Air springs

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Grrrrrr

Grrrrrr

Technician, Bodgit & Scarper Ltd
Posts
19,995
Location
Buckinghamshire, UK. ('95 DT)
Well, just replaced the rear air-springs on my P38 with the help of DataTek's "how to" guide and what a doddle that was! I gave all the clips a squirt of WD40 last weekend, last night and this morning and reckon the whole lot took less than 40 minutes this evening, most of that spent waiting for the bags to reinflate.

Tomorrow I'll try the front ones. These look much more like bar-stewards to get to!
 
Biggest problem I had with the fronts was the screws rusted solid in the mudflaps, so getting the wheel arch liners off is a pain in the arse.

As a result, I ended up changing my fronts with the wheel arch liners in place. Made life a little more awkward than it needed to be, but wasn't anywhere near the hassle I had with the rears.
 
Endeleus said:
Biggest problem I had with the fronts was the screws rusted solid in the mudflaps, so getting the wheel arch liners off is a pain in the arse.

As a result, I ended up changing my fronts with the wheel arch liners in place. Made life a little more awkward than it needed to be, but wasn't anywhere near the hassle I had with the rears.
Click to expand...

Ditto that cut screws out with a grinder so I could remove liner but on the whole a darn site easier than the back , the lack of clearance over chassis is a pain
 
Front wasn't too bad. Didn't need to take the near (passenger) side wheel liner out. Trick is to get the bottom seated nicely and then jack the suspension arm up while guiding the top into place. Tried it the other way round to start with and that was a non-starter.

In the absence of Datatek's magic welding rod, my wire coathanger didn't seem much use on the off (driver's) side so I took the wheel liner out and it was an absolute doddle. Didn't take long to get the liner out, 5 minutes, maybe. Mine has no screws: it seems to be held in with little plastic studs that just lever out. Putting them back in is a little bit fiddly but with a wiggle and a hammer they go back in nicely! In fact, getting the plastic studs in was the hardest part.

@NikTheGeek. I got the Dunlop bags off Island-4x4 (no affiliation). Think all 4 cost about £200. Get replacement pins as well as the ones I took out were pretty rusty. I coated the new ones in copper slip in the hope it'd make them easier to get out next time, although to be fair they weren't too bad this time.

That's a job I wouldn't mind if I had to do every year. A pleasant morning!

J
 
wammers said:
No need to remove any arch liners when changing air bags.
Click to expand...

Yeah, so I keep hearing and I'm sure with a bit of practice or DataTek's magic welding rod you're right. However, after staring at it for 5 minutes and trying to thread my shovel-like hands down there I thought I'd look at the liner. 5 minutes and it was off and after that it was kids play. See pic!

This might make you laugh though. I attached a second jack under the suspension and then got my head in under the wheel to watch and guide the pins in the top. I clicked the jack up a bit of a time until the pins engaged and then stuck the clips on ... and then realised there wasn't room between the wheel and the arch to get my head back out! Doh! I was trapped! Working blind I scrabbled around and managed to reach around the wing and release the second jack and escape. An advantage of being over 6' and with a long reach! Waiting to see if some kid's got it on mobile and I'll be starring on You've Been Framed next week.

J
 
Here's the pic. I hope!
 

Attachments

  • P1010421.JPG
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Certainly looks as if it would be a dawdle with the liner off ,and a good time to checking the steering box centralization with all that viewing room.:)
 
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