strut mount

[pwykes]

Hello Chaps,

My old dog Bx1.9rd is off the road at the moment having some love and attention (and a lot of welding wire) my question is that the rubber around the top strut mount is perished, i read on the forum that somebody said not to bother with it.

I cannot visualize how the strut mates with the mount support so how would i know if there is any dangerous wear in the joint without taking the whole assembly to bits.

Cheers phil.

[Durksz]

You definately should take it seriously. There are examples where The rubber failed and destroyed the bonnet. It recently happened To a Dutch fellow bx owner

You can have the rubber redone by a company in Lithoania
https://elastomer.eu/index.php/en/citroen-strut-mounts

[pwykes]

Thanks for that Durksz, i have removed the strut for further inspection, at the moment i am waiting for a 36 socket to arrive - that nut on the top is awfully tight. Does anybody know if the 2 oil rings sealing the top assembly are standard?

[rutter123]

You should be able to get the seals from Pleaides in Sawtry, I'm guessing they will be made from special rubber that can't be degraded by LHM.

[Jaba]

The oil seals do not usually fail so no need to change them if not leaking. I think the nut is 35mm, a non standard size, but I use a 36mm hex socket and that does the job whereas a bi-hex might not because as you say they are very tight and best loosened on the car.
Sorry if you know all that already.

[pwykes]

Thanks Jaba i didn't know about hex and bi-hex so it looks like i have ordered the wrong one, its not arrived yet but i have been inspecting the strut in the vice and soaking the nut with a mixture of LHM and acetone.

All the rubber on top of the dome is adrift and all the rubber around the bottom near the gaiter is either gone or perished, i pushed a small scriber up between the bottom of the skirt expecting it to hit some sort of lip but it didn,t it just went straight through this leads me to believe that the middle boss is just purely moulded into the rubber and that the top and bottom skirts act as anchor points to stabilise the assembly. Not looking good.

[pwykes]

Well the 36mm socket was a perfect fit and the nut flew off with the air hammer, now i have remove the gaiter i can see that the cone shaped inner part at the gaiter end runs all the way to the to the top where it is bolted to the piston. the aperture of the baseplate is slightly bigger so if the rubber fails under compression the cone part will fit though easily (thats just dandy isnt it). My conclusion is that as the deteriation of the rubber near the gaiter end increases the cone part will eventually slip through the baseplate. Its important that the rubber as a good wrap round attachment to the metals - looks like i may have had a close shave, but its 33yrs old and to be expected. lithuania for them next. Also the bottom cone part suffers from corrosion which is another root of failure.

Another thought i have had is to fit a steel plate that runs around the three baseplate bolts and then to weld three flat bars from the plate bend over to form a cradle above the nut. Any failure the weight of the car would then be transfered to the cage preventing bonnet damage and possible accident. Please be critical it all goes in the mash to resolve issues.

[Durksz]

The o-rings are made of NBR , which is lhm resistant. I don't know the size by hart. NBR o-rings are available at many technical parts suppliers.

[pwykes]

Thank durksz

I have sourced two used but in very good condition strut mounts from Chevronics. If the bearing was starting to fail i would expect the cone end near the gaiter to start moving up into the baseplate. As a quick test - with the wheels straight lift the bonnet and visually check for any height difference between the dust protectors and car body. Job Done.

Thanks Chaps