DIY 306 Rear Beam Rebuild

[gretsch-drummer]

Just thought I'd post up what I've been up to over the past couple of weeks and to show any old 'home spanner monkey' could strip and rebuild a beam:

Well managed to get a 90k rear beam from the scrappers for £40.

Bit of a ball-ache doing it on your own, and I couldn't get the bloody drums off to just bolt-cuttered the handbrake cable off also used some wheels to prop the rear up so it didn't fall the to ground being back-heavy:



Managed to get it int' boot and off home I went to start the strip down.

The beginning:


First wanted to get the brake lines etc out the way, whacked these tabs off and undid line nuts. Easy enough:


But when in doubt:

Smash a 11mm socket over the drum brake-line adapter.

Then onto the mounts/dampers etc.

When in doubt:

Cut the b*stard bolt in half. Great time saver.



Was on quite a roll now, next up were the ARB plates:

Good:


BAAAAAD:

(will drill it out later)

But just this evening (7th) I managed to drill and tap out the snapped bolt:

Don't you just love it when you succeed in sticky/stuck situations ay'?

Next up: Torsion bar washers.


After a crap load of muck removed from out the washer slot and smacking the washer with a good chisel and NOT WITH A PLASTIC HANDLED TORX SCREWDRIVER!, the washers popped down:




The casualty:


And now the usual story, CAN'T GET THE TORSION BARS OUT so I'm left with this for today:


Update (a good one): My days challenge was to get those friggin' TBs out.

I don't have a blow torch or anything so used the next best thing to heat it up: A heat gun. Held it there for a good 10 minutes while spraying wd40 and whack the torsion bar to help loosen up the rust etc.


Then went to the local hardware shop and picked up a couple M8.1.25 bolts (I bought two because I KNEW I'd end up snapped one). Then made my own little Torsion Bar Puller (patent pending....):
M8 bolt + nut
3 washers
24mm socket


Screw it into the TB end and get winding while the metals still bloody hot!


Then wind the bugger out. You'll start to see it sloooowly wind out but the bolt snapped before getting it all the way out so I had to use a punch to whack the other end through:


Then TA'DAAAAAA:


Suppose a higher tensile bolt would hold up pretty good.

---

Then you can just pull the trailing arm off and see how fecked it is:


While winding the other side out it actually pulled the trailing arm with it so you're left with this:


put some wood under the arm and smack the sh*t out of the top of the TB to hit it through:


Now in hindsight you should put a piece of wood on the TB end so you're not burring the splines because it won't fit through the hole. No worries tho, just grab the grinder and get cutting:


And there you go, a torsion bar free beam:


And yes, new shafts are going on order along with the bearing kit:




And this is only from a 90k ph1.

Next update: Removing bearings

Update: Bearing removal.

Right, to get the outer bearings out I grabbed a very small and thin screwdriver and drove it down in between the bearing and crossmember housing. It's alot hard than it sounds. You have to drive it down and in at the same time to avoid gauging the housing (Not gonna lie, i managed to make a few gauges but I'll just sand them smoothish) It takes a while and is a right pain but got there in the end:





I pretty much cut all the way through the bearing shell then was able to pry it inward to deform and then pull it out. It's a very tight fit.

INNER BEARINGS:

Right, for the inner bearings I made up a puller which I saw someone from 205 forum make. The bit that pulls the bearing through has to have a oblong centre cut out so it can move at an angle so when you drop it down the tube it will slot through the bearing then when pulled back up it will butt up against the bearing:



Dropped down and pulled back up:


Then build up a strong base to pull against. I had a lump hammer head and a 35mm socket to hand:


Lock two nuts on the end to use as a 'hold' while turning the other nut. (pic taken from 309 stripping/build)


Then wind the bugger out, you should hear a 'THUNK' when you've managed to move it:


After a bit of a clean:


Update: With most of it stripped I gave the tube a good grinding to get rid of any rust etc and get everything a coat of Kurust:

(weird bluey trailing arm)

Then took the trailing arms round to a mates and we managed to get the bloody drum off finally. It was lipped like hell so was catching on the shoes. We had to use a bit of force on the adjuster to get the bloody things to move but got there in the end:



So just waiting on the bearings and shafts which I've bought/ordered from Poland. £90 for both trailing arm shafts and bearing kit!!! Absolute Bargain seen as Peugeot want £90 just for the bearings!

