Replacing the Rear Suspension Dust Covers

I've had enough of working under the bonnet so I've shifted to the other end of the car.  A long outstanding job has been to replace the perished rubber dust covers on the rear suspension. I need to do this before I can fill up - and power up - the hydraulics of the car. There might be a clever way to shut off just the circuit for the rear suspension but why bother? I need to crack on with replacement.

New dust cover fitted

The car needs to be up on proper axle stands. The hydraulics weren't connected up on my car but you would normally release the pressure in the system and put the car in its lowest height setting. 

Surprisingly the official Citroen workshop manuals don't seem to cover the replacement of a rear dust cover. You can find instructions for removing a complete cylinder/ dust cover unit at Section IV of Operation D.433-1 in volume 2 of manual 583. But the only copies of that available online are in French or German. Manual 518 includes a drawing of a suspension unit and cover fitted.

Rear suspension cylinder, pushrod and dust cover

You don't need to remove the whole suspension unit to change the dust cover. If you can clean away the muck and the grease - so that it doesn't contaminate the cylinder and piston - you can get away with undoing a few clips and removing just the pushrod and dust cover.

In the absence of 'by-the-book' instructions, Citroen Classics have produced a short narrative on tackling the job and you can find that HERE. you can also find a handy video from the Dutch 'DS-TT' team HERE. be warned though - it's very grainy/ low resolution. 

This is how I went about it. This is a relatively straightforward (and satisfying) job, as long as you can see what you are doing. There will also be spills of LHM to add to the general fun. 

With the wheel removed, you can begin to clean all the muck off. Pay particular attention to the front end of the rod - where it locates in the suspension arm - and the back end where the big end of the dust cover is attached.

My car just had a large jubilee clip on the big end of the cover.

I removed the clip and the protective rubber collar underneath it and peeled the dust cover away from the cylinder. I pulled out the thin white/ yellow return hose from the small outlet on the side of the cover. At this point it's a good thing to note the orientation of the outlet when the dust cover is fixed to the car. You'll need to replicate that for when the new cover is fitted to the push rod.

At the forward end of the push rod is a smaller dust cover and you will find a large locking pin. It's good to know your enemy. in situ, that pin that looks like this....

The pin secures the pushrod assembly in place on the suspension arm. The LONG leg of the pin secures the cup to the suspension arm. The other, shorter leg of the pin passes through small dust cover and a hole through the push rod. They seem to be made of treated steel and - if stuck - would rather snap then bend. 

If they have been bent too forcefully, then straightening the pin still leaves a kink in the pin which can make them difficult to pull out. In other cases, the pins are seized-in and won't move whether straight or not. If the pin won't come out easily, care should be taken not to force it. These pins shear very easily. If a broken piece of pin is stuck it will prove very difficult to remove the pushrod.

I (carefully) straightened the long end of the pin that was sticking out the back side. In my case I got lucky: the pin snapped when I tried to straighten it - but only the bent end piece. I was still able to pull both parts out without much difficulty.

Broken locking pin and new replacement pin

With the pin out of the way, I found that my cup was stuck firmly in the suspension arm. I was able to remove the Ligarex strap from the small dust cover. That exposed the rod end, ball bearing and cup. Lifting the suspension arm and then lowering it pushed the piston inside the cylinder and gave me more working room. With some lifting and jiggling I was able to disengage the front (cup) end of the pushrod, leaving the cup and greasy ball bearing still attached to the suspension arm. The back end of the rod was then pulled out of the piston/ suspension cylinder at the back end.

Cylinder and piston exposed

The suspension piston may slide out of the cylinder when you're not looking, picking up dirt from the floor as it does so - so you may want to temporarily tape it in place.

Piston slipping out of cylinder

At this point, the only thing securing the suspension cylinder to the car (other than the metal hydraulic pipe), is a small triangular securing plate that sits against a flat ledge on the cylinder. (This also stops the cylinder rotating when you remove a sphere). 

Triangle securing plate and bolt for securing cylinder

If these securing plates are missing or badly rusted, buy and fit replacements.

It took a bit of jiggling to eventually release the ball bearing and cup at the front end as - over the years - road dirt and grit had penetrated any gap and it become fixed.

Cup receiver on the suspension arm

I repeated the exercise on the other side of the car. I rebuilt the two units side-by-side. On the bench I removed the old boots. Turning the boot inside out revealed the Ligarex strap on the small end of the boot and this was removed. The remains of the boot were removed from the rods which were cleaned and inspected.

