put a new set of wishbones on my daily runner mk2 to cure a clonk i had (one old were totally goosed) and now the car has a strange vibration when accelerating that it didnt have before?? Wheels went back on same sides, cant see anythin wrong etc....only other sympton is the gearstick seems to shake slightly while accelerating, also never happenend before.

Any advice welcome.

CheeRS

 

your supposed to drop the subframe to fit new arms as you cant get the bolt on the gearbox side, back in the correct way, as you will have found out. i replaced both of mine just before the mot, i didnt drop the subframe, to much of a fuck on, and mine hasnt had a problem. but id id be checking the subframe alignment, and tracking, as a first port of call. changed the bottom arms on my MK1 years ago, didnt drop the subframe to do that either, and it drove like a boat after, it was all over the place, eating tyres and all sorts, so had to get the subframe dropped and realigned.

 

is the bolt at front clearing the gearbox??

 

it always clears the gearbox, even when the wrong way up. its just not the rite way to do it. the ford job sheet says you must drop the subframe and fit the bolt the correct way around, for two reasons, one, its possible that the bolt can rub on the gearbox casing (i know of genuinely loads of people who have put the bolt in the wrong way around, and not ONCE have i heard of it actually touching the gearbox casing), and two, not dropping the subframe to fit arms, can pull the subframe out of alignment. now that i do agree with, as its happened to me, and others. the car drives like a pig, and starts eating tyres, but i find this is after the car has had a good few sets of arms fitted. when i replaced mine recently, it had the original ford arms, with all the bolts the correct way around, i fitted the new arms, with the bolt on the gearbox side the wrong way around, that was over 1k miles ago, and the car still drives straight, and i dont have any uneaven tyre wear, and mine is lowered 40mm, and running 35 profile tyres.

 

just to add though, when i fitted the new arms, i did buy new nuts and bolts from ford, and the nuts is a locktight nut. i chopped a few threads off the top of the bolt that is fitted upside down, before i fitted it, so it doesnt stick up to far, and isnt to close to the gearbox. its common practise for most to do it this way, and, pretty much every garage do it this way aswel, bar ford, as it is a lot quicker, and cheaper, to do it with the bolt upside down. iirc, the MK6 escort is the same

 

Yep thats what i've done, along with every other Mondeo i've done in the past, bought brand new bolts from Ford and put them in from the bottom after cutting the old one that fouls the box but this problem has started, and never had it before!

We had a bit of bother gettin the n/s ball joint in, but went in eventually. Wondering if the angle of the shaft isnt quite right or something like that?

 

might be worth checking it mate. if its only started since you fitted the arms, chances are, its something you have touched/removed/replaced while doing them.

 

how do you go about re aligning the subframe fiddy

reason i ask is my car is lowered on 40mm springs but i eat my tyres every 2k wether its my 19s or steels, all on the inside edge, i know my arms are have been replaced but im going t get new ones when i give it a major service but never thought of having to realign the sub frame

 

you need the mondeo subframe alignment tool fella, and the only people i know of that have one, is ford, becasue as i said, everyone, who either do it themselves, or most garages i know of, just put the bolt in the wrong way round. but i have actually seen the ford job sheet for replacing bottom arms, and it does state, you must drop, then refit the subframe.

 

ill GUARANTEE its because of the arms aswel. the reason i know so much about it lol, is, through my mk1. i didnt go into detail above, but ill try and keep it as short as possible. i had two arms fitted to my mk1 by rapid fit. after i got the car back, as i said above, it was all over the road. intially, i thought, maybe it was just me, as the arms they replaced were shot, and it just didnt 'feel' rite as i was sued to driving it on knackered arms. well as time went buy, it didnt get any better, so i took it back to rapid fit. they put it on the ramp, said they couldnt find anything wrong with it, so i thought fair enough. a few weeks later, i still wasnt happy, so i took it to ford. they put it on the ramp, and straight away, the guy says 'thats your problem' and points to the bottom arms. told him id only had them fitted recently, and he says, 'whoever did it, put the bolt in the wrong way round', i said wey surely that wont make a difference, or make it drive so badly. he then went and got the job sheet (hence how ive seen it), and showed me how ford do it.

long story short, i went back to rapid fit, told them this, they were not having it, so the guy from ford (as rapid fit are a subsidery of ford), went across the road, as the rapid fit is opposite the ford dealers, showed them the job sheet, and told them to refit brand new arms, the correct way, two front tyres, and do it free of charge which they did. BUT, they had to borrow the subframe alignment tool from my local ford dealers, as they didnt have one

also, while speaking to the guy from ford, he said, fitting one, or even two, sets of arms, with the bolt the wrong way round, wont pull the subframe out of alignment that much. but as mondy do eat arms, the more sets you change, the more it does pull the subframe out of alignment, and you end up with very bad tyre wear, and the car driving like a boat.

