C5 Mk1 Rear Radius Arm Bearing shims

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Monkeyfeet
(Donor 2022)
Posts: 353
Joined: 08 Sep 2005, 14:37
Location: Beautiful Bedfordshire.
My Cars: C5:Hatch & an Esatate. Real cruisemobiles.
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C5 Mk1 Rear Radius Arm Bearing shims

Post by Monkeyfeet »

Hi,
There's a lot of very useful information regarding the replacement of the rear arm bearings amongst the postings here. I've done the job myself, albeit a few years ago now, so I thought that I'd best read up on the subject as I'm about to do another set of replacements. I came across a few comments, and have seen diagrams showing a shim pack, there's not much on this - and this is the bit I don't remember much about - ie shimming the new bearings. I imagine it's just to take up any clearance against the bearing to allow for wear in the housing in the arm / mounting point??
So, is it as case of feeler gauges and selecting the appropriate shims?
Cheers
Mark
XantiaTD's(all gone). BXGTi, sold (sob). C5 2.2Hdi SE Exc Hatch. C5 2.2 Estate auto. Xsara Hdi estate. Yam YZF750, Zoom. GSX-S750, mmm.
citro6hydra
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Location: Melbourne Australia
My Cars: C5 2006 2.0l petrol auto
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Re: C5 Mk1 Rear Radius Arm Bearing shims

Post by citro6hydra »

Hi,
Like you I am about to replace the trailing arm bearings on my wife's car my first time on a c5. The general rule applicable to roller bearings where there is only a small arc of movement is that they are preloaded and in the case of Cx's this preload figure is 50kg. Of course there are factory tools for doing this but these are not available to or essential for the home mechanic.

With arm assembled and this load applied one measured the gap between the end of the shaft and the cone of the bearing this determining the thickness of the outer thrust cup required (the inner cup was always 9.34mm from memory), there were I think 9 available in 0.4mm increments these are no longer available. Now sometimes the thrust cup has to be ground down or shimmed to attain the correct preload.

As for the C5 I intend to use the same basic principle to determine shim thickness I don't know if the C5 bearings are the same size as the Cx if they are I will use the same preload figure. The shim packs are available from dealers here the P.No 5143.27

I have heard of these bearings being assembled with no preload but the question is what happens with slight wear or non rotation? my thought is that this would likely lead to premature failure and of course tire wear and suspension alignment/handling are all related to the performance of these bearings.

I don't know if all this will assist you but please let the forum know how you get on with it.
Monkeyfeet
(Donor 2022)
Posts: 353
Joined: 08 Sep 2005, 14:37
Location: Beautiful Bedfordshire.
My Cars: C5:Hatch & an Esatate. Real cruisemobiles.
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Re: C5 Mk1 Rear Radius Arm Bearing shims

Post by Monkeyfeet »

Hi Citro,
Thank you for your informative reply, that makes good engineering sense to preload & then shim correctly.
Off to look p the part no. now.
Sorry it's taken me a week to acknowledge btw.
XantiaTD's(all gone). BXGTi, sold (sob). C5 2.2Hdi SE Exc Hatch. C5 2.2 Estate auto. Xsara Hdi estate. Yam YZF750, Zoom. GSX-S750, mmm.
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