the driveshaft coming out of the gearbox and leaking oil!

One last thing, if the bolt on the splitter keeps spinning off, screw the ball joint nut back on a little way, then screw the splitter bolt into the nut hole, then bash the side of the bottom arm very hard.

Thanks for the advice. Lower Balljoint split okay today.Got the strut /spring out as well and didn't lose any gearbox fluid. Not a bad day really. Just waiting for the parts to come then i'll crack on with fitting the new bits.
Thanks

Well done

Good luck with the rebuild.

Nice one Marco!
I've got the same job coming up; I think the strut top bearings are shot

Following on from teamster's post does anyone know if you can buy the top mount/bearings cheaper from motor factors rather than from the peugeot dealer?

Peugeot want £60.00 for the the top mount/bearings which comes as a kit and you get all the bits to do both sides. I said to the parts guy that it seems a bit steep and he said if you buy all the parts separately in the kit it would cost over £100!!

Bang goes my limited budget!

I would put money on it that i could get these parts new cheaper somewhere else? Probably the same quality as well perhaps.....

Got a few jobs to do tommorow the disc that i took off the front needs a good clean. Theres a lot of surface rust on the back of the disc any ideas what to use to get the rust off. The disc is only about 6 months old. I usually use a small soft wire brush to give the most of the nults and bolts a clean......

Wondering if it might be quicker to get the electric drill out and get myself a small soft wire wheel to get the crap off the disc?

Thanks

I'm convinced my strut bearings are shot now. The steering's getting worse by the day. Haven't read up on the procedure, but I take it I'm going to have to bite the bullet and try to avoid taking my head off with coil spring compressors? One of 2 things I never want to go near - compressed suspension springs and the insides of CRTs

My steering had a very slight vibration in it a couple of weeks before the spring snapped. I think it was a sign. I have to say that apart from trouble with the lower balljoint the rest of the removal of the shock/strut hasn't been too bad had to spray a fair bit of wd-40 on the back of the strut and used a small chisel to open the back of the hub clamp. Then it was a few whacks with the hammer on the strut then a bit of pulling to get it out. I'll let you know how i get on with
the re-build and might take a couple of pics as well.
Thanks

I have all the bits i need to rebuild the front suspension. Got 2 new strut clamp bolts & nylocks from peugeot cost £10 what rip-off. It took them 20 mins to find them. Parts person suposedly left them to one side but of course today was his day off and no-one had a clue. It was painful to watch.

Wanted 2 lower balljoint nuts as well but they don't keep any of those on the shelf. Can you believe that? I would have thought that bearing in mind how many sets of shocks/springs thay must change that that there would be a couple of these knocking about in the workshop? They have to order them in! Wondering how much these will cost?

Does anyone have any idea what size the lower balljoint nut is? If i can source it from somewhere else then i think it would be a lot cheaper and also it takes 3-4 days thro' the Pug dealer now and a 40 mile round trip seeing as they've moved. Went into a local garage where i live and they seemed to think that the nut thread is different on Peugeot's. Hardware stores in town can't help either!

I measured the diameter of the nut thread and it is 13mm. Wondered if the nut is high tensile? Can't see why it would be because most of the weight sits on the lower arm. The torque setting for it is 45Nm acording to the manual which is not a lot.

Any help would be appreciated

Marco