Technical How to replace rear trailing arms - Punto mk1

[Darrenm]

Hi guys, did this at the weekend and took some pics so thought I would make a howto as the Haynes manual isn't particularly helpful on this one.

My Punto failed the MOT on the off side rear trailing arm having 'excessive wear'. Didnt seem that excessive to me but oh well.

You will need:
Breaker bar
Good socket set with various sizes (IIRC 12mm, 13mm, 15mm, 17mm, 19mm, 22mm)
Hub nut socket 32mm preferably long reach
Spring compressor
6mm Allen key socket
Hammer
Good bashing screwdriver

Firstly, slacken off the 4 19mm nuts holding the wheel on while still on the ground then jack up the car. Support it on 2 axle stands on the rear subframe crossmember.

Take the wheel off and you're greeted by the rear hum/drum. The new arm was £42 + vat from Sureparts in Redditch and was listed in the Skyparts catalogue.

Prise the dust cap off with a little persuasion to show the hubnut.

Use a breaker bar with a 32mm hub nut socket to undo the hub nut. Very tight. Then undo the 2 drum pegs with 12mm spanner/long reach socket

Make sure the front wheels are chocked and the handbrake is off and bash the hell out of the drum to release it off the shoes. I had to use various screwdrivers with a lump hammer to get it off.

Pull the hub and bearings off remembering the exact way the bearings go back on!

Undo the 2 allen bolts holding the rear plate of the drum onto the arm.

Compress the spring and undo the lower strut bolt (19mm IIRC)

Undo the 3 bolts on the ARB (the arm will drop down when you undo these so be careful ) and undo the 2 bolts holding the 2 brake line support brackets on.

22mm nut and bolt on the main bearing. Very tight to undo. You need something to stop the other side moving too. Once undone pull the bolt out, pull the arm out and put the new one in. Just put everything back on the same as it came off.

You are really supposed to torque everything up correctly but I didn't bother. You know when somethings tight enough.

 

[dave]

welcome to the forum and thanks for that
but you can do it with out the spring compressor,

 

[Darrenm]

welcome to the forum and thanks for that
but you can do it with out the spring compressor,

Thought you may be able to. I think using the compressor is easier otherwise you have to use a jack against the hub to push it up enough so you can re-attach the ARB?

 

[marky23]

arnt you suppose to be able to just buy a repair kit for the arm, or am i just confusing this with another part???
good piccies though

 

[Darrenm]

not sure. read on here about the arm being one item and the bearing couldnt be renewed. dont know if thats right or not.

 

[dave]

arnt you suppose to be able to just buy a repair kit for the arm, or am i just confusing this with another part???
good piccies though

yep a guy on ebay sells them, not sure how easy it is too squeeze the new one in though.

 

[StratosManiac]

I had to do this job recently and found the this post helpful. However my problem came when I tried to remove the long nut and bolt that holds the suspension arm on. No amount of hammering, heating or cooling would break the grip of the arm onto the bolt.
Advice from the Fiat garage was short and too the point, cut it off with a thin grinding disc. Which I did! What a Ba***** of a job. Still the new arm is now on.
Overall I found it to be a typical Fiat type of job. ie Necessary to use welding gear to heat up reluctant bolts in order to free them off and prevent rounding of heads. Why oh why will Fiat not use better quality fasteners?
So if you are contemplating doing it yourself don't be susprised at the time it will take.

 

[custard]

good info,so many jobs on cars are made a bitch by one little component,access problem etc

 

[Tae]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I read in the Haynes that the wheelbearing is ruined when you remove the hub, is this true? or is the bearing re-useable?

thanks for the info

 

[craig7118]

hi could you email me that guide as the pictures do not display on here. thanks [email protected]

 

[MikeSalt]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I read in the Haynes that the wheelbearing is ruined when you remove the hub, is this true? or is the bearing re-useable?

thanks for the info

It all depends on whether the inner race fuses itself to the stub axle, if it does, then the bearing gets separated. When this happens, there is no staisfactory way to re-seal the bearing, so the whole hub/bearing assembly requires renewal. If you are in a rush to get the car back on the road, I would order a hub/bearing assembly as a matter of course so that you have it ready. Can always sell it on at very little loss if you don't need it.

 

[missey]

He asked that 2 years ago lol Hope he wasn't in a rush to get it back on the road

 

[MikeSalt]

He asked that 2 years ago lol Hope he wasn't in a rush to get it back on the road

Oh well, no harm adding it to the publically viewable threads in the hope that someone might use the search and come across it.

 

[ST60SX]

Punto failed on this on Friday. Offside trailing arm excessive play in a pin/bush.

First question, if I'm reusing the trailing arm and repairing with a kit, do I need to remove the hub nut? It looks like you can get to everything without taking the hub off? Is this for just transferring everything to a new arm, or what?

Secondly, any idea how to get the old bush out? Looking at the parts in the kit, the sleeved bush is held centralised at each end with bearings which are separated by a plastic spacer. I presume I can drift the bearings out with a suitably sized socket?

If anyone has done this repair before I'd appreciate some tips

 

[MikeSalt]

No need to remove the hub/bearing assembly if renweing the bearings themselves. There was a guide for doing this, but I cannot remember whether it was here or PuntoSportsClub.

 

[ST60SX]

Couldn't find a guide but it was simple enough.

The arm is now off and the old bushes are out. Casualties included my middle finger and I sheared the large bolt on the ARB. I'm hoping I can drill this out at work tomorrow.

The trickiest thing was the handbrake cable. Getting it off the adjuster was a pain and then getting the grommet out of the backplate was a nightmare. Ended up splitting the rubber exposing the spring a bit, before I thought of tapping it out from the inside; Funny, the Haynes manual says 'withdraw the grommet and cable from the hub assembly', or something similar, my ass.

Oh yeah and I almost got decapitated when I forgot to put the jack under the arm when removing the shock. Lesson learned!

 

[DaveMcT]

Sounds accident-prone. Hope you have proper axle stands holding up the car.

If you do decide to change it, the wheel bearing/hub stub nut is VERY tight. You will need a long breaker bar to shift it. The handles found in normal 1/2" socket sets wont touch it.

A faulty wheel bearing will feel stiff or gritty meaning the hub unit has to be changed.

 

[ST60SX]

Sounds accident-prone. Hope you have proper axle stands holding up the car.

Working late at night (and in the dark ) is dangerous I'll give you that! Axle stands, chocked front wheels and in gear, I was awake when I did that bit .

Anyway I got the sheared ARB bolt out. God damn it looks messy now though. The thread is basically ruined so I'm going to use a nut and bolt instead. Hopefully my parts will turn up tomorrow and I can get down to business.