New Upper Wishbone 1998 1999 2000 2001 CG Accord Coupe

[blackstreet62]

Just gonna show you how I replaced the driver front side “Upper Wishbone Arms”. 1st I would say use a LOT of penetrating fluid to loosen up years of dirt, crap ,and rust that’s been thrown up there.  Stu did say the driver’s side would be a bugger cos the there’s less room and the driveshaft boot might pop off and the bearings fall out when the when upper arm is out. So you need to strap the centre arm up straight once you got the shock and spring out. Right how I went about is as follows.

On the upper arm joint remove the split pin and then using a 17mm socket (you get a new castle nut and split pin with the new wishbone arm, well I did!). Also don’t take the nut off fully as you still want the arm to stay up. Go up into the engine bay and where the shock absorbers come up loosen the 5 x nuts (more spray?) – 3 are 14mm and 2 x 12mm if I remember right. Leave one bolt in and take the other 4 out so the shock is hanging on one bolt there. Right now the pain in the arse bit, to get the bottom part of the shock out with the fork bit you need to do the following;  juice up the bolt the holds the fork to the bottom of shock. It will be seized and rusty so lots of fluid here.Undo nut and wack the body of the fork to shock the bottom of the shock out and the fork should come away. NOW the royal pain, the bottom of the fork is bolted to the bottom of the lower arm, it’s a long bolt going through the lower arm. Juice the hell at both ends and use a 17mm closed spanner and put on the right hand side bolt and jam it against a tie rod arm so it doesn’t move. Then use a 17mm socked and loosens off the left hand side nut. When this comes off use a hammer and knocks the bolt through, I did jack up under the lower arm to help the bolt through and juiced it as I went with penetrating fluid. Once that was out, you have to wiggle the bottom fork pushing the shock outta the way.

Once you got the bottom fork out, undo the last bolt off the shock in the engine bay, and take out the shock. Take out the 14mm bolts from the wishbone arm after taking the castle nut off 1^st, making sure the strut doesn’t drop the driveshaft out. I recommend you strap the strut to the body of the car! Replace with a new arm but remember to grease up rubbers in the arm as there will squeak like mad when fitted. Put everything is reversal but getting that bolt back into the fork is a swine, so I creased up the bolt and then to push the shock down so it would line up the holes for the bolt to slide in easily I used a car jack above the wishbone and this pushed the wishbone down and in turn the shocks so the holes lined up and then I slide the bolt in and wacked with arm and bobs ure uncle…where in! Remember to toque up all bolts.

Put everything back as reversal, I hope that has been of some help to you guys, just giving back for you guys helping me out.

Cheers

Edwin

[hughezee]

Excellent post buddy, nice to see you are looking after your coupe

[Mazda Man]

Yep, excellent post Edwin, the pics are great.  Glad you're loving your coupe as much as we do.  Good stuff. 

[blackstreet62]

still got the knocking after fitting a new wishbone, which is like Chinese water torture...so gotta look to find where this knockings coming from...the search continues!!

[Mazda Man]

Any update on the knocking noise Edwin? 

[blackstreet62]

Thanks guys,just trying to pass the love on..latest on knocks is that I'm believing its the Drop links,the filthy swines !ordered a new set and gonna swop over the anti roll bar bushes as well.well might as well while i'm there and there gonna be polyps to give a firmer ride.thanks again stu.

[blackstreet62]

Hi Guys

from looking at my piccys, do you think the rust on my suspension fork and lower wishbone arm is very badly rusted or just normal wear n tear? I have wire brush this and sprayed down with some comma wax seal spray, any thoughts guys???

[hughezee]

These items are cast and it would take a long-time for corrosion to weaken it, but if you’re like me, a wire brush and quick paint wouldn't hurt.   Also I wouldn't recommend the wax seal on these exposed parts as it would easily get worn off with dirt and water spraying around in the wheel areas

[welland99]

I need to replace the front upper left wishbone on my CG4 and have been weighing it up recently.  Confused about why so much dismantling has been done here, as it looks possible to remove only the upper wishbone.  Am I missing something?

