Xantia-Ressurection?-The difficult bit

Post by **KennyW** » 25 Mar 2011, 14:57

Neil,

I have 2 spare racks in the garage which did not fit my Xantia plus my old rack with Pinion separate. Also have the power ram.

They are free if you need them but I need to confirm what type of Xantia you have?

Kenny.

P.S. I'm on Hols until Tuesday. Also no transport at the moment

NewcastleFalcon · Post by **NewcastleFalcon** » 25 Mar 2011, 16:41

Thanks Kenny

My spares Xantia is an L-Reg 1.9 Turbo Diesel with power steering. Its the model with the silver chevrons on the bonnet.

The one I am attempting to ressurect is a M-reg 1.9TD with power steering and the chevrons on the grill bit at the front.

I am foolishly assuming at this stage that the rack from the spares car will be the same as the M-reg, but hopefully without the leak. I've only had a couple of hours at it so far so havent quite extracted the rack from the spares car yet. It does have a light blue dust cover on the pinion bit.

Thanks for your offer nitton isn't too far up the road if I need to take it up

regards
Neil

Post by **KennyW** » 25 Mar 2011, 16:52

Neil,

I have also the supply pipes for the ram to pinion but but i don't know if the fit yours.

If any problems give me a PM and we'll go from there.

Kenny

Dommo · Post by **Dommo** » 25 Mar 2011, 18:37

NewcastleFalcon wrote:Thanks Kenny

My spares Xantia is an L-Reg 1.9 Turbo Diesel with power steering. Its the model with the silver chevrons on the bonnet.

The one I am attempting to ressurect is a M-reg 1.9TD with power steering and the chevrons on the grill bit at the front.

I am foolishly assuming at this stage that the rack from the spares car will be the same as the M-reg, but hopefully without the leak. I've only had a couple of hours at it so far so havent quite extracted the rack from the spares car yet. It does have a light blue dust cover on the pinion bit.

Thanks for your offer nitton isn't too far up the road if I need to take it up

regards
Neil

Is this a sinker car? Does it have AC? I quite fancy fitting sinker parts to my anti sink car..

NewcastleFalcon · Post by **NewcastleFalcon** » 25 Mar 2011, 19:04

The spares Xantia is L-reg first registered January 1994.

It hasn't moved since December 2006, but I think it probably was a sinker. Nice dark blue colour. Managed to limp it home on the last legs of a slipping clutch but the prospect of doing a clutch in December finally retired it. Since then I have been taking bits off it to keep the other one on the road, notably the cylinder head.

As part of this current MOT process I intend to take everything off that I think could be useful and scrap the shell. At one time I thought I would be able to put it on the road again, but it is always going to be too much time and expense even more so now that I have removed some good bits. It has a cracked windscreen as well which would be £150-£200 before anything else. I remember fixing my mini back window myself with the bloke at the scrapyard removing a suitable back window with his boot. Dont think I have seen anything on the forum for DIY windscreen replacement, I think they are stuck in a bit more securely than my old mini these days.

Neil

citroenxm · Post by **citroenxm** » 25 Mar 2011, 21:29

You can and there IS a tool for removing them.. consisting of TWO handles and small "Cheese" type wire, and a thin prng for poking the wire through the bond.... once you have an end through the bond you fit the handles each end and then in a sawing motion, VERY slowly, cut along the bond right round the screen..

I have sucessfully removed a Xantia screen, and an XM one till last minute when it cracked...

Paul

NewcastleFalcon · Post by **NewcastleFalcon** » 26 Mar 2011, 19:55

The end of my activity today. I have got the rack off the old car meaning its all disconnected and ready to pull out, but like other members have reported, I haven't found a way of wangling it out through the drivers side wheel arch. Indeed it was closer to coming out of the passenger side just before I gave up for the day.

Looks like I will have to drop the subframe. I am already picturing shearing off the rusty old mounting bolts when I give it a go tomorrow. Do the subframe bolts go up into a threaded hole and appear in the floorpan somewhere with a nut on the end?

I have had the luxury of unrestricted access round the back of the egine because the inlet manifold, cylinder head, and exhaust manifold with turbo have all been removed. The heat shield was a bit annoying a few scraped knuckles inappropriately levering that off with a screwdriver.
The hacksaw came out to saw off the track rod ends-rust had seen off any sort of hexagon on the retaining nut.

I did also discover that there was a metal "cap" over the nut on the pinch bolt at the pinion. It did appear that the nut was 15mm but when my 15mm socket destroyed the metal cap-underneath was a 13mm nut.

Took the steering column off inside the car in on big piece, steering wheel still attached.

Neil

citroenxm · Post by **citroenxm** » 26 Mar 2011, 20:40

GOOD news

The subframe bolts go into a Chassis hollow thats dry... so even if the heads of the bolts look bad the rest of the bolt WONT be...

Make sure the 17mm Socket goes on the bolt head well, and you surprised how easy they will come from there...

Paul

NewcastleFalcon · Post by **NewcastleFalcon** » 27 Mar 2011, 20:14

had another couple of hours at it. Extracted the steering rack-not through either of the wheel arches though. Pulled it out from behind the engine up and out! This method does involve removing the inlet manifold, exhaust manifold and turbo, shoving back the gear linkage rod, and having the cylinder head removed.

I wont have this luxury doing it on the car I am trying to save.

I did begin on the dropping the subframe path. Are there 3 bolts at each side which hold the subframe in place? I undid a bolt under the wheel arch which looks like it holds a branch of the subframe to the inner wing, and I presume the other two bolts are side by side at the back of the subframe.

When dropping the subframet is it necessary to remove all three bolts, and whats the best support point for the axle stands bearing in mind these cannot be on the subframe, and the car isnt in the first flush of youth.

The rack when its out, has track rod ends and locknuts which are going to take some unscrewing after years of rust and inactivity.

Neil

Post by **KennyW** » 28 Mar 2011, 15:01

Neil,

When I removed my rack I took out the wishbone(driver's side) which allowed enough room to remove it. It also allowed easier access to the hydraulic pipes

Sorry this info is a BIT LATE

Kenny

NewcastleFalcon · Post by **NewcastleFalcon** » 28 Mar 2011, 20:09

Thanks Kenny

The bit that seems to get stuck trying to extract the rack through the wheel arch is the ram and pipes. I need to get a 12mm hexagon flare nut spanner to get the two pipes dismantled it may just pull out if these were off.

I was right about the difficulty of getting the track rod ends off the rack.

I had to cut them off at the end, and hammered an 18mm hexagon socket over the lock nut. One end unscrewed out after applying some heat from the cooker (yes my toolkit doesn't include a decent oxy acetylene set up, or indeed a blowtorch). The other is rock solid in and I am going to have to ask Les to weld me on a nut to extract the thread end.

That being done and 2 new track rod ends for the rack, and I think it will be OK but hopefully your kind offer will be available if this approach fails.

Kind Regards
Neil