97 850 wagon rear wobble/clunking Topic is solved

[erikv11]

DQ, the rear end on this car still has me stumped! I've been wrenching for 40 years and still can't figure out the best way to use a floor jack and place jack stands in a safe spot to do the work I want to do. Hope you find some answers!

Gordon

Block the front wheels. Raise the rear by placing a board under the tow hook, across and near the edge (but not in the middle of!) the spare tire well. Use a floor jack to raise the center-rear of the car up, no dangerous leaning one side or the other. Jack it up high if you need to. Place each jack stand under the metal plate with the three bolts, just aft of the rear wheel.

Car is now safely up, and the suspension is completely free to monkey with.

[Jaguar xjs]

Thanks for the jacking tip Erik! Will give it a try the next time I'm back there.

Gordon

[dairyqueen814]

So I went under the car the other day to find the heat shield above the muffler wobbling and clunking around like crazy. I ribbed out the rotted part, all excited to fix the problem but its still clunking. Time to check the links!

[Richard_TD]

It could be the inner axle bushes. They are inside the suspension arm and control the alignment of the wheel on the opposite side. Mine had broken away from the housing. It looked like a real nightmare to change and the Volvo specialist made it sound like a major job. After a week of him not returning my calls I resigned myself to doing the job myself. The first and last time I went to him.

I jacked the car up and removed a wheel to assess the job. I undid the bolt from the end (not visible here but easily accessible) and found that the bush was bolted to the end of the axle, not fitted over it as I'd assumed. The broken halves of the bush came out of the space easily and I decided to see if the new one would go in without further dismantling. Not quite, but a gentle tap with a hide mallet did the trick. The whole thing took me about half an hour.

[abscate]

Well done, Richard. There are people who have spent 10 hours on this job when they are really frozen

[Richard_TD]

It's better to be lucky than good!

[skloon]

I changed one set of those that I had to use a sawzall as the bolts had frozen to the links the next one I was all prepared and it came out like butter- somebody had used copper anti-seize on the bolts

[dairyqueen814]

So I just found the problem (I hope.) I looked at the rear links and they are both pretty shot. To top it off, when I went to tighten my lugs the wheel just rolled forward because they were bad. Needless to say I'm replacing them asap. Is it the same part for both sides? or is there a left and a right one?