A little while later: With the delay, due to the faulty new strut stopping progress, it gave me time to reflect on the work done so far and to be completed. Upon closer inspection of the assembled nearside strut, it was evident the top nut needed tightening quite a lot more as my current tools couldn’t reach into the top mount’s recess. I had to buy a 24mm swan necked ring spanner (Ebay) to finish the job properly. Fitting the track control arms with new inner arm rubbers and ARB poly bushes into the front cross member was initially a tough job. However, with a bit of lubrication and some persuasion with my leather faced mallet got them both in position. After I had reinstalled the nearside strut which was reasonably straight forward, I set about putting the brake caliper on. Here was when I noticed the bellows were split and had got mangled up when I inserted the brake pads in September last year.
So, I had the saga of replacing the bellows. Luckily, I had a new spare set I had bought several years ago, but I wasn’t sure how to make them fit, as they seemed too large to fit in the groove of the caliper piston hole. In my haste and doubts, I contacted BCA Automotive to find out where they got the bellows from when they rebuilt the calipers last year. Later, I was on the internet to order two front caliper seal kits from Mev Spares and within a couple of days I had the new set, only to find they were the exact part number as my original spares! One evening in the week, with a renewed approach I tried again to fit the seal into the groove of the caliper and this time they all went in. It was down to a technique of gentle but firm pressure and faith that the rubber would pop into the groove. Having acquired a mini air compressor in the summer (during the carport conversion to garage) I found it invaluable in popping out the caliper pistons and blowing excess fluid in my face.
At the same time as ordering the replacement caliper seals, that I didn’t need, I also ordered a new Meyle top strut mount from a Ebay seller hoping this one would be good to go. By the weekend (12/13th Sept) the part had arrived and I was ready to finish the offside strut assembly, front anti roll bar, attach the brakes and connect them up.
Fitting the anti roll bar with new poly bushes was a more awkward job than expected as I had to re-tap a bolt hole that had become a bit cross threaded and use the jack to help align and manoeuvre the anti roll bar into place.
So in nutshell, the new parts I ordered for the front strut refurbishment were:
- Meyle (Volvo 240) damper Part No. 526 614 0001
- Meyle (Volvo 240) strut top mount Part No. 514 127 0001
- Amsteer steering ball joint kit Part No. (as at Sept 2020, no stock left)
- Inner TCA original (Ford tooling) quality rubber bush from Corsair Enthusiasts Facebook member
- Superflex poly bushes for TCA to anti roll bar (SF0233KSS) and anti roll bar mounts (SF2045/19)
During the strut refurbishment, I needed to insert 2 large washers to take up the excess space of the Volvo 240 damper in the strut tube, and conveniently, the damper locking nut was the same thread as on the strut. I had to relocate the mounting studs on the Volvo 240 strut top mount to match the holes on the Corsair inner wing. I used two good condition springs obtained from a Corsair Club member on Facebook.