‘97 Mk3 Astravan, just me and old faithful

I think I’m ok saying this in here, I suspect others will understand and not judge me too harshly

The o/s strut was really rusty, we couldn’t get the top cap off to remove the damper at all, so I ordered a couple of secondhand ones.
They turned up and I rebuilt them and they are fitted.

But, the original ones had 74x39x39 bearings, which I was led to believe were fitted to the later (post ‘96) heavier (so bigger petrols and diesels) small block struts (not gsi, Isuzu diesels because they are big block struts (and have 28 spline driveshafts))

One of the replacements (the o/s) was the same size, but the other one, the n/s bearing size was 66x34x34, not a deal breaker and it is fitted on the van, but the engineer in me doesn’t like it. So since I hadn’t looked at the n/s strut I thought I’d give it a go.

So welded a bit of bar to the cap and got brutal







Taa-daa I got it off (the other bits of weld are from trying to do the same on the other one... that one really doesn’t want to come loose

I then cleaned it up







The spring seat is pretty good, obviously I need to pop the hub and bearing out, but will work that in with using a press somewhere

Gave it a coat of hydrate80




And packed up.... might get in trouble for the mess on the lawn though




I ordered a pair of bigger bearings, so can rebuild it ready to go. One of the top bearings is playing up a bit, as sometimes the wheels is a bit slow to centre, or pulls a bit, I’ve ordered some of those so depending on timings it may get swapped when I do that

Sport or GSi seats bolt straight in, as do Cavalier and Calibra (nice leather in a Calibra) if you swap the sub frames over. My GSi seats are hands down the comfiest seats I've ever had, Scotland and back from North Wales no issues.

I put the big stilstons on them, not sure they are 200nm though. Going to change the top mounts anyway, it was misbehaving and not centring the wheels at the weekend so wondered if I’d pinched one on reassembly, so ordered a pair and will swap them soon (think the bits are due tomorrow or thursday and Lucy is working Thursday and Friday, so probably one of them depending on weather) but I’ll double check them when I disassemble anyway now

And thanks

Pretty sure I spotted this in oxford today?
It stood as as you don’t see many of this age on the road anymore

That’s where I saw it, like the look of it on the bigger steels 👍🏻

I didn’t post at the weekend, I was a bit traveller and thought if I admitted it I would jinx it

On Sunday Tom helped me swap the top mounts..... or at least we started. We took the drivers side strut apart and as we pushed the driveshaft out, it pulled the bearing to bits



So being all forward thinking, I’d bought a spare wheel bearing when I ordered.... Yay

and then rebuilt the other strut with that bearing last week....... boo

It was Sunday, nowhere open, nearest gsf had them in stock, but were closed Sunday and the bank holiday, and I had agreed to work on the bank holiday and needed my huge ladders...

So we changed the top mount, and I hammered the bearing back together! and we put it together and hoped

Monday I did an impression of a fire engine



And drove 15 miles, and 15 miles home.... not sure if the noise was the ladders on the roof or the wheel bearing. It felt a bit warm but was ok. Was going drive 5 miles today and pick up the bearing later on and fit tonight, but today’s job got cancelled so I picked a pair of more expensive bearings up from GSF (don’t think they were better, just that I paid more ) and fitted one this morning with Tom









Luckily, after the kerfuffle of trying to use people’s kit with all the lockdown stuff, I bought a 10 ton press last week, so we built that at the weekend in readiness



It’s a bench one, and as we found out today, it’s a little bit of a pain as the hub doesn’t drop through the frame like the big one at the farm... but meh! it’s here and so a small inconvenience is payment. Got a bench one so it will fit under some shelves at the back of the garage*



Just need to tidy up the rest of it and I’ll be useable.... but that’s a job for another day

Also, got some pattern back plates, painted them up in readiness


They didn’t fit, and I couldn’t work out why, so left them off... but the rusty strut had the rusty remnants of one on there



Aaaaaaannnnnnndddd they are just pattern bits, so will modify and fit at the weekend (don’t need to remove the strut to do that at least (yay!!!! ) but will need to remove the other strut to change it and will swap the other top mount at the same time.... what could possibly go wrong



I’m calling it a garage, it’s 8’ x 6’ but is situated where a garage would have been if we had the space!

That would make sense..... I’ll just make them fit for what they do.... especially as I went to all the trouble of etch priming and painting


I also got around to changing the gauge temperature sensor over the weekend. I had shorted it out to check it was the sensor ages ago and got a replacement and then forgot about it

A triumph of engineering wedged into a corner where only a spanner would fit and I could turn it a tiny amount at a time, and then wriggle it out because there is an injector right behind it (but I guess it doesn’t need changing often)







I also replaced the alternator belt, that had started squealing on Friday (a week or so after the cam belt was changed, it had worked loose) but I’ve been meaning to swap it since I got the van, but adjusted it and it stopped, so as I left a site on Saturday morning and it was screaming, I stopped swapped it and chucked it in the skip

Thats some MIGHTY work there. I think I would have given up long ago WELL DONE

This lock down saved it, given more freedom I may have given up too, I’m really pleased I haven’t though