Having to do my own Ironman install

[Steve-O]

Well my kit arrived yesterday evening from those nice people at West Coast . A local garage was going to do the install for me at what seemed a reasonable price, I took the car round to him this morning and I was a bit disappointed that the original estimate had nearly tripled and was in danger of quadrupling too. He also wasn't confident in having it ready until end of next week . Needless to say I left in search for local alternatives and even a local so called 4x4 specialist was reluctant and in the end refused to touch it (even without looking at it) . Well I considered taking it to Paul at West Coast to get it done there but unfortunately my work schedule wont allow this for quite a while. So plan "B" it is.... DIY.
Well it is time I got familiar with my 1999 Cruiser complete with all its well rusted nuts and bolts and see if I can work a wonder.
There seemed to be much shaking of heads and scratching of chins over the torsion bars so I thought I'll have a go at one of those first.
I drained what was left of the AHC suspension fluid from the accumulator bleed nipple which obligingly opened without to much sweat.
I then removed the old AHC pump and reservoir and chopped the pipework ( I would not be using the AHC so why not?).
I then jacked up the front RH side of the car and removed the wheel, I placed the wheel + piece of thick wood under the car below the front cross member and jack stands under the chassis.
The torsion bar ends looked as though they would give me hassle but actually no... it was all fairly straight forward. After spraying all the bolts liberally with WD40 I loosened the bolts and started to unwind the arm adjuster, it did tighten up in places but it was easy enough with the aid of an old torque wrench. I found that taking the adjuster down so that the tip of the bolt thread was nearly flush with the top surface of the semi-cylindrical nut was enough to take all the tension out of the torsion bar.
I marked the splines and carriers with a red paint stick so that I could see how it should all fit together and then I prayed that the carrier and arm would come away from the splines....they did with just minimal help from a hammer .
I stopped, patted myself on the back and thought the worst is over, this ain't so bad.
I then install my nice thicker dia. torsion bar, I sprayed the splines with a coating of silicone grease just in case I had to re-index the bar and carriers.
At this point I needed some confirmation on the best starting point for assembly, I presumed that with the OE shocker still in place and the wishbones at full drop that if I just aligned the new torsion bar in the adjustable arm with neutral twist and my adjuster bolt as I left it, that this would be right for a standard lift...A quick call to Paul confirmed it.....but he warned me that actually the torsion bars are the easy part of the install
Next the front shocker.
I placed a jack under the lower wishbone and loosened the nut and bolt holding the lower mounting of the shocker (little struggle more WD40).
Then the top mount. Remove a couple of plastic fasteners and fold the splash guard back, I place an old rag under the flexi pipe union near the front chassis member and cut just below it (this will leak out more hydraulic fluid) and then remove the 2 12mm bolts that secure the union to the top of the shocker. Once the union is removed I try to undo the 19mm nut on the top of the shocker.....it isn't budging-no matter what!! Time for the angle grinder....10 mins later and I win.
Whilst I have a chance I remove the old AHC sensor and give all the rusty parts a bit of a clean up and a liberal painting with black goo.
The new front shocker went in without incident.
I put all the bits and bobs back, tighten all the nuts and bolts and I marked the adjuster bolt and the torsion bar adjuster and gave the bolt 10 complete turns for starters.
I refitted the wheel and lowered the car to the ground.
Fantastic...the right hand front seems just right.
I'll have to relearn getting in and out of the car now it's a good 50mm higher than it was .
This made me confident enough to tackle the rear.
After having a good look at the top shocker mounts I decided that it would be much easier if I could get at tops through the car.
After a bit of measuring I made the holes with a 50mm hole saw very similar to the plugged holes already in the floor which seem to be the anchor points for the body to the chassis.
This little trick must have saved me a load of time and sweat, the 12mm bolts securing the hydraulic unions to the top of the shockers loosened and came off (place drip trays under the areas where the fluid will drip).
The 19mm nuts on the top of the shockers are extremely well seized and how on earth anyone gets them off from under the vehicle is beyond me.
I found that a good sharp drill bit just about the dia of the shocker spindle made it much easier to drill out the spindle and the AHC spindles have a ready made pilot hole after all. The bits on the shocker tops came off easy after this.
My next job is to jack the back of the car and get at the lower shocker bolts. Now these look particularly well seized but I haven't been able to get to them yet.
Unfortunately one of my rear wheel locking nuts is so tightly on that it has bust the key and the holes in the locking nut don't look good either .
It's getting dark too, I've had enough and will tackle the rest later.....more WD40 on lower shocker bolts .....I do hope!!!

To be continued....

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Going quite well as it goes by the sounds of it Steve If you haven't already then disconnecting the ARB from the chassis helps when you come to swap the springs over. Bit of a bugger about the locking wheel nut, mine started going so I took them off and don't use them any more. If you decide to ditch them I have some spare normal wheel nuts I could sweeten the deal for knackered cylinder heads with PM me an address if you need them.

 

[frank rabbets]

Re; Locking wheel nuts. I've always greased mine, recommended or not, all my life and have not had a loose one yet. People do the strong man act on them as well which doesn't help.

frank

 

[Steve-O]

Going quite well as it goes by the sounds of it Steve If you haven't already then disconnecting the ARB from the chassis helps when you come to swap the springs over. Bit of a bugger about the locking wheel nut, mine started going so I took them off and don't use them any more. If you decide to ditch them I have some spare normal wheel nuts I could sweeten the deal for knackered cylinder heads with PM me an address if you need them.

