Dropped Rear Suspension

[jharrawa]

I have a 2004 Berlingo van which following a clunk today is now sitting very low.

I've had a look underneath - both torsion arms are intact but it looks like there is a gap around one as it enters the NS trailing arm. Is it possible that it's skipped some splines?

A quick bit of research suggests to bite the bullet and replace the whole rear axle, but some hints and tips on where to get one and how to do it would be appreciated.

Apologies for the post, I'm sure I can search the forums, but I needed one post to download a link from another thread!

[addo]

You'd be doing something pretty special to skip splines - they're "tight as". There are three bars, possibly one torsion bar has broken and the anti-roll bar plus remaining torsion bar, are now holding you up.

[jharrawa]

Thanks Addo,

I'll have another look, but there was no obvious fault with either torsion bars or the anti-roll bar.

With it jacked up I can swing the NS arm up by hand - I assume the torsion bar should provide enough resistance to make that difficult?

[addo]

Absolutely. Something's gone pop.

[jharrawa]

Well after some sweat and swearing the axle is off and the NS torsion bar has snapped, right as it goes into the trailing arm.

IMAxle seem to get reasonable reviews - are they still the best place to go? And can anyone confirm whether I need to rescue my front mounting plates? The pictures on their website just shows the rubber bushes, on ebay it shows a new set of plates attached to the bushes.

Finally, one of the torx bolts on one of the front mounting plates was seized solid - so I cut the nut off instead and left the plate in place. I either need to find a way to get the seized bolt out, or to find away to replace the long bolt that fits through the rubber mounting (which pushes up into the box section, but doesn't seem to have any access)

[Image: abs9w4.jpg]

[lingodave]

I have just brought an axle from IMaxle very quick delivery and they make a brand new axle of their own which has cut outs for all models, only a tenner dearer than a recon one.
You will need to remove the front plate to replace the bolt, the new axle I received came with new bushes only no plates.
Hope this helps.

[jharrawa]

Addo & Lingo,

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Axle turned up today, and van is up and running.

Happy with IMaxle - bought a brand new one as it was in stock and available next day (2 days for recon) - although it was £50 more expensive.

Thanks again.