Strut rebuild advice

[KevR]

Thinking of stripping and rebuilding a spare pair of struts - anyone got a link to a guide with pics? I think I may have a rebuild kit lurking on the shelf somewhere, if not is Pleaiades the best bet?
All advice gratefully received.

[Jaba]

Kevin, there are two online resources :
http://citroen.tramontana.co.hu/suspens ... ont-struts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.mars.dti.ne.jp/~ynar/bxorg_a ... /m05e.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have done a few of these and it it usually a pain to unscrew the thrust bearing. I clamped the strut into a spare hub once to get the thing to unscrew.
Important bits are to lube thoroughly the top thrust bearing and to polish out any wear ridges on the internal piston.

[KevR]

Thanks for that. The pic in particular is helpful as it shows that what I have are indeed rebuild kits, but sadly looks like they're missing the important parts!

[maxgreenwood]

I had some struts re-conditioned by Pleiades. They machine the bits that are not included in the kit, Martin there is very helpful and has said to me in the past that he can make those up and supply them.

http://www.classiccarwebsite.com/pleiades

[KevR]

I had some struts re-conditioned by Pleiades. They machine the bits that are not included in the kit, Martin there is very helpful and has said to me in the past that he can make those up and supply them.

I spoke to Martin at Pleiades a couple of days ago, and whilst he's happy to recondition struts (at £140 each) he wasn't at all keen to sell the seals on their own...

[docchevron]

no great surprise there I guess..

[Jaba]

All this talk of strut rebuilds has made me do something with one of my rebuilt ones. I decided to replace my LHS strut as it was really struggling and groaning when it was raised up to the highest level, you know the symptoms it is ok at the normal running height but when raised up it went up in jerks and got progressively more noisy towards the top.
My rebuilt strut had had the seals and plastic collars inside replaced but not the top thrust bearing.
I was relieved and pleased after fitting to see that it rose up smoooooothly from bottom to top.
On a test run I was aware of a continual squeaky sort of noise from the front end. Bouncing the front end showed that it was coming from the top of the replaced strut, the slightest movement gave rise to this squeaky sort of noise. Damn.
Well after thinking about it for a couple of days and realising that I had soaked the thrust bearing in LHM for a couple of days I decided to try rotating the large piston by loosening the top nut slightly and inserting an 8mm allen key I swung it round 180deg.

Watch this space for the result after a test run.

[Way2go]

I spoke to Martin at Pleiades a couple of days ago, and whilst he's happy to recondition struts (at £140 each) he wasn't at all keen to sell the seals on their own...

Hmmn........I bought a recon strut from Pleides just a few years ago, the price was then £80. Seems to have gone up a lot..............

[themildbunch]

Was that an exchange price?

I bought a fdv last year from them and it was around 90 IIRC. No need to return my old one though as he still has alot left.
I'd imagine struts maybe less plentiful now.

I thought the service was good and he was willing to chat and offer advice over the phone.

[KevR]

I assumed it was to rebuild my struts rather than on an exchange basis. cConversation went something like:
Me: "Can you sell me the seals to rebuild a strut."
Martin: "Well, I could, but it's not easy, you have to make the seal fit the specific strut. We can rebuild them for £140 each."
I'll call him again as I may be in a position to go to his workshop while I'm in UK early next week - need to buy some pipe unions etc anyway so a good chance to try and persuade him to sell me some seals!.

[Way2go]

Was that an exchange price?

No that was a straight sale albeit it was a recon "on the shelf".