Hi Folks,
Can any one advise as to why the taper roller bearings on the rear arms cannot be replaced with rubber bushes, similar to those on the front swinging arms.
BX Rear Arm Bearings
Moderator: RichardW
Ask Citroen [8D]
Honestly - if you investigate deeper in the design of the rear suspension setup, you can see that rubber bushings would cause too much movement - or "float" - because of the way the suspension cylinder is connected to the rear arm, and the rear arm pivot bearings also carries the weight of rear chassis.
That would allow too much wander in steering control of the complete vehicle.
Other PSA cars also have bearings here, to ensure the rear arms does not move in horizontal plane.
On front, the suspension strut carries the weight of chassis. The lower control arm exactly only provides CONTROL of front wheels in the horizontal plane.
Note that first production models (to end of '84) of the BX also had these same bearings on lower front control arms - instead of the rubber bushings.
Honestly - if you investigate deeper in the design of the rear suspension setup, you can see that rubber bushings would cause too much movement - or "float" - because of the way the suspension cylinder is connected to the rear arm, and the rear arm pivot bearings also carries the weight of rear chassis.
That would allow too much wander in steering control of the complete vehicle.
Other PSA cars also have bearings here, to ensure the rear arms does not move in horizontal plane.
On front, the suspension strut carries the weight of chassis. The lower control arm exactly only provides CONTROL of front wheels in the horizontal plane.
Note that first production models (to end of '84) of the BX also had these same bearings on lower front control arms - instead of the rubber bushings.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by G4EIY</i>
Hi Folks,
Can any one advise as to why the taper roller bearings on the rear arms cannot be replaced with rubber bushes, similar to those on the front swinging arms.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
'coz they'd have no weight on them and wouldn't go up 'n down. And if you loosened them so they would, the back end would clunk when you went round a corner just like the bearing ones do with incorrect pre-load.
Alan S
Hi Folks,
Can any one advise as to why the taper roller bearings on the rear arms cannot be replaced with rubber bushes, similar to those on the front swinging arms.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
'coz they'd have no weight on them and wouldn't go up 'n down. And if you loosened them so they would, the back end would clunk when you went round a corner just like the bearing ones do with incorrect pre-load.
Alan S
If I remember correctly, as its a long time since I have been under one, the BL rear Hydragas setup as used on the Allegro and Princess uses bushes rather than bearings on the arm pivots.
The arms and hydragas displacers are laid out the same as on a BX but as there is no height control there isn't the wide range of movement as there is in a hydropneumatic citroen, so bushes do the job.
They are a lot less bother than bearings, and lasted the lifetime of the car.
The mini, however, persisted with bearings to the end, and although fitted with grease nipples, no-one ever bothered to grease them, the seals were never particularly good, so they failed with monotonous regularity!!
The Citroen bearings last so well because, despite not having a grease nipple, they are very well sealed and protected.
The arms and hydragas displacers are laid out the same as on a BX but as there is no height control there isn't the wide range of movement as there is in a hydropneumatic citroen, so bushes do the job.
They are a lot less bother than bearings, and lasted the lifetime of the car.
The mini, however, persisted with bearings to the end, and although fitted with grease nipples, no-one ever bothered to grease them, the seals were never particularly good, so they failed with monotonous regularity!!
The Citroen bearings last so well because, despite not having a grease nipple, they are very well sealed and protected.
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ghostrider
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There's nothing wrong with having the taper rollers, the problem is the somewhat useless seals that are meant to keep the muck out, I've never investigated getting better seals, but I'd like to bet that someone on this board has. There's a whole load of stuff in the manuals about having to re shim the bearings if you use a repair kit that replaces the spacer tube and end caps, but I have never had any real problems just putting the kit in and doing the nut up to the correct torque and checking that the arm can still move. I suspect that the dust seals will give up long before the bearing fails due to incorrect pre load
Pete
Pete