bottom arm removal

[h4ml3t]

scale of 1 to difficult to remove bottom arms on a ph2 172, as iv got some powerflex bushes and will have 2 hours spare after work on friday and want to no of any issues just incase, as you never no lol

 

[Eddyg]

if you are asking this question i doubt you will do it in 2 hours. Removing the arm is undoing 5 bolts in total. 1 in each bush and two to the ball joint. Or you can drop the ball joint out of the hub. Then the ARB clamp bolt.

Once its off you need some sort of press to get the bushes out including some metal tubes to press the bushes with. Then you need to press in the new sleeves, tack weld them, put the bush in and bolt it all up loosely. Put the wheel on and lower the car onto some blocks so you can get under it. Let is settle for a while, then tighten the bush bolts with it in its ride height. Mind you just thinking about that in powerflex bushes the inner sleeve is free to rotate inside the bush so i guess actually you can just tighten it up before you put the wheels on. But i would let someone else confirm that.

If its your first time under the wheel arch of your Clio i doubt you will get it done in two hours. Its not difficult, but i have been going away at mine bit by bit over the last month but i am doing lots of little jobs while i have it on stands!

 

[h4ml3t]

I put the 172 engine in my 1.2, just that I did a bottom arm the other day (not on a clio) and had to spend ages with the gas bottles, but when doing the conversion I didn't remove the bottom arms and from memory I cant remember what te job looked like as I didn't plan on fitting these lol.

Is tackin them a must? As the instructions don't say to I don't think?

 

[BIGASH]

Is tackin them a must?

Critical to them lasting!

 

[Cr33do]

^^correct.

Otherwise the sleeve comes out and eats away at your subframe, which isn't a cheap part you will be wanting to replace.

 

[MartinR]

Welding in the sleeves is a must