Rear Axle creak/cracking

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rossd
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Rear Axle creak/cracking

Post by rossd »

Hi all,
All of a sudden, in the last few days, my '95 306 DT has been making creaking/metallic cracking noises randomly from the rear suspension. It doesnt seem to happen over bumps, or cornering, but it can be provoked by bouncing the rear suspension. Any ideas? The wheels are straight (eg not inclined in at the top) and it has 85k on it. I cant seem to pinpoint the noise, but its certainly coming from the suspension crosstube area.
Cheers
Ross
I posted here too because of the greater throughput of traffic on this forum and seeing as the car is a ZX in drag, perhaps any ZX owners could shed any light!?
1990 205 1.4
1995 306 Dturbo
tomsheppard
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Post by tomsheppard »

This sounds like failing rear arm bearings. Andyspares keep them and they are modestly priced. Reckon on a couple of hours work to change them out, though.
tomsheppard
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Post by tomsheppard »

This sounds like failing rear arm bearings. Andyspares keep them and they are modestly priced. Reckon on a couple of hours work to change them out, though.
rossd
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Post by rossd »

Is there a guide somewhere that details how to do this? The Haynes book of lies unsurprisingly doesnt touch this. Rear arm bearings had crossed my mind, but surely it would permenantly creak when driving if it were these? Doesn't sound good....
Cheers
Ross
1990 205 1.4
1995 306 Dturbo
shaunthesheep
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Post by shaunthesheep »

ross,
one of the esiesr ways to check to if your rear arm bearings have worn out, is to park the car on a flat surface, stand behind the car & look at the lean of the rear wheels, if they are like so:- |\ or //
/|, then i would suspect worn out bearings.
the job itself takes about 3 hours to do, having done mine klast rear.
if you do a search for rear arm bearings etc, you should find some helpful info
dom
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AndersDK
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Post by AndersDK »

Hi Ross !
The rear arm and bearings are (allmost) to tiny bits exactly the same used on all PSA cars. Only the dimension and shape of the various bits differs. <img src=icon_smile_cool.gif border=0 align=middle>
The rear arm bearing problem is therefore also (very) wellknown to these cars.
A very <img src=icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle> good homesite covers such a rear arm bearing job together with pic's on a BX :
http://www.bx.citroen.org/
It's Japanese, but some of the topics has kindly been translated into Shakespear.
If you ca'nt find the rear arm topic in the english menu, then try the Japanese menu - the headings are in english.
Though the description is Japanese - the large amount of pic's & drawings are extensively self-explanatory.
I've copied a description from the swedish Akuten site on how to fit a grease nipple on such a rear arm (BX) exactly where it should be to to grease the bearing - not filling up the arm cavity with grease.
Unfortunately the description is in swedish - guess it would not help you much - however I plan to translate it into Shakespear - with due respect to the originator. <img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>
AlanS - moderator on this Forum - also submitted some pic's a couple of y's ago on the Yahoo forum, on where to fit a grease nipple (on a BX).
Not knowing your car - I'm convinced due to the vast similarity to BX rear arm - that your bearing job is done on a saturday evening.
C U
Anders(DK)
rossd
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Post by rossd »

Well thanks for all the replies. I did in fact already check the camber of the rear wheels, and they seem to be straight, which is ok. Is it possible that the lubrication for the bearings has simply dried out causing noise? The link to the Japanese sight is also great!!
Im pretty competent when it comes to taking the car apart and putting it back together again, having never really used garages, so it looks like Im gonna have to bite the bullet and spend a weekend doing this sometime soon. Just a quick query, Andyspares lists two types of bearing, External and Internal. Which would I need?!
Cheers
Ross
1990 205 1.4
1995 306 Dturbo
rossd
Posts: 420
Joined: 16 Mar 2001, 20:18
Location: United Kingdom
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Post by rossd »

Well, DUH!! I need both I now realise! Been researching this on the net and it doesnt seem to be too hard a job. Thanks for your help everybody, Much appreciated!
Cheers
Ross
1990 205 1.4
1995 306 Dturbo
Dave Burns
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Post by Dave Burns »

If I were you I would research this subject with regard to the actual suspension unit involved, it differs substantialy from that of the wet Citroens.
You will need a 12mm x 1.5mm bolt with around three inches of thread on it to drive into the splined bracket and disengage the anti roll on one side, a slide hammer with an M8 coupling to withdraw the torsion bars, then you will have to fashion a puller to get behind the inner bearing, this consists of a lenght of screwed M10 rod, several nuts and a suitable heavy washer of between 3 and 5mm thick and of a size just below the diameter of the bearing, it needs an elongated hole in it and needs two opposed flats cutting on it to enable it to pass through the bearing and swing into position behind it.
Then with a suitable piece of plate with a 10.5mm hole in it over the end of the cross tube, the nut can be screwed on and the bearing pulled out.
Be sure to measure the depth at which the bearing is installed to before removing it for there is no shoulder to act as a stop.
The outer bearing being near the end of the tube is easily dealt with.
The rollers of the needle bearing ride directly on the trailing arm shaft, if the outer bearing has failed due to water ingress the shaft can be seriously damaged by rust as a result, this happened to my old 205 and rendered the shaft useless, fortunately I had a spare one from a Gti after fitting the disc brakes from it.
Make very good and clear marks on the torsion bars (use a tungsten carbide scriber or similar as they are spring steel and don't mark easily) and the arms, or you will have the car leaning to one side when you have finished.
Dave
rossd
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Post by rossd »

Wow, a much harder job than I had originally envisaged. There is no negative camber on the rear wheels (yet), so I suppose the creaking could just be the bearings drying out. I know you can put grease nipples on the BX beam, can you do this on the 306/ZX? Where would you site them?
Does anybody know of a place that could recondition my rear beam? I found http://www.sspengineering.co.uk but they seem expensive. I dont want to take it just anywhere, I would like somebody with some experience of these cars to do it.[:)]
Or, failing that, anybody got a late 306 TD beam for sale?[:D]
Thanks for all your help.
Ross
shaunthesheep
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Post by shaunthesheep »

ROSS,
if you do a search on somthing like http://www.google.co.uk for scrap yards or should i say automotive reclaimers, there is quite a few about, i managed to pick up a replacment rear arm for about £35.00.
i have got a picture of where to fit the grease nipples, if you wnat i can email it to you
dom
rossd
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Post by rossd »

Thanks, that picture would be great. could you email it to rossd[at]zoom.co.uk? cheers!(Mind the spamtrap there...)
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