Everyone Like Rebuilding Rear Beams Right?

[monkee87 2]

Here's a link to my beam in it's current state. Can't upload pictures properly and i don't know how to do the thumbnail things either..

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8396305@N02/s...57623654667203/

 

So i got this 309 GTi beam for £40, was going to take the torsion bars out and stick it on my car at a lower height. Things never go to plan do they?!

I started stripping it to also put a lick of paint on it. And look what i find! A fubard beam! Needs a rebuild i think!

 

So the list is new bearings/seals and what not and some new trailing arm shafts. Fun times!

 

Can anyone tell me if the cross tube is still okay? I know the pics aren't great.

 

Just thought i'd share it all with you guys.

[woo83 0]

I wouldn't be too disheartened by that mate, I've seen a lot worse. Can't really tell for sure If the tubes OK but it doesn't look too bad, your shafts may need replacing but again it's hard to tell. If your using bearing then your tube needs to be as good as possible but if you run phosphor bronze bushes instead you can get away with a bit of pitting.

[welshpug 1,645]

as mentioned, hard to tell if the cross-member tube is still good, doesn't look to healthy though

 

I'd take it back !

[jimistdt 1]

£40 for that is not bad at all, the shafts look past it, but not far gone enough to have chewed up the beam tube internals. You need a good end on photo, the lip that the bearing seats against should be the same at the top and the bottom. Good luck.

[Anthony 1,002]

To be honest, what you've found is pretty typical of many (most?) 309 GTi beams these days.

[miamichris 9]

There's a fella selling a rebuild kit for both sides in the for sale section if the tube is salvagable, although I don't think it is, that one's a bit grim looking

 

I laughed at the bearing still stuck to the shaft though, haven't seen that before

[Baz 421]

As said, not *too* bad, at least the shafts came out with the arms!

[Tom Fenton 1,536]

To be honest that is probably one of the better beams I've seen recently. They are mostly fit for scrap these days.

[monkee87 2]

The cross tube isn't an oval shape or anything, just needs a real good clean. I'm going to get it shot blasted and see how it turns out. Where do you get the phosphor things? How much are they too? I've seen Genuine Peugeot bearing kits for like £80, that includes everything i'd need.

[Alastairh 47]

To be honest, what you've found is pretty typical of many (most?) 309 GTi beams these days.

 

agreed!

[omega 82]

why dont 405 beams ever fail? yet 205/309 do

[Tom Fenton 1,536]

In my experience the 405 beams do collapse, especially on estate cars that are used hard, e.g. lugging heavy stuff about. A friend who was a gardener used to cart lawnmowers etc in his and had to have a second hand beam fitted to it.

[Bassman 1]

The cross tube isn't an oval shape or anything, just needs a real good clean. I'm going to get it shot blasted and see how it turns out. Where do you get the phosphor things? How much are they too? I've seen Genuine Peugeot bearing kits for like £80, that includes everything i'd need.

 

I went for Oilite plain bearings, these are bronze bearings, impregnated with oil and were developed for military use originally I think. They are more forgiving if there is some pitting than roller bearings, but there is a risk of stiction if they are not used regularly from what others have said.

 

I bought a pair of 45 ID, 55 OD and 35 mm wide Oilite bearings from AshleyPower.co.uk for about 25 quid delivered and had a mate at work machine them to size for me for free. (AMC455 is the part number and then you just state the width you need).

 

Unless you can take the beam into the machine shop, I would leave a bit of metal on on the ID and then buy a cheap honing tool to hone them to fit.

 

I would grease them with a decent molybendeum disulphide grease as well (CV Joint grease) as this tends to last longer and perform better in this sort of application from what I have read.

 

Rob

[CosKev 16]

I've seen Genuine Peugeot bearing kits for like £80, that includes everything i'd need.

 

Apart from your shafts Circa £70 each

[petert 578]

Unless you can take the beam into the machine shop, I would leave a bit of metal on on the ID and then buy a cheap honing tool to hone them to fit.

 

The correct way is to allow for bearing crush when machining. For example, if you have 0.001" of interference on the OD, then the ID will crush approx. half that. So rather than machine ID for 0.001" clearance, you'd machine for 0.0015" clearance. (I think that's right!)

[shalmaneser 26]

That's not toooooooo bad, you can't really make out from the pics whether the tube is serviceable or not though.

 

As for getting parts, it's cheaper to get things direct from Peugeot dealers than fanny about on Ebay, although they'll more than likely be less than helpful. There's a sticky at the top of this section with all the part numbers on it.

 

try looking for some second hand shafts, Al on here fixed me up with some decent ones.

 

Edit:

 

Didn't see the bearing on the shaft...that might be bad news!

Edited April 7, 2010 by shalmaneser