Replacing Rear Dampers

Thought the following might be of interest:-

The rear dampers are located at the top in circular turrets with the securing nuts under rubber covers in the boot. The lower nuts are underneath the mounting brackets attached to the rear axle.

Firstly remove the spare wheel and top mount covers from the boot. Remove rear wheels and jack up axle and install axle stands.

The lower securing nuts need a 19mm spanner and a 8mm open ended one to slip onto the flats on the lower shaft. Even after application of copious amounts of Freeze Release spray the torque required to turn the 19mm nut was too much for the 8mm spanner locked against the brake drum and it turned on the flats. The solution was to use a pair of Mole grips set very tight and locked against the axle.

The upper mounts are more complicated. The damper upper body is secured to the turret by a hollow collared nut. By using a light and a mirror it is possible to see the top of the upper shaft which is hexagon shaped with a slot for a flat screwdriver. A screwdriver cannot created anywhere near enough torque to move the shaft in the nut and the hexagonal shaft head is impossible to reach without a special thin walled long socket – hence why the workshop manual states that a special Lancia tool is needed.

Freeze release spray is only useful when applied down through the top of the nut not around the washer area.

Eventually the solution turned out to be locking a 24mm (or 15/16 AF which is 24.2mm) spanner on the nut by supporting it on a suitable block of wood and jamming against the bulkhead between boot and cabin on RHS and onto the inner wing on the LHS. The task is then to turn the damper upper body under the car by using a small bicycle chain type oil filter wrench (£6.35 from B&Q inc. p&p!). Even using this requires too much torque for the chain which slides on the chain locating pegs. This problem is solved by clamping chain to tool pegs with the trust Moles! Problem solved and damper removed.

Fitting the Spax replacement sourced by the consortium is simple. Both upper and lower damper shafts have 6mm flats on the shafts and are secured via14mm spanner. The rubber bushes have slightly smaller diameter collars so need to be as central as possible in the mounting holes to minimise any minor misalignment.
Locating the adjustments screws towards to centre of the car gives access from under the rear. Set up adjustment is well described in the Spax document.

Brian Mills

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