same front axles on both sides of a vitara

[christover1]

Still no more groans from bush, so I reckon it just needed bed in time. I have left hubs locked during daily driving, and noise just slowly reduced and went away. It is not getting hot around bush anymore, so all looks well.

Think length of axle is fine, but i will check it again soon, to ease my mind.

[christover1]

Axle length all good. Dropped the 3 flange bolts, jacked wheel up and down. at it's shortest length there was still a bit of slack. Very cool, but I opened up the Top 3 strut holes a bee's willy, just to give it a bit extra. Camber still Ok, and wheel alignment Ok, but will do a proper paid for alignment in near future.
I should be able to remove axle with wheel on, but dropping the top strut mount would make it a fair bit easier. Happy with it now.

[gwagensteve]

I opened up the Top 3 strut holes a bee's willy, just to give it a bit extra. Camber still Ok, and wheel alignment Ok

Er, do you mean the three holes in the chassis under the inner guard that retain the top of the macpherson strut? If so, I'm not at all sure I would have been doing that. You've now lost the ability to hold alignment on the front end - you're relying on friction between the strut and the chassis rather than the bolts to hold an alignment.

In any case, if you move the top mount outwards, then adjust the camber back to spec, you haven't actually opened up any more room for the axle - what you've "given" by opening up the holes, you've taken away by adjusting the camber back to spec.

Steve.

[christover1]

The holes are not a tight fit anyway, I just cleaned holes out a touch.