---

Update:

Had delivery of theeeeese:


Then got on and started fitting the bearings.

I first tried using my puller to 'pull' the bearing through but it kept bending what ever I was pulling against so decided to use to FORCE method.

I dropped the bearing in the tube, (it will slide down a couple of inches on its own) then grabbed a 35mm Draper Hubnut socket and dropped it down ontop of it.


Then grabbed a 32mm socket with an extension but turned the socket round so the top was hitting butt up against the top of the 35mm socket:




Notice the handy lump hammer head...After giving the extension a good few whacked (wincing with every hit, hoping I'm not damaging the bearing) the desired drop was achieved (measure your old bearing before hand tho, just to check):


Now the outer bearings. These were pretty simple to fit. Just place on top of the crossmember and keep hitting it down making sure it's going in perfectly square. When it gets going its easy on from there:


Eventually it will slide right in:


(you actually want to knock it down a little further than that^ You want to be able to see the little taper edge on the housing but I forgot to take a picture after hitting it down further)

Then grab the metal seal housing and knock it on, leaving a 2mm (i.e edge of a screwdriver gap) Then whack the seal inside the metal ring:





And there you have it....A freshly bearing'd beam:


Help from a 20tonne press (which we only needed to use 5tonne of):


Huzzaaaaar!

Now onto the paint and getting hold of the 6' torsion bars. (Already got a 6' ARB in my current beam)

And that's where I am as of today (Dec 10th)

(Most of this build was done by reading and following 'Welshpug's guide so PROPS to that guy!)

[Connor]

About time you put this on here

[gretsch-drummer]

Ha, 'Beam guide for EVEEEEERYBODY!'

[Ben]

Very good guide, you going to be doing another bit for reassembly? Did it cost you much for postage from Poland?

[gretsch-drummer]

Got a few more bits to buy before fitting it (prob try put it on after new year) i.e brake lines and TB screws, washers and ARB plate seals etc. But yeah I'll do a bit for reassembly. But the way I'll be doing it is bolting the tube to the body first then reassemble it all.

It was £90 delivered, So a right bargain.

[Tom]

Awesome guide bud thanks! I bet alot of people will benefit from this!

[puglove]

Nice guide good work

[Ben]

Did you get a bit of money off then? The advert I just found says they are 45 per side plus 13 p+p. I was just suprised they could post them that distance for that little, I'd expect it to cost about that posting within the UK

[gretsch-drummer]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120976019232?s...1497.l2649

That's the item I bought.

[Ben]

Oh I see so thats cheaper than the one advertised in English. I just assumed that the one Advertised in English was the only one which would post here.

[Poodle]

Nice one, cheers fella!

[gretsch-drummer]

Bit of an update on this. Had it fitted for a couple weeks now.

But after you've got everything together:


Then make yourself a 'dummy shock' (I used a piece of wood with 2 holes drilled for the damper bolts at 320mm for a 30~mm drop) and start assembling the beam:


Then while at Craigyts place we fitted the blighter:


The rear feels great (oo-eeerrr), nice and stiff (ooooo-eeerrr missus)

And this is the drop 320mm damper bolt distance gives:




Thank you and good night.

[Stephen]

Brilliant guide mate, put a lot of effort into that, cheers!

[WILL1000]

good guide but looks like a pita job lol

[306Puggy]

Bloody good write up but man that looks hard, even with the pictures to guide you!

[darrenjlobb]

Well wrote, and really nice job.

The rear beam on my bus really should be addressed I think...might have to take page out of this book and man up and get it sorted!

[camoturd]

What are the symptoms of a faulty rear trail arm

[welshpug]

excessive camber, creaks (rare) clunks, or scary handling.

however even a beam that looks good, will often be donald ducked these days as they are getting old.

mileage and age say nothing of a beams condition, last one I took apart was from a 51k 2002 Xsara VTS, took quite a while longer than most 306 beams to get apart, both arm shafts were buggered, one even started sticking in the bearings and coming out of the trailing arm, so it wasn't far off being seized.

that one just donated its bars trailing arms and tube, as thankfully the shafts hadn't started wearing through the bearing casing.

[mikey b]

I had this the other day with a Citroen on low miles and fairly new and it was no good I have ended up using a drum axel tube my discs arms and gti 6 torsion bars all good fun

[306 blaze]

just looked at this i say good guide but I'd rather pay somebody to do it thow.