Clive - that wing is mostly made out of non-stick baking tray and silver hammerite, held together with rivets and filler. There's probably a cable tie involved somewhere as well, so no worries. We'll have to 'lose' another baking tray if it comes to it.
As for how I got it out, well there was one false start and then a first partly successful try followed by a better second attempt. I'm not a mechanic, nor is anyone in our party, just an enthusiastic, ham-fisted amateur trying to make things work!
1. We got the vehicle securely jacked up (we had four bottle jacks between us and some waffleboards that made useful raised bases). Then removed the wheel from the knuckle, pivoted the knuckle around the intact top ball joint and got the CV shaft back into the diff. Then we refitted the wheel - now in a straight ahead position and attempted to jack the LBJ into its housing and tried to hold it in there by using a ratchet strap between the upper and lower arms. Predictably enough, as soon as we tried to tow the vehicle the LBJ popped out again along with the CV joint and we called a halt before it all collapsed again. It just wasn't possible to get the ratchet strap tight enough.
2. I got the wheel and CV back in place and tried to tie the lower part of the knuckle to the lower arm, with the aim of having a rolling wheel tied to the lower arm - no use for any serious work but it might be towable to the end of the lane. I couldn't get it tight enough (there's no simple anchor point on the lower part of the knuckle) and the CV popped out again, which jammed and immobilised the wheel. However the wheel remained upright and skidded along happily enough for some distance until my rope slipped off the anchor point and - now no longer secured to the lower arm - the wheel went rogue again.
3. So, after jacking up the car again and getting the wheel upright I did what I probably should have done in the first place. Darkness was now falling, so I used another ratchet strap, reinforced with a couple of turns of the old 9mm climbing rope I always carry just in case, to wrap around the wheel and tie it tightly to the lower control arm. I now had a non-rolling wheel that functioned as a very effective skid on the loose gravel of the lane.
It wouldn't have worked on rock or tarmac I guess, but I think - although I didn't have time to try - that I might even have been able to drive it like that (with the centre diff locked), if not forwards then in reverse.
We dragged it almost to the end of the lane behind my mate's Ford Ranger and the thoroughly decent AA sub-contractor backed his flatbed the short remaining distance. The fact that we'd already secured the wheel to the lower arm speeded things up nicely and it was a simple pull up his ramp with his big winch. He recommended carrying a plastic McDonald's tray to tie to the wheel and use as a skid in case it happens again. However, I'm not planning on a repeat!
I'd heard some warning groans when turning the steering earlier in the day, but I mistook the noise for groaning shock absorbers because it only appeared to happen when the suspension was working hard. Not a mistake I will make again
(That's not me by the way. It's my mate who was barely stopping himself from laughing.)
