Rear Beam Refurbishment

[Guest mcalping]

My 1.6 Gti is creaking from the rear and I assume it is the usual beam problem. Can someone tell me if the 1.6 Gti beam is the same one that is fitted to other 205's in the range as I was going to buy a beam from a scrap car and refurbish it during the next few months before replacing it.

[Anthony 1,003]

You can use a base model beam to source a beam tube and trailing arm shafts from, but the torsion and anti-roll bars are thicker on a 1.6 GTi beam, and the rear drums are different as well (technically, the beamtube is different too, but you can use a base model one without issue)

 

You'll find loads of info if you do a search.

[Guest mcalping]

Thanks for the info. Is that a feasible thing to do or am I better holding out for a genuine 1.6 Gti beam?

[Rom 0]

Its not overly hard to do. With some time and patience. Removing the torsion bars can be a pain, as can the shafts if its really siezed. But by which time the tube is normally dead.

 

You could build a beam up, ready to swap. But you would need to reuse the torsion bars, anti roll bar, and brakes from your current beam, or find spares. So it wont be a un bolt rebolt job, as youll have parts to swap.

 

So all you could really do until you remove your old one, would be to strip a donor beam for the tube, install bearings, seals etc. The rest would have to wait. Or source another 1.6 beam.

[welshpug 1,658]

I wouldn't bother waiting for a 1.6 beam, swap your gti specific parts onto the base model beam once it's been refreshed, pretty straightforward and you can ensure the rear braking system is in good order too.

 

you'll need to swap the backplate's complete then fit the gti drum, 4 bolts one big nut and a brake union job done