Topic

Hi guys....got stuck on replacing one of my rear upper ball joints..

Can't get the lower damper bolt out..and seems to be stuck by this washer/spacer? if that us what it is seemingly "welded" to the bolt...so before I beat the living daylights out of the bolt...and it's a bit tight for that..can anyone confirm that this is simply a washer/spacer between the damper and the suspension arm...I'd hate to find out it was legitimately attached to the bolt!

ta..much...

I have had a couple of TF's; current is a 2005 but I have never seen that set-up for securing the suspension strut to the upper arm.

Up to last production as 2006 the lower suspension strut has a HT bolt going through the bottom joint then it threads into the upper arm; so once you have removed the bolt the strut is free from the arm.

On your later TF it looks like a stud is threaded into the upper arm with a retaining nut at the bottom of the strut.

The threads where the nut goes looks like metric fine; can you borrow a nut from the other side, lock the 2 nuts together to remove the stud (hopefully it is a stud)

It could be a modification on the last series of TF's as there were issues with bolt failures.

I changed my top rear suspension strut rubbers the other week for polly's as the were squeaking and creaking; I took some images as I was doing it to produce a how-to and here is one of the images with the anti-roll bar released but you can see me removing the bolt from strut where it now looks like it has been replaced with a stud.

I had exactly the same problem last weekend. I used a ball joint splitter that looks like an oversized tuning fork to separate the ball joint from the upper rear suspension arm. The top of the balljoint that fits into the arm has a taper on it - therefore needs some "persuasion" to come apart

Halfords sell the splitters for about £7.99. Just after you have purchased said item, I guarantee a neighbour will come along and say, "I've got one of those you could have borrowed!"

KentJohn wrote: wrote:

I had exactly the same problem last weekend. I used a ball joint splitter that looks like an oversized tuning fork to separate the ball joint from the upper rear suspension arm. The top of the balljoint that fits into the arm has a taper on it - therefore needs some "persuasion" to come apart

Halfords sell the splitters for about £7.99. Just after you have purchased said item, I guarantee a neighbour will come along and say, "I've got one of those you could have borrowed!"

Hi John,

It's the lower damper stud that he is trying to get out (looks different on the Nanjing MG)

But your right it just needs to be shocked of the taper; the damper stud can stay in.

Brian.

Hi Badger,

Yep looks like the later versions have a different design..The stud is not just a stud but a stud with spacer welded onto it which appears to locate inside the arm..see the piccies below...I'll write up the how to tomorrow..feeling a tad fatigued at present.

Good job I didn't try and belt the living daylights out of it!

Interesting! there was a service bulletin regarding failures of the Atlas bolt, either over or under torqued, could be a simple solution to the problem.

Brian.

Hi,

thank you for sharing this information for the latest design.

I'll try to include it to my online EPC even we have no part number for this kind of shaft yet.

Regards
Dieter

Finally identified the nut on this stud..and it's ...

M12 1.25 (extra fine thread) P type (14mm high) ..and I believe grade 8

Only found one place to get these but can only buy 100 at a time - eBay item 181168226802 - now found not to be as advertised..type T (12mm high) only

Can't find the nut on my 2002-2005 EPC at all.

Rimmers just sent me this EPC page re the later >2005 MGTFs..

Sorry..had to remove this due to Xpart copyright reasons

For those interested this part is part No. 500000313



and the nuts for this stud are No. 500000314 (M12 x 1.25 type P ZP)

All available from Rimmers

Fatbaldingoldgit wrote: wrote:

Rimmers just sent me this EPC page re the later >2005 MGTFs..

Sorry..had to remove this due to Xpart copyright reasons

For those interested this part is part No. 500000313

and the nuts for this stud are No. 500000314 (M12 x 1.25 type P ZP)

All available from Rimmers

Hi John,

Could be an upgrade for us with the old TF; but would have to check the fitment. Your M12x1.25 is metric fine (Zeus book) but I would have to check what thread the std. M12 Atlas bolt is where it is threaded into the upper arm.

Also it looks like the counter-bore could be deeper on your model; need to take some dimensions.

I found the service bulletin for the re-call from UltimateMG (Stuart Lammie, MG Rover Group) ; link as below.

http://www.mgf.ultimatemg.com/group2/common_problems/recalls/Recall_A180_letter.jpg

Brian.

Brian..the upper arms are different part nos. presumably to accommodate the new bolt/stud ..whatever you call it..

See Rimmers reply below...

"Those arms are different part numbers for the later cars. RH arm is 500000336 rrp £72.10 ex VAT and LH arm is 500000337 rrp £68.67 ex VAT but neither ourselves or XPart have stock of them so we cannot provide any estimated delivery dates I'm afraid."

and here is the proper nut on the right against the one I used temporarily...



old nut ..



proper nut...more thread engaged..dunno what real difference it makes but...