Right, catching up with this one...
Nearside driveshaft was on its way out (vibrating badly under load and when I checked it, had nice loads of play both ends
). Found out they're stupidly cheap (one side is £35 and the other £40), so decided if I was stripping it all to do one side, I might as well do both sides.
When they turned up, they were actually brand new ones not reconditioned!
So, up on the ramp
Most of it stripped down pretty easily. Thankfully no silly buggers with the driveshaft nuts (windy gun helped
)
The gearbox drain plug was a PITA...
No hex outer and the centre square drive turned out to be between the 2 standard smaller square drive socket set sizes (3/8 and 1/4
) so you need a proper drain plug kit, which I didn't have. So the oil came out the old fashioned messy way
Haynes didn't help, being full of lies as usual. It said the usual 'prise out the old driveshaft oil seals with a screwdriver and tap new ones in'... Complete horseshit for this box - one side seal sits behind a drive plate that you have to unbolt, for a start!
That was just a minor inconvenience though, compared to the rest of the oil seal saga
I'd ordered new driveshaft oil seals of course. The nearside one (that sits behind the plate) was fine. The off side one though, was not...
When I took the old one out, I noticed it had some kind of plastic insert that sat inside the main seal, fitted around the driveshaft and rotated within the seal. I pulled this out and then set to work popping the rest of the seal out. What happened was a 'sleeve' popped out the end of the box, with what looked like a normal oil seal inside it.
The replacement just looked like an ordinary oil seal. Pics;
(The white nylon bit is the 'insert' I mentioned earlier).
The new seal was too small to locate properly in the box;
I assumed that the old seal consisted of a standard oil seal within the outer sleeve, so set to work trying to tap it out of the sleeve. Found that the combination of an old exhaust pipe and a socket made the perfect combination of sizes to support the outer sleeve and whack the inside of the oil seal
But...
Whacked the s**t out of it and couldn't get the old seal to budge. All that happened was that the metal former inside the old seal deformed and yet another inner sleeve seperated;
This was Sunday, so that left me with no options for parts till the next week.
End of the day, had to leave it buried away at the back, in bits
Consulting on here turned up someone that knew there were 2 types of oil seal at this end on some boxes (not clear on the Citroen parts diagrams) and an aftermarket supplier. So, duly ordered and delivered. Many thanks for the help there
Ah... That explains why I couldn't knock the inner seal out of the sleeve - it isn't an inner seal at all, it's all one piece!
Easy to understand when you see the new one, not easy when you look at the old one, covered/stained in dirt and oil.
God knows why it's like that, but whatever... Who cares now!
Had also got a drain plug key set by now, so the next weekend back at the car, drain plug out to get the rest of the oil out and check for bits. The oil was a disgusting grey... Definitely been in there for the full 150k!!!
Build up on the drain plug not too bad though, considering that amount of mileage;
Fill plug was nicely located
I had horrible visions of this being square drive only (there was no room to get a tool in between the sub frame and the plug) but fortunately it was hex outer drive, so a spanner did just nicely
Driveshafts in, seals in, oil in... Home straight then?
Bottom ball joints were a total s**t to refit and do up
Could not stop them spinning so I could do up the new nuts I'd bought.
I resorted to putting the whole weight of the front of the car through them by putting the wheels free block under the front suspension arms (don't try this at home kids);
That worked for the nearside but not on the drivers side - it was still spinning.
The nearside was an after market ball joint so had no hex drive in the bottom of the pin, but fortunately the off side was the original one, so with the combination of all the weight of the car on the cone and with a massive extension on the allen key and all my weight on the end of it,
I was just able to get the nut done up (it was f'ing tight on that thread for some reason, hence the need for so much leverage).
So then, job done.
Sweet
At this point I started to clear up, poured the oil from the drain pan into my waste oil bottle and... Found a plug washer at the bottom of it WTF?
*checks fill plug*
Nope, sealing washer on there.
*checks drain plug*
Not leaking, but no sealing washer on there.
I only had about 300ml of box fluid left, so doing a full drain and refill was not an option...
Only one thing for it then...
Yep, underneath the car, open the drain plug with the box full and quickly refit the washer while oil pisses out all over your arm and stick the plug back in asap
)
)
