Tickman

Fuckity bye!

Thanks man, future me really appreciates that.

I checked it ages ago and didn't recall anything dire, but just to refresh our memories:

There's nothing there worrying me too much. I'll check the front discs again but I don't recall them being gopping when I had the wheels off before.
I'm hoping that the hour or so drive to the test station should help free the car up and get it in the mood for a pass.
Or cause it to explode, and not be eligible for recovery due to a lack of MOT.

Before I finished off last night I spent a few minutes pumping furiously on the driveway. My thought process being that if I primed the fuel system before going to bed then when I woke up in the morning I would be able to check that everything was still hard.

I gave it a few pumps and it still felt fairly rigid which is encouraging.
Hopefully I’ll get this all wrapped up tonight and have her running. If I can get her starting reliably I will be well chuffed, as the laboured starting and not knowing if it would actually start was really spoiling what’s otherwise a pretty decent car (I hope).
Provided she starts and runs ok then I’ll do the ABS sensor on the off side rear, give her a quick once over for any obvious faults, give her a wash and then get her in for a ticket.
I’d quite like to try the nearby* ‘no pass no fee’ place, @grizz is this who you use?
https://www.thetestcentre.co.uk

I managed to make a bit more time for tinkering this eve. Not many photos I’m afraid as I just wanted to crack on.
First up was that breather hose.
The part listings online had the specs for it as an 18mm id. I did not bother removing one and measuring the hose tail. I lived to regret this.
It turns out the ends of the hose are a larger ID than the main body of it, so the 19mm oil hose I ordered didn’t fit.
I don’t want to wait for Autodoc to deliver a proper hose, and all the spares on eBay etc. are also located in Europe.
I had a scout around the garage and I discovered that my manual shite water pump that I keep handy in case of small floods has the perfect sized oil rated hose attached to it.
Bodge time:

It’s better than it was at least. The original pipe had cracked around about 75% of its circumference, and fell off in my hand. I’ve just cut it back to make it fit into a sleeve I cut from my hand pump. Job jobbed.
Then after some fucking around, swearing and pulled back muscles, I managed to get the spare pump in place.

Im really bloody hoping that woodruff key is located properly.


It’s all gone into place so I’m hoping that the key is still there and hasn’t been mangled. Once it’s all back together I’ll leave the timing cover off temporarily and bar it over first.
Im hoping to finish up tomorrow, all being well.

It can't be anything too important as there's no fluid pissing out anywhere. I'll have a look on a parts diagram later just out of curiosity.
On the subject of non-working parts, a browse of some Citroen forums has revealed that I don't need to worry about the waxstat thing. It's designed to reduce cold start emissions by advancing ignition timing, but is of no detriment to reliable operation when it fails and apparently TADTS.

I think the battery has possibly been killed by a parasitic drain and the car being stood. If you did have a receipt handy and it doesn’t put you out then it might be worth a try on the warranty.
Don’t worry, I was only towing the trailer on the farm tracks to move it. I’ve seen how that tow bar is mounted and I have zero faith in its ability to handle any amount of force on it. The neck of the ball hitch is bent as well, just for good measure 😂
Sometimes once the kids are in bed and it’s that hour or two before I go to sleep, I get really restless and wound up and have to go and tinker with something. 9 out of 10 times I break something and end up even more frustrated, but the mirror switch was one of those small wins on an evening that would otherwise have been wasted staring at the tv!

I’ve been back on the case with the fuel pump tonight.
The main job was to disconnect the last of the hoses, fuel lines etc.

That’s the only goal I set myself tonight, but the kids were in bed and felt motivated so I carried on.
A while back I bent a 45 degree angle in a spanner by mistake, and made a shit joke about it undoing bolts around corners. Anyway, it turns out they’re actually a thing and they’re needed for this job:

You can’t really get the four nuts holding the pump on any other way.
Getting leverage on the rear nut is not easy, so once again my copper tube fetish came into play

Whilst undoing those nuts I was alarmed to find a severed hard line under the LHM pump as I yoinked it out


Likewise, the goo inside this waxstat thing appears to be fucking off and doing it’s own thing. The spare pump is the same.

