1983 Citroen BX 16TRS - For the love of cars!
Discussion
Due to there being some kind of 'situation' on the go, pretty much everywhere, I thought I'd see if I could begin bringing all my various threads up to date. I've actually got two more to start, believe it or not! No, three more, in fact!
So, on with the BX. Probably been more productive with this one than all the others, which was my goal at the beginning of the year, as I wanted to finally get it on the road. I had plans to take it to Hagerty's "Festival of the Unexceptional", and although so far the event has not been cancelled, I'm not going to hedge any bets that I'll be going! I'll still apply, though it turns out they want pictures of the car looking resplendent in order to process applications. There's a small problem there...
So, phase two! Car is now on the two-post ramp. It made a handy workshop lamp for carrying out proper work on paying cars underneath..
The front subframe needs to go back on, but before that, there are a number of items to sort out, what with the improved access having no front subframe affords you. Chief among which, are the rather rusty suspension and brake pipes. In a car which has, at its core, a high-pressure hydraulic system responsible for suspending the car, and stopping the car (if steering the car, if it were a tiny bit later), having porous pipes made of rust is not ideal. In fact (as you probably figured out yourself) it's downright bad. It needs sorting out, and it's one of the longest-running issues the car has had, because it had leaky pipes on the day I picked it up. It's not like it has caught me off-guard! Question is, how bad are they?
Well, I decided it was basically going to be a case of starting at the front, and working backwards. I planned to renew anything that was really bad first, and then assuming I had some pipe and fittings left over at the end, I'd go back through and renew anything that looked like it might cause grief later down the line.
The first port of call was the brake doseur valve. Hydro-Citroens don't have a brake servo, or even a brake master cylinder. In a conventional car so-fitted, the driver creates the pressure needed to create the friction on the surface on the brake disc or drum by pressing down on the brake pedal (assuming we're not looking at new cars with fly-by-wire systems). It's a simple transfer of fluid; The force you exert on the brake pedal exerts that force onto the brakes. It's not a 1:1 ratio, and when you start bringing boosters like brake servos in, you alter things further. These are power-assisted brakes.
In the BX, things are totally different, as the brakes are fully-powered. For a start, you don't need to create the pressure in the circuit, because the car is sitting on miles of pipework containing bright green mineral oil that has been pressurised to around 1400psi. All you need is a little valve on the end of a pedal, and you can divert that pressure directly onto the brake discs. In the case of the DS or SM, you didn't even get a pedal! You just got a rubber mushroom-shaped blob on the floor.
This is why old Citroen brakes have a reputation for being fierce. You don't apply force to the brake pedal when you're out and about in your hydro-Citroen, you just put your foot on the pedal. The pressure with which you rest your foot is all you need to control them, and the fact there's a valve under your foot, rather than a cylinder, is why there is an 'odd' feeling, and very little pedal travel. The valve itself is tiny; The whole pedal arrangement is there purely to make the car less alien to drivers. In theory, you could operate the brakes with your little finger, if you had a remote valve on the dashboard! Citroen explored ways of making the brakes less of an 'issue' to drivers than they were widely considered (although to me, having brakes capable of putting your head through the instrument panel isn't a bad thing!) But the public are a ham-fisted (or footed) collective, and eventually the brakes were removed from the circuit with the first C5 model (the fugly one from 2001) that confined the hydraulics to the suspension alone (and made the car worse.)
Here's the underside of the brake doseur valve on the bulkhead:
The brakes get priority over anything else in the circuit, so if the pressure suddenly drops (due to an 'Oh s
t!' moment), the brakes are the last thing that should still be working. The two feed pipes leading to the doseur are always under pressure, which takes a bit of time to get your head around, as - you think brakes - you think pipes that are only pressurised when the brakes are applied, but that's only the case between the doseur and the brakes themselves - the supply to the doseur is constant. And those pipes are rotten:
Having attended to those, and any other pipework that could be done before the subframe was reattached (the subframe carries the bulk of the pipework, in fairness), I thought I'd take the opportunity to do the cambelt, since I have no idea when it was last done. These are interference engines, so if it goes ping, it's ready for the bin.
The belt is pretty easy to change on these engines, and even better, the tensioner is spring-loaded, meaning belt tension is governed by the tensioner itself, rather than me having to guess! I took the opportunity to renew the tensioner wheel, however, as I've no idea how old the existing was. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving unearthing 36 year old French delights, and in most cases keeping as many of the original parts as possible, but a cambelt tensioner is hidden. That would be going too far.
I'll apply the same logic to the water pump too. Seeing how healthy the innards of the engine looked after all this time was reassuring:
I fitted the new water pump, though the uppermost bolt had to be fitted blind, as it wasn't possible to get the tools up there AND see what I was doing. The bolt seemed to go tight much quicker than the others, so I told myself I'd simple wound it in by hand much further than the others, and that the thread must be clean and clear. I've always liked that bolt, as it looks out for me. It seeks to make life easier. 95% in by hand, and the last little bit with the tools. Lovely.
