Xantia pinion leak

[Clogzz]

Hi all,

The steering pinion leaks, and I can’t fiddle with that myself, so took the car to a steering place referred by the Citroën dealer.
He’s never worked on a Xantia rack, and says that the pinion doesn’t come out of the body.
That is, the pinion assembly, item 5 in the picture, is out of the rack, but the pinion proper isn’t coming out of its housing.
From jgra1’s blog, it looks like the pinion comes out through the bottom, together with the bearing.

Is there anything out of the ordinary there ?
How’s the bearing held in, and how does it come out ?

Thanks for any ideas.

[jgra1]

Hi Clogzz

I cant see my blog or your pic at work, will have a better look/think when home..

There is a circlip, which holds the bearing in, under the outer seal, from memory.. the bearing is a fairly tight fit in the housing too..

will get back to you
John

[AndersDK]

AFAIR its the bottom bearing itself that binds in the pinion valve housing.
Bearing and valve haousing are both steel and may well stick together by rust.

Tapping on the steering axle end of the pinion rod should press the complete assembly out, together with top and bottom bearings and seals.
The bottom bearing edge fits against the rack, securing all parts in place.

there is a repair kit containing all wear parts for the pinion valve : 4048.Q8
Includes bearings, seals and O-rings for the internal valve functions.
+ a rather large selection of coloured plastic protectors to cover all variants of the pinion valve.
(which are coded exactly by the coloured plastic cap)

[Clogzz]

Hi John and Anders,

Thanks for your replies, and sorry to put you to that trouble, because I misunderstood what the mechanic was telling me.
He did get the pinion out of its housing, but expected to find the pinion valve itself to come apart to change the seals.
He’s got the pinion repair kit, but said yesterday that one seal couldn’t be put on without taking the valve apart, as apparently they usually can.
Today, he told me that he had that sorted, without saying that he had changed that seal, and that the steering assembly was running on his bench jig without leaking, and that the spindle was ‘nice and tight’.

His problem now, is that he can’t get the passenger’s side gaiter; none at the local Citroën dealer, none in big Brisbane 60 miles north.
Our problems here are the great distances, and the scarcity of that vintage of Citroën.
Getting the right one is a question of how long it can take, as he probably wants the car out this week.
He’s tried a gaiter that looks right, but the bellows are fully folded up before the stop.
He said that he would ‘work something out’.

Thanks again, and I’ll let you know tomorrow what’s become of it.

[jgra1]

good

they are a git to put back together, Martin on here gave me a built one, after myself and another tried to rebuild mine with a seal kit.. its a fair bit of work to find out it doesnt work when back on the car

They dont really come apart anymore, you have to massage the seals over the 'valleys' and be very patient..

mine steered left with power but not right! I drove for a week like that before the replacement came..

[Clogzz]

Hi and Hej !

One-way power steering is a nightmare that I wouldn’t want to live.
After fiddling with shims on a previous car, I finished up with slightly unequal caster.
When sorted, I realised that most of a car’s character comes from the feeling of the steering.

The mechanic rang mid-afternoon to say that the car was ready.
He’ll tell me what he did when I see him.
That’ll be for tomorrow, because it was too late to venture into hostile territory.

It will cost $A750, £335 and 2800 DKK.
That’s about what he had estimated at the first look, and I’ll gladly pay that, because there’s no way that I could have undertaken such a job in a smallish garage, especially with the risk of finishing up with one-way power steering.
Back tomorrow with the findings.

Picture of our frontage with two ‘ordinary’ garages:

[CitroJim]

Picture of our frontage with two ‘ordinary’ garages:

Ahhh, that brings back sweet memories Clogzz Your garages are to die for to us Poms!!! Not "ordinary" to us at all.

I still miss the sheer space you enjoy

I'm sure I've asked before and you've told me but what part of Oz are you in?

[Clogzz]

Hi Jim,

Yes, we’ve talked Australia before, I’m in Palm Beach on the Gold Coast:

http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... 2&start=15

From two pictures posted somewhere here of your house with your cars in front, it didn’t look like your garage and next door’s were any smaller.
They looked to be Xantia-sized, and ours are of a width to allow the front car doors to be opened to the first stop when the car is well-centred, and the length is about 6 metres.
We do have the luxury of remote-controlled garage doors.

There’s a lot of grumbling in Australia now, but it’s only after you leave it that you realise that it’s actually still a good place.
An English friend left Australia to return to England after years, and said that he cried when he got there.
He said that he felt like having left the promised land to search for paradise, and finished up at the gates of Babylon.

[AndersDK]

Hi and Hej !

One-way power steering is a nightmare that I wouldn’t want to live.
After fiddling with shims on a previous car, I finished up with slightly unequal caster.
When sorted, I realised that most of a car’s character comes from the feeling of the steering.