[hughezee]

5 hours ago, welland99 said:

Am I missing something?

The shock absorber needs to come out to extract and tighten up the retaining bolts and I will update the picture sizes shortly to make it a bit clearer...

[welland99]

3 hours ago, hughezee said:

The shock absorber needs to come out to extract and tighten up the retaining bolts and I will update the picture sizes shortly to make it a bit clearer...

Is it not possible to leave the shock absorber attached at the bottom, as in this video:  

 ?

[hughezee]

The car in the video is a later model with a slightly different setup i.e smaller coil springs and a wider & longer upper arm so there's wiggle room, the older cars always had to remove the shock, I have done this job countless times and if I didn't need to get the shock out why would I, anyway few reference only pictures below for the same job as above...

[welland99]

I've managed to remove my upper wishbone this morning. Hope the new one goes in Ok this afternoon.  

[welland99]

The hard bit went well - taking it apart....., but the easy bit went badly.   

The new ball joint didn't pull through the taper as far as the old one, not far enough to get a split pin through.  And then it pulled the thread.   😢.

Anyway, I've cleaned up the thread and used the old nut, and think it's tight enough.  Anyone happen to know the torque for tightening the ball joint?

[welland99]

As you can see, the spindle off the ball joint does not protrude far enough through the hole for the nut to pass the hole for the split pin.  I dismantled the joint to check that all was clean; ie no dirt preventing the taper from seating correctly.   

Is this common?  What is the remedy? 

Been reading up the Mot specs and it looks like an mot failure when the split pin is missing.  

 

[welland99]

Here it is assembled.  Not much thread engagement,  but enough?  But still can't fit the split pin? 

I tried drilling through the spindle closer to the end so I could fit the split pin.  With patience, my first hole, 1.5mm, went through.  Then, while enlarging to 2mm, the drill broke, leaving part of the bit stuck in the hole I'd drilled.  😭

Now I'm thinking of two ideas: 

1) use a nylon nut instead - but thread engagement is still an issue?  

2) remove the castle nut and try to punch the broken drill out from behind. Then try drilling again (with a new bit).  

I can see my Sunday afternoon disappearing....... 

 

[Laird_Scooby]

I'd take it back to where you got it from. That thread looks as if it has stripped already and besides, it's not right as there's not enough of the pin to wind the nut on. Was a new split pin or self-locking nut not supplied with it?

There's something i can't put my finger on just now that looks "wrong".....................

[welland99]

1 minute ago, Laird_Scooby said:

I'd take it back to where you got it from. That thread looks as if it has stripped already and besides, it's not right as there's not enough of the pin to wind the nut on. Was a new split pin or self-locking nut not supplied with it?

There's something i can't put my finger on just now that looks "wrong".....................

It did come with a new castle nut, but no split pin.  Yes, as i wrote earlier, the new nut stripped the thread. This damaged the thread on the new nut too, but using the old nut on the cleaned up stripped thread didn't seem too bad.

[Laird_Scooby]

Missed where you said it pulled the thread, sorry - just re-read and found it.

Whether the new nut stripped the new thread and the old nut now grips someway satisfactorily, it still ain't right. It shouldn't have happened full stop and suggests the metal is sub-standard. I had some drop links that did the sameon my Volvo and they turned out to be fake. Worst that can happen with dodgy drop links is they make a hell of a row, with a dodgy ball joint you might find yourself getting intimate with the wheel when it suddenly lands between your legs at a rate of knots!

Besides spoiling your whole day, it'll make a mess of the car, not to mention your underwear too!

Did it come from a local motor factor or ebay or what?