Very often, D owners report hearing a 'crack' sound from the rear of their car when the suspension is raised/ lowered. This is because the enormous pressures on the rear push rods and ball bearings cause a groove to wear in the hardened tips of the pushrods. When new, pushrod ends look like this.

New old stock (NOS) push rods

Whereas the pushrods I removed looked like this...

My pushrods - as removed

I used a Dremmel tool to remove the worst of the burring and to smooth out the grooves.

Before.....

.....and after.

As well as pushrod wear, the ball bearings also wear and so were replaced.

A worn ball bearing and it's replacement

And - for good measure - I found wear inside the cups.

Worn cup

Luckily I had planned ahead and had bought replacements for just about all the parts likely to wear or break. Which brings us to the dust covers....

Buying Dust Covers

There are several - or even many - versions of the dust covers on sale. Prices and quality vary.  The quality of many reproduction rubber parts is woeful. Parts fell stiff and almost as though they are made of plastic rather than rubber. For some years now, this has particularly been the case with rear dust covers - with some users reporting they are lasting less that a year.

(Photo credit: George Antoniou)

Citroen stopped selling genuine ones many years ago - with the exception of their being a batch of Citroen-branded (bagged ones) circulating a couple of years ago. I think those were genuine but have no idea if their quality matched up to the old days. Vintage originals still turn up, but are prized and highly expensive.

(Photo credit: Mark Rueneuf)

Recent Citroen-branded dust covers

Fed up with the quality of rear dust covers, some parts sellers have started having their own dust covers made up.

Example of a dust cover mould

Off all the reproductions, those made by Falk Lehmann in Germany are held in high regard.

Dust covers made and marketed by Falk Lehmann

These are branded FLE to distinguish them from inferior products on the market.

The last time I was in contact with Falk - shortly after Brexit - he told me that he'd stopped sending parts to the UK as it was too much hassle for a small operator. Shame. And just wait for the fake FLEs to appear! 

These days most big sellers even offer 'standard' versions at a budget price, and better quality versions at a premium price. (In some cases these are Falk's parts).

(Photo credit: Citroen Classics)

(Photo credit: Jochen Hoch)

(Photo credit: Citrotech)

Where two levels are offered, the buyer should still be able to expect reasonable wear from them. Here is what Citroen Classics in the UK say about their lower priced covers:

"Reproduction part, standard quality but we've noticed they perish faster on cars that are not used much and last longer on cars in daily use!"

And this is what they say about their better quality covers:

"Rear suspension dust cover, reproduced part, but absolute best quality available.

Material used is better than the original Citroen part."

As ever it's a case of 'buyer beware' and 'pay your money and take your choice' - but don't say you haven't been fairly warned. The price difference between standard and premium is not prohibitive and I find it strange that any choice is offered at all - especially given the prices that people are willing to pay for many other parts for a DS. 

I have a pair of cheapo dust covers I bought at Citromobile in Holland in 2017. As the time neared, I was never really happy with the idea of using these - given all the bad press about dust covers and so - more recently, I bought a pair of 'best quality' neoprene covers from Jochen Hoch.

You only realise these difference if/ when you are able to compare alternative products. Comparing the two, the cheaper ones feel more like plastic and they seem to be made of thicker material. They definitely feel less pliable. And given that flex and pliability is a key function of these dust covers, the cheap ones did not fill me with confidence. My decision is made. I'll be fitting the neoprene covers and keeping the others as - I don't know what - maybe garage ornaments?

Fitting the Dust Covers

The dust covers are initially fitted INSIDE OUT. It's a small thing, but it tends to cause a lot of confusion and disorientation. You need to turn the cover completely inside out and, after fixing the small end, will then turn the cover the right way out again.

How the dust cover fits (diagram credit: Greenblood)

Following my own advice, I turned the covers inside out and slipped them over the pushrod until the narrow end was over the ribbed section near the middle of the pushrod. Note in this photo which end of the push rod the open end on the inverted cover is towards. It's towards the end of the rod that has the hole through it - at the top of the photo. 

Inverted covers over the push rods

I wrapped several winds of fabric loom tape around the end of the cover. I temporarily put the locking pin through the push rod as a visual 'tell' so that I could orientate the outlet of the boot to the correct angle relative to the push rod. (Note that the wrong end of the pin is through the push rods in this photo).

