I Wish I'd Left My Beam Alone...

[Phil 0]

I finally decided to lower the back of my 205 last weekend, as it had a completely standard 309 beam on and I had just fitted the front Bilstein coilovers and was fitting the tarmac rears. Whilst lowering it I thought one of the arms felt a bit stiff so I decided a rebuild was in order.

 

Here is the 309 beam looking rather clean next to my old 1.9 beam that I have been using for spares.

 

A quick strip down showed the bearings on one side to still be in working order although it looks like the seals had started to go and rust was forming:

 

 

The other side however was a different story, compare the bearings from each side!

 

 

The inner bearing surfaces look like they might clean up:

 

 

Although you can tell which had seized and the bearings had deposited some material on the shaft

 

Here is the outer bearing surface on the shaft with the better bearings...

 

Does anyone know if this is re-useable with some proper polishing? It doesn't seem to be indented much (if at all)

 

This shaft is obviously better off in the bin!

 

Here it is after a couple of hours work:

 

 

Is the better shaft worth saving? I must say I was quite suprised at the state it was in as it all appeared to be in good working order from the outside!

 

Or do I just scrap those two and go on the hunt of the mystical negative camber ZX rear arms?

[Anthony 1,000]

Is the shaft that you're undecided on keeping just polished (in which case it'll be fine) or pitted (in which case it needs replacing)?

[Phil 0]

Anthony, it looks just polished. There is no pitting from corrosion but it doesn't feel completely smooth either in a strange kind of way - almost like the bearings may have left a tiny dent each. I will try and machine polish it and see I guess? It could just be a build up of bearing material.

 

I think this may be why my 205 was always very tripod like on track!

Edited February 18, 2007 by Phil

[ALEX 98 1 Cars]

Id get a new shft to be sure.

They need pressing out, or If your clever enough make some kind of puller.

I heard that the shafts are all the same even on the base model 205's.

not 100% sure Antony will know.

I was quoted £10 once for a full rear beam off a base model 205 at my local breakers

Edited February 19, 2007 by ALEX

[welshpug 1,626]

i wouldnt re-use that shaft, unless you can build up the metal and machine then polish it back down like i've heard a Citroen Specialist do.

 

looks like youve caught it just in time, anly longer ansd the shaft would have been wearing away the tube

 

part numbers you need are here BTW, pictures too

 

http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f169/wel...dwood/?start=40

[pip470 61]

I spoke to a top guy i know and showed him my shaft once (easy) and mine was pitted on half it , i told him how much the new shafts were and he just said reuse the shaft but make sure it goes in the opposite way up it came out as all the wieght and forces are only acting on part of the bearing anyway. I never did reuse it but i value this guys opinion very much might be a cheaper option.

[Henry Yorke 269 3 Cars]

If you have access to a press then spin it upside down if it is ok, as has been said earlier

[ALEX 98 1 Cars]

Id get a new shft to be sure.

They need pressing out, or If your clever enough make some kind of puller.

I heard that the shafts are all the same even on the base model 205's.

not 100% sure Antony will know.

I was quoted £10 once for a full rear beam off a base model 205 at my local breakers

 

 

EDIT:

 

Just read this again

I ment to say:-

 

Im not 100% sure, but Antony will know

[Bally 4]

Correct, turn the shaft 180 degrees and you have another lifetime out of it, only wears act on a small section.

[Phil 0]

Ok guys thanks for the tips. I may have a look at liberating some cars of trailing arms from the scrap yard, but I can't figure out which would be best...

 

According to the information in the link http://forum.205gtidrivers.com/index.php?s...st&p=526084

 

My current 309 arms have 3.8mm toe in and 0 degrees 50 mins camber (guessing that it is pre-90 beam) There are threads on here with people fitting ZX 16v arms for their rear camber which has 1 degree 0 minutes but from the list it would appear that the 306 1.8 16v arms are the ones to go for with 1 degree 20 mins camber (the most on the list) but also the least toe in of all the arms with that camber setting.

 

Am I understanding that correctly?

[pug_ham 241 3 Cars]

Looking through that list, your choice of arms might be about the best to keep an element of extra stability for straight ahead.

 

I haven't fitted my ZX arms yet so can't compare how much difference it makes with no toe in but I'll get my tracking properly checked before I swap to them so I know its all as it should be.

 

Graham.