now with my 'expeirance' you would think id always get the subframe dropped. but glenny boy off here, put my car on the ramp where he works a couple of weeks before my mot, so we could check it over. we spotted both my arms were shot, but as they were genuine ford arms, and the bolts were in the correct way, either they were the original arms, or, my car has had arms fitted by ford, hence, i took my chances and fitted the new arms with the bolt the wrong way around, as its technically, the first set its had, so wont pull the subframe that far out alignment, it will be the next set, or the set after that, i will really notice a difference.

as i said, my cars lowered 40mm, and im running 215/35/18 tyres, and since my mot, ive had no tyre wear, and the car drives straight as a dye.

 

i dont see how it can possibly pull the subframe out of alignment by replacing the arms. the only way the subframe is going to move is if the subframe bolts are lose. is the subframe mounted with bushes or is it solid like on the focus??

when changing one arm i would always change both at the same time to minimise any differences in size and then get the wheel alignment checked and adjusted (made the mistake of not doing that on an old escort and killed the tyres ). if you tell them its had new arms most places will tell you to come back in a couple of weeks for a free check and adjust as they settle.

 

yeah i was confused as well cos the arms are bolted into the subframe, its not as if i loosened the subframe at any point for it to need to be re-aligned?

Clutch has started slippin on mine as well which i believe i need to drop the n/s of the frame to get box out....the joys!

Good info there Fiddy - mine is on 92k and the bolts were in the 'Ford' way so i had assumed they were original, or had been replaced the correct way.

We managed to do the pair in 40 mins, wouldnt like to imagine how long it would have taken if had to drop the subframe!

 

ok, had mondeos for years and done loads of arms,there is no problem with putting the bolt in upside down, if as fiddy has said, you cut a few threads off first.. just check a mk5/6 escort there bolts are upside down from the factory!!
I have seen marks on casings where the bolt has his but not puctured through..

As for this issue, it could be that with the tugging trying to get the ball joint in, one of the bearings in the tripod joints has fallen off, happened to me on the wifes mk3 a few months ago when I changed a front spring, luckily I spotted it before I put it al back together..
thats my guess anyway..

steve

 

As above check the driveshafts as have seen a few pop out and drop a ball while doing arms. That would prob explain why the balljoint was tight to go back in,did you have to push hub inwards towards box?

 

Who changed your suspension arms fella????

 

Mk 5/6 escorts are different fella

 

when i say i, it means we/you

 

Cant see the angle of the shaft been out or less the suspension arm hasnt been made properly. Did you take the brake discs off? Make sure the discs and wheels are sat on the hubs right ie make sure there isnt any bits of rust or crap on the hubs.

 

im sure i got told by someone on here mk6 escorts had a similar problem. never changed them when i had my GTi, so i dont know.

 

No mush me does the work and you just stand and tell the jokes lol.

 

Steve has a point it could be one of the bearings have come off the spider joint in the pot joint close to the gearbox.

 

here, last time, you didnt touch it, i did an oil and filter change all by myself

 

Yeh and got oil all over my dads garage lol. Didnt you get it all over your face too.

 

yes, i dropped the filter in the oil after id drained it, oil in my eyes, up my nose, in my mouth, it was bastard hot aswel

 

fuck dropping the subframe to get the bolt off, I used trusty grinder lol

and yer fitted um back in upsaide down with no issues.

 

Ah yeh thats how you did it lol. You also did your water pump too sort off.

 

The Problem will be that one of the bearings will have fallen out of the inner CV Joint, Probably on the N/S. Remove & relocate before you do even more damage to the joint.

Regards
Andy

 

what you mean sort off, you only had to put one of the bolts in, because i was having a bastard nightmare with it. i fitted the water pump belt aswel. but that, and the oil change, is pretty much all the work ive done on my car, oh, and fitted the decat, everything else, well, you did it

 

+1 id put money on it being this

also you dont need alignment tools when doing clutches either, ive done loads on mondeos, i take subframe completley off if i need the gearbox out or if im just changing the clutch i loosen the drivers side and drop the passenger side which i support with gearbox stand and then just drop the box onto the subframe leaving just enough room to change the clutch
all i do prior to removal is spray some paint around the four corners of the subframe to give me a reference point to put the subframe back to ive never had a single problem doing it this way

 

many thanks for all help

the old n/s ball-joint was a c*nt to come off so i'm thinkin you guys might be right in that a bearing has popped out etc when we were tryin to get this out so will check tomorrow.

car needs tracking done as well so will get it done and report back.

cheeRS