Lude Generation

I havent been doing guides lately so thought i would get back into the habit of doing them when im doing a job on the car.
Got into the mindset that some of them are things so simple there was no point, then i remembered how much of a help guides to even the simplest of jobs were when i first started working on my own cars. so here goes!

First off crack the wheel nuts, then jack up the car and remove the wheel. ALWAYS use jack stands when you are working under the car, DO NOT rely on just the jack!


The drop link is located here


Undo the top bolt first.
Its a bit tight, but you can get a wrench in behind the anti roll bar. each side is a bit different, this being the tightest side.


On the bottom, you need to pop an allan key into the hole at the top of the thread, otherwise the thread moves as you turn the nut. Give it a good soaking in penetrating fluid first and give it time to sink in. try not to get any penetrating fluid on the brake disks or calipers.


Once you have the nut off the droplink will just pop out and you can put the new one in its place. give the top rubber a spray with penetrating fluid before sliding it on, and i sprayed the nuts and bolts to make getting the back on a bit easier.
Then pop the allan key in and tighten the bolt. job done!


Now, if like mine, when trying to get the links off you find the allan key holes rusted or rounded off, its probably easier to take the whole anti roll bar off. its the bar that the drop links connect to on the bottom and its held in with 4 bolts, 2 either side.
With a bit of manuvering you can slide it out over the exhaust.



On my mondeo i had sucess with hammering in a slightly larger allan key, or using the right size and putting a ring spanner over the end i was holding to lever it outward. neither trick worked on the lude andi ended up having to take it to a garage to get them to cut the old links off as i dont have a grinder or anything. but with a bit of elbow grease a hacksaw or something would probably do the trick.

Good write up bud. Just one thing to add... or more point out, that when doing droplinks (or anything rollbar related) to lift both wheels of whichever end off the ground. Otherwise you'll be fighting the torsion of the bar and the opposite shock.

yeah i did mine with bothe wheels on the ground not too hard

NafemanNathan wrote:Good write up bud. Just one thing to add... or more point out, that when doing droplinks (or anything rollbar related) to lift both wheels of whichever end off the ground. Otherwise you'll be fighting the torsion of the bar and the opposite shock.

Oh really? i did my mondeo the other day one side at a time, maybe thats why it was such a pain to get the links out? lol. i just used the jack under the hub to get it lined up.

yeah when your doing buddy you need either both wheels in the air or both on the ground

Nice write-up Bludge. You've taken the mystery out of this job for me.

Does anyone know of a write-up for the front ones?
After replacing both the front and rear, does the tracking need doing?

I can now confirm that changing the front ARB Stabilizer (drop) links is exactly the same procedure as changing the rears, (as described above by Bludge).

Before


Old Versus New


New One Fitted

Pushki, I can barely tell any difference between your old and new ones

But well done, of course...

wurlycorner wrote:Pushki, I can barely tell any difference between your old and new ones .

I confess, I didn't check the condition of the old ones before ordering the new ones.
They would probably have lasted a few more years.


In my defence, it does seem like these are a part that everyone replaces eventually anyway.
She's 20 years old this year.