My S2 coupe bit of a rebuild and repair thread.

[B5NUT]

That would make more sense. I could not see any insert but I was just wanting the thing off as the weather was closing in and was getting a bit annoyed as it was the last screw that I needed to remove.

[B5NUT]

Anyone know a part number for the bush for the steering tie rods. Etka does not list them. I've seen a powerflex option but hoping to find the cheaper more OEM bush.
1-steering.jpg

[Bowie69]

I don't think there is anything else available.

You can get while tie rods though.

Are your bushes worn? Mine at 235k are still fine.

[Tractor Dave]

Error made me a set. Very nice too.

[B5NUT]

They are fine, it was just a case of changing them while I was there sort of job. If I could get some easy enough, but sounds like I'll just leave them and change the track rod ends.

[Tractor Dave]

What I found was that item 1 on the diagram was very worn. It was also starting to elongate the holes in 2

[B5NUT]

That part is NLA so if mine is bad then the only option is to make one which should be easy enough. Should be able to make something a bit stronger as well

[Bowie69]

Suspect it was loose if the holes were oval.
again at 235k, mine looked very good.

[Tractor Dave]

Suspect it was loose if the holes were oval.
again at 235k, mine looked very good.

Yes, agree. Or lots of dry steering

I have a spare set here if you need one.

[B5NUT]

Removed the steering arms yesterday and checked them over, the bushes look fine and so does all the metal work so another little win on the car.

Also removed the screw that had gone rusty, there was no metal insert in the plastic the hole screw thread had gone rusty in the plastic only on my S2..

1-rusty.jpg

Attempted to fit the painted wing the other day, which I hoped would be a bolt off an on job but rust put pay to that.
2-rusty.jpg
So refitting had to wait while the epoxy dried.

When I came to fit the wing it did not go to plan again... The colour was not a good match. The colour itself is OK, but the primer coat was just way to light.
3-paint.jpg

Purchased the dark Gray lechler green ti primer, and spend a couple of hours getting the mix the correct colour. Finally got a good match.
4-paint.jpg
Note the paint on the left did not have any clear at that point. Now the hole wing has been sanded down again and hope to respray at the weekend.


With the correct colour sorted it was time to remove the rest of the front-end as it was covered in grease rust & dirt, and it had to be sorted.

If someone told me my car would look like this after 3 months of ownership I would have laughed at them
5-hmm.jpg

These were all the issues with the front.


Dirty, rusty & damaged.
6-front.jpg
Cage nuts on the rear got completely mangled when removing the intercooler bolts, also some scabby rust at the bottom
7-front.jpg

No picture but they were straitened out then welded up so hopefully that will not happen again.

Rust, rust and even more rust
8-front.jpg
9-rust.jpg
14-rust.jpg

Also the grease on these parts was unbelievable, I know the latches need a bit of grease but not this much.
10-grease.jpg

11-grease.jpg
15-dirt.jpg



So after degreasing, rust removal, expoy, etch primer, dark Gray primer, base and clear coat the panels looked like this12-paint.jpg
13-paint.jpg

O yes and lots more brackets were cleaned, stripped & painted.
16-brackets.jpg

With the front end removed I did another job that I'd been putting off for a while which was the PAS fluid change, but as the pump pulley had no belt attached it was the perfect time to flush the system.

So sucked out the old fluid from the bottle, fitted a bung and attached the return pipe to the extractor. Yes it's a wheel bolt shoved into a bit of pipe, but did the job.
17-pas.jpg

With that done filled the reservoir with new fluid and used a rubber fitting on my drill to run the PAS pump.
18-pas.jpg
Once the fluid in the return line had gone from a nasty brown to a nice green, the reservoir fluid was extracted and the return pipe refitted.

The filter was also cleaned, as is was filled with crud.
19-pas.jpg

Also completed the clutch fluid change which was a pig of a job, what a place to put the sodding bleed nipple. No pictures of that I was too busy swearing!

[B5NUT]

So this morning my frontend looked like this. Very Mad Max...
1-front.jpg

After 6 hours of work it looked like this.

2-front.jpg

There is still a fair amount to do, but I'm getting near the point where I can start the engine again.

However there are job like these vac lines to replace. Have ordered some more pipe so hope to have that early next week
3-pipe.jpg

After talking about the steering I decided to remove the steering track rods and inspect them. Thankfully they were Ok apart from looking rusty. I also made a quick jig so when I rebuild them so they will be in a near as dam it the original length. It will still need a full tracking done but it helps to be somewhere near.

3-jig.jpg

However as usual with this car stripping them down was not straight forward. First the nut was rounded and damaged on both sides on the tie rod adjusting bolt, so will need to be replaced.
4-bolt.jpg

Then one of the nuts refused to move so that was cut off. So the track rods were painted with epoxy
5-arms.jpg

Also received the Lemforder track rod ends, one of the few parts Lemforder still make for this car.
6-lem.jpg

I'm now waiting on more parts so I can refit the steering and finally get the wheels on the car.

[Tractor Dave]

Nice work. You are setting the bar here!
Greg.s had some adjusters made. Not sure if he has any left but they were very good. Worth a PM.

[B5NUT]

Hopefully I'm picking some up tomorrow, but will PM him as spares some in handy on these cars!

[B5NUT]

Also still on the lookout for a aircon parts, front pipes & compressor. If anyone has any of these please let me know.

[newsh]

The Greg_S adjusters are great, machined from stainless and with a larger hex in the middle