Lotus Esprit S3

Front Suspension Dismantling

Picture shows nearside suspension prior to dismantling. The car is resting on axle stands positioned under the crossmember. A wooden packing piece is used to protect the chassis – just visible to the right of the steering rack boot.

The anti-roll bar has already been detached from the chassis and opposite suspension link.

DAMPER TOP MOUNT

WISHBONE PIVOT

WISHBONE

TOPBALLJOINT

STEERING RACK

BRAKECALIPERHUB NUT

DUST CAP

SPRING &DAMPER

HUB

BRAKEDISC

BRAKEBACKPLATE

ANTI-ROLL BAR

Prise off the steel cap that protects the bearings from dirt ingress…

With the split pin removed, the hub nut can be undone.It should not be tight.

On this car, the braking system had already been drained and newflexible hoses were to be fitted. Here, the rigid line coupling is undone with a 13mm spanner to allow…

… the flexible line to be detached from the chassis bracket. A 15mm and a 17mm spanner will be required.

The flexible line can be detached from the brake caliper in the samemanner. Use a 19mm spanner or socket to loosen and remove the two bolts securing the caliper to its mounting, and remove the caliper.

With the caliper removed, the hub nut can be removed to allow the hub and brake disc to be lifted off. The inner grease seal has beenprised from its recess…

… and here the bolts thatsecure the brake backplateare being removed with a13mm spanner.

Removal of the two lower bolts (14mm) allows the brakebackplate and the steering armto be removed.The front bolt has a nut on theback…

… and will require the Nyloc to be held whilst the bolt is undone.

With the backplate and steering arm removed, the brake calipermounting plate can be lifted off. This method saves having to disturbthe track rod end if it does not need replacing.

Remove the trunnion mounting nut and bolt…

…and the two bolts that clampthe top wishbone to the topballjoint (not shown butshould be obvious).Then the upright can be lifted away from the lower link.The trolley jack is easing theload off the trunnion and topballjoint mounts to makeextracting the bolts easier.

With the trunnion out of the way, it is now possible to gain access tothe anti-roll bar end nut (a Nyloc) with a 19mm spanner.It may well be fairly seized.

On this ARB the rubber bushes are completely wrecked. Note thetwo washers (one with a tapered side to the centre hole) and the distance piece (tube) through the centre of the bushes. It is alsopossible to make out a crack in the Nyloc nut…!

Loosen the upper and lowerdamper mountings, then installa pair of spring compressors(not visible here).The spring can then becompressed…

Once the spring is under adegree of compression, remove the damper topmounting nuts and bushes, prise the damper out of itsupper mounting and compressit down into the spring.Picture shows a large spannerbeing used as a lever to pushthe damper down.

With the spring and damperdisengaged from their topmountings, the spring canbe simply lifted off thelower link.Removal of the damper lowermounting nut and bolt willallow the damper to beextracted from the link.Note that although there is a rubber spring seat in the topmounting, the lower end ofthe spring sits directly onthe lower link platform.

Removal of the pivot boltand nut will allow the lower link to be removedfrom its mounting.Similarly, the two halves ofthe top wishbone can beremoved once their pivotstud is extracted. The bodyshellhas holes in the foot-wells to allow access for sockets, drifts etc.Note that the pivots may wellbe rusted into the bushesand/or the chassis.