Rear Arm Bearing

[bongi_jr]

I have a 1988 Citroen BX 14 RE that needs its rear wheel bearing replaced (rear arm bearing). The rear wheel has strong camber which is wearing the inside tread of the tire.
I would like to replace this bearing myself, but am not familiar with the job as haven't done it before.
My question is, is it as straight forward a job as I perceive it to be, or are there unexpected obstacles that might hinder my progress? e.g. in the Haynes manual, a specialised tool is used to pull the hub from the shaft. Would I need this tool, or could I get around this?
ANy comment would be appreciated.
Thanks

[CoolCarbon]

If it's that bad, I would say that it's a garage job,

 

I had that bearing go on my BX 16valve, but not as bad as yours sounds.....it took some serious heat and lots of swearing by the technician to sort it..... :blink:

[cardi]

I was going to ask the same question. The bearings on mine are broken too but I get a nasty metallic clunk when going over bumps etc.

Some years ago when I first bought my car the bearings were gone on both sides and I bought a complete axle at the scrapyard and changed both arms.

I expect you could make the required pullers with threaded rod and metal plates but you will have to get the suspension arm off and on a bench to look at it. It would be a lot cheaper to take the arm to a Citroen garage than to take the whole car. The full bearing kits cost £28 on ebay. There are people who have done it themselves.

If you do it yourself I would appreciate hearing your advice.

[mechuccio]

Hi there!

 

a post from the netherlands.

I have had several BXes and am now currently owner of a nice bx 16TRi and much nicer 19GTI 16V!

 

about the bearings.... its not that hard to replace them yourself!

just take care of the job there are a few things which can go wrong.

first of all, after removing the brake caliper just leave it hanging on its hydraulics tube, this tube is attached by plastic clips on the support arm you can just click it out, do this immediately! should you forget this and remove the arm theres a big chance that the tube will bend or even break and that will leave you with quit an expensive repair! another importand thing is that you disattach the supportarm from the suspension, there is a small white plastic cap on top of the suspension whitch by a clip is attached to the support arm, remove this clip and take the suspension out. the bolt which holds the arm in its place should be the last thing to unscrew on the inside a normal wrench will fit on the bolt and on the outside you best use a wrench with an extended handle because it needs quite some force, but no special tools ar needed.

Further apart from the better camber you'll get there's a big chance that your suspendion will be MUCH smoother after replacing the bearrings

 

if you click here you'll get a dutch website with some nice photoreports of the most common maintainance jobs for the BX. in the top bar click on onderhoud than click on ophanging and the on draagarmlagers you'll get a nice report!

 

Should you have any more questions I'll be more than happy to answer them (despite of my crummy english :unsure:) and if you're willing to pay the fuel I need to drive from the netherlands to england I'll be more than happy to help you :lol:

anyway! good luck an succes whith the job.

[cardi]

The main problem is how to remove the bearings and races from the arm. Can it be done with just a hammer and drivers?

[mechuccio]

yep!

 

I used a pipe-wrench (hope thats the right name for this) -> http://www.onlinebouwmarkt.nl/winkel/images/Pijpsleutel%20-%20Gedore.jpg

and with a hammer i could quite easily beat the hollow-axel out of it shaft.

 

but check that website in my previous post! you'll see a step by step photo report. You can see him do the same trick with a hammer and any kind of tool which will fit in the shaft.

 

good luck!

[cardi]

Hi Mechuccio,

 

Thanks for that link. It all seems relatively easy to do, good clear pictures. If it stops raining for a few days I'll get on with it.

The spanner you showed is called a box spanner. A pipe wrench is used by plumbers.

 

Best regards

[mechuccio]

Hi Mechuccio,

 

Thanks for that link. It all seems relatively easy to do, good clear pictures. If it stops raining for a few days I'll get on with it.

The spanner you showed is called a box spanner. A pipe wrench is used by plumbers.

 

Best regards

You're welcome :angry:

thx for the right name for the spanner, it's a bit confusing, in Dutch a Pipe wrench is calles (litterally translated) water-pump-wrench and a box-spanner is called (again litterally) pipe-key.

Anyway it's a rather easy job, just take you're time and everything will be fine!

good luck (hope that the rain will stop soon)

 

And keep us posted :blink:

[Marty]

A fairly comprehensive description of how to tackle them is here - its not that daunting really.

[Tom R]

The rear trailing arm bearings are simple enough to change providing that you can get the outer bearing races out of the trailing arm itself.

The long bolt which goes through the arm has the nylock nut on the inside of the arm (26mm Socket) and can be very tight.

The best way to get the outer bearing races changed is by using a bearing puller (availlable from hire shops), or take the radius arm to a local garage and get them to remove the old races and insert the new ones.

They have to be firmly pressed up to a 'boss' in the radius arm, so cleanliness is paramount.

Make sure you refill the bearings with the correct amount of grease and ensure you put the oil seals (new) and the shims (old back in the same positon as original and use a new nut.

A repair kit from a decent automotive store should have everything you need.

Each side should not take more than a couple of hours (Pressing out and replacing bearing races permitting.

Tom