Quick Beam Rebuild Question

[Rob Turbo 3]

This is the first time I've completely stripped a beam and rebuilt it properly, I've pulled two apart before and put them back together with new bearings, but when I did them the torsion bars only came out of the tube, they stayed in the trailing arms, so needed a fair whack to get back together (didn't clean the splines up or anything!). This time I've had the gas axe out and removed the torsion bars completely, cleaned the splines up and they slide in at both ends nicely, I've changed the bearings, the shafts are still all good.

 

I've gone to put the trailing arms back in the tube but they are a bit stiff, should they slide straight in or is it normal for them to need tapping in with a hammer? I've only done one side so far, I've got the trailing arm in, like I say it was a tight ish fit, but it still turns freely, I just want to make sure it's ok before I fit it to the car and it falls apart!!

[jord294 91]

no tapping needed

 

if you do the job properly, they should just slide in

[Rob Turbo 3]

Hmmm, what could be wrong then? The bearings are brand spanking new jobbies from the recent group buy, they are in square, not lop sided or anything, all well greased up and the shafts are good and smooth

Edited August 2, 2010 by Rob Turbo

[jimistdt 1]

Can you get a picture up Rob? How far in is the arm going? Have you tried it without the torsion bars in to see if it will fit that way?

 

Certainly shouldn't need tapping at all. How far did you push the inner bearings in?

[pugpete1108 62 1 Cars]

I was going to say have you pushed the inner bearing in far enough?

[jord294 91]

if you've used an 'old' arm shaft to fit the new inner bearing, it should have been knocked in to a distance of about 20cm iirc

 

thats the distance from the end of the beam tube to the edge of the bearing

[Rob Turbo 3]

Before I removed the old inner bearings I measured how far in they were and put the new ones in the same distance - 200mm

 

There's no torsion bars fitted at the minute so it's deffinitely not them that's stopping it.

 

The arm goes as far as lining up with the inner bearing, then maybe an extra 2-3mm, it doesn't take much to slide the arm in but there's no way it will just slide in, and it seems constant all the way in, it doesn't get tighter as it goes and it doesn't suddenly free up.

 

I'll see what the other side is like today.

Edited August 3, 2010 by Rob Turbo

[Rob Turbo 3]

The other side is exactly the same, I got a photo of how far in it will go before the hammer comes out,

 

 

I've just tried one of the new bearings (from the second set I got, I didn't pull it out of the tube!) on the shaft, it only goes as far as the chamfered part at the very end of the shaft, you can push it on with the palm of your hand, but I suppose if both the inner and outer bearings are like this, plus you've got the weight of the trailing arm, this would account for needing to tap them in.

 

The arms still move free and smooth, could it be that they were new shafts at some point and possibly slightly bigger than standard? I don't know if they eave ever been changed, the beam will have been about 7-8 years old when I got it (It's a 306 gti6 beam BTW) and it had deffinitely been apart before but it was lowered, so that might be the only reason it was apart. The shafts are silver all the way down, no black bit like the 205 one's I've seen, is this normal?

[jimistdt 1]

Following this thread I've just tried the bearings on the shaft I have here and the fit is as I would expect, snug yet free to move.

 

The only reason I can think it would be difficult to engage like that is if the bearing is not square, or the shaft is hitting the side of the bearing as you slide it in.

 

306 uses the same shaft so I cant see there being a problem there.

[jord294 91]

the proper 306 bearing kit 5132.62, has a plastic sleeve which (i believe) sits between both bearings, and would imagine it acts as a guide for the arm shaft

 

it's item c in the pic

 

[Rob Turbo 3]

Well there was no plastic sleve in either of the 306 beams that I pulled apart, one was an early base model beam, the other was a later gti beam.

 

I've put it all together now (apart from the ARB, don't get the seals until tomorrow, but I'm back at work tomorrow so won't be finishing it until the weekend probably) and the arms still move freely so I'm just gonna assume it's fine!

 

Just need some brake hoses and a spare few hours to get it fitted!