Then there was a 'pinging' noise.
Then I found this on the floor:
ALWAYS HATED THAT fkING BOLT! fkING THREADY LITTLE , ALWAYS MAKING LIFE HARDER THAN IT NEEDS TO BE. WHAT A PRICK! WHY DOESN'T IT JUST GO IN?! I'LL HIT IT WITH A fkING HAMMER AND SMASH THE LITTLE TO PIECES UNTIL IT'S fkING ATOMS!! ARRRGHGGHHHH GAMMON etc.
Then the meds kicked back in.
So, turns out that the fact I was doing it hidden meant I hadn't noticed that part of the tensioner body for the cambelt had lodged itself behind the waterpump slighty, so I was, in fact, torquing it down onto that. Quiet at the back! Stop sniggering! I'm a professsshhonalle dont u no?
I debated whether or not to remove the pump to inspect it, but the gasket had now been clamped up (because that was the LAST fkEN BOLT), so if I were to remove it, I might discover it was fine,and that this piece of monkey metal simply filled in a little gap that would have otherwise left the cambelt exposed.
On the other hand, if the cambelt is tensioned, and then the car is finally on the road, and in three years time I'm out and about enjoying myself on the sunny French coast or something, and my £15 water pump sts itself and throws the cambelt off....
Bugger it, it's got to come off. I was hoping the INA part I'd sourced was going to be a replica of the OEM one, but it wasn't anyway, so no matter.
My local Motaquip factors (Paddington in Fareham, if you're wondering) are decent, and they sourced me a replacement Motaquip part, which to be fair, wasn't hugely more than the INA part from Autodoc. INA is a decent brand, and in the absence of an OEM pump, it's fine. Motaquip, on the other hand, used to be owned by PSA! Many of the parts were OEM or even genuine, even if they came in a Motaquip box! Maybe I'll get lucky?!
Nope. You notice I said they USED to be owned by PSA...they're not any more. Still mostly decent gear, though. Oh look, the water pump is INA
So, new pump on....again, and the engine is sorted. New belts, new bearings...good times.
I fire the engine up to check it all out, and celebration is indeed warranted. It runs well. No further issues to report, and definitely no chance of unearthing future issues that will cause me a headache. Nope, no chance.
So, on with the BX. Probably been more productive with this one than all the others, which was my goal at the beginning of the year, as I wanted to finally get it on the road. I had plans to take it to Hagerty's "Festival of the Unexceptional", and although so far the event has not been cancelled, I'm not going to hedge any bets that I'll be going! I'll still apply, though it turns out they want pictures of the car looking resplendent in order to process applications. There's a small problem there...
So, phase two! Car is now on the two-post ramp. It made a handy workshop lamp for carrying out proper work on paying cars underneath..
The front subframe needs to go back on, but before that, there are a number of items to sort out, what with the improved access having no front subframe affords you. Chief among which, are the rather rusty suspension and brake pipes. In a car which has, at its core, a high-pressure hydraulic system responsible for suspending the car, and stopping the car (if steering the car, if it were a tiny bit later), having porous pipes made of rust is not ideal. In fact (as you probably figured out yourself) it's downright bad. It needs sorting out, and it's one of the longest-running issues the car has had, because it had leaky pipes on the day I picked it up. It's not like it has caught me off-guard! Question is, how bad are they?
Well, I decided it was basically going to be a case of starting at the front, and working backwards. I planned to renew anything that was really bad first, and then assuming I had some pipe and fittings left over at the end, I'd go back through and renew anything that looked like it might cause grief later down the line.
The first port of call was the brake doseur valve. Hydro-Citroens don't have a brake servo, or even a brake master cylinder. In a conventional car so-fitted, the driver creates the pressure needed to create the friction on the surface on the brake disc or drum by pressing down on the brake pedal (assuming we're not looking at new cars with fly-by-wire systems). It's a simple transfer of fluid; The force you exert on the brake pedal exerts that force onto the brakes. It's not a 1:1 ratio, and when you start bringing boosters like brake servos in, you alter things further. These are power-assisted brakes.
In the BX, things are totally different, as the brakes are fully-powered. For a start, you don't need to create the pressure in the circuit, because the car is sitting on miles of pipework containing bright green mineral oil that has been pressurised to around 1400psi. All you need is a little valve on the end of a pedal, and you can divert that pressure directly onto the brake discs. In the case of the DS or SM, you didn't even get a pedal! You just got a rubber mushroom-shaped blob on the floor.
