Technical Broken rear radius arm

[ArchDudeOfYork]

Hey all. I was hoping to get your advise on a broken rear radius arm.

I took my little MK1 punto SX60 in to the garage over the weekend to get my oil leak fixed to be told that it shouldn't be on the road due to a broken rear radius arm on the passenger side.

I have bought a repair kit for it.

My questions are:

Should I also be buying a new arm for it?
Is it easy enough to repair?

I really want to be able to do it myself as the garage wanna charge me £180 for the privilege.

Your help would be greatly appreciated!!!!!!!!!!

 

[dumbledore]

180 is not that much. If you have the kit you don't need the arm. If you get the arm you won't need the kit. It can be done DIY but is not a nice job.

 

[J.R Racing]

As said it isn't a nice job to do.

But that price is too high.

I had one changed for around £80 labour and sourced an arm for £40.

£180 is too much, go elsewhere.

 

[dumbledore]

Was planning to replace the hand brake cable on the driver side this weekend. However, I checked the rear wheel for lateral movement grabing it at 9 and 3 o'clock with the wheel raised and is definetelly some lateral movement. So the radious arm bearing is now dead. I had the knocking noise from the rear for some time now so this explains why. I will attempt to do this job myself though now that it happens to me. I already done the other side, so although it was a pain to do I will do it again. Hopefully will be easier know. The most difficult bit to do as far as I remember was removing the racers from the arm, but my mig welder is the best tool to remove that easy. Then the next hard thing to do is to press in the new bearings. Removing the antiroll bar, disconnecting the brake lines and hand brake cable and removing the arm can also be tricky but hope won't give much hasle.

 

[tinytim]

Broken? Is this just the bearing gone or is the arm fractured?
To replace radius (trailing arm) you need a spring compressor a good manual and infinite patience. The central bolt is often corroded in (I had to cut mine out with a disc cutter) & the bolts holding the anti-roll bar tend to snap off so work them back and for slowly; you have to remove the brake lines and handbrake cable so check their condition and take the opportunity to replace; the brake pipes are mild steel and are usually corroded so useful to replace with copper; also claen and paint the rear spring and check damper ("shock absorber") and replace; check for corrosion on bodywork/beam axle particularly where damper & top of spring fit.........