Leaking lever arms

I'd noticed a puddle of liquid below one of the suspension arms when in the garage. After checking it wasn't brake fluid, I tracked it down to the lever arm damper on the passenger side.

Garage floor under the front suspension. A large patch of oil is distributed over the floor tiles
Oil under the car which should be in the damper View photo

Rather than replace straight away, I thought I'd look at topping up the damper, so at least it would help driving. This is not too difficult as the fill plug is at the front of the damper so it can be done on the car. Using a oil can with a thumb lever you can easily fill the damper - unfortunately judging from how much I had to add this damper was well and truly empty.

The B jacked up at the front, wheel off with torchlight illuminating the wheel well
B jacked up to top up the damper View photo
The front of the damper has a fill plug. It is only a small hole but big enough for an oil can tube nozzle
Easy fill access for the damper View photo

A couple of days later and another trail of oil on the floor confirmed that the damper seals had totally gone. New dampers needed. Remembering the struggle I had last time I did this (back in 2012), I was not looking forward to it.

You can get dampers refurbished by one of a couple of engineering firms, but whilst the best option I didn't have the room in the garage to get both sides off (although in hindsight I probably could have dropped it back onto the wheels with just the springs and repositioned it). I also found some chat on forums which suggested that Rimmer Bros. used one of these firms for their refurbished exchange units. Hopefully this gave me the best of both - switching out one side at a time with no lead time. The units arrived and certainly seemed better quality than the last time I ordered a pair.

Two black dampers sitting on packaging on the floor
New dampers from Rimmer View photo

Then came the prolonged switch over process. The various nuts loosened pretty easily. The issue was that the top bolt seemed frozen in place. On the passenger side this was eventually released by force of clamps pushing it out, but on the driver side this did not work so I ended up cutting it out using a reciprocating saw. With the end released the remainder was drifted out.

The passenger wheel well of the B surrounded by an assortment of sockets, clamps, wrenches and hammers
You can tell the amount of frustration from the number of tools View photo
A large G-clamp puts force on the top bolt. The head of the bolt has a large socket placed over it to allow it to move as the other end has pressure applied
A big clamp and socket can do wonders View photo
The top bolt ends sawn off
When hammers fail, saws succeed View photo
The rest of the top bolt is shown being pushed out of the polybush
Drifting out the remains View photo
The reciprocating saw
First outing of the saw was a success View photo

Along with new poly bushes new top bolts were added, although it seems some are a better fit than others (and these seemed much tighter than the last ones I used).