Changing rear suspension - how easy?

[paulandpat]

After our thread www.renault4.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=3358 we have had a visit from Alain our local 2cv guru who pronounced it 'mort' - but he does know of another R4 locally which has a chassis in better condition but the rear suspension arm has broken,when the handbrake was applied. This car apparently has rear suspension arms made of a slightly different material (if I understood him correctly - he talks rather fast! ) but he reckoned it would be possible to swap the rear suspension from our car to the other one and make one good car from 2 scrap ones, leaving us with a spare engine etc.
Question is how easy is this to do?
Any advice welcome - we don't really need yet another car, but it may be a way of getting more value out of the scrap.

 

[DavidN]

It is not too bad!

I mounted the rear axle this weekend by myself (no one wanted to help, the TV programme seemed to be more appealing to my dear family members).

If you keep the whole rear axle together and change it as one piece it is "just" 12 screws/bolts (+ brake lines + brake cable + shocks).

See my restoration thread for reference pictures.

David

 

[tim1casa]

If you have got to the point of changing chassis, then swapping rear axles is easy. They come off as a single unit. One has to apply a little force to counteract the effect of the torsion bars, when re-fitting, thus it's easier with two of you.

 

[paulandpat]

I will be stripping down the one that's failed the CT, mainly in order to save as much as possible, but also because its easier to take the debris (bodyshell and chassis) to the tip in small lumps.
The salvaged axle might need to go back on a more or less complete car, and I would need to take the old axle off the complete car. Does this make sense?

 

[Melc]

Did I miss something? I couldn't get the new rear end on in one piece as the inner bearing plate bolts and nuts were impossible to do up, with the edge of the fuel tank in the way, so I had to remove the tank, which then meant that I HAD TO REMOVE THE TORSION BARS TO REPLACE IT, Bummer. Generally not a terrible job if you have a helper.
The person who gave me the new rear end pulled it off in one piece, which is easy. I just don't see how it gets back around the fold in the tank.

 

[DavidN]

Melc, you are right.
The Fuel tank has to be removed as well.
But that's really not challenging, isn't it...

Here's a photo strip of removing the rear suspension...
http://www.renault4.co.uk/rosalie_repair_sensible.htm