Well, a manic weekend that was.
As I say, the Coupe failed its MOT. I assumed that the MOT fail meant the wishbone bushes. Common failure on the 406. How wrong I was....
I bought the bushes and decided to take Jim up on his kind offer of the use of his press.
Up I went, via DickieG, to get them changed. The day did not start well when I realised that I'd forgotten my 'security'
bolt key. A way round that was rapidly worked out...
After that, with Jim's tuition and assistance, the o/s wishbone was removed. We couldn't work out why they had failed. They looked fine. So we replaced the rear one and on refitting the arm, discovered the true problem....the balljoint. It had quite a bit of play in it. Now this presented me with a problem, I did not have a replacement balljoint as I'd assumed the bushes were at fault. Luckily, Jim saved the day (again!) with one from his stash, turns out that a Xantia one is exactly the same as for 406s.
Now, we tried to remove the worn balljoint to find that it quite liked where it was and had decided to stay there. The proper tool would not move it. A cold chisel and hammer would not remove it. It was stuck fast. There was no alternative but to remove the entire hub carrier and stick it in the vice and apply heat. This was done and we attempted again. It truly was an epic battle getting that out. Some Italian at Pininfarina clearly loves their thread lock. Even after applying heat and beating it with a cold chisel and a large hammer, it still put up a hell of a fight.
Neither of us were amused by this time, it was far too hot and I had almost passed out from the heat. I really do not deal with it very well at all. On the upside, I have learnt how to remove a hub and balljoint, as well as wishbones.
One thing we noticed on refitting the hub was that there was something wrapped round it. On closer inspection it was revealed to be magnetic tape that must have been picked up from the road. I couldn't believe how much was in there when I unravelled it!
That all done, and the duff number plate bulb replaced too! We packed up and reflected on the job.
It also failed on the horn, but that undoubtably worked and always had done, so not sure what happened there.
The drive home was much better, and yesterday I went to Christchurch and myself and MikeT went off to get the alignment done on the Coupe. Interesting seeing how they do it all, they were quite happy for us to stand there watching. After this, it now feels quite tight. Only job left to do now to improve it slightly is two new rear tyres. I'm looking at options and am considering Bridgestone ER300s or some Toyo Proxes T1R at the moment.
Anyway, today the Coupe passed its MOT, so it now has a tad over 12 months ticket on it
. All that work was worth it and I'm now enjoying her much more and have much more confidence to press on a little.
On the Activa side, not much to report other than it now needs a new n/s mirror after my grandad took it off on a lorry at the MOT station. It's also put a dink in the door
Mike suggested a few things that I may try to get the Activa back on the road so I shall be investigating them.
Anyways, enough rambling. This blog is getting far too wordy so I shall endeavour to get some pictures after they have both been cleaned.
Many many thanks to Jim for his help on Sunday, as well as putting up with my complete intolerance to heat. Thanks also to Richard for my lovely jack, and to Mike for an entertaining afternoon yesterday, courtesy of the 'Spanish Tuner'
Good to see you all again.
Finally, I am planning to attend the DSM rally (if they'll let me in the Coupe
) so look forward to that too.
