Panda (Classic) Charmanda(er) - mania continued......

Right, got dispatch confirmation for the 2nd shock this morning and also new dust covers, bump stops and nylock nuts turned up.


The track rod end and new top mounts are apparently en route also.

Yesterday I stripped the nearside driveshaft of the spider bearing, outer cv and the little bearing half way down the shaft, cleaned it up and primed and painted the exposed section black.

I have to take the Mrs to the garden centre this afternoon and prob some driving practice - might get a few hours on Char' later as it's staying light quite late now

:slayer:It 's going to be better than new!!!!!!

Just had a read through the last few posts. Think the issue with the eBay sellers is they must all be shops using the same spare parts provider. They get an order, call up the supplier and order one in to post out.

Are they still advertising them?

Yeah every supplier I have been told can't supply all have it for sale still... Had to be super careful to not order it from same person again lol..

tzagarakis said:

:slayer:It 's going to be better than new!!!!!!

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Thank you, I'm working on it Front end will be basically all new once I'm done bar the springs, inner tie rods and rack itself. Back end if gonna have to wait a bit but that will get done too. Oh and also brakes, will overhaul them i think but all at the same time once front and rear suspension is renewed.
Been toying with the idea of pulling the engine out for a deep clean, also let me properly clean the bay too with so much more ease. Can also do belts, waterpump and renew engine mounts and paint some brackets and stuff. Thats probably a task for over winter while he is hibernating and hiding from the road salt.

Just got home from giving Amy driving lesson, absolutely starving!! Must remember to eat breakfast if I am gonna go out lol.. Due to go round a friends for the evening so don't think I have enough time to mess with Panda today - 2moro is another day though

ok so i may have got slightly paralytically drunk on saturday night so yeah didn't get anything done sunday.. I did however receive a parcel containing a new monroe shock on sunday, which surprised me, don't think i have ever got a parcel delivered on a sunday before.. This morning the new top mounts arrived too.

So waiting on a track rod end, a shock and the wheel bearings still not turned up despite the fact they were meant to arrive wednesday last week I really need the bearings to turn up so i can start putting it all back together - hate waiting for parts!

fml, the track rod end saga continues. Got a package this morning and opened it, looked at packing slip and thought, 'Yes! finally got another febi rod end..'
Then after a few moments I think to myself, 'Didn't the other one come in a febi box..'
So grab it and get it out the packet and its monroe branded.

big sigh

after a moment of being really annoyed i think to myself, 'Oh well, Monroe isn't a cheap nasty brand so it will do..'

Then after work I take it down to the garage and compare it to the Febi one, floods of grumpiness return as i realise its totally different, the rod comes out the balljoint at an angle rather than straight, its way shorter... At this point it doesn't even matter if it would work my OCD is just not happy, thats gonna have to return it and get another.

On another note, the wheel bearings that were meant to turn up on the 5th still haven't materialised yet, i got in touch with the seller as I never getting a dispatched email and it wasn't marked as dispatched on ebay either but they were adamant they had posted them despite and that i should wait 10 working days before they would either issue a refund or send out more - this I was not particularly happy with but left it like that. This was on Monday this happened and at about 5pm today it suddenly became marked as dispatched on ebay and i got an email with a tracking number (which doesn't work yet so presume it really has only just gone in the post today and royal mails tracking hasn't updated). No peep from them to say sorry or anything, why is it so hard to get a decent service these days really? I'm quite upset most of the suppliers i usually use don't stock panda parts!!!

So all in all I'm a bit peeved off today - but still, there is things i can get on with over the weekend, just won't be able to finish it off so I'll try not to stress too much.

This still warrants negative feedback! Have you tried shopping for bits at your local motor parts outlet? More often than not they are cheaper than eBay as well.

I not really been able to find anywhere without driving to Gloucester which is an hours driving there and back.. I much prefer using a local factors if possible just not much round here sadly. And tbh it's so out in the sticks I reckon any local place wouldn't be able to win on prices and would probably die a slow death.. in fact that's probably already happened and that's why there is none here

right then panda-folk. I need a favour please if you don't mind.

