thanks guys - will tackle the job next weekend - sounds straight forward

Quick question, it's been mentioned, but just to confirm, how do you tell which is front and back on an original cannister? I forgot to mark them when I took mine off. Longer tie rod to the rear?

im sure its longest to the rear, but wait for someone to tell me im wrong before you take my word for it!!

i was advised they would had "av" stamped in them
well, mine didnt!

yes longer tie rod is the rear

And as James pointed out there is a faint raised "AV" pressed into the can it can be a real bugger to find especially if its got underseal on

Great, thanks.

Hi dudes,

I need some help....

whilst my car is in for body restoration at the 2cv workshop I had graham cut the cans to fit harder springs, got this email back this eve...

Could you please phone me asap I have cut open your suspension cylinders and fitted the springs you supplied but now they are on the chassis the tie rods are far to long as the springs are 3 inches shorter. I tried fitting normal knife edge eyes as yours were long but the rod bottom out before they get any tension. after speaking to ecas i am told these small spring must be fitted with shorter tie rods . dont know what to do, could cut ends off rods and re tap thread or remove cylinders and fit normal ones for now and let you play with them


I wasn't aware this would be a problem, what have you guys before?? How much to take off and re-thread? I thought the rods would almost be too short..?

Kind regards,

fritz

Some kind of spacer between spring and cup in the can?

Pee-emmed

Some brilliantly rapid and informative replys (thank you everybody!) but here is one from mr sparrow..


Hi Fritz
You will have a problem re-threading the rod as it is very hard, you would also need a 11mm x 1mm die, not easy to find. I would suggest that you make a tube spacer to go behind the cup at the end of the spring, putting the rod through the centre of the tube, make sure the rod sits nicely in the end of the tube, make the spacer from something steel with a decent wall thickness (about 3mm), the end of the rod must sit squarely in the tube and the tube needs to be welded into the cup, this also needs to be in line with the spring so that it pulls on the spring as straight as possible to avoid undue stress on the rod. Make the tube spacer long enough that it takes up the excess rod length but still gives suspension adjustment as you may need to lift it up at some point. Whatever you do, do not cut the rod and reweld it as they snap.
If done properly it will be reliable without any problems
I hope this helps
Regards
Pete

I have an m11x1 die. I wouldn't use it to cut a thread on a tie rod though. I only use it to clean the threads.