Lining up the outlets and the pin holes
(wrong end of the pins through the holes!)

I did a trial fit against the car. Once I was happy with the dust cover orientation I used Ligarex strapping and a Ligarex buckle to secure the end of the boot.

You really cannot get away with using a lumpy jubilee clip here  as - once the dust cover is turned the right way out, it will rub on the clip and cause a puncture. You might get away with tightly applying one of those nylon locking belts - but they still have a lumpy bit. You want to avoid any rough or proud edge that could puncture the cover. For this reason, I was careful to fold the cut end of my Ligarex strapping.....

Cut end of the Ligarex strapping

.....under its buckle.

Cut end folded under the buckle

With one end of the cover secured, I turned the cover the right way out and slipped over the rubber protective band for the Ligarex strap. 

Protective bands for the Ligarex strapping.

If you haven't got those bands, or they are perished or split, you can buy replacements from the usual suppliers. You could probably get away with several winds of protective fabric tape - though that will be awkward to wind when the cover is fitted back on on the suspension cylinder.

I loaded the cup with grease and added a new ball bearing. Then I topped it up with grease to reduce friction between the ball and the push rod.

Greased cup with new ball bearing

I fitted the open end of the small dust cover over the cup and slipped over the protective rubber band. NOTE that this small dust cover can be surprisingly hard to fit! Especially if it is/ you are covered in grease. 

Before I added some ligarex strapping to secure the cover the the cup, I orientated the parts so that the hole through the dust cover lined up with the hole through the push rod, and I twisted the cup to make sure it's hole was also in line. You can temporarily fit both ends of one of the split pins through the assembly to check this alignment.

With the small dust cover strapped to the cup, the assembly was just about ready for fitting. I thoroughly cleaned up the area where the cup needs to fit on the suspension arm (it's a fairly close fit) and applied a little grease - if only to make fitting and removal easier going forward.

I also chose to replace the old rubber conical bump stops with new polyurethane one. 

Out with the old......

.....in with the new.

I made sure that the piston and cylinder end were clean and offered up the open end of pushrod/ dust cover assembly to the suspension cylinder. With the dust cover holding itself in place, i then located the cup end in its receiver on the suspension arm.

Getting ready to locate the cup end (note alignment of pin holes)

A bit of wiggling was necessary to line up the cup hole with the suspension arm and the new locking pin (pre-greased) was pushed through. If rebuilt and fitted correctly then, with the pin located, the small return outlet should be on the upper face of the duct cover. happy that everything lined up. I bent the long end of the locking pin over by a small amount.

Locking pin fitted

It took a dab of lubricating LHM and a sturdy push to locate the yellow/ white stiff return hose into the small outlet. There should be no bend or strain on the hose or outlet.

With the cup end located, I fitted a securing band to the big end of the dust cover. As the clip/ belt at this end is external to the dust cover, you can get away with a jubilee clip. 

A jubilee clip works fine (credit: George Antoniou)

That's exactly what I've done for the time being, while I assess whether the covers I've used are likely to be long-lasting.

With the leaky dust covers replaced, I can move on with refitting - and refilling - the hydraulic system.

Steering Rack - Simple Refresh...

A critical component on a DS with power steering - is the power steering rack.  When set up and working correctly, steering is smooth and effortless.

DS, left-hand drive BVH steering rack

However the steering rack can also be the source of many and expensive woes. If set up wrong, steering can be tight or knotty and unsatisfactory. If the internals of racks are worn, they can be a major source of internal LHM leakage and the cause of short pressure regulator cycle times. You can buy seal kits for replacing the seals  in racks, but you need special tools to dismantle them. Even then, replacing the seals will not fix worn metal components. If you do rebuild one - or find someone else to do it - but it's rebuild poorly, the crossover pressure may be set up wrong leaving the inlet port open when in the 'neutral' (straight ahead) position'. There is a video HERE that shows the kind of thing you need to do to check and set the cross-over pressure. 

Several firms offer part-exchange racks. They claim varying degrees of refurbishment from replacing the internal rubber and nylon seals (all should do this), to re-chroming and replacing worn components (I think only Citrotech offer this). 

Citrotech repairs to a DS steering rack 

You can find a short video on their steering rack work HERE. Though you will need to learn Dutch. the only words I caught at the end were 'perfect steering". These services do not come cheap and a replacement steering rack is a major investment.

