Citroen Relay 2008 Wishbone Bolt

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onetruecharlatan
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Citroen Relay 2008 Wishbone Bolt

Post by onetruecharlatan »

Hi guys,

I realise this is the french CAR forum, but I've looked high and low for info and can't find it anywhere, so I'm hoping one of you will know.

I've had to replace the NS strut for the MOT on the above van. I'm at the point of rebolting the hub up to the ball joint and putting it back on the ground. I just cannot, for the life of me depress the wishbone enough to slide the hub onto the top of the ball joint. I've got a hefty breaker bar, (at least 4' long and an inch thick), but even with my 205 lbs on the end of it, it just says "NON!"

Without the use of Citroen Service, finding the bolt part number took a short while, and the only part # I could get is 1349926080 and that came back as a Fiat number :!:

My thinking is to just undo said bolt, pull the wishbone out of the subframe, bolt the hub up to the ball joint and slide the wishbone back into the subframe, but, I don't have an etorx socket big enough and I really don't want to spend ANOTHER anount of money on something I will use only once, i.e, a set of etorx sockets, (I have already purchased a smaller set of these to remove the pinch bolt), and this set only goes up to E22. It's bigger than that, but I don't know what size. If I phone Citroen they'll only want to sell me a new bolt and I don't need that, just the damned size of the socket, which they won't give me, (I've tried before for another part and got short shrift from the parts dept).

I've tried measuring the etorx sockets I purchased earlier to try see if the E "size" on the socket had any baring on the dimensions but I'm damned if the size bore any correlation at all.

I've attached a workshop image with the bolt "arrowed". If anyone knows the size of this socket I'd be most appreciative of the info. Failing that, if anyone knows a different method to depress the wishbone further and saving removing it, (I don't do this for a living, but I'm no idiot, nor one for not wanting to do the job myself), then I'd love to hear it.

Thanks in advance.
Attachments
Wishbone bolt.jpg
Hell Razor5543
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Re: Citroen Relay 2008 Wishbone Bolt

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

Don't worry about it being a Fiat number. A lot of the PSA vans were made in partnership with Fiat, so if you can find a Fiat bolt (or information on that bolt) it will probably be correct.

Try looking for Citroen self tapping screw 3638 02.
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411514
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Re: Citroen Relay 2008 Wishbone Bolt

Post by 411514 »

Is the strut definitely correctly located in the hub?

If so, try using spring compressors to compress the strut in-situ. I've done that quite a few times and it usually works. You can probably buy a pair of spring compressors for less that £10 on ebay or at eurocarparts etc.
Sam

2003 C5 2.0HDI 110
onetruecharlatan
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Re: Citroen Relay 2008 Wishbone Bolt

Post by onetruecharlatan »

411514 wrote: 12 Jul 2021, 22:11 Is the strut definitely correctly located in the hub?

If so, try using spring compressors to compress the strut in-situ. I've done that quite a few times and it usually works. You can probably buy a pair of spring compressors for less that £10 on ebay or at eurocarparts etc.
I have spring compressors. I can only get one on safely with the strut seated in the tower. If I were able to get both on, there would be zero compression on the inner wing side. I'll give it a go in the morning. Fingers crossed.
wheeler
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Re: Citroen Relay 2008 Wishbone Bolt

Post by wheeler »

they can be very tight to get back on, Have you unbolted the anti roll bar droplink to take the tension off the arm?
How are you fitting the ball joint? I find it easiest to fit the ball joint to the arm first then bolt the ball joint to the hub, if you do it this way around you dont need to push the arm down as much to clear the long stud of the ball joint.
onetruecharlatan
Posts: 16
Joined: 25 Jan 2020, 16:03
Location: Midlands
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Re: Citroen Relay 2008 Wishbone Bolt

Post by onetruecharlatan »

I had everything completely disassembled and still no joy. I have since refitted the antirollbar as I needed it to apply pressure to the wishbone. As it currently stands, the ball joint is still in the wishbone, with the distance between the bottom of the hub and the top of the ball joint being approx 3 inches. I guess compressing the spring is the way to go as I have jacked the strut up beyond the wishbone, (without compressing it), but there's no physical way of transfering it to the ball joint from the jack. I had thought about it previously, but as mentioned before, I can't get an even spread on the compressors and I really didn't want to risk them flying off. I'll give it a go in the morning and hope for the best.

Cheers all, I'll keep you posted.
onetruecharlatan
Posts: 16
Joined: 25 Jan 2020, 16:03
Location: Midlands
My Cars: Citroen Relay 2.2HDi

Re: Citroen Relay 2008 Wishbone Bolt

Post by onetruecharlatan »

Result. Got the wishbone to drop far enough by removing the drop link completely. The thread at the bottom was still passing through the wishbone and that was enough to limit the drop. I removed it from the anti roll bar and hey presto!. It also showed that the drop link on the NS at least, is bad and would have failed the MOT again, so I've ordered 2 new ones as the OS will be bad if the NS is. So I'm just waiting for those and it'll be all good.

Two more points come to mind:

1. I lost a fair amount of tranny fluid when the drive shaft came away from the gearbox. How difficult is it to firstly locate the filler bolt and secondly, refill it with said bolt removed whilst being 6 inches off the floor, (no lift sadly :( ). I've read that the usual way to refill the fluid is through the reverse switch, but I had a clutch fitted by Drydens many years ago and they ripped the reverse switch wiring out when they dropped the box. I ran w/o a reverse light for several years after, (not knowing they'd done this), but when the MOT made a reverse light mandatory, I had to cobble the wiring back together having found the fault, so I'd rather not disturb it as it was a bloody norse trying to get 1/2" of wire to accept a spade connector to repair it.

2. The hand brake has always been something of an issue on my particular van. I have replaced the entire braking sysyem, front to back over the last 2 years - Front disks/pads, rear hats/shoes/pads, all cables associated with the handbrake. It's always pulled weakly on the test and I never leave it to just the handbrake when parking up, applying 1st or reverse where necessary. It would seem that the tester tried to adjust the handbrake on the MOT and it has resulted in the front cable being too long after said adjustment and it now kinks at the base of the handbrake lever, inside the cab. Has anyone come across this and found a remedy to fix it? What do I need to adjust, is it the middle section, (just before the rear beam)? Is it the front section, if so, which part should I be looking at? This damned handbrake is a pita. If any of you know what the hell I'm on about and have some words of wisdom, I'd be most sincerly appreciative of them. Cheers.
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