Xantia-Rear Strut anatomy

[NewcastleFalcon]

Eventually and inevitably one job has turned into another.

I thought I had fixed the sealing of the new sphere to the rear nearside strut of my M-reg 1.9td.
Unfortunately not. Not a very permanent fix as it turns out-its sprung a leak again.

The co-lateral damage to the strut feed pipe has been cleared up but now I have to return to the removal and replacement of the strut.

I got some excellent tips and advice with my first ever post to the FCF

Xantia Rear Strut Removal

If anyone has a diagram of the strut/radius arm from service citroen it would be helpful.

Here are a couple of pictures and a some questions
Pic1-rubber gaiter removed

Pic2-come fine corrosion-radius arm from dismantled Xantia-round thing in place, pin not removed


can the strut be removed without removing the spring pin?
The round bit, still attached to the radius arm rotates-does it prise out? (doe this mean the spring pin has effectively been broken, and doesnt need removing?)
The metal rod which goes into this round bit-can this be prised out, and having been prised out can the strut then be removed?

The diagram might make it obvious-I am not sure at the minute what part the spring pin is deigned to retain.

any help much appreciated as always

kind regards

Neil

[Xaccers]

The pin should hold the metal rod into the socket which then allows the strut to be extracted once the pin has been removed.

[citronut]

the pin just hold the cup into the arm and does not hold the rod into the cup, as that is held into the cup by a snap ring/circlip inside the neck of the cup,

the rod does not usually come out of the cup unless something is worn or broken

[NewcastleFalcon]

Thanks for your replies. I tried dismantling the cup from the radius arm I took off my old car.

With the tools I have, ie a black and decker with collection of drill bits of dubious quality and age, an angle grinder a hammer, a centre punch etc I soon found out how incredibly difficult it was to remove the pin holding the cup to the radius arm.

In fact I found it impossible. It just would not punch out in spite of drilling generous holes at each side.

In the end I got the mole grips tight round the round bit and hammered up a screwdriver between the grips and the radius arm.

This literally broke the bottom of the cup away from the still in place pin.

The results are as per the pictures



Unless I can get the rod out of the top part of the cup, where it it retained by the snap ring there appears little alternative but to take the arm off, an employ some better tools, sharper better quality drills and drifts, a bit of heat or whatever to get the pin out cleanly. Its unbelievable how the simple withdrawal of a pin due to the demon rust turns what should be a 10 minute job into a saga of torture. Even with the pin exposed as in the picture above, it just will not drift out. What a pain.

Thanks for the exploded picture, it does help.

Regards Neil

[citronut]

the pin is high tensile steel so will be hard to drill, your drill will erode the cast iron arm around the pin rather than drill the pin,

i dont find these pins often get stuck to the point were you have to destroy things

[Chris570]

I have to say those pins either come out easily or a total PITA to remove and as for the ball and cup, I found that there is a magic angle that you can use that will get them in and out fairly easily, either that or heat the cup and cool the rod....

[citronut]

I found that there is a magic angle that you can use that will get them in and out fairly easily,

aaah thats right but its only with the rod removed from the cylinder/strut

[NewcastleFalcon]

Thanks for your replies


With the same sort of perverse pleasure Dentists must get pulling teeth I have now completed a sucessful extraction of the pin and the strut

Here is my little trophy



and here is my trusty toolkit. The moment of inspiration was in extending the centrepunch with a 10mm socket, an extension piece, and an impact driver. I could then get a good whack at it with the lump hammer and the impact driver would rotate the punch at the same time-may have done some good although I don't know for sure.

The centre punch was too thick to punch through so I angle grinded it to a smaller diameter. The piece de resistance was the pulling/levering the pin out from the other side once the punch had done the major part of the job with the mole grips ably assisted with the big screwdriver.



I now need a new rubber gaiter for the replacement strut. All the rubber gaiters on the struts I have are ripped and minus the bit that neatly fits round the cup in the radius arm.

Are these things available at GSF or is it a Citroen, or a second hand thing?

Regards

Neil

[citronut]

here is price and part No.'s for two different XANT suspension boots

Part Number Description Quantity Price excl. VAT Price incl. VAT Total incl. VAT Selection
0000527204 CYLINDER BOOT 5.86 GBP 7.03 GBP 7.03 GBP

0000527233 CYLINDER BOOT 6.67 GBP 8.00 GBP 8.00 GBP

if you send me your chassis/VIN No. i will check the correct one for your car

[citronut]

the first one of the two abocve is the one for your car using the later chassis No.
as service citroen says there should be at least one space in the first chassis No. so could not find that car,

i belive the price is trade i may be wrong though

[NewcastleFalcon]

Thanks Malcolm

I will phone round to see if anyone has them in stock.

Edit.......didn't bother with the phone just went into the main dealer and eventually got the parts ordered.
If I could avoid ever stepping into a main dealer again of whatever marque that would suit me fine. I never find it a very satisfying experience, although this time for the rubber boot for the rear susension strut, I think the price wasn't bad.

I have been extravagant and ordered one of each of the different part no's you found. When they arrive I will find out what the difference is. I was going to treat them to new clips but didn't fancy ordering 10, so I will just have to clean up the old ones.......or use a jubilee clip??

regards Neil