C5 Rear arm Rebuild HELP/Guide???

[citroenxm]

Hi C5'rs...

Series one, 51 plate car.. I need to perform a rebuild of the bearings. Not done a C5 before, and YEARS since I done a BX.

Has anyone done them and done a guide to help me?? Best place to get bearings / cheapest ??

Heres Hoping

Thanks
Paul

[citronut]

Paul is this another senior moment

and i though my recall mammary whoooops memory was bad

you only asked this about a week ago and between me and Steveee baby ( mygleran ) we pointed you in the direction of the thread were i list all the parts, No.'s and were to purchase which bits,

[citroenxm]

Yes guide to the parts but HOW to do it malc or was that in there too?? Ill go and have a look..

[citronut]

basically once you have the are on the bench you need to pries out one of the end spacers,
then drift the center pivot tube from the end the spacer has been removed from, this will remove most of the innards,

now wipe the grease from both the outer bearing race's and run two short beads of mig at opposite sides of each bearing race,

as you probably know this will give you something to drift the outer race's out by, also the heat helps loosen the bearing race's,

the difference with the C5 to the likes of the CX, BX and XANT's is, on these earlier models the pivot sleeve that runs through the bearings comes all the way through the end spacers,
were as on the C5 the end spacers have a step inside that the pivot tube sits into , and does not show at the outer ends,

im sure once you get an arm of it will all come back to you

ps.

i usually find it best to loosen the anti roll bar bolts on the opposite arm you are removing,

otherwise the roll ber gets in the way when trying to remove the arm from the sub frame

[citroenxm]

Thanks Malc...thats BRILLIANT! Shall I pop the plastic connecting link to the height corrector to prevent brakeage??

Ive got a spare arm (bought last week) to work on, so that customers car is NOT off the road.

You dont happen to have a set of bearing spare malc I could buy for some beer tokens? I need to get the arm done this week, and try get it fitted by friday... Just to make things easyer for me thats all.. Im frightened of getting the wrong things.. thats all..

[addo]

I always release the "dogbone" as it's the least risky way to work on front or rear suspension.

[citronut]

i never release the doggy bone but can see why people do,

i think the SKF and GSF part No.'s are in the other thread Paul

[citroenxm]

Well did this job today.. Hmmmmm ok...

Firstly the dreadded pin removal.. It was NOT budging... Not even driven out. However, fearing arm damage I had bought a replacment arm from the scrap yard to rebuild then swap over. The scrap yard had the same issue, but instead the popped the push rod out of the cup on the arm, and left me with removal of that.

So, I destroyed the R clip ends, so took a hammer to the Cup end, which inevendlty snapped in half, but this enabled me to then get the R clip remains out, but the other half of the cup stayed in the arm.. My only option was to drill a tiny hole in the back and push the remains out.. Removed the plastic sleeve from between the bearings, and knocked the race's out. Arm ready for re build... I also Popped the roll bar link rod off to protect any potential breakage. At least its a metal one, unlike the Xania, though theres nothing to seize up. Its onnected to a potentiometer type sensor. IE: No resistance

Removing the old arm from the car prooved the same, however in order to get the arm off, I got a tiny bit ruthless, as I discovered the Push Rod is loose bhind the high pressure plate, so I though, Ah, ok, if I disconnect the push rod from the cut Scrap yard style, I can get the arm off to get the Cup back out to go back in the other arm..



I like the rear brake pipe setup, as the ridgid pipe is connected to a conventinal rubber flex hose over the other side of the arm, and is secured by the two anto roll bar bolts. So, undo the anti roll bar bolts THEN undo the caliper, and slife the caliper off the disk and move it right under the car as a connected peice! Neat!

After titting around and seperating the push rod to get the arm off, I was left with the cup NOT even budging. I though I can butcher the old arm and drilled a large hole to get a punch in and hit the cup and snap the R clip remains. NOPE!

I then though... OK, whats the chances? I had sucessfully removed an R clip fron an XM subframe. Yes they ARE the same, so I went and removed the XM push rod with cup, and blow me, they are exactley the same and the cups are too!!





So, I fitted the XM push rod to the C5 strut, and even the C5 boot fitted perfectly! Result!

Rebuilt the arm with new bearings, seals, and bush ends, pleanty of grease, and refitted. And found the rebuild process rather easy. One single bearing each side. IIRC werent BX arms double bearings each side? Or am I dreaming.

Refitted, re connected... went for test drive. NO creaks, no rattles etc! Pleased!!





The old arm condition for evaluation.

[addo]

Two questions, then.

1. The socket/ball/pushrod setup - is it genuinely impossible to dismantle without damage, when off the car? Considering how much a wear item it is on Dees, I'd like to occasionally repack it with grease on the Xantia. My R clips won't be stuck.

2. The swing arm - had the bearing failure, actually damaged the inner bore of the arm? I've heard it alleged this can occur - not seen it.

[citroenxm]

Yes adam very slight damage but nothing majour on the replacement arm but im yet to strip the old one to show further..if your R Clips remove fom the arm that holds the strut then theres no need to split the cup from the push rod..

The push rod is litterally held by the strut boot thats all... pull it from the boot and allow spillage from and cylinder leak past..

I did not even release the c5 system pressure i only put the thing on low setting.. switched off battery off and jacked it back up.

[RichardW]

If you can get the pin out, Addo, then the cup will follow. It might need a bit of persuasion with a hammer and cold chiesel, but once the pin is free the strut is only held in by a bit of rust. Chances are on your car the pin will pull out, and the cup will fall out out of the arm.

[citronut]

i had the shear pun syndrome on the last XANT i did a few months back,
so i removed the arm with push rod attached, put with the arm on the bench applied heat and managed the get the pin remains out, then wiggled the cup side to side and got the cup out of the arm,

that last picy shows the arm is very badly chewed away were the seal sits, probably beyond re/use's,

all the citroens with thhis type of trailing arm are the same CX, BX and XANT'S ( all be it estate or hatch ), the C5 being to only one with the different end spacer's and shorter pivot tube,