Technical Multipa front ARB problems.

[lankytim]

Hi gang,

The family Multipla has been driving round very happily for the last 12 months or so but recently there's been a problem with the front ARB.

It keeps sliding over to the drivers side, meaning it hits the subframe mount on the passenger side over bumps. I can slacken off the mounts and slide it back into place but after a few days it works it's way back to where it started.

There appears to be a "collar" or raised ring next to the passenger side bush and mount that stops the ARB moving over to the passenger side that seems to be missing on the opposite side.

Is this a common issue? Do I need a new ARB?

Many thanks!

 

[widemouthfrog]

Unfortunately, yes. The little 'stops' on the bar, immediately inboard of the mounting bushes, fall off after a few years and allow the bar to work its way sideways as you describe. The stops are made of some sort of hard plastic. I originally thought they were made of metal and spot welded to the bar, but it appears that they're glued in place somehow. You may be able to make a repair 'stop' with a bit of plastic household overflow pipe or even a short piece of hosepipe, slit along its length and then slipped over the ARB, then held in place with a suitable jubilee clip. You'll have to completely undo the jubilee clip and open it up to fit around the roll bar + pipe.

 

[lankytim]

Good idea, thanks!

 

[BikeDoc]

For future reference;
I ran my previous Multi for over two years without an ARB fitted (when the original snapped), no ill effects in 60,000+ miles and went through two MOTs.

Doing my Brakes today (Pads were down to about 2mm, so perfect timing!), took the left Wheel off, and was greeted by this sight . . .

Might explain the noise on full Right-Lock which I assumed was a CV Joint.

Top Socket has broken away at some point, did hit a particularly deep Pothole a few days ago.

Luckily my local Motorist's Discount Centre had a pair of Links in stock, £10 each.

 

[Crickleymal]

Seeing that reminds me that one of my neighbours who's a mechanic told me the way to remove droplinks is to pop the balljoints apart like that. Normally when you try to undo the bolts on the droplink the ball joint spins round and nothing happens. If you pop apart the ball joint then you can get a mole grip on the ball and the nut will be easy to undo.

 

[BikeDoc]

The 'ball' fittings have flats on them, on the 'Ball' side of the ARB, for a 17mm Spanner.
You need a fairly thin Open-Ended for it, <5mm.
Also, the end of the threaded section has an Allen Hex in it, so you can hold it with a 5mm Allen Key.

 

[widemouthfrog]

Not all makes of drop links have the flats you mention. As for the Allen socket, the usual outcome with a corroded link is that end of the thread either splits open or the hex rounds out. Cue lots of swearing.....

 

[BikeDoc]

Muàltipa front ARB problems.

The ones I picked up are from First line, they have both the flats and the Allen socket.
They were only a tenner each, why get any others?

 

[Crickleymal]

I was speaking generically. The advice would work for pretty much any car.

 

[BikeDoc]

I got that, but I'd imagine any half-way decent make of Link would have flats on the fitting at least.
You could also get a set of thin-ish Mole Grips on it I reckon, without having to dismantle/destroy the Link.

 

[Crickleymal]

You'd think so wouldn't you. However most of the ones I've seen haven't or if they have it's at one end only. They do have allen or torx slots in the top but these don't work very well when rusted or full of cr@p.

 

[BikeDoc]

Agreed.
It's good practice though to coat any exposed threads with some sort of corrosion preventative (Waxoyl, Underseal, LPS3 etc).
Easy enough to pick out at dismantling time.

 

[doggybob]

i did mine yesterday and the bottom nut on the near side was stuck solid i had no hope of shifting it so i got my dremel on it and cut the nut off , bloody stupid design if you ask me

 

[BikeDoc]

Car designers on the whole are a bunch of idiotic and sadistic bast**ds in my opinion, who probably got no Love as children and have made it their goal to p**s-off anyone who works on cars . . .