Another DIY Sachs Rebuild/Service

[Rik Perry]

My diy bleeding stand So this was how they came off the car, one had lost a lot of its oil and was it a bit of a sorry state Very rusty De pinning Shiny and new I was a bit concerned about getting them apart without damaging anything bit it turned out OK. Bit of warmth from a heat gun and the loctite gave in.

 

[Rik Perry]

Few more pics

 

[Miller]

Wow, great job look like new :grinning:

 

[Rik Perry]

Cheers.. Happy to advise anyone looking to have a go ... I can dyno them after for a few beers.. :smiley:

 

[Rik Perry]

I am also working on a Titanium adjuster body upgrade to get rid of the corrosion issues with the standard Alloy one ..

 

[tannman]

Awesome work Rick.

May take you up on the offer :grinning:

 

[Rik Perry]

Please do .. I like tinkering ..

 

[Chris197F1]

Is this a service you plan on offering in the future?

 

[Rik Perry]

Hadn't given it much thought TBH .. I guess helping other owners is what this forum is about so yes..

 

[Miller]

Nice to know for future reference

 

[hoolio]

Nice work Rik. What is the beading inside of the cup, where it meets the main body of the unit. Seems that is where the deepest corrosion occurs. Also unless you are replacing the adjusters you may want to leave half on the pin in place and stops shit getting into the "click" mechanism. Also NathanH found some nice captured ball/spring units that could be dropped into the adjuster body with a little widening of the holes.

 

[Rik Perry]

Nice work Rik. What is the beading inside of the cup, where it meets the main body of the unit. Seems that is where the deepest corrosion occurs. Also unless you are replacing the adjusters you may want to leave half on the pin in place and stops shit getting into the "click" mechanism. Also NathanH found some nice captured ball/spring units that could be dropped into the adjuster body with a little widening of the holes.

The beading is the weld bead from the spring platform showing through now it's nice and clean.. You can see a tiny bit of oil on it from the bleeding process as I hadn't fully cleaned up at that point. I did close up the pin hole with a tiny bit of silicone sealer once I was done.
I did see the spring detent NathanH found and it looked good but as mine were in good order I changed the balls and re greased for now as I am working on a fully titanium valve body, If the detents are stainless I might try them, if not they need to be serviceable and the closed units are not and have no method of easy removal that I could see so I will hold on and mull that one over for now.

 

[Rik Perry]

It might be worth running a small bead of silicone around the inside weld line of the spring seat on rebuild units to prevent that rust trap we see on so many dampers? Also the water drain hole could do with being on the other side of the strut to help this.. But I guess Sachs were just using the parts Renault gave them so can't be blamed too much..

 

[Chris197F1]

Hadn't given it much thought TBH .. I guess helping other owners is what this forum is about so yes..

That's great, I'm sure mine will be due soon, last done in 2010 but at the minute still arent leaking


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[Rik Perry]

If not leaking that's good news.. Might still be worth taking them off in the winter for a bit of a clean up and hopefully prevent the need for a service.. It seems to be grit ingress that kills them as they have no dirt scraper seal as standard.

 

[Rik Perry]

Both shafts were in good shape thankfully !

 

[Gordon]

It seems to be grit ingress that kills them as they have no dirt scraper seal as standard.

Super slick work Rik. Impressive. Re the dirt scraper, I think BG sourced something to add, at a price of course. Additionally, when the original dampers were no longer available new, Renault switched us to the R1 Rally Twingo ones, should you wish to buy new. Same damper, possibly set to a different rate when delivered, but presumably that could be adjusted as they weren't pinned. Anyhow, because they were Group N rally units they came with a dirt scraper.

 

[Rik Perry]

Yes I have a plan for a scraper .. But it depends if the BG part is crazy money or not.. I can make something similar easily enough.. On the Dyno the damping at the factory settings is very OTT for the spring rate IMHO but then again I'm not Jean Rangiotti so I will keep my nose out off it and see what works best for me on my car/tyres.. I think they very much had track handling in mind when they pinned them..

 

[Gordon]

On the Dyno the damping at the factory settings is very OTT for the spring rate IMHO but then again I'm not Jean Rangiotti so I will keep my nose out off it and see what works best for me on my car/tyres.. I think they very much had track handling in mind when they pinned them..

That's very interesting. I've found them outstanding on really awful road surfaces, country B roads Gloucestershire, Shropshire, Worcestershire area where it's far from marble smooth track like surfaces. Conversely I also run a Clio 200 with the cup chassis and I even started a tread on Clio197/200.net about how to improve the damping without spending silly money.

A 200 cup chassis as standard is awful at speed on the type of roads I mention above. Really crashy, bouncing all over the place, skittery and banging in the cabin, not confidence inspiring at all. Zero compliance. It's like it attempts to smash the road into submission, whereas the Trophy is like a magic carpet floating above it all.

The interesting contrast is that at very slow speed (0-20mph) the Trophy will knock your teeth out, but the 200 is more composed, turn it up to illegal speeds and the Trophy is so lithe and composed. The 200 seeming to struggle with any surface imperfection.

Jean Ragnotti was a specialist tarmac rally driver after all, so perhaps he knows a lot about damping for imperfect surfaces we don't...

 

[Rik Perry]

I have no experience off the 200 but I gives me food for thought.. I will have a play with the dampers in Wales next week and do some thinking.