Whats That Clonk? Freelander Drop Link Fun

Hippo the Freelander has been getting noisy with a mystery clonk from the front suspension, so my first job on this new car is to check out the drop links.
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[@mikes747]

Been there so many times on a cold driveway swearing at a stuck bolt! I feel your pain!

[@williamgreer4087]

"As we enter day three of trying to undo one bolt" We've ALL been there 🤣

[@deandrejul4730]

and every job like that starts at - how much? 20 quid to replace that? no thanx I can do it my self...

[@TheMentalblockrock]

@@deandrejul4730 Be £20 just for the parts these days!!!

[@doktoruzo]

'Man versus rounded off nut' is always a good watch. We've all been there...20 min job goes into several days, much swearing, skinned knuckles, hammering, desperation, sawing...more hammering, more skinned knuckles...you know the score. Well done Matt, you deserve a nice glass of your favourite tipple after that.

[@esoxcycles]

Watching you struggle and fight with cars make us all feel normal. Love seeing the struggle rather than pretending it was all straight forward

[@mpersad]

Again...your patience is praiseworthy. The air would have been turning blue if I'd been doing that job!

[@giulianomarco]

You could always warm your tea up with that heating element, Matt! 😁 My 4th year juniors teacher used one in a mug for his tea in 1979. Not dangerous at all! 🤪🤕

[@andyarmstrong1493]

Wow, what a marathon, but a great result in the end. I love the "real world" flavour of your work. I always end up with a driveway full of tools, bleeding knuckles and a broken heart! That's when a mate turns up and says there's a bloke down the road that does these for 20 quid all in.

[@Videomoth]

Watching you struggle through this brought flashbacks of many a cold afternoon on the driveway trying to undo stuck ball joints! - a trick I have found that may help you in future is as follows; Using vice grips grab the shaft of the threads (usually around the area of the weather seal/boot) then undo the nut as normal. You MUST do this before rounding the nut (of course) and it only works for me about 75% of the time, even with heat applied. It does of course ruin the joint, but for your situation that would not have been an issue. I hope it helps anyone who reads this. Congrats on having the patience to see this one through like you did!

[@RogueRestorationsLTD]

If you jacked up the two front wheels together it would take the tension out of the anti roll bar and easy to work on wagon. good video as always.

[@streetkaaccord344]

Great minds......

[@Oh-Jay52]

Yep, Torsional rigidity ....And just cut them off , why bother unscrewing scrap parts ?

[@toonmag50]

Interesting,but wouldn't the weight of both wheels pull down and put tension back onto the droplink in question?

[@RogueRestorationsLTD]

@@toonmag50 but with one wheel that has pressure on it add’s torsional pressure on it forcing the bar up and fighting not allowing room to put the new one on

[@Oh-Jay52]

@@toonmag50 The Bushings are underneath the level ofthe main part of the roll bar so as the car is lowered the bushings become looose and so do the droplinks as the weight and force is taken up by the lower balljoint and lower part of suspension arm , hence making the droplink free to move (if worn or damaged that is ) Having one wheel under tension and not the other can disguise a faulty droplink .

[@Robinlandrover]

Land rover. Turning 10-minute jobs into a day's work since 1948

[@shaydevlin5557]

Hippo is good I like him great addition to the fleet

[@markdoyle6414]

A drimmel often works for me, even to put new flats on the nut. The heat generated when using helps.

[@stuartduncan2772]

Your patience, tenacity and creativity are a credit to you. Once committed, you didn't have a choice so well done. More of these videos please.

[@darrenwilson8042]

I just doing a job love - I'll be outside for about half an hour and come in for lunch - its 2am your dinner is in the bin and you are having a cup of tea and some toast before going to bed. And the little job is stull unfinished lol

[@furiousdriving]

sounds normal

[@robinforrest7680]

Very familiar 🙄

[@darrenwilson8042]

@@furiousdriving I once stripped a staircase of wall paper - 3 weeks later I was into it for a plasterer and an electrician

[@donnysweekendvanlifetravel7854]

The blue gue will be the old nylock

[@MrSandseeker]

Oh my, just watched your struggle with the freelander droplink…..quite therapeutic after removing and installing a new headliner in our old heap! Only for the brave.