This is why old Citroen brakes have a reputation for being fierce. You don't apply force to the brake pedal when you're out and about in your hydro-Citroen, you just put your foot on the pedal. The pressure with which you rest your foot is all you need to control them, and the fact there's a valve under your foot, rather than a cylinder, is why there is an 'odd' feeling, and very little pedal travel. The valve itself is tiny; The whole pedal arrangement is there purely to make the car less alien to drivers. In theory, you could operate the brakes with your little finger, if you had a remote valve on the dashboard! Citroen explored ways of making the brakes less of an 'issue' to drivers than they were widely considered (although to me, having brakes capable of putting your head through the instrument panel isn't a bad thing!) But the public are a ham-fisted (or footed) collective, and eventually the brakes were removed from the circuit with the first C5 model (the fugly one from 2001) that confined the hydraulics to the suspension alone (and made the car worse.)
Here's the underside of the brake doseur valve on the bulkhead:
The brakes get priority over anything else in the circuit, so if the pressure suddenly drops (due to an 'Oh s
t!' moment), the brakes are the last thing that should still be working. The two feed pipes leading to the doseur are always under pressure, which takes a bit of time to get your head around, as - you think brakes - you think pipes that are only pressurised when the brakes are applied, but that's only the case between the doseur and the brakes themselves - the supply to the doseur is constant. And those pipes are rotten:Having attended to those, and any other pipework that could be done before the subframe was reattached (the subframe carries the bulk of the pipework, in fairness), I thought I'd take the opportunity to do the cambelt, since I have no idea when it was last done. These are interference engines, so if it goes ping, it's ready for the bin.
The belt is pretty easy to change on these engines, and even better, the tensioner is spring-loaded, meaning belt tension is governed by the tensioner itself, rather than me having to guess! I took the opportunity to renew the tensioner wheel, however, as I've no idea how old the existing was. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving unearthing 36 year old French delights, and in most cases keeping as many of the original parts as possible, but a cambelt tensioner is hidden. That would be going too far.
I'll apply the same logic to the water pump too. Seeing how healthy the innards of the engine looked after all this time was reassuring:
I fitted the new water pump, though the uppermost bolt had to be fitted blind, as it wasn't possible to get the tools up there AND see what I was doing. The bolt seemed to go tight much quicker than the others, so I told myself I'd simple wound it in by hand much further than the others, and that the thread must be clean and clear. I've always liked that bolt, as it looks out for me. It seeks to make life easier. 95% in by hand, and the last little bit with the tools. Lovely.
Then there was a 'pinging' noise.
Then I found this on the floor:
ALWAYS HATED THAT f
kING BOLT! fkING THREADY LITTLE , ALWAYS MAKING LIFE HARDER THAN IT NEEDS TO BE. WHAT A PRICK! WHY DOESN'T IT JUST GO IN?! I'LL HIT IT WITH A fkING HAMMER AND SMASH THE LITTLE TO PIECES UNTIL IT'S fkING ATOMS!! ARRRGHGGHHHH GAMMON etc.Then the meds kicked back in.
So, turns out that the fact I was doing it hidden meant I hadn't noticed that part of the tensioner body for the cambelt had lodged itself behind the waterpump slighty, so I was, in fact, torquing it down onto that. Quiet at the back! Stop sniggering! I'm a professsshhonalle dont u no?
I debated whether or not to remove the pump to inspect it, but the gasket had now been clamped up (because that was the LAST f
kEN BOLT), so if I were to remove it, I might discover it was fine,and that this piece of monkey metal simply filled in a little gap that would have otherwise left the cambelt exposed.On the other hand, if the cambelt is tensioned, and then the car is finally on the road, and in three years time I'm out and about enjoying myself on the sunny French coast or something, and my £15 water pump s
ts itself and throws the cambelt off....Bugger it, it's got to come off. I was hoping the INA part I'd sourced was going to be a replica of the OEM one, but it wasn't anyway, so no matter.
My local Motaquip factors (Paddington in Fareham, if you're wondering) are decent, and they sourced me a replacement Motaquip part, which to be fair, wasn't hugely more than the INA part from Autodoc. INA is a decent brand, and in the absence of an OEM pump, it's fine. Motaquip, on the other hand, used to be owned by PSA! Many of the parts were OEM or even genuine, even if they came in a Motaquip box! Maybe I'll get lucky?!
Nope. You notice I said they USED to be owned by PSA...they're not any more. Still mostly decent gear, though. Oh look, the water pump is INA
So, new pump on....again, and the engine is sorted. New belts, new bearings...good times.
I fire the engine up to check it all out, and celebration is indeed warranted. It runs well. No further issues to report, and definitely no chance of unearthing future issues that will cause me a headache. Nope, no chance.
This thread has turned into a fairly accurate representation of myself! It promises much, delivers little, and never at the times it says it will. It's almost like it's disorganised chaos!
No! That can't be right, can it? Well, it's certainly an odd time we all find ourselves in, so I'll cut myself some slack. There have been comings and goings in my car world, but the 16TRS is still here, and still plodding along. Well, it's not plodded for a couple of months now, but prior to COVID, it was!
I'm still some way behind, so I'll try to get up to speed as briskly as I can. Writing stuff like this seems a bit self-indulgent, but for me it's an excellent way of keeping a diary of what I've spent my life doing, because I sure as hell won't remember!
