Front strut top mounts

[Mac]

Hello fello Cally lovers!
A few weeks ago I completed the instaltion of new-: Front wishbones
Pendulum bushes
Disc's+ Pads
Trackrod ends.
But my problems only seem to get worse!
I reversed out my garage to the sounds of mild scrapping,
Then when I turned the steering wheel the scrapping turned to ginding and their was a fare bit of resistance whilst turning [img]/sad.gif[/img] On right hand down lock the car will not self centre!

I think the mild scapping is just the disc's back plates, But I am lost as to the grinding ?
I had a look underneath I can't see anything out of place, I followed the hayns manual with the torque settings( Fairy liquid works a treat with the pendulums!).
I then looked under the bonnet and found this, Is this normal??????
Have you checked the photo's?

The front end of the car was up on stands for about 2 weeks.

Speaking to a few mates they thought It could be the struts springs thats hitting the inside of the tourret.
My reply was The spring is under tention perminatley so surly it coudn't dislodge it's self from it's seated position? or could it?? ( standard suspsion)
Maybe a spring has broken, Is this common?
I am unsure of driving the car to the garage in this state to get the tracking done, (I know I'm supposed to get it done after renewing suspension componants) But surly the tracking being out wouldn't cause these problems, or could it???

Can you help me?
I've had this car for 4 months now and have only been able to drive it 7 times covering about 65 miles, 3 of these to go to various garages.
Seriously thinking out cutting my losses if somthing don't go right soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ROG]

ive had that gap on both of my callys and my cav,if you loosen the top nut, take the plate off, take the rubber bit off, then put it back on!, then re bolt the plate on , the gaps gone, mine made one hell of a bang on every bump until i removed the gap., i was told that this was caused by the top suspension mounting bit under the turret has shrunk with age, on my cav i had a scraping noise, occasionaly difficult to turn steering, its the top mount thing has split causing the spring to move over to one side and my dampers are bent also.

[Fraz]

Could be the top strut bearings...these are under the strut top mount right at top of the strut

[pauldarcy]

i too have this gap. when i questioned this with v/hall dealership was told it is correct and if you didn't the steering would tighten up and put more strain on the power steering. but like you am not sure cause it doesn't look right. plus my steering gives me k

no con fidence !

[Naz]

well every cally/cav i have owned has had this gap and yeah its ok. When you turn the wheel from side to side the gap shrinks or expands depending on the position of the wheels.

The scraping/griding noise could be from your wheel bearings. Have yo chacekd them? Jack the front of the car up and check the free play in both wheels. There shouldn't be any freeplay. Also another suspect is the CV joint.

HOpe it helps

[Mac]

Found out what it is, The turret locating bush has a metal centre which is between the bearing and the final (holding it all together) nut 24mm, the bushes metal centre has cracked and is now dome shaped, this lets the damper rod move upwards ,which raises the height of the strut top mounts creating the gap.
I still think this is dangerous, More so if you have harder dampers.
The grinding turns out to be because the strut can mover further up the turret, it is to narrow at the top and so the plate that holds spring in place is rubbing off the inner turret sides( if that makes sense?)
Cheers for the Ideas now comes the fun part in removing both Front struts.

[Ivorcally]

Hi,

Hope that's not a live wire trapped in strut3.jpg! I had one on mine when I bought it and it had worn through the insulation and blown a fuse. Best move it if it is!

Keith [img]/smile.gif[/img]

[Mac]

No mate it's an old amp wire, Not connected to out,
But thanks for the warning.

[silicon]

I had the same problem but only after lowering my car, i created two rubber spacers out of 10mm thick hard rubber to fill in this gap, used a jigsaw to cut them outm, they look factory and work perfectly!

[img]/smile.gif[/img]