[@malcolmyoung7866]

I have an inductive heating tool. Bought it to release all the suspension/subframe bolts on my TD4. And absolutely essential tool. I also have a MAP gas torch. As good as gas and flames are there are the obvious hazard with heating up vehicle components etc needs to be carefully thought through. The inductive heater removes that hazard. £199-00 off of Uncle Jeff’s mega store.. paid for itself in one 2 hour session. It’s cheap but not overly nasty.. and it WORKS!

[@brianiswrong]

I did the drop links on our 13 plate 108"000 mile fiesta last year,just after I bought it (it had an advisory for a lower arm ball joint, which I replaced as units on both sides. Never done anything like it,but the drop links were easy peassy 👍 The lower wish arms were a bit of a pain ,but doable, then tracking from Halfords for £25 and job done. Is it just me,but working on the drive,you lay out all the tools and then within 5 mins everything is suddenly hidden or out of reach 😲

[@davidmackenzie5971]

Good to see Hippo, does not give you as much grief as your other cars have done in the past, Go Hippo

[@CauliflowerMcPugg]

Oh I do love 15min jobs, I've had a few of them over the years Lol. Even if it takes days it's very satisfying to have it done and no mechanic needed.

[@LeighParkin]

You have such patience. If it were mine, it would be upside down on fire in a quarry after fighting with it for 10 mins let alone 3 days. Good on you!

[@allsortsabouteverything]

I cant believe that you made such a meal out of such a SIMPLE JOB. I have owned hippo's for over ten yrs and never taken me more than half an hour to do both drop links. i change mine every two yrs max in advance of the M O T. as routine maintainance.

[@philtowle4683]

After years of messing around trying to get drop links off, I now reach for the grinder. Funnily enough my wife drove one of these for years and many miles and never had to replace any suspension parts.

[@jackscott8931]

Okay.. I cannot belive the parallels here.. Firstly - recently changing one of two owned R8 rovers for an 02 plate silver freelander td4 Secondly - the upper ball of the offside drop link begins clonking within the last week, which I changed it today. ..what are the chances By the way, the blue goop i suspect may be the nylon in nylock nut melting? The nylon insert in nylock nuts i took off today was blue. My Freelander put up significantly less of a fight thankfully, especially as I don't have power tools. Took me 40 mins if that and was far less farcical! If these fleet parallels continue, heads up because your tomcat will get hit a stone on the motorway which will crack its windscreen soon! I need to sort mine out

[@stagman244]

This reminded me of me fitting a new electric fan to the Stag… its new mounting ‘frame’ fits underneath the radiator. Undo the bolts top and bottom and lift it up to slip it under… Except one of the bottom bolts that’s welded to the inside of the radiator began spinning…. The saga went on and on with the offending bolt eventually being ground off and a replacement radiator - which in truth was probably due anyway. Just a ‘quick’ and easy job that ended up taking weeks (due in part to lack of time) and lots of leg pulling from my mates…

[@furiousdriving]

Haha the easiest jobs are often the hardest!

[@Rich.Aardvark]

Top tip, find some metal tubing wide enough to fit over your rachet. Turns it into a longbar

[@paultaylor9652]

Light nights are what you need Matt, or a double garage. Keep the great videos coming, but try not to damage yourself in the process.

[@scottishcarenthusiastsandtrain]

Great tinkering as always Matt, you have the patience of a saint, I would have chucked in the towel and farmed it out!

