RAMPED UP

Things were going so well, I drove the car out of the garage after putting the wheels back on and getting it off the axle stands, I drove to to and fro a few times to settle the suspension, when the engine really started to run extremely rough and the engine cut out as soon as I selected drive or reverse. I was just about able to push it back into the garage, when after a while I restarted it and it began to run a little better, but I decided not to try out my new ramps.

That evening I was checking out the torque settings for the front suspension when I realise that I had probably put the bushes back to front on the drag struts, a quick call to Russ confirmed this The next morning Stella started and ran perfectly. I hadn't fitted the bonnet and it was drizzling the previous day, so I suspect that whilst I was tooing and froing, the rain shorted out the high voltage to some of the spark plugs and once it was back under cover and the wiring dried out all was OK.

I got Stella positioned on the new ramps and started to pump, the left ramp, looking from the front, started to raise straight away, but the right one was a little slower to get started and a small puddle of fluid leaked out of the ram, however both raised to their full height and I placed axle stands under and lowered the left one onto the stand and removed the ramp. I flipped the safety catch into place on the right one. It was a bit of a struggle but I got the left drag arm off and turned the poly bushes the correct way round and got it all loosely bolted back up. When I went to raise the right ramp sufficient to flip back the safety catch much more fluid pumped out and the ramp was going nowhere.

I placed my trolley jack on wooden chocks to bridge the bottom rail of the ramp and I was able to raise the wheel platform of the ramp with the jack enough to get the safety catch out of the way. When I lowered my trolley jack the right side settled onto the axle stand and  I could then remove both jack and the now defunct ramp. The right side drag strut bushes were put back the correct way and all that remained was to get the car of the stands. By using my two trolley jacks I was able to lower the car in stages, but I still need to torque everything up properly.

The ramps suppliers have suggested that I tighten the bearing/seal guide ring and I have yet do this. If this doesn't work it will have to be a replacement ram.