Disclaimer:
The procedures on this page are presented as guidelines ONLY. They reflect particular jobs that were done by myself and were written down from memory as a guide to others who might need to do the same procedure. I make no representations as to the accuracy of the information contained here (please remember that I am not a professional mechanic and that free advice is worth every penny). What you do to your car is what YOU do to your car. I take no responsibility for the results of YOUR actions, lack of common sense, or stupidity.
Introduction:
The standard rear beam mounts on the 205 are just your average rubber mount and wear out over time. Most people won’t have ever changed them in the lifetime of a car as the beam has to be completely removed from the car to achieve this. Replacing the standard rubber mounts with the GrpA Solid Mounts will improve the handling as it keeps the rear end nice and tight. It also removes the inherent rear-steer characteristics of the rubber mounts, making the car less likely to over-steer, especially in mid-corner braking. However, it will increase road noise and reduce the ride quality as your essentially bolting the beam direct to the chassis of the car, instead of having rubber mounts to take up some of the vibrations etc.
Tools/Parts Required:
- GrpA Solid Rear Beam Mounts – Baker Bushes & Mountings
- Socket Set
- Spanners
- Hammer/Mallet
- Chisel
- Drill & Bits
- Leaver/Pry Bar
- Copper Grease (optional)
Before you start:
This guide deals with just fitting the GrpA Solid Rear Beam Mounts, to achieve this you must first fully remove the rear beam from the car. Please refer to the Rear Beam Swapping Guide first.
rear beam removed from car
The Job:
1. The solid rear beam mounts are made up of 6 main parts and a few pair of nuts/bolts as below. The 4 nylon bushes are for the front mounts while the 2 aluminium blocks are for the rear mounts.
GrpA rear beam mount kit
2. With the beam on the floor first remove the rear mounts from the arms. Depending on how old and corroded yours are they will either come off easily or just fall apart. Either way they are pretty simple to get off and leave you with an elongated hole. You don’t need to do anything else to the rear mounts at this time as you will only need the parts when you fit the beam back to the car.
3. With the front mounts things get a little trickier! First undo the nut and bolt holding the mounting plate through the standard bushes. With the plate removed you can now see the standard rubber bushes in the beam.
4. You now need to remove those bushes however you can. There are several different methods of removing them and you’ll find the one that suites you. I removed them by drilling out the rubber until I could pull the inner section out. Another common procedure is to burn the rubber out using a blowtorch.
removing old bushes
5. IMPORTANT – once the inner rubber sections are out there will still be an outer metal sleeve that MUST be removed. A few people forget this and wonder why the nylon bushes don’t fit back in! To get the metal sleeves out is similar to the rubber bushes in that there are several methods that work. I found it easiest to use a hammer and chisel to knock up the edges of the sleeve, then some pliers to pull the sleeve out. Sometimes a hacksaw is useful to cut through the sleeve before chiseling. You can also use a similar sized socket as the hole to knock out the remaining sleeve after one is removed. Just persevere until you have all 4 sleeves out of the beam!
6. Now all the standard rubber mounts have been removed from the beam time to fit the new ones. The nylon bushes are easy to fit, I just added a little copper grease around the bush to help it slide in, then give them a few taps with a hammer/mallet to ensure they are nice and snug. Then refit the mounting plate, if it doesn’t fit that well check the nylon bushes are located correctly. The bolt holding the plate on to the beam will need to be tightened fully after the beam is on the car as you will need some flexibility to attach the beam to the car. If you forget to tighten the bolts they rattle at every opportunity!
new items fitted to beam
7. The rear mounts are fitted to the beam when you put the beam back on the car. Just before you run out of space when jacking the beam up to the car, slide the aluminium blocks into position, then using the washers slide the bolt through. At this point you’ll probably notice that the bolts are not lined up with the holes in the boot floor. This is because the standard mounts are slightly offset. This is not a problem as you simply use a leaver to move the rear beam arms over a little until you can push the bolt up through the whole. Don’t panic if your worried about the effects of doing this, there are none! This could be difficult with only one person.
beam fitted to car
8. Finish fitting the beam as per the guide and you're done, enjoy a stiff rear end!