[@robincook3367]

Drop links - the 'how to' videos on here make it look easy. Usually, they are dirty, corroded and when you attempt to undo the nut, the balljoint just spins round, so 'easy' is the last thing they are.. Best way to get old ones off, if you don't have flats to get a spanner pm them, is: 1. Cut off the small rubber boot 2. Grip the shaft the nut goes on to where you have removed the boot with a sturdy pair of mole grips 3. The nut is then easy to undo When replacing them, don't get ones with splines or Allen sockets on, they corrode easily. Get ones with flats by the rubber boots so you can get a spanner on them if you need to replace the later.

[@jo_clarke1960]

Great vid. Commentary on days feels familiar only, I think it's normally weeks in my case. Banged a lot of body parts too. Those 24" breaker bars a great, if you can't shift something with them, generally you're in trouble.

[@MarkieC1990]

Try a 5/8 spanner if you have any old imperial stuff Matt, that’s just about a 16mm in my experience 😊

[@AliMackMechanical]

I said was a drop link lol. I have cut so many of them off in time working on these freelanders. They are an untter pain the Neck to get out. Glad you got it out even if it did take you 2 day's. 👍

[@furiousdriving]

They are notorious for eating them

[@ianjenkins4641]

Blue goo would be the nylon. You can just gun the bolts on the drop links and they will snap off

[@andysimkin5200]

Would turning the wheels to the right helped with access?

[@furiousdriving]

not significantly

[@robertlewis2]

Your persistence paid off. Good job!

[@timhancock6626]

I've taken to wearing work gloves when using sharp tools or hammers or things that can slip. You'd be amazed how often they save you pain.

[@JulianPhilipNicolls]

Happy memories of changing the drop links on my mk1 freelander. It's a regular job as they don't last long.

[@WmAHughes]

Matt: “I’m going to use the blade backwards” Me: “Ooooh, I’ve never seen inside a South East Coast ambulance before”

[@richardhunt1384]

The Blue Goo is the Nylock Plastic melting out of the nut. Get that a lot when we attack stubbon nuts with Oxy Acetylene. Drop link nuts... FT. They should come undone once they're tight due to the Nylock nut being on them.

[@AlfaGiuliaQV]

Never has a man worked so hard for such a small step 😂 I felt your frustration there, been there and done that...

[@roygardiner2229]

Very well done. What this brought home to me, forcibly, was that if you are going to do some car repairs yourself you need.....knowledge of how the car is built.....aptitude.....courage.....determination......and.....LOTS of tools. I congratulate you.

[@tentotwo8290]

Glad I’m not the only one that gets into these scrapes. A garage would of used a torch from the start 🙈🙈

[@furiousdriving]

a torch still wouldnt have got it free, the nut was beyond turning

[@kellybrickey4300]

nice tea shelf on your trolly jack.

[@Nick-bp7jf]

I ran a Freelander 1 for ten years. It went through a fair few drop links. Having a lot of experience of the Freelander i can tell you that a few drop links are the least of your worries. lol.

[@johnafer]

This video shows exactly why people should not complain on the cost of reasonable garage costs. If a good home mechanic takes 4 days to change a simple part that costs £10.., just shows that it’s the skill and labour that you pay for.

[@robc5955]

Drop links are the work of him below, don’t know if you watch SMA but I took a tip from him and stopped wasting time trying to undo them and just cut them off, then put the new on with an impact gun on the highest setting. Usually works, last year I replaced two, only to find still got a knock, it later turned out to be the caliper guide pins had pulled threads allowing the caliper to float (a fun fix) two months later the ‘new drop links’ failed which I could not believe and spent much time mis diagnosing, the movement could only be detected when under load those were moog and I switched back to OEM and all was quiet.

[@TheMentalblockrock]

A set of Irwin Bolt grippers would save the day here!

[@BlackLines]

I remember with my old Volvo C70 trying to get the wheelhub off and one horrible "torx" bolt being stuck solid. It's still stuck to this day - I took the whole wheel assembly off and replaced it because none of: a 5lb mell, a blowtorch, £50 of removal sockets, a drill or a grinder would budge it. It's in my garage. One day, ONE DAMN DAY that bolt is going to see daylight I swear.

