A friend and I are independently rebuilding 240s. We both started several years ago, so bits, pieces, and memories sometime go missing.

We had great difficulty installing the front tension - compression rods, and I was wondering if there are different lengths. Mulching through some old parts, I came across another pair, and YES, there are some that are better endowed than others! I'll try to attach a photo, but the important thing is that the machined and theaded ends on one set are some 3/16" longer than the other.

The remaining problem on the front is that both of us carefully saved our front mounting bolts for the t-c rods - they are 9 mm dia, and that is now too small. The exploded parts diagrams show what looks to be bushings that would take up the slack, but neither of us has, or can remember, any such parts. The Black Dragon catalogue shows these bushings to be "washers" but only for later models - not the 240. Can anyone tell us where we went wrong?

Now to the back: My son and I have just mangled a perfectly good pair of bushings trying to get the lower strut assembly into the control arm. Now that everything is apart again, I did some measuring, and I just don't see how there's room for everything. Total clearance is 2 - 3 mm, and the bushings take up more room that that. If everything was set in place then torqued down, it would be dandy, but to force the strut bottom laterally into the control are - while as I said, it tore up the bushing. So, ny bright idea was to get the smallest jack I can find, and use it to gently widen the control-arm gap a millimetre or two, slip the strut bottom in place, shove the spindle in, take out the jack and tighten up everything. Any thoughts? Would I risk screwing up the control arm permanently?

On the control arm bushings - take two thin scrapers or putty knives or similar, grease them up and use them to guide the bushing into place. If they're urethane, they'll compress. If you're using the metal/rubber originals, you might have a little more trouble and have to find thinner steel, but the concept might still work.

On your T/C rods, it's much easier to install the T/C rods and bushings with the suspension compressed. You can actually get it all done with the car on the ground, just reaching your arm in from the front and side. The two bolts will drop in with a little wiggling and the car can be pushed around a little to get the rod nut and bushings on. With the wheel hanging it's almost impossible to get it done without torquing and compressing all kinds of things. I did it once that way before I learned.

  Richard McDonel said:

A friend and I are independently rebuilding 240s. We both started several years ago, so bits, pieces, and memories sometime go missing.

We had great difficulty installing the front tension - compression rods, and I was wondering if there are different lengths. Mulching through some old parts, I came across another pair, and YES, there are some that are better endowed than others! I'll try to attach a photo, but the important thing is that the machined and theaded ends on one set are some 3/16" longer than the other.

The remaining problem on the front is that both of us carefully saved our front mounting bolts for the t-c rods - they are 9 mm dia, and that is now too small. The exploded parts diagrams show what looks to be bushings that would take up the slack, but neither of us has, or can remember, any such parts. The Black Dragon catalogue shows these bushings to be "washers" but only for later models - not the 240. Can anyone tell us where we went wrong?

Now to the back: My son and I have just mangled a perfectly good pair of bushings trying to get the lower strut assembly into the control arm. Now that everything is apart again, I did some measuring, and I just don't see how there's room for everything. Total clearance is 2 - 3 mm, and the bushings take up more room that that. If everything was set in place then torqued down, it would be dandy, but to force the strut bottom laterally into the control are - while as I said, it tore up the bushing. So, ny bright idea was to get the smallest jack I can find, and use it to gently widen the control-arm gap a millimetre or two, slip the strut bottom in place, shove the spindle in, take out the jack and tighten up everything. Any thoughts? Would I risk screwing up the control arm permanently?

Thanks Zed,

I'm going to try the greased putty-knife trick, but I think I'll wait until I have a spare set of hands. Two bulky, snug-fitting parts, and two greased putty knives sounds like a bit of challenge for just one!

Cheers