When I went back to my car in 2014, I noticed some LHM staining on the right hand end cap of the rack. Coming back to the rack now, it had even stained the box that the rack had been stored in for several years.

Signs of a steering rack leak?

This was on the right hand end of the rack. The right hand end already has a small 'weep hole' hidden away on its underside. I'm not sure of the circumstances that would cause anything to leak from this hole but it would appear on the triangle piece under the rack. Here is a photo of someone else's car that shows this.

Steering rack weep from 'secret' hole? (credit: Carl Kirk)

Now. my car didn't have LHM on that triangle or surrounding area, and no obvious weeping from the small hole on the rack, so I wasn't sure of the source of the LHM if found on the end cap. It could simply have dripped from above when the HP pump or centrifugal regulator were tinkered with at some past point, or when they were removed as part of my restoration. that was very possible.

My hydraulic system isn't connected up so I can't easily test the rack for leaks and I can't afford to simply get a replacement without good reason. What I REALLY want is a test rig like this.

Hydraulic test bench (credit: Loris Career)

I decided that - for now - I would do the bare minimum on the steering rack and see how it behaved once the car was on the road. 'Bare minimum' meant a basic service, de-rust and a respray. I wasn't even going to remove the two rubber bellows. The bellows were good (no cracks) and - being old - were probably better quality rubber than modern equivalents. I didn't want to risk splitting them by having to refit them as it's quite a brutal process that involves 'bridging' the central pin - and then forcing the bellows over/ past the bridge -  as this video shows.

'Bridge' for fitting the rubber bellows (credit: Angela Lord)

Instructions for a full strip down, repair and set-up of a rack can be found at Operation D.444-3 in Section 2 of manual 814. The instructions are LONG (almost 20 pages), because it's COMPLICATED and HARD. You need a number of tools to dismantle the rack and, ideally, some special tools just to replace the seals without damaging them. Tools like these: 

Steering rack seal fitting tools - factory and home made (credit: John Titus)

I ducked all of that and just referred to the 'dismantling' and 'reassembly' sections.

Removing the steering levers from the track rod ends was simple enough with a basic ball joint splitter. Make a note of which lever goes on which end of the rack - and which way up it goes (they are slightly 'cranked' in shape).

Note the orientation of the steering levers

I used a small ball joint splitter to remove the steering levers from the track rods.

Steering levers

Removing the two track rods from the middle of the rack was also easy as they are simply bolted onto the yolk in the middle. 

Steering track rods - note one is split/ adjustable

I made a note of the length of the adjustable track rod before I split it. Note that the collar and one part of the split track rod have reverse threads - do not force things together when re-assembling. Measurements for resetting  the length of the rod are in the section of manual 814 mentioned earlier. I was sending other parts off for zinc plating so included the adjusting collar and its clamps.

The nut and 'L' shaped spring are easily removed from the central ball joint. Now. Removing the central yoke itself - well that was a complete bastard. From what others had said, I knew it could be tight on its ball joint  but I had no idea how tight it would prove to be. The yolk is an awkward shape with not much scope to get the legs of a puller under it. I tried using a small puller with thin arms. After many failed attempts and slips, I successfully managed to destroyed it.

Dead puller....

It bent out of shape without the yoke moving at all. I had to employ the 'big guns' in the end - my hydraulic puller - because it had two collars that fit under the piece you are pulling. 

Getting to grips with the yolk.....

Even then I was worried it would either smash the threaded end of the ball joint, or slip on the threads and damage them.

The 'business end' of the puller

Eventually the yoke released with an alarming 'crack!' sound. Phew! With the yoke out of the way, the bellows can be removed (or in my case, be moved - pushed back) and the two half shields around the centre of the rack opened like a seashell. I scooped out the old grease but then wrapped and sealed that exposed area. The two bellows were compressed, taped up and wrapped. I also removed the dust cover and taped up the steering pinion (where the steering column attaches). That left me with a large and heavy rack for cleaning and de-rusting.

I was able to manipulate around my bench-top wire wheel a little. But because of the weight, much of the cleaning was done with a wire wheel on a drill. I made a couple of stands to rest the rack on while I cleaned it - and for painting. The idea was that the rack rested on the splined areas that I planned to leave unpainted.