OK, so we're at the point where I've rebuilt the front subframe of the BX (rather than replacing it, because I didn't want to lose Le Bearings). I've also now renewed the cambelt, tensioners/idlers and water pump, along with the spark plugs, the engine oil & filter, and the air filter. The rebuilt carburettor has been refitted, but the body is still largely as-was, so before the subframe goes back in and makes access to certain areas much more difficult than it needs to be, I need to sort out some of the scabs.
"What scabs?!" You might ask. Well, that's not the front wheelarch of this car (above, look up!); It's the arch of the donor estate which will so valiantly give its life for the cause. See the bracket, with the pipe posted through it? That's actually the handbrake cable. You idiot! You thought that was a pipe!
Anyway, that bracket is indeed the guide for the handbrake cable, which in the case of a hydraulically-suspended Cit, operates the front wheels, because reasons. (There are actually sound logical reasons for this design, but saying 'because reasons' is it a bit of a thing, these days). In the top of the bracket, mounts the brake flexi pipe, which is absent in the image above as I've uncerimoniously removed said hose with a large pair of bolt cutters.
Decades of sitting around in Swansea doing sweet FA for most of its existance have meant that these brackets have practically rusted away on the TRS. Being spot-welded to the body behind them, the outer skin of that has also rusted away behind them, natch:
Some tickling with the grinder later reveals that - thankfully - the chassis rail behind it is fine:
A series of images of the repair and subsequent bracket-fitting would normally follow, but half of the pictures I'm trying to upload here are failing due to some kind of error, and it's taken me an hour just to do the little bit above! I'm going to have to stop using this in-built photo hosting feature and get a grown-up one to carry on! Sadly, I've run out of time as I need to go to work.
I'll try and pick it up at lunchtime
No! That can't be right, can it? Well, it's certainly an odd time we all find ourselves in, so I'll cut myself some slack. There have been comings and goings in my car world, but the 16TRS is still here, and still plodding along. Well, it's not plodded for a couple of months now, but prior to COVID, it was!
I'm still some way behind, so I'll try to get up to speed as briskly as I can. Writing stuff like this seems a bit self-indulgent, but for me it's an excellent way of keeping a diary of what I've spent my life doing, because I sure as hell won't remember!
OK, so we're at the point where I've rebuilt the front subframe of the BX (rather than replacing it, because I didn't want to lose Le Bearings). I've also now renewed the cambelt, tensioners/idlers and water pump, along with the spark plugs, the engine oil & filter, and the air filter. The rebuilt carburettor has been refitted, but the body is still largely as-was, so before the subframe goes back in and makes access to certain areas much more difficult than it needs to be, I need to sort out some of the scabs.
"What scabs?!" You might ask. Well, that's not the front wheelarch of this car (above, look up!); It's the arch of the donor estate which will so valiantly give its life for the cause. See the bracket, with the pipe posted through it? That's actually the handbrake cable. You idiot! You thought that was a pipe!
Anyway, that bracket is indeed the guide for the handbrake cable, which in the case of a hydraulically-suspended Cit, operates the front wheels, because reasons. (There are actually sound logical reasons for this design, but saying 'because reasons' is it a bit of a thing, these days). In the top of the bracket, mounts the brake flexi pipe, which is absent in the image above as I've uncerimoniously removed said hose with a large pair of bolt cutters.
Decades of sitting around in Swansea doing sweet FA for most of its existance have meant that these brackets have practically rusted away on the TRS. Being spot-welded to the body behind them, the outer skin of that has also rusted away behind them, natch:
Some tickling with the grinder later reveals that - thankfully - the chassis rail behind it is fine:
A series of images of the repair and subsequent bracket-fitting would normally follow, but half of the pictures I'm trying to upload here are failing due to some kind of error, and it's taken me an hour just to do the little bit above! I'm going to have to stop using this in-built photo hosting feature and get a grown-up one to carry on! Sadly, I've run out of time as I need to go to work.
I'll try and pick it up at lunchtime
Right, let's have another crack!
So, bracket in place:
And then welded in along with a section underneath to beef the inner rail up, followed by some paint:
Same carried out on the other side, and then I overcoated everything with a splash of the original Rouge Valleunga (Sunrise red). The subframe can now go back on, and I can crack on with connecting all the suspension and brakes.
At this point, of course, I've never seen the car raise itself. When I got it, it was a leaky mess, and all it's done since is sit around. Strictly speaking, I've only driven it 20metres at most, and that's with no brakes or suspension! All I can really do is attempt to put the car back together, and hope that there are no hidden hydraulic issues buried underneath!
Anyway, it was finally ready to re-install the overhauled subframe.
