Rallye Rear Axle.

[N3VRAM 12 1 Cars]

MOT today and slapped with some bad news 'Radius arm has severe play'. I mainly need some advice from you guys about what you'd do if confronted with this situation.

 

Is this easily repairable or am i better off getting a whole new rear axle? If this is the case then do i stick with the standard or go for a gti or 306 axle (what are the benefits other than thicker torsion bars)? Also has anybody rebuilt their axle and if so - how hard/expensive is it to do so?

 

I've seen a kit for a gti axle for £125 but not sure if it includes alll the necessary components. The only other thing i could do is try and find a beam in okay shape?

 

Sorry for all the questions and thanks for any input!

 

~Matt

Edited July 10, 2012 by N3VRAM

[Tom Fenton 1,536]

All boils down to your skills and equipment, and how knackered the one on the car is.

 

Starting with skills, building a beam is not difficult with the right tools to hand, to give you an idea I have got special tools I have made, here is a list,

1. Torsion bar puller tool to dismantle beam
   
2. Anti roll bar end plate extractor
   
3. Press tools to get trailing arm shafts out/in
   
4. Press tools to get stub axles out/in
   
5. Tool to remove beam tube inner and outer bearings
   
6. Tool to refit inner bearings
   
7. Tool to refit outer bearings
   

Now most of the above can be got around with a bit of thought and ingenuity, but if you think the Halfords 99 piece toolkit will have it all covered then think again.

 

The second thing really is what you are going to find when you take it apart. If it is bad enough that there is noticeable "severe" play, then without a doubt the trailing arm shaft and bearings are going to be knackered. In itself this can be sorted out with a new trailing arm shaft and new bearings, all of which can be bought from a variety of places, ebay if you must.

However and here is the catch, if it is bad enough, and has been like it some time, it may well have worn its way right through the outer bearing and ovalled the beam tube casting itself. This is bad as it means you need to either find a new beam tube (£350-ish from a main dealer, or secondhand if you can find one on its own, or more likely buy a second hand beam and keep your fingers crossed it isn't knackered as well) or have your beam tube machined and sleeved to reclaim it.

 

On some of your points, a 306 beam will not fit a 205 without major work so forget that one. Buying a second hand beam is a bit of a lottery, most of them are either past it now or certainly well on the way. A GTI beam has stiffer torsion bars and is worth upgrading to if you can. I am assuming the UK Rallye probably uses base model torsion bars.

 

Only you can decide what suits your situation and skill. There are a handful of trustworthy members on here who can build and supply you a replacement beam, me being one but there will be others closer to you.

[N3VRAM 12 1 Cars]

Hi Tom, Thankyou very much for your in-depth answer.

 

I've come to the conclusion that i'm probably not going to be able to get one rebuilt myself - and even if i attempted to do so i'm probably going to find in my case the whole thing is beyond repair anyway.

 

 

This couldn't have really come at a worse time for me to be honest, due to not having much money i think im going to have to take the risk of buying a second hand beam and just keep my fingers crossed.

 

Theres a guy on ebay selling gti rear beams at £120 a pop and seems to have sold quite a few (item number 200785561688). My question about this is does the gti have the same sized drums as my rallye? as he is selling only the beam.

 

Thanks again.

[Tom Fenton 1,536]

I wouldn't personally pay £120 for an unknown second hand beam but I accept that it maybe will get you out of the s*ite if you are short on cash. You can unbolt all your existing brakes and they will fit onto that beam. In actual fact if you are careful you can remove the brake drum backplates leaving the handbrake cables and brake pipes still connected, and then remove the old beam/refit the new one, then bolt all your brake bits on.

[welshpug 1,646]

Tom has hit the nail squarely on the head there I think, I also would not pay that much for an unknown beam, to give you an idea of cost, I recently picked up two base model beams that I inspected in the scrapyard myself for £30 each, these will be used to rebuild GTI beams by changing the bearings and seals and installing the GTI torsion and anti roll bars, thankfully they both have truly mint trailing arm shafts.

 

 

The GTI has Girling rear braking system which means a 40mm wide brake shoe and no integral brake load compensators, (yours will have bendix 30mm wide with inbuilt pressure limiters.

 

As Tom said, it is easy enough to unbolt your backplates from the beam, drop the beam off complete, fit the replacement and refit your brakes.

[N3VRAM 12 1 Cars]

A quick question - will an ax gt beam fit? My dad asked as his mate has a spare one with only 15k miles on it, im of the opinion that it won't but as I do not know the answer for sure I thought id better ask..

 

Thanks

[Tom Fenton 1,536]

No. The AX beam is similar to a 106.

[N3VRAM 12 1 Cars]

Okay so what i've managed to find and consequently buy is the rear axle from a low mileage 1.6 auto. I take it this would be the same std axle as the one i currently have?

[MiniGibbo 142]

Cant you have it rebuilt by someone like "im axle's"..?

[N3VRAM 12 1 Cars]

I didn't know such a company existed - simply don't have the money at the moment mate. I plan to get this one fitted to last me 12months through the MOT and attempt to rebuild one myself at my leisure.

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

Okay so what i've managed to find and consequently buy is the rear axle from a low mileage 1.6 auto. I take it this would be the same std axle as the one i currently have?

 

yeah should be the same

 

although some base models have different arbs or none at all. not sure which have what, but I'd say use the thickest one out of the two

Edited July 13, 2012 by johnnyboy666

[N3VRAM 12 1 Cars]

some don't have arbs? i've just gotta hope the 1.6 auto was fitted with them then!

[jord294 89]

 

if you need a set of decent gti bars, i have plenty in stock

 

recently powdercoated aswell

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

i think it was only the absolute poverty spec without the ARB, like 1litres etc

 

its and easy job to swap the arbs over, the end cap will have a bolt which you undo, and little plastic plug in the centre, just gently wind that out, then grease up a front caliper bolt and wind it into the threaded hole slowly, that shouldpush the end plate off so you can pull out the arb