Jonny Sprinters E30 318iS

[jonnysprinter]

Not one for sitting around all day, I've been up to Chorley and brought the rally car back to my place so that I could get it back in the garage. As the O/S/F strut had snapped and the wheel was buried into the wheel well, the choice was either manhandle the car off the trailer or do repairs whilst still on the trailer. The latter option was the obvious choice, so I set about removing the front bumper, (remarkably undamaged) the sump guard, (with gauge marks from the sump & drain plug)
(resembling a sardine tin lid)
the electric fan assembly, (pushed into the engine pulley) wishbone assembly, (banana shaped) anti-roll bar link, (mangled)

snapped strut assembly (spring seats are at an angle on both struts).

After removing the mudflap the damage to the wheel well and jacking point of the sill is visible

On checking the strut top, I found that the strut had snapped because it had rotated beyond the permisable travel of the spherical strut top mounting A new strut has now been ordered, but in order to get the car rolling I fitted an E28 strut insert for now, partially straightened the bent wishbone with my press, (the replacement wouldn't fit anywhere near the chassis bolt holes due to the bent crossmember)

removed the oil cooler adaptor plate and re-fitted the original housing lid and new oil filter as the oil cooler is split. After putting the suspension/brakes back together and fitting a wheel, I started the engine (luckily no damage here) and managed to reverse the car off the trailer, turn it around and then reverse it back into my garage.

I'm glad it's rolling again and under cover for me to do more work on stripping her down before giving it to a jig man to do his magic

[rearwheelsteercompact]

Time for a bollocking JS

You should have let me know you were coming as I live in Chorley Borough. I would have given you a hand at a minutes notice to make the job easier and safer (having regard to your condition).

Glad to see you managed. Car will soon be repaired

[jonnysprinter]

It was no problem lowering the trailer onto the towball of my car at Chorley Andy, however I did struggle a little bit at my place when I had to transfer the trailer to another vehicle for pulling it onto my drive (its round the back and access is rather restricted)

I'll let you know on car repair progress