Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

3706

General Car Chat / Re: removing oil filter from a meriva 1.6

« on: 02 December 2014, 21:13:33 »

Used a gloved hand, but watch yourself on the Cat

Tap a long screwdriver in to it  from the two o'clock position and drive it home, the simply pull the screwdriver up and over anticlockwise...

Then unscrew by hand

Thanks Al. I have not done this trick for years. Last time I hit two nails into the base, but on this car I have no access to do that. I fear damaging the filter base or thread. Access is bad. Would putting a long drill through be more prudent?

3707

General Car Chat / Re: removing oil filter from a meriva 1.6

« on: 02 December 2014, 19:45:55 »

Woops! It's canister type, in fact same part as on some Omegas. It may well be a screwdriver job - I presume you mean shove a screwdriver through it, Webby. I've spent an hour trying to get hold of it with a chain device, also a belt tool. Do you mean hammer a long sharp screwdriver through it and use it as a lever, Webby?

3708

General Car Chat / removing oil filter from a meriva 1.6

« on: 02 December 2014, 19:04:45 »

My sister has asked me to service her Meriva 1.6. The oil filter (cartridge type) is very tight and I cannot shift it. Access is poor. Any tips?

3709

Omega General Help / Re: wheel and brake wobble

« on: 02 December 2014, 08:38:46 »

What are the rear discs like?

3710

Omega General Help / Re: MOT

« on: 01 December 2014, 13:28:01 »

Well done. Next year new wishbone to replace the ball joint. I should change the fuel filter soon, they develop pinhole leaks and make an unpleasant smell.

3711

Omega General Help / Re: Vacuum system

« on: 01 December 2014, 13:24:59 »

From memory, it reads good vacuum at idle, then as you create a leak by opening the throttle it falls until with throttle wide open it reads near zero.

3712

Omega General Help / Re: How do Opel set up Omega suspension?

« on: 30 November 2014, 21:35:13 »

Thank you all for your input. I am a wiser man.
Al, I am afraid you are wrong, as Chris observes, about camber being constant with a McPherson strut/lower wishbone front suspension. It must vary by several degrees between central position and upper and lower extremes of movement. I imagine with full tank and two 70 kilo wives in the front seats the suspension is near the middle of its travel, and set at -1 degree 40 minutes. It will vary to +1 or 2 degrees at top or bottom of travel. To avoid this variation it would need double wishbone front suspension, which would require much more maintenance and not handle much better. Many, probably most, modern cars use McPherson strut front supension. Tyres will wear on the shoulders.

3713

Omega General Help / Re: How do Opel set up Omega suspension?

« on: 30 November 2014, 12:04:56 »

if adjusting wheels on the floor the problem you have is the contact patch of the tyre obviously is working against you and holding tension in the setting. As the wheel is leaned in at the top to adjust, the bottom of the wheel wants to go the opposite way and move out at the bottom, except the side wall and tyre are fixed so flex in the tyre wants to spring back to the original position, and to an extent the car will move over and tension the other tyre as well.

So for this reason, after each adjustment for camber AND toe, the car has to be rolled back and forth to allow the tyre contact patch to unload and re set to the new track width.

Hawkeye rigs have sliding plates that allow swivel and track movement. Even with these they still roll the car back and forth after adjustment to allow the content patch to find its natural position.

The sofware measures the wheel position at rest wheels loaded. Then notes the amount of adjustment needed. The car is then raised and measured again wheels hanging. The operator can then adjust to the differance between the two measurements taken wheels loaded, when subtracted or added to the wheels hanging position.

Once adjusted the car is dropped down again, rolled back and forth to remove any pinch on the track of the tyres to give the natural wheel position, then re measured. If the software had done its job adding and subtracting, the final position should now be correct.

....and they almost always are, IF the operator has been accurate enough with the amount of movement, AND the target settings are set to a decent tolerance.

what are your target setting Terry?

Target settings are Haynes -1degree 40 minutes plus or minus 45 minutes, 70 kilos (a wife) in either front seat and full tank of petrol. I still don't know if that means lean in or lean out.

3714

Omega General Help / Re: How do Opel set up Omega suspension?

« on: 30 November 2014, 08:00:00 »

Either using several thousand pounds of 3d laser alignment kit or a purpose built assembly jig which has been calibrated to your car

Rear track rods adjust camber and toe at the simultaneously, which compromises things somewhat

Thanks, Al. Yes, I can imagine the car coming down the line, with the strut to hub bolts half tight, then jigs grabbing the wheels, heaving them to the right angle, then the bolts torqued up. No need to measure anything, the setting is in the kit.

I think it would need a man to adjust the toe-in, aided by optical/laser reading kit. And I wonder if the wheels would be on the ground at this stage, and how the car was supported, and loaded.

If you know the datum, then adjusting the geometry to allow for wheel position in space relative to the shell at standard ride height, then the relative position unloaded can then be simply calculated... this is how Wheels In Motion do it, and why they're worth every penny imho

When the adjustments are made with the car jacked, the gauges are all over the shop, but a tweak here and a nudge there and once the car is back on the deck, it's all spot on. The clever bit is that the Hawkeye machine is able to not only map the position of each wheel in 3 dimensions, it is also able to recognise the relative positions of all four wheels and translate all the data into a clear picture on the screen The art is translating the tweaks into the ideal settings.

