Movement

Progress at last. Car went up on my home made ramps yesterday as I need to strip all the suspension of it. I knew how the night was going to go when I couldn’t get the gear box drain plug out and sure enough about half an hour later I called defeat for the night: I had a go at removing the hub nuts and it became clear they were not going to come off with my current arsenal of tools.

Not to be defeated, I opted for beer and an hour on the 106 RR looking at advice in the forum and then online window shopping. After a lot of research last night on the web, I phoned up my local Engineering Suppliers today and they sorted me out with just the kit for removing hub nuts. 24″ 1/2″ drive breaker bar and a 60″ piece of square section steel with 4mm walls all for £20. Halfords wanted £30 just for the breaker bar (I already had a 30mm hex socket).

So the DIY hub nut removal tool cracked the hubs nuts off like a hot knife through butter.

Then I became concerned that tonight might go like last night, but I was feeling inventive and was not to be easily defeated, so created home made tool number 2. Driveshaft and Hub Separator:

The O/S drive shaft was to be separated from the hub. I made this up out of two off cuts of 3mm plate steel. Tightened up the M8 bolts a few times with different spaces on the drive shaft and out it popped.

The Bilstein B8 shocks and Eibach spring based suspension came off the car and was sold.

Rear shocks

Then I went to pick up the replacements. I decided to go for something with adjustable settings…

ASTs with the camber adjustable top mounts. And to complement the front springs, a pair of 23mm bars for the rear end:

Finally I picked up that little extra I’ve been after for a very long time… an ultralight Streamline Carbon bonnet. A standard bonnet 13.4kg this one is only 4kg! It uses a honeycomb core for a stiff structure that won’t flap.