My brothers acadiane made cracking noises but we couldn't find the origin. When he was on route to Portugal near Burgos there was a loud crack and his rearwheel stood under an strange angle. The roadservice towed him and fortunatly the man was citroen dealer too. So they took the wheelarm off and there were falling triangle shaped peices of rust out. That was all that was left of the rollers in the wheelarm bearings....

So I'm taking peoples advice and checking swing arm bearings today. I'm guessing I should have a special tool for the castle nuts, is it possible without the tool? I have lots of punches and blunt thumping items, hammers.. I was thinking if possible it would be a case of knocking it round bit by bit with a big punch.. Is this feasible? I'm thinking if it is, re- torquing accurately will be impossible, if necessary?

Well the thumping with blunt items method was tried, to great affect! I've photographed most stages in an attempt to help others who like me, need to do a job like this but haven't done it before and so don't know what's involved. Sorry if it bores anyone to death.

Removed the damper bracket to reveal the castle nut held in place with a spilt pin and accompanied by the suspicious lump of grease. All looked original and previously untouched.


I next made a highly sophisticated tool by hacking up a cold chisel and filing it to the right size so it could be knocked into one of the notches in the castle nut and then belted with a hammer.



To my joy, it worked like a dream. Before loosening the nuts I marked their position in relation to the axle with a centre punch to try and put it back to roughly the same torque.


I realised that to remove that side of the front axle I had to either remove the steering rod from the rack or release the steering arm ball from the rod. I tried removing the steering rod from the centre of the axle first but it was stuck solid, I think I'll need a special tool for this, I don't have a ball joint splitter. Incidentally, does the rubber look ok? I think I painted it so the flakiness is just paint, but is this an acceptable level of squishedness or should I replace it?


I decided to remove the axle by releasing the steering arm ball joint.


After taking out the split pin, I found that the chisel that I adapted for the castle nut fitted this perfectly too (Instant multi tool).


So I removed the castellated nut and the cup washer thingmy and tried getting the ball out.



This confused me for a while until I realised the ball had 2 flat faces so it was just a case of turning the hub until they aligned with the slot in the rod and then it just fell out.




On fully removing the castle nut from the axle, initial signs were good on the grease front..


On pulling off the arm, everything seemed hunky dory, anyone correct me if I'm wrong.




Both bearings were greased and seemed in good condition, they're all of the Spanish variety, I assume these are originals?



I cleaned them up and re greased thoroughly before refitting the axle and refitting castle nut with new split pin.


I carried out the same procedure on all 4 corners, all were the same. At the same time I removed the rear axle tube and flipped round the solid ally droop stops.


I then fitted 4 new shocks and the 2 new rod eyes to replace dodgy ones from ECAS.
The only problem I had was with 2 new shock absorber nuts, again from ECAS, which appeared to made from some sort of soft cheese as the thread stripped before I could get them torqued up. One of them managed to hold, but at an odd angle. Not impressed, why sell such shite. Better not to sell anything at all.







I also fitted new front axle bolts and lock washers.


And that took me A WHOLE DAY. Need to pull my finger out.

Cheers

As your adept at making your own tools see here for ideas http://www.2cvtools.com/www_2cvtools_com29.htm

Thanks Pete, I could indeed make one of the track rod removal thingies but irritatingly I don't have a welder at the moment so £30 from ECAS might be easier. The one on that site does look better, pretty expensive at £48 though..

I have some of the tools, there are well made, with "tool" steel for the important parts.

I got in touch with the guy from that site - he stopped making the tools years ago but has never taken the site down.

Ah.. I did wonder why it said ECAS sold them and none were on their website. I wonder if Citroen have any left anywhere.. Haynes has the part number, I'll phone and ask just on the off chance.

I noticed you also have some suspicious looking gold knife edges - I don't know if they came from the same supplier but I would maybe stick the old ones back in if they are ok. I did - look what happened to mine after only 17,000miles/ 1 years use... some of these new items are utter rubbish...




Can't wait to see it back together btw!

looks great,keep it on