Once that was fitted, it was time to carry out the exchange of fluids and filters. (It was much less sexually gross that it sounds)
This is actually the prep fluid for Evans Waterless Coolant. I fitted that in both my 16 Valve, and the 19GT I did for my dad. These BX mk1 dashboards don't have coolant temperature gauges, only an 'oh st' lamp! I'd rather learn that I had a mechanical issue before the coolant had boiled away, so it's effectively just a fail safe. I also have lots of nearly 37yr old rubber hoses, and radiator, and heater matrix....everything is pretty much original (that I can tell). The waterless stuff doesn't pressurise, which means I've got less chance of a very old part letting go. That's quite important, as I have this twisted perversion to leave as much of the car as original as possible (pretty much because most BXs are now anything but, and this is a bit of a timewarp!)
Something to purify the air...
And some small boxes of sparks...
So, with the timing belt done, the subframe fastened in and all the fluids in place, I decided to hook up some electrical juice and see if it would light up.
Cawse' it did!
So, the next step was to attend to all the little rusted barbs of steel, otherwise known as the hydraulic pipework. On any BX, there are four 3.5mm pipes (or 3x 3.5mm & 1x 4.5mm, if it has ABS) that run from the front of the car, to the back axle. One of these is the feed to the rear suspension cylinders, via the height corrector valve which knows how much the rear cylinders need; one to the brakes (which is interrupted at the brake valve by the feed to the rear height corrector, as a mains of modulating the pressure on the brakes according to the weight in the back of the car); another line to the height corrector (as a pressure supply so it can operate), and a functional return (as opposed to a leak-off), which goes to the 'Octopus' and sees the fluid the height corrector doesn't need returned to the reservoir.
(A picture speaks a thousand words, right?)
Now, on a BX, there are two approaches to the hydraulic pipework dilemma. The correct approach is to drop the rear axle, drop the fuel tank....well, drop everything, and then make new pipework, front to back. Mmmmm....involving!
The alternative approach is to cut 'n shut the lines, relieving the neccessity to remove all the above.l Obviously a significant increase in speed, and a significant decrease in effort are worthy positives for this approach, but, it's often considered a bodge job, as aside from the fact it's difficult to flare pipes in-situ and prevent leaks, it's also likely that the pipework out of sight will be equally poor condition.
Obviously, I've got for the bodge job.
There's method to this, however. Firstly, this car has a fair amount of corrosion, sure, but it's not the corrosion most BXs would suffer. It hasn't done winters in the salt, and it hasn't done muddy puddles. As a result, though it features the earlier type of pipe (i.e. not protected with anything), the sections that run up and over the tank are in pretty good shape. Secondly, I want to disturb as little as possible on this car, and that includes not removing back axles and fuel tanks. I want it as 'factory fresh' as possible (lolz....it's anything but fresh!)
So, I'm cutting & shutting. I've weighed up the options, and in this intance, I'm making that call. At the end of the day, if I've made the wrong call, I'll be rewarded with a slippery green floor in the workshop as a reward!
The best way to attack this, for my money, is using these nifty little compression-type joints. Two loose olives, a central joining union, and two nuts. Means I don't need to flare the pipe, though they can be a little tricky to get a good seal on.
The downside? This assortment of bags cost £175:
I st you not. That's 175% more than I paid for the car (alright Vorderman, I realise 175% of nothing is not £175 - it's for effect)
But, it's a means to an end, and the pipework is done (mostly).
Along with the pipework, some Michelins I had knocking around have been fitted to the original BX steel wheels.
Many in the BX world have questioned my sanity, refurbing the original steelies, when so many are available as spares. As I always tell them, however: Date stamps, innit:
That's a rare rim! Plus, these ones were made by someone else:
The spare rim is still holed, but I'll go back to that later. These have a light grey coating on them for now, but they'll actually be overpainted with the correct silvery-grey.
I had it in mind that I wanted to get the car on its wheels, running and with working suspension, before the end of 2019. I finished 2018 by getting the GT back to my dad, so it seemed fitting that the following year should end in a similar fashion. Naturally, I couldn't wait to put the wheels back on:
The next task in getting it running and seeing if the suspension will raise, was to make the suspension work. At the moment, an exceptionally grubby LHM reservoir and a lack of LHM fluid within was preventing this, so that needed sorting.
There are a number of filters inside the reservoir, all of them cleanable thankfully. There are two on the main pickup unit (which also acts as a main cap):
Then, if you reach inside with your hand, you'll find the moon disc.
(You will cut your hands to shreds doing this. Easier to just accept it)
One disc:
The moon disc is also a filter. It acts as a baffle which sits over the top of a 'sump' in the base of the reservoir. Thanks to gravity, any crap in the fluid accumulates there, ready to be cleaned away, thus:
With the tank clean, I fill it full of fluid, as well as the suction hose to the pump, so it has a fighting chance of bleeding itself in. With every other connection made, and all the oils in place (except the gearbox oil, but hey...I'm not gonna drive it, right?) It was time to attempt to start the car again.
Success!! See the green light along the bottom? That's a VFD rev counter; The BX is risen!