Also, if using the board method to track the car front to rear, bear in mind that both axles toe in...

Thanks Al. My problem with measurement with body supported and wheels hanging down is that on a McPherson strut lower wishbone layout layout camber varies with suspension position. With body supported front wheels hang down by gravity, but are supported by the wishbone vertical bush, so where it hangs will depend on the age of the vertical bush.
I do not doubt the quality of the measurement at WIM, my concern is the software to correct for all these factors.

As you say, with a rear semi-trailing arm, adjusting the track rod affects both toe-in and camber. Unless the car has been crashed it should not have moved, mine have always looked parallel to front, anyway the rear track rods are so hard to free that I leave them alone.

3715

Omega General Help / Re: How do Opel set up Omega suspension?

« on: 30 November 2014, 07:33:22 »

http://vid1114.photobucket.com/albums/k536/tidla1/20121228_171727_zpsab384861.mp4

This is my home made tool for setting up the camber.

The steel plates on the floor are level and the gauge calibrated from this.

The video if i remember correctly shows how much adjustment is available once the bolts are slack.

Camber was set up with the weight of the vehicle on the wheels and as mentioned using a method to pull out the top of the wheel.

Thanks Tidia. I applaud your kit. What is the measuring device I see? Looks like a digital spirit level.

3716

Omega General Help / Re: How do Opel set up Omega suspension?

« on: 30 November 2014, 07:30:55 »

Camber is probably the easiest measurement to make, as it's taken directly from the wheel. I used a cheap, magnetic digital bevel-gauge(about £20, and used for setting work at an angle in the milling machine), stuck to a length of 50mm angle cable-tied upright across the wheel rim. The gauge was zeroed on a longer piece of angle positioned between the wheels. We adjusted the camber by prying the wheel around with a jackhandle in the spokes; tightening the bolts with the car on the ground was tricky.

When I finally got around to having the geometry set properly, the machine gave the same figures I'd set it to.

What doesn't help is that adjusting the tracking, and mine was massively out, also tweaked the camber settings. This is one of the things that makes doing a complete setup very difficult using DIY equipment.

As for how they're done at the factory, there's no way that the cars would come off the production line and then be aligned by a couple of blokes with spanners; the suspension subassemblies like the struts and hubs would have been assembled in jigs before being fitted to the car. I suspect that parts like cambelts were fitted in a similar manner.

Thanks for that, Nick. Were you able to pry the wheel about with it on the ground? Were you able to tighten the nuts with the wheel on the car?

Haynes says correct setting is -1 degree 40 minutes plus or minus 45 minutes. Does this mean top leans in or out?

3717

Omega General Help / Re: How do Opel set up Omega suspension?

« on: 29 November 2014, 22:29:33 »

As said before, on other threads where this practice has been mentioned (as its not possible to support the wishbone on the wheel end, as the wheel is in the way, ) there is a very real chance of bending the wishbone if it's taking the weight of the car.

Don't do it. ( I'm not actually bothered if you do. The important thing I have made the point, so my conscience is clear. The rest is up to you)

Thanks for your concern Chris, which is noted. Wishbones are robust items, which endure substantial forces in many directions. I never had any real fear that I would bend one, and I have done this often enough to be confident that it ain't going to happen. As shown before in photographs, the wheel is dished allowing the support to be very near the ball joint. 

3718

Omega General Help / Re: How do Opel set up Omega suspension?

« on: 29 November 2014, 22:22:25 »

Either using several thousand pounds of 3d laser alignment kit or a purpose built assembly jig which has been calibrated to your car

Rear track rods adjust camber and toe at the simultaneously, which compromises things somewhat

Thanks, Al. Yes, I can imagine the car coming down the line, with the strut to hub bolts half tight, then jigs grabbing the wheels, heaving them to the right angle, then the bolts torqued up. No need to measure anything, the setting is in the kit.

I think it would need a man to adjust the toe-in, aided by optical/laser reading kit. And I wonder if the wheels would be on the ground at this stage, and how the car was supported, and loaded.

3719

Omega General Help / How do Opel set up Omega suspension?

« on: 29 November 2014, 19:24:02 »

I understand from Al that Wheels in Motion (WIM) adjust suspension geometry with the car suspended and all wheels in the air, setting parameters to pre-calculated settings so as to be correct when car is on its wheels. Does anyone know how Opel do it in the factory? I expect they support the car under wishbones and trailing arms, with the 70 kilos in the front seats and full fuel load, as Haynes states.

That is how I set my toe-in, as said before. It now occurs to me that setting my front wheels parallel to rear also allows me to measure rear wheel toe-in, and even reset it if I can adjust the rear track rods.

Can I not also set the camber at the same time?

Camber is not critical for handling or feel, but affects tyre wear. With car supported under wishbones at wheel end, all I need do is loosen the strut to hub bolts and tap it with a hammer to adjust it. Question is, how do I measure it?

3720

Omega General Help / Re: Vacuum system

« on: 29 November 2014, 18:41:43 »

I've re-read the thread and still cant determine this so sorry if I've missed it....

Where are you going to fit the gauge to get your readings?

Put another tee piece in the vacuum pipes to dual rams and HBV, near the brake servo pipe.