[welland99]

When I bought the wishbone about a month ago from ecp, the price with discount was £32. This seemed a good deal at the time, but I also bought just a ball joint for £8, in case the old wishbone was worth keeping - in the end it wasn't.   (I can return this)

Wishbone was q drive 615602190, comes with castle nut

Ball joint was starline 617600019, comes with nylon nut

When I realised the problem with not enough threads coming through the hole, i tried the starline ball joint and this was identical. 

Looking on ecp now, at current discount the wishbone is down from £12 to £8!

So, i could just get another wishbone for £8,  but it may well be the same fit - not far enough through the hole.  

[Laird_Scooby]

This is the parts list/diagram from Lings for the 3.0 Coupe, 1999 :

https://www.lingshondaparts.com/partscatalog/catalog/listing/catalog/hondacars/modelid/417/block/17S8201/blockref/B__2700/

And this, same parts for the 2.0 saloon/hatch, same year :

https://www.lingshondaparts.com/partscatalog/catalog/listing/catalog/hondacars/modelid/6446/block/17S1A01/blockref/B__2700/

As you'll see, the saloon parts are different to the Coupe parts. I have checked the 2.0 Coupe and the same parts are used as the 3.0 Coupe.

In simple terms, ECP have supplied the wrong parts because they don't realise the Coupe is different to the UK/Japan models. Common problem finding bits for the Coupe sadly.

[welland99]

Looking at Edwin's photos at the top of this thread,  he had the same problem as me: not much thread engagement.  

I feel that as long as the nut is tight and there's a pin through it, that will be fine.  What do you think?

It is quite likely that the thread stripped for me because I overtightened it in a vain attempt to pull more thread through.  I will be more careful next time.  

[Laird_Scooby]

Looking at Edwins photos, he has at least one thread out of the nut, yours won't get that far. It is fairly obvious ECP have supplied the wrong part and as you trusted them to supply the correct bits, you simply tried fitting it and it wouldn't fit because it was wrong, hence the thread stripped which shouldn't have happened on a new component anyway..

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/honda,1999,accord,3.0l+v6,1389382,suspension,control+arm,10401

Maybe another option?

Could be handy to have Stus input on this, i'm fairly sure he's come across this before with certain suppliers selling the wrong bits for the Coupe in the belief that the Coupe used the same parts as the saloon/hatch.

[hughezee]

16 hours ago, welland99 said:

Here it is assembled.  Not much thread engagement,  but enough?  But still can't fit the split pin? 

There should be enough thread as I was talking Edwin through the process over the phone at the time as they had supplied the smaller arm for the UK model previously. Either way, you need to clamp the arm or tap with a hammer to hold into the knuckle to stop it the upper joint spinning in the hole while tightening up and it should pull the upper arms balljoint thread into the knuckle nicely, your picture should show the rubber dust cover more compressed than it is IMO.

5 hours ago, Laird_Scooby said:

As you'll see, the saloon parts are different to the Coupe parts. I have checked the 2.0 Coupe and the same parts are used as the 3.0 Coupe.

Dave is spot on, the UK accord with same year has a smaller sized setup, shocks springs upper and lower arms are bigger on the 2.0, 3.0 coupes...

[welland99]

2 hours ago, hughezee said:

There should be enough thread as I was talking Edwin through the process over the phone at the time as they had supplied the smaller arm for the UK model previously. Either way, you need to clamp the arm or tap with a hammer to hold into the knuckle to stop it the upper joint spinning in the hole while tightening up and it should pull the upper arms balljoint thread into the knuckle nicely, your picture should show the rubber dust cover more compressed than it is IMO.

I had no trouble with the spigot from the knuckle spinning.  It did pull tight in the hole and the friction stopped it spinning.  As I was tightening the nut, I kept hoping it would pull through further, but it didn't.  When the thread stripped on the spigot, I initially thought that the friction on the taper had lost its bite, but it hadn't.  When I took the nut off, the spigot was definitely tight in the hole and released only with the tap of a hammer on the side of the joint.