Height corrector rebuild - how do I remove…

[Rhothgar]

Evening all!

How do I remove the bracket on the rear of the height corrector? Anyone got any good ideas please?

I’ve done some years ago but cannot recall how to do it.

Could I / SHOULD I clamp the “camshaft” in some wooden blocks in a vice and use that to remove the bracket.

Or should I just try and clean the rear diaphragm / disc / spring etceteras whilst it’s all together for simplicity?

Also, just how free should the levers be? Ideally floppy under their own weight I guess but I am not sure that is happening with this HC bracket?

[aerodynamica]

That bracket should unwind from the end of the slide valve. It is locked by a thin nut that comes off first. Then can unwind the plate. It's probably corroded on though. It appears in your pic that the full slide valve is removed from the valve casting. If so, you really don't need to remove the bracket from the slide valve unless the rubber diaphragm is split and to be changed.

I think you can carefully clamp it to hold but I'd be super careful. I think I did just that work some of mine in the past.

Re the cradle levers, I think they should be simply movable without much effort. If they're so loose they fall under their own weight that's surprising. Lends me to think they might be worn. But better than seized..

I modified my last xantia with ceramic roller bearings in the cradle levers and replaced the plastic link to the anti roll bar with a special double rose joint. It worked very well indeed. The car has been with a new owner since 2022 and I do wonder how the mods are holding up.

[Rhothgar]

Thanks for the clarification.

Sounds really interesting what you did with the levers. Mine were stiff and feeling a bit gritty for the avoidance of doubt. I’ve now free then sufficiently then by the sounds of it.

I’d be interested to see any photos of the mods you did and a parts list if possible.

[peter306]

Did Mine with a vice and some padding around the spindle, followed Jims guide.
https://eastment.net/hcrefurb/index.htm

[myglaren]

That was the one I was looking for. Completely forgotten where it was.
And thought it was Malcolm who posted it

[peter306]

I've probably been the most recent user of it so it was in one of my posts
I'm ok with what i've done on my car but It's nice having all this knowledge available.

Peter

[Rhothgar]

I've probably been the most recent user of it so it was in one of my posts
I'm ok with what i've done on my car but It's nice having all this knowledge available.

Peter

Shame that I have only just seen this as I am in the process of building back up now.

I am going to try and design and make the tools Citroen use for setting the height and locking off the height correctors.

In the end, I just rinsed and repeated submerging the HC in LHM and blowing out with compressed air.

Just about to do another more specific post about purging the system of foul LHM so please keep an eye out for that as I hope to get some thoughts on this and proceed tomorrow morning.

[aerodynamica]

Thanks for the clarification.

Sounds really interesting what you did with the levers. Mine were stiff and feeling a bit gritty for the avoidance of doubt. I’ve now free then sufficiently then by the sounds of it.

I’d be interested to see any photos of the mods you did and a parts list if possible.

I think I did post these up in the distant past but can look them out again. I had special plates laser cut and welded on to the outer top and bottom of the existing cradle to locate the roller bearings. Then a stainless steel bolt fitted firmly through the original pivot with a lock nut on the end. Enlarged the hole in the existing cradle so this bolt doesn't contact the cradle and only bears on the bearings themselves (The original hole is left after the steel boss that the lever pivots around originally, is removed but is smaller on one end). As for replacing the plastic link from the anti roll bar, this involved removing the brazed - on ball joint on the clamp rod and replacing it with a short M5 thread, grinding off the riveted - on balljoint from the cradle lever and welding on a threaded M5 rod ( I think I made that from a countersunk screw) and then a male and female threaded M5 sized rose joint joined together with one of them shortened to make a double ended rose joint of the same length as the original plastic link. This is simply fitted to each M5 rod welded to the anti roll bar clamp and cradle lever each. You then just readjust the suspension height in the usual way and get the clearances for the moving parts on the cradle equal like in every LHM citroen. But pictures are worth a thousand words! so I'll look out the photos this week.

[Rhothgar]

That sounds amazing.

As you say, a picture paints a thousand words.

I am struggling to visualise the plate, bearing and bolt interface at present. Hope you find the photos. I can try and design something up from that description if not?