[@machiningbasics1729]

Nice to see it not only the big landrovers that rot away at a rate of knots. Keep soldiering on

[@user-ih7gc7dt9l]

So pleased your jack comes complete with a Tea shelf!

[@billgriffiths1685]

Matt, broken regular hacksaw blades are what I use in my airsaw.

[@hibbs79]

Great video thanks for showing all the hassle you had to deal with and not just editing it all out. Well worked out the end. Cheers mat

[@deniscudahy4549]

Well done,welcome to the world of Landrover

[@mcostafernando]

It's not really a project until we have drawn some blood! haha

[@Rich-on6fe]

Quite a good (economical) tool to get, to increase your palette of stuck-thing-destroying techniques: an electric die-grinder with tungsten carbide burr. I have a Katsu 101730 from Aim tools and some 6mm-shank burrs from eBay. It will eat its way into / through anything and would make quick work of a rusty bolt that maybe the angle grinder can't access. Don't get an air powered one and don't get a slow one with a drill-chuck. And best get some 3M Peltor 3 ear defenders.

[@furiousdriving]

I was considering buying one if this went on any longer

[@streetkaaccord344]

I always jack up both sides of the car so that the anti roll bar is not stressed, drop link comes off easier. Maybe not in your case though!

[@deanh3741]

Couple of extra tools to consider. A nut splitter set then when you do the other side cos that’ll be about 3 weeks away ;) will make removing the top nut a doddle. Other is a set of crescent x6 pass through sockets for those top nuts in the drop link

[@seancooke7332]

If it's got Rover on it somewhere, Matt will move mountains.

[@alibro7512]

Not sure if it's been mentioned before but a finger power file would have removed the last bit of bolt in a few seconds. You still would have had to push it out but they're great for removing hard to get at bolts and nuts like rear brake cylinder bolts.

[@ianpumphrey5041]

Obvious question, why did you not turn the steering to the right, rotating the leg and freeing up space to get on the fixing?...

[@usuallyfixingtinkering]

Matt you need a 12v grinder, small and really good for confined Spaces. They are called 'cut off grinders'. I have a Parkside one from lidl. You'll be using it a lot for rounded bolts when your main grinder is overkill or too big.

[@s9enny]

Yep 12v rotary tool cut the nut 10 mins max 👍

[@caroldave4037]

If you can get at droplink nut ..use grinder to cut it off. its not like you need old one🤔😉

[@jimmyk9523]

17:04 Don't try this at home kids

[@darrenhillman8396]

Well done, Matt! Great perseverance shown with the recalcitrant offside drop link! Amazed you did it without effing and jeffing too - unless you have edited that out!! 🤣 My swear box would have been full to overflowing if it had been me doing the job! Not that I have a swear box. Great content as ever. Entertaining, interesting, engaging - spot-on! 👏🏻

[@furiousdriving]

there was some editing..

[@offgrid7837]

The most urgent job with a Freelander is to place a For Sale ad before it breaks and costs you three times what it's worth.

[@MegaSkypes]

Perseverance is key! Just like me! 1977 Series 3 Swb Petrol 2/25 new piston and rings honed bores new valves ground in and a new Zenith carb start up was first time but can I get the rough idle and mixture right? No so as I type I’ll be out in the garage pulling the carb off and getting hopefully perfection! Good work keep it up!

[@MegaSkypes]

Good news I put the old carb back on and all good!

[@Yorkyscott]

Dremel with cutting discs will access right areas and is surprisingly effective

[@matthewwiddows6319]

suggest you invest in a small dremel otary tool with some mini cutting discs. great for cutting of nuts and you have a lot of control. good for small spaces where you cant get a full size grinder in.

[@maxidyne]

You never give up, are inventive and in the end you get it done! Great job Matt.

[@johnsampey344]

I was going to say it sounded more like the Turret Bearings but you proved me wrong. Great content. Thanks.

