Front Suspension Breakdown

Having previously stripped down the front brakes, the final stage of dismantling the front subframe are the suspension components. I must confess that during this stage I did phone both Simply Performance and AK to check what I should be doing and how to do it. The solution involved the use of an angle grinder, so fun times ahead.

As with previous entries, I found a schematic on the just justjagsuk website very helpful as it explained how the components fitted together. This made pulling them apart easier - or at least I knew what to do, even if at first I wasn't able to...

Schematic of front suspension assembly from www.justjagsuk.com/catalogue

Front Wishbone Removal

A few nights before starting this process I did a precautionary spray of WD40 on all the nuts and bolts I could see, connecting suspension components together. A quick job that should hopefully make my life easier in the long run. Using my shorter upcycled breaker bar I loosened the M10 bolts which connect the two halves of the top wishbones together (through the top ball joint). This was so easy I couldn’t believe my luck so I carried on, easily loosen the top fulcrum shaft nut (19 mm) as well. The same story was true of the bolts connecting the bottom halves of the wishbone together as well. At this stage, I chose to only loosen all these bolts in case I needed the rigidity of the suspension when using a breaker bar. A trick I learned from pulling apart IRS splash shield as mentioned in my last post.

Front top and bottom wishbones connected to upright and subframe

Although I could loosen and remove the lower fulcrum nut (22 mm), I was not able to twist or remove the shaft itself. This does lead to the pointless hypothetical question, when does a bolt become a shaft??

My luck had finally run out, however having loosened all the other wishbone bolts, I decided to completely remove all the wishbones parts that I could.  With the easy wishbones removed, the top ball joint remains in place as well as one half of the bottom wishbone, which connects to the fulcrum shaft and the upright via the bottom ball joint. 

Remaining front bottom wishbone and upright

Despite trying for an afternoon with a hammer and several sets of different pullers, I wasn’t able to separate either the top or bottom ball joint from the upright. Getting very fed up, I decided that I will tackle these joints when the bottom wishbone is off the subframe and I have easier and better access to them. This calm decision was taken much later having given up in the garage for that day.

After repeating the above process on the other side I ran into the same problem, with the ball joints and the fulcrum shaft, so it was time to tackle this obstacle. Initially, I tried hammering and prying on the shaft but with no joy, so went to do some research with the help of Dr Google. The two main methods I found from the internet were using a hammer (which hadn’t work) or using a blow torch to heat and expand the surrounding frame and then hit the shaft with a hammer. Given the amount of metal, I needed to heat up most mechanics used an oxyacetylene torch for this, which I didn’t have.

Fulcrum shaft rusted into the subframe

One solution which I came up with was to cut the shaft out from the subframe, although realising that I would need to be very careful, as this shaft is required for the kit. Another concern with this approach is that I didn’t actually have an angle grinder. Luckily, I was able to borrow a friends (massive credit to Andrew Young) brand new angle grinder, so many thanks to him. Also on a side note, congratulations to him and his wife on the birth of their first new child. 

Removal of Front Fulcrum Shafts

A quick phone call to AK, to check this approach and they said that they (and I) didn’t need the fulcrum shaft end of the bottom wishbone, so to make life/access easier I could cut this lose from the shaft. I therefore carefully cut two slices through the wishbone bushes and then chiseled the metal cutout and bushes free from the fulcrum shaft.  This meant I could drop the wishbone away from the fulcrum shaft, leaving just the fulcrum shaft to be removed from the stubborn front subframe.

With the loan of an angle grinder, I could start cutting up the frame. To avoid cutting into the shaft I cut some exploratory slices in the upturned subframe a few cm’s away from the shaft. Bending back this subframe metal, I found that, to my surprise, it was filled with foam. With the foam removed, I could see the shaft and so could begin cutting closer to it removing the metal as I went.

Initial cuts into front subframe to avoid cutting the fulcrum shaft

Whilst making these initial cuts, it was amazing how quickly the angle grinder began to look oily and dirty. I did carefully clean the angle grinder once finished with white spirit before returning it.

Borrowed angle grinder - what a tool!!!

Having cut away much of the metal which covers the fulcrum shaft I learned that there is a metal sleeve surrounding the shaft. This makes life more challenging and so more careful cutting required… joys

Fulcrum shaft still within a metal cylinder

The process that I went through here was to cut the fulcrum shaft and its sleeve out from the rest of the frame. Due to the concave angles which surround the bolt head, I had to cut a large section out from the subframe which included the shaft ends, and then cut this section down afterward at my bench. With the shaft and sleeve finally removed, I now had to separate them. My suspicion was that only the ends of the sleeves were rusted onto the shaft. If this is true, I only need to cut the ends of the sleeve away. For this, I made very careful slices into the sleeve along its length and then one circumferential cut. With these cuts, I could then chisel the sleeve away from the shaft. Repeating this process on both ends of the shaft, the sleeve did then slide away. Lucky it was just the ends that had been rusted.

By only cutting small depths at a time, both shafts were extracted and more importantly are re-usable. This saves me a few hundred quid on buying a new set. Given the faf that I had gone to achieve this, I had to take a photo of the shaft placed back into the cutout of the subframe.

Front Fulcrum shaft, finally liberated!

Cutting out the Ball Joints

The one remaining item of the front corner to disassemble was separating the upright from the bottom wishbone half. After earlier removing the four 1/2 inch bolts and failing to separate the lower ball joints with either the puller and hammer approach and because I had had such fun using the angle grinder, I decided to slice the bottom off from the ball joint and its casing. Having cut the largest part of the ball away, the upright came free from the bottom wishbone half. Of course, this does still leave part of the bottom ball joint (and the top ball joint) in the upright, however, as AK will be refurbishing the upright, I will leave these there for them ... an early Xmas present.

Bottom wishbone with ball joint casing cut off

Final Thoughts

Having completely disassembled the front subframe and the rear hubs removed, the pile of parts is starting to mount up. 

Parts removed from donor chassis thus far