Well, not yet. That's the next bit! I've started the engine with the pressure bypass screw open on the pressure regulator. This means that the pump will continue to pump away, it's just that the system will send it right back to the reservoir again, without charging any of the circuits.
Once I'm ready (aka once I've plucked up the bks to attempt it), I need to close the valve and cycle the suspension lever. Worth remembering that last time I did this, it pissed LHM all over our trailer!
On this occasion, however...
He is RISEN! (Other religous connotations are available). Before long, he (sorry, He) will also be driven!
Here He is!:
Driven outside for the firs.......ah, yeah. That bit.
Right, so you know for ages and ages, that in previous posts I kept alludiing to something going wrong? It was quite a clickbaity tactic, I'll admit, and it kept literally one of you on the edge of your chair! But, I kept suggesting that all was not well, and that there were choppy waters ahead etc.? Do you remember that? No? Well, that was a waste of time, wasn't it.
OK, so to the problem! Yes, it's outside. It's there, because I pushed it there. Why did I push it, you ask. Well, that would be because it wouldn't drive.
Ya, really.
So, bracket in place:
And then welded in along with a section underneath to beef the inner rail up, followed by some paint:
Same carried out on the other side, and then I overcoated everything with a splash of the original Rouge Valleunga (Sunrise red). The subframe can now go back on, and I can crack on with connecting all the suspension and brakes.
At this point, of course, I've never seen the car raise itself. When I got it, it was a leaky mess, and all it's done since is sit around. Strictly speaking, I've only driven it 20metres at most, and that's with no brakes or suspension! All I can really do is attempt to put the car back together, and hope that there are no hidden hydraulic issues buried underneath!
Anyway, it was finally ready to re-install the overhauled subframe.
Once that was fitted, it was time to carry out the exchange of fluids and filters. (It was much less sexually gross that it sounds)
This is actually the prep fluid for Evans Waterless Coolant. I fitted that in both my 16 Valve, and the 19GT I did for my dad. These BX mk1 dashboards don't have coolant temperature gauges, only an 'oh s
t' lamp! I'd rather learn that I had a mechanical issue before the coolant had boiled away, so it's effectively just a fail safe. I also have lots of nearly 37yr old rubber hoses, and radiator, and heater matrix....everything is pretty much original (that I can tell). The waterless stuff doesn't pressurise, which means I've got less chance of a very old part letting go. That's quite important, as I have this twisted perversion to leave as much of the car as original as possible (pretty much because most BXs are now anything but, and this is a bit of a timewarp!)Something to purify the air...
And some small boxes of sparks...
So, with the timing belt done, the subframe fastened in and all the fluids in place, I decided to hook up some electrical juice and see if it would light up.
Cawse' it did!
So, the next step was to attend to all the little rusted barbs of steel, otherwise known as the hydraulic pipework. On any BX, there are four 3.5mm pipes (or 3x 3.5mm & 1x 4.5mm, if it has ABS) that run from the front of the car, to the back axle. One of these is the feed to the rear suspension cylinders, via the height corrector valve which knows how much the rear cylinders need; one to the brakes (which is interrupted at the brake valve by the feed to the rear height corrector, as a mains of modulating the pressure on the brakes according to the weight in the back of the car); another line to the height corrector (as a pressure supply so it can operate), and a functional return (as opposed to a leak-off), which goes to the 'Octopus' and sees the fluid the height corrector doesn't need returned to the reservoir.
(A picture speaks a thousand words, right?)
Now, on a BX, there are two approaches to the hydraulic pipework dilemma. The correct approach is to drop the rear axle, drop the fuel tank....well, drop everything, and then make new pipework, front to back. Mmmmm....involving!
The alternative approach is to cut 'n shut the lines, relieving the neccessity to remove all the above.l Obviously a significant increase in speed, and a significant decrease in effort are worthy positives for this approach, but, it's often considered a bodge job, as aside from the fact it's difficult to flare pipes in-situ and prevent leaks, it's also likely that the pipework out of sight will be equally poor condition.
Obviously, I've got for the bodge job.
There's method to this, however. Firstly, this car has a fair amount of corrosion, sure, but it's not the corrosion most BXs would suffer. It hasn't done winters in the salt, and it hasn't done muddy puddles. As a result, though it features the earlier type of pipe (i.e. not protected with anything), the sections that run up and over the tank are in pretty good shape. Secondly, I want to disturb as little as possible on this car, and that includes not removing back axles and fuel tanks. I want it as 'factory fresh' as possible (lolz....it's anything but fresh!)
So, I'm cutting & shutting. I've weighed up the options, and in this intance, I'm making that call. At the end of the day, if I've made the wrong call, I'll be rewarded with a slippery green floor in the workshop as a reward!
The best way to attack this, for my money, is using these nifty little compression-type joints. Two loose olives, a central joining union, and two nuts. Means I don't need to flare the pipe, though they can be a little tricky to get a good seal on.
