It was easier taking the headlights and radiator off to get to the upper spring mounts
Upper and lower wishbones in place
To get the new upper spring mounts to fit flush with the old the edge had to be filed away and finished with a dab of "Hammerite" rust protection paint.
Spring mounts in place ready for the spring to fit in between.
With all the bits temporarily in place the turning circle is excellent. I won't have to do a 4 point turn to get out of the garage now!
Problem is, it's too good and the cycle wings will hit the side panels. I think I can cut the spacer/centralling springs in half to stop the wheels within about 5cm of the side panels.
The theory is I can cut these springs to 25mm (compressed) and put them back on again.
I'll set up the tracking as best I can and then get it professionally done. I'm happy that it's been quite a straightforward job and the improvement in steering will be very much worth it.
I also fixed a couple of small jobs that should have been picked up in the registration test. One was correctly fixing the ends of the hand brake cables and the other was a missing lock nut on the rear track rod.
Much safer with the bolt through it and squeezed in place.
Another job was to replace the small car trailer mud flaps. I found a large strip of 5mm hard rubber, that I cut to shape. It may be a little too big but it'll stop a lot of stones (probably even boulders!)
I'm looking forward to the coming week as the windscreen glass should be ready to pick up and hopefully the panels are also ready to pick up (they have been gone a long time!!)
Personally I'd try to use non-springy end stops, and get a bit closer than 5 cm to the panels - I've left about 5 mm which I think is plenty. Bear in mind clearance changes with toe (toe out being worst for clearance) so I would adjust it to have the maximum sensible amount of toe out, then set clearance appropriately - then you can use whatever toe you like without any problems.
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