Lord Sorbington

So Greeks, you disconnected your power steering? Oh, hang on, I just noticed your disclaimer!  ;D Disturbing to hear all this talk of rear ends.  I spent a fair bit of time beneath a 2500S this afternoon, the rear end of which was being polybushed. Top tip, use a twatting great hole saw to remove the old bushes.  It's far more fun than hi tech pullers etc! Just watch out for the flying globs of molten, searing hot rubber!

Resto Virgin wrote:Tell James he should be running at least 34 p.s.i. James, you should be running at least 34p.s.i.   :) Maybe, like Resto, Tim is a bit of an economy freak and has lots of air in his tyres? The top mounts are easy enough to overhaul although if you can stand the cost the roller bearing type are probably better.  You'll need spring compressors, and as I say, renew the thrust washers.  From memory I think they act as the bearing surface which allows the strut to rotate against the top mount.  I normally find that the rubber part of the mount with the 3 threaded bits which poke through the turret is good enough to re-use.  You can press in a new bush if the mount is a piss fit on the damper rod so provided the rubber bit of the mount is OK you may get with just renewing the bush and washers.

Worn out strut top bearings, particularly the thrust washers.  Knackered bottom ball joints I suppose too as well as general suspension alignment.  I guess your tyres and steering wheel are a similar size to Tim's? It may be my imagination but the steering on my car seemed a lot lighter after I renewed a worn out UJ in the steering column.

I've seen some older estate cars fitted with a steel rod on each side of the car, from the window sill to the roof (inside the car).  This basically gives a 'pillar' to fix the seat belt shoulder pivot point to.  The rod would need to incorporate a boss at its mid point, with a threaded hole to accept the fixing bolt. I hope you can work out what I mean, it's not easy to describe!  An alternative would be to mount the reel at shoulder height and do away with the upper pivot altogether.  Either way, brackets and reinforcing would be needed. I wish I could remember how the rear seat belts worked on my mates '80s 3 door Escort estate.  Much the same sort of situation , but the belts would be factory fitted.