Saxo Rear Anti Rollbar Conversion

[Dizzee stuff 33 1 Cars]

Found a VTR in a local scrapyard today and had a go at freezing my nuts off while trying to remove the rollbar but I could not shift the end plates, they have no extraction holes like the 205. Is there a easy way to remove the end plates or is it a big hammer and chizel job?

[welshpug 1,655]

They should have the same threaded end plate holes as any other pug.

[Dizzee stuff 33 1 Cars]

No, they definately had no holes, It was an early car, T plate.

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

The holes weren't under corrosion and mud were they?

[Dizzee stuff 33 1 Cars]

No definately no holes, I attacked the end plates with a hammer and chizel an no holes.

[Baz 421]

It may have had a base model beam on it then, no ARB?!

[stef205 92 1 Cars]

As baz said the base models just have a blank over the arms as they have no arb they should have a thread on the end flag that you can wind a m12 x 1.5 bolt into that will push it off

[welshpug 1,655]

what baz said, the base model beams had capped outer bearings.

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

Probably a Furio then.

[stef205 92 1 Cars]

im not 100% but think furios had them

[Dizzee stuff 33 1 Cars]

With the 8mm bolt out of the end plate I could feel the sping of the rollbar if i tried to turn it against my lever bar, so there is a bar in there just carnt get the end plate off.

[stef205 92 1 Cars]

it should have a thread in the flag so you can wind in to remove it. you can try lever it off with a few screw drivers. What is your reason for removing it from a saxo beam?

[stef205 92 1 Cars]

Just to show you and save you any confusion this is a arb off a 106 gti axle I am doing at the moment one end is blank the other has a plug remove that and then you can wind your bolt in.

Plug

Blank hope this helps

[Anthony 1,002]

What is your reason for removing it from a saxo beam?

I would imagine to fit it to a 205 beam, which you can do using 306 end plates.

 

(although it's not something I particularly like, as the ARB is too narrow really and ends up only engaging on about half the length of the splines and is likely to strip and round off the splines eventually - as you have probably seen, 306 ARB's have a habit of doing that occasionally even when they have the whole length of the spline engaged!)

[welshpug 1,655]

that's odd, all the ones I have taken apart have had removable end plates, I believe the 206 is like that though.

 

 

I have an ARB that has stripped its splines totally on the fixed left side too, was in my ZX.

[stef205 92 1 Cars]

both ends are removable but only one needs a hole in. Got 2 106 gti axles in atm both are the same.

[Anthony 1,002]

I have an ARB that has stripped its splines totally on the fixed left side too, was in my ZX.

 

Yup, doesn't surprise me - the finer pitch splines used on the ZX/306/Xsara ARB's seem to be much more problematic compared to the courser 205/309 type, and doesn't seem to take much corrosion to weaken them to the point that they strip. The significantly stiffer 24mm bar won't help either of course, and is probably why I don't recall seeing a base model spec ZX/306/Xsara beam with a stripped ARB.

[welshpug 1,655]

I thought it was larger diameter so effectively the same pitch?

[Anthony 1,002]

Maybe it's an optical illusion and the pitch is the same then, but yes, size is certainly different, hence the different rubber bushes.

 

Either way, 306 type ARB's seem to be prone to stripping whereas 205 type ones don't, which means in my mind that using a 106 bar that's only engaged on half the splines length of something that already fails periodically is asking for trouble, and indeed I have heard of them failing in a short period of time. If you don't get it central then of course the problem will be even worse.

 

That said, it's very cheap to replace if/when it does fail.

[Dizzee stuff 33 1 Cars]

I familiar with the setup, i have rebuilt a few 205 an 309 beams but never a saxo. I am after a saxo rollbar to fit to the 205, the idea is to fabricate end plates that fit further into the beam tube to allow for the saxo bar being shorter.

[Strictly_Derv 34]

It may have had a base model beam on it then, no ARB?!

 

+1 Seen this a few times

[Dizzee stuff 33 1 Cars]

Finally got it removed and started modding it to fit to the 205.

 

This is a photo of both roll-bars back to back, as you can see both are the same width due to the saxo having longer splined tubes fitted to the end plates.

This shows the saxo tubes removed from end plates.

This photo shows the saxo tubes machined down and welded onto some spare 205 end plates.

Finally both custom end plates and nylon bushes made an ready to fit. The complete job cost me £20 for the bits from the scrapyard and a days work.