Can someone or a few of you with standard height suspension measure the distance from the centre of the wheel directly upwards to the middle of the arch. I need to know the ride height as I am looking at getting some shocks customised. If you go from the centre of the hub to the arch that will negate any differences in wheel and tyre size between cars. If I can get a few to take an average that would be great. Gonna presume 4x4 have different setup so just want 4x2 measurements please.

Massive thanks in advance.

On another note... omfg I have wheel bearings. I only ordered them 20 days ago!
Don't know if I mentioned before that I'm pretty sure it was a wheel bearing making the click I could hear, one of them was rougher than a pair of sandpaper underpants.
Of course I still need a track rod end but the last guy said he had 9 so hopefully he might actually have one.

blu73 said:

Don't know if I mentioned before that I'm pretty sure it was a wheel bearing making the click I could hear.

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Think I've noticed this 'clicking' in the summer before but it went away as the weather got cooler
Hope its the wheel bearing, was worried at one point it was slight pinking.

well the front is basically all new - just rebuilding the axles atm - proper struggling to get the bearing thats halfway down the nearside shaft replaced. Got the old one off but can't get the new one on - had shaft in freezer for a while and heated the bearing up a bit but not sure how much heat this bearing can take so not really got it that hot.
Also its a funny design and can't really think of any way to use a decent drift to whack it home and don't want to just whack it with a hammer... This is gonna take some thinking to workout a descent method..

Anyone got any advice?

blu73 said:

well the front is basically all new - just rebuilding the axles atm - proper struggling to get the bearing thats halfway down the nearside shaft replaced. Got the old one off but can't get the new one on - had shaft in freezer for a while and heated the bearing up a bit but not sure how much heat this bearing can take so not really got it that hot.
Also its a funny design and can't really think of any way to use a decent drift to whack it home and don't want to just whack it with a hammer... This is gonna take some thinking to workout a descent method..

Anyone got any advice?

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They have to be drifted on, ideally you need a tool as shown in the Haynes manual, but being careful you can use a blunt chisel or punch etc on the inner race, you will need the shaft mounted solidly in a vice otherwise it will be very difficult.

can't say i have even looked in my haynes... the inner race is so hard to get anything on as its kinda recessed into the bearing rather than coming all the way to the edge - i certainly don't have a suitable punch that i can fit down the gap.. I'm off to rummage out my haynes to see this tool you mention now though lol

As adviced to thooms.
Drift the old bearing off with a chisel and hammer. Remove the inner race from old bearing, cut trought the inner bearing diagonally, use the old race to drift the new bearing on not hitting/disturbing the outer race of new bearing. Be as gentel as you can and work it around in steps.

Or simply photocopy Haynes page with drift tool drawing, give if to any machine shop and they will turn it straight away from 1" pipe (iirc) for max £20.

lol, i just found your post on thooms' thread and replied there - I'll prob give that a go first. Failing that I will have to get the tool made or try find one to borrow i think.

edit: Or just go make thooms do it for me, he's only down the road haha

And ta da, managed it, one rebuilt driveshaft new spider bearing will go on just before i pop the shaft back in the box, no point taking it out its nice sealed wrapper until then.


I used the old bearing without the very inner part, when i removed the bearing it came off like this and the very inner part stayed on the shaft - which made it interesting to get off but bit of heat and it came off easy enough. But as such the old bearing just slipped over the shaft easy, not sure why i didn't think of that yesterday. Then it was a question of how to hit it, i found a ball joint seperator fork fit nicely either side of the shaft and enabled me to whack it, turn it, whack it etc until it was down, actually went a bit far as i was going on where the old one was, stopped a little shy and then measured and its just over 15cm down the shaft rather than 14.3 as per haynes, near enough. Popped new out CV on

Old bearing is defo fubar now haha, but i think i will hang onto it for the other side as it worked really well. I managed without a vice and everything, just with end on a block of wood and holding my strange drift arrangement in one hand and a hammer in the other.

heres how the old bearing faired

Ahh well done! Looks great!

Just saw this and was about to offer to help out - but clearly it's all under control

We really must meet up sometime when both pandas are on road! I wanna see this saab also.