The downside? This assortment of bags cost £175:
I s
t you not. That's 175% more than I paid for the car (alright Vorderman, I realise 175% of nothing is not £175 - it's for effect)But, it's a means to an end, and the pipework is done (mostly).
Along with the pipework, some Michelins I had knocking around have been fitted to the original BX steel wheels.
Many in the BX world have questioned my sanity, refurbing the original steelies, when so many are available as spares. As I always tell them, however: Date stamps, innit:
That's a rare rim! Plus, these ones were made by someone else:
The spare rim is still holed, but I'll go back to that later. These have a light grey coating on them for now, but they'll actually be overpainted with the correct silvery-grey.
I had it in mind that I wanted to get the car on its wheels, running and with working suspension, before the end of 2019. I finished 2018 by getting the GT back to my dad, so it seemed fitting that the following year should end in a similar fashion. Naturally, I couldn't wait to put the wheels back on:
The next task in getting it running and seeing if the suspension will raise, was to make the suspension work. At the moment, an exceptionally grubby LHM reservoir and a lack of LHM fluid within was preventing this, so that needed sorting.
There are a number of filters inside the reservoir, all of them cleanable thankfully. There are two on the main pickup unit (which also acts as a main cap):
Then, if you reach inside with your hand, you'll find the moon disc.
(You will cut your hands to shreds doing this. Easier to just accept it)
One disc:
The moon disc is also a filter. It acts as a baffle which sits over the top of a 'sump' in the base of the reservoir. Thanks to gravity, any crap in the fluid accumulates there, ready to be cleaned away, thus:
With the tank clean, I fill it full of fluid, as well as the suction hose to the pump, so it has a fighting chance of bleeding itself in. With every other connection made, and all the oils in place (except the gearbox oil, but hey...I'm not gonna drive it, right?) It was time to attempt to start the car again.
Success!! See the green light along the bottom? That's a VFD rev counter; The BX is risen!
Well, not yet. That's the next bit! I've started the engine with the pressure bypass screw open on the pressure regulator. This means that the pump will continue to pump away, it's just that the system will send it right back to the reservoir again, without charging any of the circuits.
Once I'm ready (aka once I've plucked up the b
ks to attempt it), I need to close the valve and cycle the suspension lever. Worth remembering that last time I did this, it pissed LHM all over our trailer!On this occasion, however...
He is RISEN! (Other religous connotations are available). Before long, he (sorry, He) will also be driven!
Here He is!:
Driven outside for the firs.......ah, yeah. That bit.
Right, so you know for ages and ages, that in previous posts I kept alludiing to something going wrong? It was quite a clickbaity tactic, I'll admit, and it kept literally one of you on the edge of your chair! But, I kept suggesting that all was not well, and that there were choppy waters ahead etc.? Do you remember that? No? Well, that was a waste of time, wasn't it.
OK, so to the problem! Yes, it's outside. It's there, because I pushed it there. Why did I push it, you ask. Well, that would be because it wouldn't drive.
Ya, really.
So, one 1983 Citroen BX. It hasn't been on the road since 2007 (at least). It's now raising itself under its own power, which it didn't do before, but it is no longer mobile, which it was before. It seems there is a law of sod, and it has me bang to rights.
It didn't take me too long to figure out what had happened, however. It was seemingly selecting gears just fine, though the speedo wasn't working, so I knew the output side wasn't turning. I decided to remove the driveshafts (again) to see if I could learn anything, as although I could remove the end cover on the box itself (to see if the input shaft was turning 5th gear) I felt that it was unlikely to be something deep inside the box, as the car drove before without issue (not to mention the box has only done 17k miles!) A real headscratcher for a while, as I literally hadn't touched any of the related componentry other than to remove and refit the drivesha.....
...ah. I wonder! I did start the engine initially without the driveshafts in, and no gear oil. I fitted them after I'd confirmed it ran, and could carry on going back together. The car wasn't in gear, so no heat or friction to cause an issue. The only possibility is that there was enough inertia in the transmission while the engine was running to rotate something (like when you jack up a car with the engine idling, in neutral, and then spot the wheels slowly rotating).
Thing is, I'd done that plenty of times with BXs before, with no issue. Why would this be any different?
In a somewhat baffled state, I consulted other humans afflicted with the same BX disease I have, to see if they knew anything of it. I was thinking I'd done something bad to the diff, but couldn't think what.
It was suggested that on the 1400 'suitcase' engine (aka XY, or Simca engine), removal of both driveshafts causes the differential to fall apart internally! This sounded crazy, and my BX isn't a 1400 either, but nevertheless I decided to pick up the Haynes manual and see if it mentioned this somewhere. It was a different engine, but it might be a clue.
