BAGHEERA 74´

[Matrahenrik]

WHAT IS THE BEST (easy) WAY TOO GET THE REAR OF AN OLD BAG. LOWERED (10cm.) EVERYTHING IS STUCK

[Lennart Sorth]

attach a 10 foot iron bar, and sit/jump on it.

no kidding, - and wear earplugs, as it makes a horrible noise.

when reassembling, grease, grease, grease, so it should not happen again.

[Ols]

Are there same parts on matra baghera and on murena how similiar are these two models?

[Lennart Sorth]

not very similar.

In general, only the concept is the same, - almost all parts are different. - Keep in mind that there are almost 10 years between the design of the two cars.

Regarding the suspension,  the Bag. has (ex Simca 1100)  torsionbar suspension at the rear, where the Murena has trailing arms , with coil springs, - in other words very different.

Also, since the Murena chassis was warm-galvanized, it is in general much easier to get these things apart, compared to a corroded Bagheera sample.

(Of course, fully maintained Bagheeras are as easy as maintained Murenas, but fully maintained Bagheeras are hard to find)

[Spyros]

attach a 10 foot iron bar, and sit/jump on it.

Well, Lennart, you just forgot to mention that the screw adjusting the height needs to be unscrewed before that.

[Lennart Sorth]

true Spyros, - in fact my description is more in order to get the
suspension itself "lowered" (ie taken off the car)

Obviously, since the Bagheera has adjustable torsion.-bar suspension front and rear, it is (at least theoretically) possibly to adjust the rideheight.

However, sometimes you need to apply all you rust-fighting skills, to achieve the result.

[Spyros]

Yes Lennart,
Even if the rear Bagheera suspension was much better than the Murena, unstucking it is a nightmare  

Some details,
If the Bagheera is a 1979 or 1980 model, there should be a nut on the external rotation point of the rear arm. Please undo this also before trying to change the setup.

For the other model, Matra suggested to drill a hole on the little flat surface and to put a grease point over there. (I'll come back with the drilling height) Do it on both side of the arm.

Pay attention not to switch the torsion bars or to put a wrong model (3 different sets).

[Matra_Hans]

I restored the rears suspension on my Bagheera 74 some years ago. Everything was stuck. So I cut the ends of the bolts of with an electric saw. The cut was made between the arms themselves and the fixation points on the car. If every thing is stuck you will need new bolts and new silenced blocks anyway.
In order to get the height adjustment working I purchased an additional second-hand set of rear suspension from Simon. On one set I cut away all the aluminium parts, on the other set I cut and drilled out the steel part.
If every thing is stuck and have been corroding (aluminium against steel) for 30 years I think this is the only way to do the job.
Before I assembled the rear suspension I greased everything with cobber grease and installed some greasing nipples.
Good luck with your work

[Spyros]

If every thing is stuck you will need new bolts and new silenced blocks anyway.

Hans, where did you find new silent blocks (I mean the silent block around the axis )  

[Matra_Hans]

..should have been silent blocks of course.
However I find it amazing how often I am hitting the correct keys on the keyboard and type the correct words considering that I have 10 fingers (and I’m using most of them when I'm typing) and the keyboard has more than 100 keys most of the keys having more than one function.  

regards Hans

[Spyros]

Yes but where were you able to find them ?

• Delcourt AB pieces ?
  
• Simon?
• Poiltechnique ?
• Jurgen ?

I was thinking that these part were totaly out of stock everywhere ?