[Phil 0]

That plan has hit a rock as the local (un)friendly scrap yard has said they won't let me split a beam and want £150 for the axle complete... Way over my budget of a tenner, some random coppers and whatever sweet wrappers are also hidden deep in my pocket!!

 

They also tried telling me that all the rear arms are exactly the same and only the ride height determines the camber and toe in.

 

On the plus side I have ordered all the bearing/seals etc from Peugeot now, and so I have until they arrive to decide what to do with the trailing arms. I might just swap out the knackered shaft for a new GSF one and spin the better one round 180 unless I can find a better plan before then.

Edited February 24, 2007 by Phil

[Edp 67 3 Cars]

How much were all the bits and what did you order?

[Phil 0]

Here are the parts I ordered, that should be pretty much everything give or take the odd bolt. (Not including trailing arm shafts obviously)

 

[chownr 0]

I ran my new Xsara arms at teh weekend at Manby - first event of the year for us. The car felt very stable in straight line and Id say a little more side grip and when the back started to break free it was still very progressive. I managed to get a set of arms with decent shafts for £70 from Jonnie.

 

very happy I am too.

 

If anyone wants a set of either 1.9 trailing arms (no shafts), or a pair of 1.6 arms complete with drums, handbrake cables and usable shafts or a single trailing arm with usable shaft (no hub though) PM me or they will be on the for sale section very shortly.

 

Rich

[Phil 0]

Well some good news at last, I stripped down the other side of my old 1.9 rear axle (the very manky looking one in the pictures) and to my suprise the shaft was ok! (I stripped down one side a while back and the shaft was completely shot) So that has saved me £70 odd on a new shaft!

 

chownr,

 

Was there a big noticeable difference or could the differences be down to just refurbing the beam whilst fitting the new arms? I think I am going to use the standard arms for the moment, as i'm not sure the difference will be all that noticeable.

[Phil 0]

Well I have made some good progress on the beam this week!

 

I cleaned up the arms using an angle grinder with wire brush attachment - took about 30 seconds!

 

(Before and after comparison)

 

I then started removing the old bearings from the cross tube using various long screwdrivers and crowbars etc until I slipped with the hammer so had to call it a day:

 

 

A couple of days later I picked up the trailing arms, had one of my decent spare shafts pressed in and both spun 180 degrees:

 

 

Fitted new collars:

 

 

New seals to the Anti-roll bar ends:

 

 

And pressed the new bearings into the cross tube with new seals:

 

 

Rear beam all ready for re-assembly:

 

 

 

(Insert about 3 hours of pain an misery from the front torsion bar splines and hole in the trailing arm not mating correctly and flattening all the splines)

 

I made a dummy shock from a stick of wood and set it to 305mm between bolt centers.

 

And hey presto:

 

 

Ready to be fitted tomorrow!

[Phil 0]

So in the end, the total cost was £70 which I guess isn't too bad! I will leave the negative camber ideas for another year or until I break something on this setup!

[Edp 67 3 Cars]

Good job that man. Well done for posting lots of pictures ( the finger was a bit much )too as these threads come and go but this will be useful to lots of people, especially me.

 

Having a print out of what parts you changed too with the prices is extremely handy.

 

Ed

[Phil 0]

No problem Edp. I did plan on taking step by step pictures as reading the rear beam rebuild guide and lowering guide on here was majorly confusing for me having never stripped one before. (I looked at them both ages ago and it put me off the job completely!)

 

But with the instructions and the beam off the car it was actually very straight foreward and pretty self explanatory. The instructions cover everything

 

I have fitted the rear axle today (mastered a great way of refitting it using 3 trolley jacks and zero effort and without stripping the threads on the 6 16mm pins that come through the car so that was good!) But even after jumping around in the boot a lot, one side seems to sit about 1 finger lower (i.e. about 5mm). Is this usual? One spline out would be way more than 5mm so i'm not sure what I could do to correct it?

[pug_ham 241 3 Cars]

Well done Phil, glad you've managed to get it all sorted in the end.

 

I am midway through re-writting the lowering guides for the main site as Anthony & I have both been over the current one & been confused by it.

 

It really isn't that hard to do the proper way & my article is pretty complete bar the pictures but the spline method (as in current article) is also easy enough. I've posted a pretty thorough how to before on here in replies anyway.

 

Graham.