I appear to be an avid practitioner of "Sods Law". The front wheel came off nicely and I managed to put it back on nicely I even tightened up the locking nut correctly....
Now of course I am going to have to muck about trying to get all 4 of the locking nuts off without the key because that's now hopelessly broken after the failed attempt on the rear wheel.
I would really appreciate the wheel nuts Jon, I will PM my address thank you .

Steve

 

[Justin_Elliott]

At least you're making good headway with the suspension...

Now of course I am going to have to muck about trying to get all 4 of the locking nuts off without the key because that's now hopelessly broken after the failed attempt on the rear wheel.

Halfords (or similar) should sell replacement locking wheel nut removal tools...

 

[Steve-O]

At least you're making good headway with the suspension...

[quote="Steve-O":ysq5n9qz]Now of course I am going to have to muck about trying to get all 4 of the locking nuts off without the key because that's now hopelessly broken after the failed attempt on the rear wheel.

Halfords (or similar) should sell replacement locking wheel nut removal tools...[/quote:ysq5n9qz]

I may take this route if a) it doesn't cost a fortune and b) someone will vouch that they've used it on a stubborn 4x4 wheel nut with success

 

[Chas]

[/quote]I may take this route if a) it doesn't cost a fortune and b) someone will vouch that they've used it on a stubborn 4x4 wheel nut with success [/quote]
I don't know how much a removal tool would cost, but I had to pay 25 smackers when I lost my key.

 

[Steve-O]

Hi Chas,

Halfor.... tool is £16, I'll give that a go first and if it fails the grinder and brute force gets a go.

 

[Steve-O]

Halfords tool wont work there's a slip ring and once that is removed the tool is too big to fit...Saga continues

 

[silvercruiser]

if its drivable then go to your local wheel/tyre firm and they usually have a kit with an assortment of wheel removal sockets. Well i know my local one has.

Joe

 

[Steve-O]

Hi Joe,

I did in the end go to my local tyre fitters and they removed all 4 locking nuts with an air impact chisel for £20

 

[silvercruiser]

Hi Joe,

I did in the end go to my local tyre fitters and they removed all 4 locking nuts with an air impact chisel for £20

 

[kamalsrana]

Hello chaps,

What I've learned (the Hard way) is that if you ever break a locknut key, its because you tried to open the locknut after you opened the wheelnuts.

If you have already broken the locknut key, dont worry, this would be best way to open the wheel now:-

1. Put all the wheel nuts back onto that wheel and tighten them fully.
2. Take a strong chisel, and hold it at the edge of the locknut, give it a good thwack maybe a couple of hits and this will come loose.

The reason for doing 1. is that when you tighten the rest of wheelnuts, they somehow release some tension on the locknut.

So, the secret of success is that it's always best to open the locknut first and then the wheelnuts.

Hope this might help someone...

Rgds

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

The little pins on the 100 series lock nuts just get fatigue fractures over time and fall out, not a very good design IMO. I've not yet seen after market locking wheel nuts for the 100 series either.

 

[Steve-O]

The last part of my Ironman install;

All the locking wheel nuts are now off and awaiting standard wheel nut replacements, and whilst I was down at the tyre fitters getting the bolts removed I asked him to have a go at releasing the rear shockers bottom mount bolts, which he did easily .
I arrived back home and raised the back and removed the drivers side rear wheel and set to work and removed the rear shocker I unpacked the new spring and was surprised that they were nearly 100mm taller than my existing OE springs, the Ironman springs are made from thicker gauge wire too. I found that by removing the 12mm nut and bolt from the sway bar that the axle was able to drop further making the spring replacement a whole lot easier. The new springs are marked NS and DS and since I was working on the drivers side I used the DS spring here. It was a simple matter to fit the new rear shocker all the bolts on my install were easy to get at especially the top mounts because of the access I made through the floor . I then replaced the sway bar nut and bolt and refitted the wheel and repeated the procedure for the nearside rear wheel.
I then jacked up the nearside front and removed the front wheel and set to on the torsion bar, following the same procedure for the drivers side, this one removed a little harder than the drivers side one but it came off eventually. Then it was time to fit the Ironman torsion bar making sure that it was fitted with the maximum available adjustment as in the procedure for the drivers side.
Now that the new torsion bar is fitted next is the shocker. Once again the top mount on the front shocker was seized solid so I honed my technique and after carefully flattening an area between the plates just under the top mount bolt I started drilling with a sharp 10mm drill bit aiming do drill straight across the diameter of the shocker spindle, once through the shocker just dropped out...no drama . Old shocker, AHC pipes and sensor removed and after cleaning up and a good coating of black goo and we're ready for the new shocker, this fitted easily and once I was happy that everything was tightened up correctly I refitted the front wheel. Whilst the car was still on the axle stands I used the opportunity to put some adjustment back into the torsion bar...10 turns again as the drivers side. I lowered the car and let it settle on its own weight, clearly there was a slight tilt down to the nearside front. So I lifted the nearside and found that it required 4 more complete turns to get the car sitting side to side level. I checked the measurements from the top of the wheel rim to the lip of the wheel arch and got the readings within a mm. My car is sitting fairly high at the back so may find it necessary to raise the front a bit more. I often use my car to carry heavy tools around so I will see how it feels this couple of weeks under normal use and then adjust if necessary.
This seems to me to be a very cost effective way of getting the Cruisers suspension back upto par I personally wont be missing the AHC the car now drives very well even over rough roads and speed bumps. I would have no hesitation in recommending the kit and the help on the phone from Paul at West Coast was most welcome .