[@alchapman1052]

Once again an amazing display of patience, hope this isn't gonna be a troublesome landrover, at least its a diesel .

[@LivingWithAClassic]

You've reminded me that I must get an induction heater! Great work! I have a similar clunk I need to address on my '06 Range Rover

[@michaeltutty1540]

Well done, Matt. That looks a right pig of a job, but you managed it. Keep up the good work.

[@paulobrien651]

Standard hacksaw blades will fit your airsaw, just cut them to the required length with a cutting disk.

[@harryclayton2416]

Bit of engineering info, the blue goo leaking out of the nut is the nylock melting

[@jonp5641]

Great job Matt, you really do have the patience of a saint!

[@kamrankhan-lj1ng]

Somehow I love that stocky shape, notwithstanding all the hate comments by British motorists.

[@swissdisco8092]

I admire your patience mate. Love the Hippo. Alway wanted one , got an FL2 and a D1 . My wife says that’s plenty 😩

[@user-ih7gc7dt9l]

A multisaw and a bunch of metal cutting blades might be a good idea as well as a16mm socket of course. 👍 By the way this is exactly why I watch videos on old car bodging and don’t do it myself anymore. 🙏🏼

[@bobagosto6441]

its funny the green Bosch sounds like a Mercedes w123 240d for like a minute from 14:04-14:06

[@zubeystinzen540]

Never start a job without the correct tools

[@chilternman]

Irwin bolt remover and long bar would have been your friend there

[@davidfarrah922]

I like your high lift jack with a tea shelf , very cool!

[@furiousdriving]

Multi function

[@Rust_in_Time]

My least favourite game is Battle That Rattle. I’ve been playing it for years on various cars, but most recently on my Triumph Herald.

[@angrymuffinsb]

I really don’t know how you maintain your patience. I’d have smashed it all up when the bolt wouldn’t come off. Thrown my toys out, and stormed off. 😂😭

[@kd23se4]

You have a lot of saws.........Mr.Bodyinthetrunk :D

[@Simon-ui6db]

I feel your pain on this, rover 75 have similar droplinks and an utter ball ache to do.

[@VDPEFi]

Generally speaking and obviously the top nut on the Freelander is in a silly place, I don't bother trying to loosen, I go full tighten and just shear them off I find it works well

[@iansmotorsandlife7408]

Every time I work on 20 year old cars =this video.

[@neilwalsh4058]

Been there many times Matt, the smallest job turns into an epic. All part of the fun and very satisfying when you eventually get there. You should be a dab hand at changing drop links if you've had a 156. My Marea used to go thro them for fun and I think the 156 has the same front suspension?

[@tonys1636]

A job well done, even if it was frustrating for you, if a mechanic had been employed he/she may have put more in the swear box than you would have paid. I thought the video had a slight blue tinge left after the edit.

[@danpullin6610]

I did this job on mine, fitted MEYLE ones to mine proper Heavy Duty ones! @ £50 theys was, and I just cut mine off when I saw those crusty bolts, I think Freelanders are hard on these

[@timbre7999]

Lovely video! Must say; I'm starting to really like this Freelander, it's such an endearing beast.

[@chrisdoney8578]

Dremel with metal cutting disc is your wsy forward here

[@chrisb00k]

if you learn anything from our good friend eric-o from sma, its beat it to submission with an air chisel! Good to see you working on your cars though, instead of farming it out unlike other channels these days.

[@dagenhamdave2611]

matt great video as usual mate but you should be swapping both sides at a time

[@markpunt9638]

All of a sudden - garages and their mechanics seem like a bargain.

[@ramdonice]

Turning the steering would of helped out loads

[@grayfool]

The drop link of despair. Yuck. Land Rovers are the ultimate test of your patience.

[@dhanakompremprabha7004]

You did wear hand gloves. I saw the wound on your hand. Take care of that, have protection gears during do the jobs.