When I was last working on the suspension, I noticed that the cotter pins that keep the lower suspension arms attached were falling apart, so I set to and ordered a box of assorted ones from eBay. The new cotter pins arrived and I tapped them in to replace the old ones which snapped when I removed them to tighten the lower suspension arm/balljoint castellated nuts. This was a piece of cake, just made sure the threaded extrusion holes were lined up with the crenulation (sp?) bits of the castellated nuts and tapped them in with a little hammer. Not very interesting.
The ongoing issue with vibration/wheel wobble was still not fixed, and I wondered if it might be due to the front brake caliper sliders being dry and binding on, So I set to, full of optimism that this would be a quick and easy thing to check. The passenger side came apart fine, and I was able to withdraw the slider bolts and grease them with silicone grease after cleaning them up no problem. They were indeed a bit dry so was probably a good thing.
The passenger side was a different story. The top slider bolt came out with a bit of encouragement, for some reason something is a bit bent I think, the bolt would do to the end of the threaded section, but its a bit misaligned so I had to use a screwdriver to gently lever the inner edge of the caliper off the brake disc hub before it would slide out. This was dry too, so got greased and refitted. Then onto the bottom slider bolt. I have vague recollections that this was a bit of a 'problem child' previously, and sure enough the head of the slider bolt rounded off completely. I was using a 10" bar and a 6-point impact socket but it just utterly trashed it, the more I tried to hammer it on and get some purchase the worse it made the whole episode.
So I gave up. My brother is posting my some Irwin bolt remover sockets which should be here this week, if that fails I'll need to disc cutter the remains off - which I'd prefer not to have to do - so currently hope rest with hammering a smaller bolt remover over it. I have ordered a set of slider bolts and associated rubber sleeves and things from Brakes International and will replace both sliders in case its them that are bent. I'll see how it goes together but have a suspicion there might be something up with the drivers side caliper. If the worst comes to the worst, BI have calipers for the Sirion for £60 each and no exchange surcharge so I might just replace both front calipers. To be honest, the current ones don't inspire much confidence, they stop the car, but there is a lot of pedal travel before anything actually happens...
I'd like to get it on the road again this week so I can enjoy a bit more use before the winter - seeing how alarmingly I rusted away last winter when it got pressed into service over the 'road salt' months I'd like to keep it away from the worst of it this year. It has been fairly comprehensively dynax waxed, but still...
if this doesn't cure the wheel wobble, then it might be the 2nd hand driveshaft is out of balance, if this is the case I can swap the old one back onto the car now I've sorted the CV joint boot, but that means draining the gearbox which I'd prefer not to have to do if I don't absolutely need to.
