Well that was fun. My advice is, if you're thinking of doing a beam refresh yourself don't, pay one of the established guy's to do it for you. I haven't/won't have saved any money in doing this myself but I will have gained a lot of experience - experience that tells me to pay somebody else to do it!
In all honesty I like doing stuff myself, it's just the frustration of it all that gets me.

In the last post I had the torsion bars in the original beam soaking in PlusGas. This worked reasonably well as the method of extraction, some 12.9 grade bolts and a socket, was successful.

I popped out the bearings in the original tube just to see what was going on. Here's a picture of the worst bearing. You can clearly see where the trailing arm shaft has worn through the outer shell.



I now had:
Knackered beam tube.
Knackered trailing arms.
Good 20mm torsion bars.
Spare beam still assembled.

Hoping that the spare beam was in a usable state I set to with the same methods of disassembly as previously.
Hmmm, ARB end-plates were a bugger to remove. Bolts in end of torsion bars were a bugger to remove. Torsion bars themselves were going nowhere; I snapped all of the 12.9 grade bolts I'd bought.

I fished out some M16 stud I had and made a puller.



Nope, that didn't work either. Off to see a chap with the right tools for the job and he had the torsion bars out in 10mins (I definitely loosened them though).

I was relieved to see the trailing arms in good shape. This one in particular would be reusable.



Bearings weren't bad either.



The trailing arms from the original beam have had their shafts and stub axles removed and I've also got the ABS sensors out without too much grief. Everything is now with the powder-coater and I'll await the call to go and collect.

In the meantime I've got new handbrake cables to fit and a driveshaft seal to replace.

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Guessing bronze bushes would work (and obviously have) in a rear beam application. They'd also be readily available from a local bearing supplier. There'd be a bit of stiction but a good option for a more heavy duty/race application.

The original needle rollers seem to be good for 100K'ish and my Rallye's just a weekend/fun car. Interested to see any pics of the bronze bushes though?

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1343Z4 coolant hose o-rings for sale

No much to see here, just documenting the process...

Whilst the beam parts are off at the powder coaters I've been cleaning-up some of the brackets and also the calipers.

Round 1


Round 2


Caliper and heat shield parts will be coated in VHT silver and the rest will be black. All external seals will be replaced on the calipers as the originals are mostly torn and/or brittle.

I've made-up new rigid lines for the section between flexi-line and caliper. I've used Kunifer for the first time and, although it's more difficult to form, it's more rigid and holds its form better. Also fitted new handbrake cables for good measure.

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Looking good

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Ph2 Black GTI 6!

EX black 6 owner
But now a Black caged rallye owner




SEARCH

click here

Been through and swapped out all of the blurry Photobucket links.

Thought I'd best grab a few quick pics before the exhaust etc goes on. Bit dark but, you've all seen refurbed beam before.







I did start tidying the exhaust heatshield but ran out of time.

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1343Z4 coolant hose o-rings for sale