Help Please! - Works Grp 4 McPherson Strut disassembly

[march]

Hi,

I am dismantling my Works front struts and need some help:


Before I start mangling anything, how does the cover at the top of the leg come off, does it unscrew or does it ping off. There does not seem any surface for a spanner or tool to lock onto:


I also assume that once this off I just need to remove the nut at the base and the shock absorber will come out?


Also looking under the black paint it looks like the strut was originally some kind of custard yellow. Does anyone know what colour this is.

Thanks in advance.

Marc

[john 215]

Hi,

Is that a nut / bolt on the side, if so not seen attachment like that, it may screw into some kind of eye on the base of the insert ???

Most of the group 4 inserts I have come across have a thread on the base that passes through the base on the strut tube, but that could be tight for space on our car's due to the closeness of the ball joint.

Picture of a group 4 insert and conventional insert side by side -





As far as colour ...... Bilstein


Cheers John

[Beans]

Could it be that they are custom built struts?
Looks like the strut tube has been replaced with the outer tube of the damper,
similar to my front struts, but from a different manufacturer ...



If that's the case you'll need very special tools to remove the damper
Is the outer diameter of the tubes the same as the original struts?

[Beans]

As possibility for editing seems to have vanished ...

Checked a few pictures of original struts, and it indeed looks like yours have been adapted ...



Distance between bottom of tube and lower ball joint mount looks different with yours.

[Ianftr8]

Looks very similar to the ones that Alastair Flack sells that his company Hamilton Motorsport have made (they have the extra strengthening gussets welded to them. The collar (dust shield at the top should just knock off) and the bolt at the bottom should release the insert).

Worth Giving Alastair a call or send him an email, his number website are easy to find.

Cheers

Ian

[march]

Thanks for the comments everyone, they have been very helpful.

Most of the group 4 inserts I have come across have a thread on the base that passes through the base on the strut tube, but that could be tight for space on our car's due to the closeness of the ball joint.

There is a nut on the base, so hopefully will be a Gp4 insert inside, will find out more when I get it apart.

The collar (dust shield at the top should just knock off) and the bolt at the bottom should release the insert).

Thanks for this, I couldn't quite work out if it could be knocked off or had to be unscrewed.

Worth Giving Alastair a call or send him an email, his number website are easy to find.

I will give Alistair a call later this week to see if he can shed some light on the matter.

Checked a few pictures of original struts, and it indeed looks like yours have been adapted ...

Thanks Beans, I am still hoping these are from BL Motorsport (or whatever they were called) as they looked identical to a works set for sale from Jason Lepley a while ago (I may be completely deluding myself - but I am sure Alistair will be able to clarify). - And I need to believe at least some part of the advertising for the car when I bought it was true.

[john 215]

Hi,

Make sure to let us know how you get on ..... intrigued now !

Cheers John

[march]

The strut is all apart now, took all afternoon as the nut at the base did not want to play, but in the end it all came apart without damaging anything:



The collar did in fact knock off very easily which was a concern at the start and the shock rating appears to be stamped on it which is correct for the homolagation papers:



Once again - thanks for evryones help on this.

[Beans]

Good to see you got them out without damaging them.

[march]

Beans - that's only one - the other side is still to go, fingers crossed

[john 215]

Hi,

Well done mate, good luck with the other side.

Any sign of the manufacture ?

Cheers John

[march]

Hi John,

I haven't seen any marks yet on the casing but I haven't cleaned the casing up yet and it is pretty thick with paint. I am pretty sure they are Bilstein Grp 4 shocks as they look very similar to the Ford Bilsteins you can still buy. If I can get the second strut apart I will probably send the shocks off to be rebuilt by Bilstein and I am sure they will tell me if they are not theirs!

[Ianftr8]

When I spoke to Alastair about mine he said the way to tell them apart was the thread size, I need to check this but 10mm being Bilstein and 12 mm being AVO.
I'll have a look when I get home around 9 and see what I can find.

Cheers Ian

[Beans]

... to the Ford Bilsteins you can still buy ...

According to a friend (who sadly is no longer with us) Bilstein still have all the technical data for the TR7 Rally car dampers.
He knew someone who works there but that is of little help now

[Ianftr8]

Looks like I'm going to have to strip my struts down as well as I have broken one of the springs!?

In playing around with them I have now established that the threads for the top nuts on mine are 12 X 1.5 thread size which took some finding.

Have had a quick trawl round and it would seem that Merlin Motorsport have the correct size springs for sale.

Cheers
Ian