Juha G

Hey folks,

I still didn't manage to get rid of the clunking noise from my rear suspension. (after changing all monoball bearings etc.).

I took the rear suspension apart again last night and discovered (finally) what I believe is the root cause for the clunking noise;

The lower spring plate has gone loose. There is no locking on it. I believe there should be one or two screws tightened against the strut on the spring plate(see photo).
Since the spring plate is loose, it has travelled down so much that the helper spring has hardly any compression. I can just pull the main spring up and down with my hands and repeat the clunking noise.

I also discovered that the struts are different, the passenger side had only 2 locking washers around the stabilizer bar mount whereas the drivers side had 4.

Question to those who have Motons: Which one is correct (2 or 4, or should it be 3 and 3 which would make sense) and how is one supposed to fix the lower spring plate in pace (With screws like I have shown on the photo?).

Flying Finn

Hmm, interesting. I don't have Motons but to me it seems you could have one of those four locking washers tightened against the spring plate?
(I'm sure someone with Motons will chime in).

FYI, mark the suspension spring plates with paint or permanent marker, that way you can check whether they are turning or not.

Nollie

Here's what I have going on:


The drop link mount only has two lock rings, and the spring has the orange ring plus another lock ring. This way you can tighten each against another. My helper spring is on top... not sure that makes a difference, I put them in the way I got them. To date I haven't had any issue with this setup (no loosening).

TheOtherEric

It's not clear that the spring plate caused the clunking. The only problem that this should cause is that your rear ride height dropped an inch. (or perhaps your tire is hitting the fender or some other clunk is caused by the lower ride height?) It's also possible that the clunk is a shock problem. I had my JRZs (identical to motons) rebuilt and when I reinstalled, I had a horrible clunking sound from one. Turned out to be something internal. (thanks a lot, SRP).

Regarding lock nuts, you don't need one under the spring plate if your spring plate has a locking means. And you certainly don't need 4 around the drop link mount!! Two will suffice.

And like Finn said, mark all of your suspension parts. I use vibration/tamper paint.

trophy

+1 The lowered ride height (and the difference left to right) could be causing other issues. I would also have a look at your toe links to see if there has been any contact from the swaybar drop links as well.

TheOtherEric

+1 on Steven's comments. If one side is 1" lower than the other, you'll probably have a huge preload on the sway bar. That could cause some strange stuff I bet.

Probably the drop link is just slamming into the toe arm since that side is so low. Look around for anything worn. Could be lots of things. Something might even be hitting the driveshaft.

Juha G

Ok, I re-tapped the locking bolt threads on both spring plates and got some new locking bolts. Now I've re-assembled both struts and going to install them tonight.

Regarding the clunking noise, I am now 100% that the loose spring plate was the cause. The drivers side was so loose that if I held the strut in my hand by the main spring, I could repeat the noise by just shaking the strut up and down rapidly.
What you say regarding the ride height is true but there is a point where the distance between the upper and the lower spring plate becomes too large for the helper spring to handle. My drivers side was so low that the helper spring was almost fully extended. i.e. there was no "power" in the spring left to keep the package tight during sudden extension. (shaking up and down).

trophy

It is always very satisfying when you find and fix problems....

OT: Any update on your Motec project?

Evan Fullerton

Just to add on here with what I have with my Motons. I have 3 locking nuts per side the order from top to bottom is spring seat, locking nut, drop link mount, 2 lock nuts. Everything is very close to each other so it is like the one you have with only two nuts but my car is ~1.5" lower and I have an additional locking nut, double nutting the entire assembly.

Bill Verburg

this is what correctly setup Motons will look like(pic credit to MB)