Split gaiter

Philip Chidlow · Post by **Philip Chidlow** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 3:40 pm

Oh bum. Are these gaiters hard to come by? (What would be the correct name for this gaiter anyway? - apart from 'rubbish' lol!)

And as Kermit pointed out when he saw it, I guess it's a pig of a job too. Ho hum.

DavidRutherford · Post by **DavidRutherford** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 6:09 pm

Steering rack boot.

The OE part for the BX is plastic, and hence requires the rack to be dismantled to fit it.
The Xantia equivalent part is rubber, and hence can be stretched over the PAS ram mounting stub. Fit a Xantia one to your BX for ease of fitting.

Philip Chidlow · Post by **Philip Chidlow** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 6:30 pm

Excellent advice David, thanks. The word 'boot' evaded me

(senior moment) which is why I was struggling with what it was called

...

I will obtain a Xantia part and get on with it. Thanks (this is what the BXC forum does best

)

RxBX · Post by **RxBX** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 8:55 pm

Hi Philip.
Have you seen this thread

it seems that someone else had the same problem recently

http://bxclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10276

Cheers, I hope it may be of help.

DLM · Post by **DLM** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:21 pm

Certainly did - David has summarised the parts position succinctly, and the linked thread gives you an idea of availability (and a flaw in the pattern part used).

Worth checking well before an MOT - and guess who didn't.

I'll gladly own up - I didn't fit it myself, but I did learn along the way that if you get the "wrong" part then the steering rack has to be removed and disassembled to fit a ram-end gaiter.

Take measurements of the track-rod arm setting before starting - and refit to the same measurement. If you don't the car will steer like a supermarket trolley or worse after reassembly (jsust been there). Will probably need tracking after the job anyway to be on the safe side.

Philip Chidlow · Post by **Philip Chidlow** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 12:43 pm

This will be replaced before the end of April, but in the meantime should I squirt any oil into the split?

DLM · Post by **DLM** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 3:25 pm

Not something I did anything to alleviate, but here's a suggestion from first principles rather than experience..

The main problem here as I see it is road muck and dust entering the area that the boot normally protects, and adhering to the ram, causing friction and scoring.

I'm fairly sure the boot is not really tightly packed with grease in the same way that a driveshaft boot is, nor does it have the constant rotational forces of a driveshaft forcing grease out. However, there is the normal side-to-side flexing of the boot by ram movement as the steering is turned and the ram moves.

Something like carefully-applied small lengths of amalgamating tape over the splits might work to prevent this in the meantime, but it might not take too kindly to the flexing and compression, unless applied carefully. It's sold as a temporary repair for coolant pipes, normally in 2-packs stocked by some car accessory stores.

Amalgamating tape is one-sided sticky tape - like a roll of puncture repair kit pad with the vulcanising pre-applied to one side. The other tape in the kit is a non-sticky flexible binding intended to cover over the temporary repair - it probably won't be needed here.

Even that may not work if the original Citroen boots are fitted, as they are made of the non-stretchy plastic referred to before. It looks like rubber from the pic - but I can't tell.