Top suspension bolts .

johnyfartbox

A2OC Donor
United-Kingdom
As most of us know, the three bolts at the top of the suspension are a right royal pain in the ass to get to and especially the ones behind the brake res.
I have done this three times now and it's still a pain.
It occurred to me that it would be a doddle if the bolts faced down so would be much easier to get to.
Is this doable?
I'm thinking that it may not be because it would have been done in the past, but what is stopping us from doing it?
 
As most of us know, the three bolts at the top of the suspension are a right royal pain in the ass to get to and especially the ones behind the brake res.
I have done this three times now and it's still a pain.
It occurred to me that it would be a doddle if the bolts faced down so would be much easier to get to.
Is this doable?
I'm thinking that it may not be because it would have been done in the past, but what is stopping us from doing it?
Hi Johnnyfart box,
If I remember correctly the top mount bearing assembly is Tapped meaning you can’t just swap them around ie: coming through from below, that’s not to say you could replace with longer correct grade high tensile bolts & nuts
after drilling out the trapped holes first , presuming there are no obstructions in the way (2 years at least since I last did mine) have I got this the wrong way round ?
hth
Keith
 
Indeed, I have some old top mounts, I just might have a look to see if I can alter them to accept a longer bolt.
Thanks for the reply, I don't get many when I post ?
 
A triangular captive bracket would work lovely, drill out the threads in the top mount and pass bolt thru mount from underside thru body holes and into triangular captive bracket, trouble is A- design and fabrication of bracket B- the top mounts generally are not needed to be disturbed very often so is it really worth all the hassle???
 
Morning Johny,

Quite interested in what the verdict is on this as I want to change my suspension in due course. I will probably end up trying difference shocks so having the possibility of undoing said 3 bolts easier will of course be very helpful.

Kind regards,

Tom
 
Maybe #depronman aka Paul could give his ideas as being a aircraft engineer couldnt be a more knowledgeble fella! (Best be careful thou as could make our A2's start to evolve in to Saab's if the old adverts are anything to go by)
 
It would be possible to make up a plate to hold three nuts captive or just drill and tap the plate to suit the new bolts
The top mounts would then need drilling out to he bolt clearance size

It’s not a massively difficult thing to fabricate but I’m not sure how the mot man would look at it so it would need to look well made

Im not sure it would be worth the effort as my top mounts where changed a few months ago and where originals so if the new ones last as long I don’t think they will be being changed again
Now broken front springs may be a need to change the top mount or at least remove it more often

Paul


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When I changed my suspension back to standard I did the OSF strut almost exactly the same as @Rod davis did in his thread.


Remember to do all torquing with the weight on the suspension.

So the trick is having more access and a good ratchet with a fine adjustment. Pretty sure if you modify the top mount you have invalidated the type approval for the car. If you have an accident the insurance company will take a very dim view of this.
 
It would certainly be a grey area
Not one that I would want to be debating with the insurance co


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