Something to watch out for..

[Preen59]

Righto, so the Caddy had developed a suspension knock in the front left, when the shock topped out (fully extended).

First thing i did was check all the nuts and bolts in the front end were tight. Went over everything, nothing was loose.

My next option was to check that the three bolts that hold the strut top in the tower were tight. Checked them, all sweet.

Ok, what is it? Probably a strut bearing, my old man and I guessed. Given the stiffer suspension, and the state of the roads in town at the moment (they're absolutely ****!!), it seemed quite likely that a strut bearing or strut top may have failed.

So, I bought 2 bearings and 2 strut tops. Pulled the strut out, off with the top, and it all seemed OK. I thought well, i'll have to replace it anyways.. Just to be sure. Meanwhile, I cleaned up the strut, as it was pretty filthy. I had sprayed some ZEP45 on the thread last time I adjusted the height, so naturally, all the dirt stuck to it. While I was cleaning it, I noticed the retainer cap in the top of the strut was loose, by about a 1/4 of a turn.




Note that the cap doesn't bottom out down to the shoulder when you tighten it up, so it looks worse than it is. The shock felt fine on compression, but surprise surprise, it had movement at the very end of the stroke. Found the culprit!

I decided, rather than mark the crap out of the cap with a pin punch doing it back up, i'd make a quick U spanner. FYI, the hole centre distance on these KW shocks was 36mm.




I just made it out of some 50x3 flat mild steel. 6mm would have been better, but i didn't have any immediately available, so 3mm did the job. To get the "U" in the middle, I used a 25mm hole saw, drilled the hole, then cut the end out with a hack saw. The pins are just 6mm HT screws with the head cut off them. The holes in the retainer are 6.25mm, so it worked out sweet.



I tightened it up and reassembled everything. And it's all good. I also checked the other side just to make sure, but it was fine.

And before anyone starts bitching about KW suspension, i'm not complaining, just posting this as reference information. KW suspension still kicks arse and I'll buy it again for sure!

[rayray086]

Good work Preeny. Saves months of shipping the coilovers out and waiting for them to be "fixed up" if you had no idea!

[Preen59]

Good work Preeny. Saves months of shipping the coilovers out and waiting for them to be "fixed up" if you had no idea!

Yeah, well, exactly! I've been wondering what's involved in servicing them. For street application, I reckon I could tool up to start doing them myself..

[Water Boy]

Good work Preeny.

That tool you made is very similar to what we use when tightening up older style open BB's at the bike shop.