In the end, it was better than a clue; it was the answer! There was no mention of the XY differential suffering with this problem, but, listed under the XU5 (the 1.6 lump I have), was a sentence that described how on the earliest versions of the BX (and they don't get much earlier than this one), you had to fashion a tool to leave in place of a removed driveshaft, before you remove the other side. The planet gears in the diff aren't pegged, and the only thing holding them into the differential, are the driveshafts (a splined design which posted directly into the planet gears themselves). Later cars (such as literally every other BX I'd removed the driveshafts on) have pegged diffs (presumably after main dealer technicians started sending envelopes full of poo to the production committee who signed them off), and so that's why I'd never encountered this before. And, of course, I'd started the engine with no driveshafts in, so it's possible that, had I not done that, the interferance fit of all the parts might have held them in position, but as soon as I fired up the engine it all moved, with predictable results.
As far as I was concerned, this was a load of f
king dogste, and I was not happy. I didn't want to take the gearbox out and disturb all the lovely original untouched-since-Rennes '83 fixings, and other original goodness (the same goodness that will no doubt fail as soon as I put it on the road, and remind me that I'm so stupid sometimes).However, happily, Citroen had already planned for this eventuality, by making the differential REMOVABLE! Yes, a removable differential, on a boggo, humdrum family hatchback! Access is tight(ish), but I've done it on my 16v, and on a 205 GTi in the past, so this should be simple.
I didn't need to remove the driveshaft (as the prick was already out), so the next step was to remove the speedo drive casing and output bearing carrier:
(note the speedo cable end dangling there, and the gearbox ID label, which is still as bright as new! 2BL 03 is the gearbox code, which would identify the ratios in this box....if I was so inclined to look for them....which I'm not.)
Of course, if I get the diff off and find no issue, it's back to square one, but on the basis I can't feel any spline slots in the input bores, I'd say it's a pretty good indication!
With the fixings removed, I start easing the diff forwards. I've had to ratchet strap the engine to something immobile and winch it forwards to give me some more room at the back, because some cockend put the subframe back in.
Yup....there's definitely an absence of planet gear there! Moments later, a metallic '
'!:
Two loose cogs, sittin' on the deck. First I lol'd and then I said 'feck!'
Well, if the cogs fell out, in theory they should be able to fall back in, so that's the plan. To make this possible, I decided I needed to fashion a tool, as per the Haynes B.O.L. In the manual, they suggest cutting down a broom handle, but that is well too
for me innit. I locate an old driveshaft, and chop the end off:
Boom! One differential alignment and cog holder-inner...tool. Now I can attempt to refit both evacuated cogs, and make the BX mobile (under its own steam, not mine) once more!
Trying to fit the planet gears though this tight gap was a bit like trying to push hot-spaghetti up a cat's arse (nicked that from the tale of Vulcan 607). It's probably not how it's meant to be done, but there isn't the room to remove the diff entirely without unshipping the subframe again, and-a theres-a no-a way-I'm-a doing-a that.
This went on for some time (trying to fit the gears back in, not trying to type like an extra from a Dolmio advert. Eventually, I was successful, as can be evidenced by the difference in the two images below:
Guess who's not going to do that again?!
As a means of celebration, I fitted the wheeltrims to the wheels and took it for the first proper bimble....around the yard!
The craziest thing? The suspension spheres are 36 years old, and by rights they should be rock solid by now. Are they? No! It's smooth and supply, and they're working perfectly!
Old French cars, eh? They're so unreliable!
Great to see the BX now moving under it's own steam
Question/comment - in the photo where you've first got it out in the open it looks low at the back (though not as bad as I remember my TRS sitting), was engine off & suspension depressurising ?
All the other photos look like you've selected 'max up' for the suspension (or is that how a BX should sit and shows how awful mine was 25 odd yrs ago)
Question/comment - in the photo where you've first got it out in the open it looks low at the back (though not as bad as I remember my TRS sitting), was engine off & suspension depressurising ?
All the other photos look like you've selected 'max up' for the suspension (or is that how a BX should sit and shows how awful mine was 25 odd yrs ago)
Pinkie15 said:
Question/comment - in the photo where you've first got it out in the open it looks low at the back (though not as bad as I remember my TRS sitting), was engine off & suspension depressurising ?
All the other photos look like you've selected 'max up' for the suspension (or is that how a BX should sit and shows how awful mine was 25 odd yrs ago)
The back is actually about the right height there. The reason it's a little nose-up is because I've had all the suspension linkages and valves off the front end, and it all needs setting back up. Can't do that on a two poster (as the wheels are dangling), so can sort that when it goes into a four poster.All the other photos look like you've selected 'max up' for the suspension (or is that how a BX should sit and shows how awful mine was 25 odd yrs ago)
Eyersey1234 said:
Any more progress with the BX OP?
There has been, yeah, but I also bought a C6...and another BX (four now, in total). Oh, and my other Citroen project...I do intend on getting this thing on the road soon though. It just needs more welding and some bodywork, plus the carb sorting out.
I have documented it all thus far though, so will be able to go backwards and write it up.
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