I carefully masked off areas I didn't want painted - on the yoke bolt holes, the ball joints and rubber bushes of the track rods, the steering pinion and the hydraulic inlets/ outlets on the rack. The Citroen instructions say to assemble the split track rod to the correct length - and THEN to paint it. Which means that the re-plated adjusting collar would eventually be painted green. We shall see.

Adjusting sleeve painted green

After degreasing, all the parts were primed, rubbed down and degreased ready for a top coat. While there were minor signs of LHM dribbling from the points where the hydraulic pipes will be fixed, there were no signs of new LHM around the end cap. I took that as a good sign.

I'd run out of mid brunswick green rattle can paint so had another can made up. Painting went very well but the colour didn't look quite right. I compared the steering rack shield to other parts on the car. In theory these were all painted with the same colour from the same supplier - but were vastly different! Not even remotely the same.

Not the same colour......

.....not the same colour at all

I check my rattle cans - old and new. They seemed to be the same colour code - BS226 - 'mid brunswick green'? As I live close by, I nipped into the supplier's to try to get to the bottom of this. I took new and old cans with me so he could see the labels. Now..... when I bought the rattle can (with the unexpected colour in it), my regular paint guy was on holiday and his mum was looking after the shop for a week. I did raise this in the conversation but was told  the paint mix was not a mixing error. Apparently the BS381C is reference to a particular colour pallet?

Quoting from a paint retail site: "British Standard BS 381c colours are used in identification, coding and other special purposes. This is a key reference for specifying a particular paint colour to use in the refurbishment of buildings – especially at Local Authority level or for major works, such as office blocks, airports, schools and hospitals. 

I'm not sure why that would make a difference. Isn't the 'BS' a clue - a consistent standard colour?? I also pointed out that when I went in for the can, I took a photo of the old can along on my phone (including the  'BS381c' reference) and asked for another the same. His mum jotted down all the details from my phone then made my can up. So why did I get such a different colour back? I was told that the specified colour mix had perhaps changed between buying the two rattle cans, and that it might be something to do with one of the ingredients. Lead or something else toxic may have been mentioned but I was still struggling to process that the hue of mid brunswick green had (been) changed? Wouldn't that affect all the other BS colours? I never did get a straight answer that I could buy in-to but had had enough BS for one day and decided to leave it at that.

Based on the amount of grease I'd removed previously, I added a liberal amount of grease inside the steering housing around the central ball pin. 

Inside the steering housing (photo credit: Citrothello)

The manual says to add it to the side that has the control pinion. I operated the pinion to move the pin along and added grease to both sides. I refitted the shields around the central ball joint and fixed them in place with Ligarex strapping on the bellows.

I fitted a new rubber seal under the yolk. Those seals always look tatty - either tired and cracked or sprayed over with green. Or both. I fitted the 'L' shaped spring on top.

Looking a lot better now.

It was a little tricky tightening the yolk while still making sure the track rods were parallel with the steering rack. Even getting the yolk slightly off line translates to a big difference at the other ends of the track rods, and so risks putting unwanted strain on the anti-vibration rubbers at the yolk end when the track rod balljoints are connected up.

the yolk was lined up......

....and tightened.

The set-up length for the two piece track rod is given at step 15 of Operation D.444-3 in the manual. The two pieces need to be wound onto / into the sleeve by an equal amount. This is the point to remember that one end of the rod and the sleeve have a reverse thread......One assembled and clamped in place, I decided not to over-spray the adjusting collar on the track rod. I wasn't sure that i wouldn't have to make some later adjustment that would bugger up any nice new paint job.

I packed out the ball joints with fresh grease as best I could and wiped off any excess.......

Greasing the track rod ball joints

I cleaned and re-used the original nylon cups but new rubber cups.

Track rod ball joint end

I've seen the other ends of the gaiters fixed to the rack at varying distances/ lengths - including stretched as far as they will go along the rack......

Examples of incorrectly fitted gaiters

Now it might not make a lot of difference, but Citroen do go to the trouble of specifying a length when fitting the bellows - so it's probably worth paying attention to that. The correct adjustment of the bellows is given in the manual - at step 31 of operation D.444-3.

Bellows lengths are defined by distances 'a' and 'b'

Well. With the Ligarex strapping on the bellows, my rack certainly looked a lot better, even if I've actually done very little to it mechanically. And with that, I was ready to fit the rack back in the car. 

Another milestone reached!