Rear suspension mounts

[Mothman]

Got the old girl[BX] well ramped up on a set of tractor ramps [thanks Tim] and wondered if its an easy fix to get at, clean and sort? I hope to scrape, de rust and prime followed by lots of waxoil. Anything else in need of treatment will also be done too.
As it was getting dark, couldnt really see whats what underneath but the mounts were not plainly obvious, tomorrow will show more i hope.

Looks awsome up on the ramps, makes the normal ones look like toys.

Andy

[Defender110]

No easy method but deffinatetly a must do job to prolong the life of your car, I'd get some Kurust and a 1/2" brush. you should be able to prime it half an hour after Kurusting which should stop it coming back.

[Mothman]

Thanks Kev,

got most of it sorted today, a lot of scraping and wire brushing, each side being hard but different to get at and a good soaking in kurust, plus anything else i spotted[quite a lot]. All now primered, just got to add the waxoil tomorrow, hope its added another couple of MOTs or more.

Andy

[Defender110]

Well done Andy as stated it is deffinately a job worth doing, IMHO this is one job if not done that will be responsible for sending a lot of BX's to the crusher.

[Mothman]

Hi Kev,

all done plus a lot of extra rust proofing and waxoiling, even managed to get an avatar sorted today so well pleased. I hope i have slowed down the old girl's demise by a few years at least and i well reccomend that all BX owners get underneath their motors and have a look at the rear suspension mounts, prevention is much better than the cure.

Andy

[MULLEY]

Have you removed the cylinders? When one of mine finally gave up the ghost, i was shocked at how much wet nasty mud was inside the cradle shield that surrounds the cylinder, this is what made it turn to swiss cheese, might be worth taking them out to check them & to give them a good clean out & Mat has mentioned in one of my posts somewhere that he drilled a hole in the bottom to stop the crud from building up in the future.

[Mothman]

Oh hell.

more do do then!!!
Is it difficult to do this? How do you remove the cylinder?

Andy

[MULLEY]

Shaune did mine for me, it doesn't appear to be a horrendous job, just need to be careful to stop the cylinder rotating & ripping the pipe off.

Hopefully the more tech minded can provide a step by step guide on how to do this.

As usual plenty of pre-lubing various bits will probably help in a smooth removal. Might be an idea to have some spare rear struts to hand incase when you remove them they are past their best & are likely to fail in the not too distant future, it would be a ballache to go to the effort to remove them & then have to re-fit cylinders that are badly corroded not knowing when they are likely to go pop.

New cylinders are prohibitly epensive, so xantia one's are cheaper. However, they are not a direct replacement, the boot & the internals would need to be swapped over, also the lug where the pipe fits into is too large, the bx one is smaller so you'd need to reduce its diameter so that it will fit into the bx correctly. I do have a xantia rear that i intend to do this on, however i will be taking it to somewhere to get professionally altered so that the lug is the correct size, the rest i'll do myself.

[Mothman]

My give up as Jar-Jar once said.

Certainly dont think i could cope with this.

Will soon be taking my scrapper to bits, will pay close attention to this area when me and a mate do it. Rust proofing the outside will have to do for now.

Ile just go and cry into my beer for now.

[MULLEY]

They're not leaking yet, so i wouldn't worry too much, you might even be lucky & they are in good nick afterall. Good idea with your scrapper, worth seeing if those rear cylinders are in good condition incase you need them for your other car.