The mechanic rang mid-afternoon to say that the car was ready.
He’ll tell me what he did when I see him.
That’ll be for tomorrow, because it was too late to venture into hostile territory.

It will cost $A750, £335 and 2800 DKK.
That’s about what he had estimated at the first look, and I’ll gladly pay that, because there’s no way that I could have undertaken such a job in a smallish garage, especially with the risk of finishing up with one-way power steering.
Back tomorrow with the findings.

Picture of our frontage with two ‘ordinary’ garages:

Not a bad price for that job, been there tried it - on a BX.
Nice garage you've got there.
I've got the space, but not the money, to build a garage like that

[jgra1]

Cloggz if you ever need a hand out there I would gladly hop on a plane

[Clogzz]

Picked up the car today, all going well after shelling out $750 from the secret stockpile.
The mechanic who did the job was at lunch or siesta, but his workmate could show me what he did.

The non-Citroën pinion that can be disassembled has an inner piece, visible through the open top of the splined part, held in by a thick locking pin through the sides, just above the splines.
The Citroën pinion doesn’t have that, but there’s a 5- or 7 mm black O-ring in there instead, that he couldn’t get to.
He left that as it was, replaced all parts from the repair kit, and put the rack in the test jig to check the functions under load and pressure … all good with power both ways and no leaks.

The left boot looked like it made a soft stop just before the metal stop, and he couldn’t get a suitable replacement any time soon.
He cobbled a spacer to make a common boot fit.
The right boot, he just got off his shelf.

He topped up the tank with plenty of LHM, even showing too much on the highest setting.
Will have to check for overflow on the low setting.

His bill doesn’t list any parts; it’s improvised to arrive at $750.
I’ll try scanning and posting it tomorrow.
For a mechanic who repairs hydraulics for the Citroën-Alfa-Fiat-Maserati-Lamborghini-Bentley dealer, his paperwork looks very unprofessional; as if it had been written by some apprentice snake oil merchant.

tried it

Glad I didn’t try, it’s obvious now that I wouldn’t have got far with it.
Thanks for liking the garage, it looks like I’m the only one who can’t appreciate what I’ve got.
Mine is at right, and HER’s is at left, with the Nissan Pulsar 1995 in it.

I would gladly hop on a plane

You’re welcome, there are planes from England to Brisbane every day.
First task, an engine oil leak showing up behind the starter motor, dripping from the inlet manifold … yes-yes !
Second, plumbing job reconnecting the heater matrix.
Third, replacing the dash bulbs.
Soon, replacing the front brake discs and pads.
And lastly, flushing the brake lines and cylinders without breaking anything.

[CitroJim]

Sounds like a very good engineer you had there Clogzz Stuff the paperwork as long as the job is a good 'un! Rather have a good job than good admin any day....

Martin at Pleiades showed me a pinion valve and the difficulties encountered last time I went to see him. No doubt a 5 and a half BoL spanner job that...

First task, an engine oil leak showing up behind the starter motor, dripping from the inlet manifold … yes-yes !
Second, plumbing job reconnecting the heater matrix.
Third, replacing the dash bulbs.
Soon, replacing the front brake discs and pads.
And lastly, flushing the brake lines and cylinders without breaking anything.

Ohh, I think we can manage that easily Tell us, does your secert stash run to paying for our air tickets

[jgra1]

seriously though, one of many places I have always wanted to go, not so much Brisbane, but that coastline..

Would tie in well with an overdue visit to brother in Wellington too

let me see if the piggy bank has a stash

[Clogzz]

Hi Jim and John,

The stash should run to air tickets, but they’re likely to be for scary flights sitting on crates in the cargo hold of a dodgy airline flying old cuckoos.

We moved from Sydney to the Gold Coast, and don’t want to see Brisbane, which is only 60 miles north, and very ordinary.
The east coast is very nice, but the most spectacular coast is west from Geelong in Victoria.

Noticed today that the front of the car is a bit high, with strut bellows showing, but the ride isn’t affected.
Think that they had the car on the hoist for 3 days with the wheels hanging on the normal height setting, and Citaerobics should fix that.
If not, I’ll ask him to have a look under there.
He’s indeed no dummy to succeed with 5½ BoL spanner jobs, and also does power steering conversions and pump repairs … always handy with a Citroën.

Scan of his bill, and pictures of the Gold Coast:

[hirsty]

Hi Clogzz
You'll have fun with the dash bulb replacement. Did mine recently, although mine does not need the steering wheel removal. The capless bulb sits in a plastic cup which then twists into place. Either mark each light after replacement or take 'em all out at once. Nothing worse than putting it all back and one doesn't work. From memory replaced 10 bulbs on mine. If you have any that do work, replace them anyway 'cause the old ones dim with age. (bulbs that is)

Keith