Proof that I somehow managed to avoid losing the woodruff key for a second time:

Theres a tool for getting the pump shaft free from the sprocket. I don’t own that tool, and I promise I absolutely didn’t use a club hammer on the spare pump and a pry bar on the one in the car. To be fair, there isn’t much force needed to release the pump at all. I reckon you could do it by hand if you were patient enough.
Success:


I didn’t expect to get the pump pulled out this eve, so I’m pleased to have done that. I’m now indoors enjoying a gin and tonic and knuckles bruised like I’ve been on a night out in Newhaven.
I now need to decide what to do about that PCV hose. I can get a replacement from Europe for £20 which will arrive fuck knows when. I can get a length of the same diameter oil hose from CBS by Thursday for a tenner, but I’ll have to bend it to shape and hope it can manage the radius needed. Choices, choices…
Also, does anyone know if I should be worried about the orange goo escaping the waxstats?

Interesting times 


Looks like I'm ev shopping again!

The MOT on the Insight was coming up so a bit of a look over the car and put a few miles on it were required. It hadn't really been used since the start of November due to the Clio's arrival.
Just over 300 miles were put on it over the last few days and the MOT was first thing this morning.

Happy with that. Now time to spend some money on it.

Rural Romania, as seen from the train: 

I'm in, we're on time apparently. The train is completely booked. 4 Romanian cars, made at Astra Arad. Have no idea of the year. The locomotive is one made at Electroputere Craiova, I think sometimes in the '60s or '70s.

 
There was enough time for a slice of cheese pizza (7 RON) and a one litre bottle of water (8.5 RON), and even a cigarette. Now I'll be cramped for close to 100 minutes.
 
And we're on the way:

 

Train station achieved, a half an hour early. Weather is starting to act up again.

 
My train does not have an advertised platform yet. It's IC571, going to Galați. I won't go all the way unless I fall asleep. Well, time to get some snacks, water,and maybe a cigarette.

We're on! First station achieved after a brisk 5 minutes walk.
It's windy, so the train is  coming. Here it is.

The MOT on the Insight was coming up so a bit of a look over the car and put a few miles on it were required. It hadn't really been used since the start of November due to the Clio's arrival.
Just over 300 miles were put on it over the last few days and the MOT was first thing this morning.

Happy with that. Now time to spend some money on it.

The MOT on the Insight was coming up so a bit of a look over the car and put a few miles on it were required. It hadn't really been used since the start of November due to the Clio's arrival.
Just over 300 miles were put on it over the last few days and the MOT was first thing this morning.

Happy with that. Now time to spend some money on it.

Excellent progress on an unwanted task.
You really are rattling through this.

The MOT on the Insight was coming up so a bit of a look over the car and put a few miles on it were required. It hadn't really been used since the start of November due to the Clio's arrival.
Just over 300 miles were put on it over the last few days and the MOT was first thing this morning.

Happy with that. Now time to spend some money on it.

The MOT on the Insight was coming up so a bit of a look over the car and put a few miles on it were required. It hadn't really been used since the start of November due to the Clio's arrival.
Just over 300 miles were put on it over the last few days and the MOT was first thing this morning.

Happy with that. Now time to spend some money on it.

It was the Polos turn today.
Old pollen filter looked fine but I had a new one...

That should make a difference.
Then the air filter. On this car the housing is part of the engine cover with 7,000 screws holding it together. That got changed and all this detritus was disappeared as well.

The sump plug came out no bother with two copper washers and ptfe on it as well. I think it was done up quite tight!

Nothing wrong with the plug or the sump so I cleaned it all back and it was screwed back together.
The oil filter was a bit awkward as I had to take a bracket off to get it away from the engine. It was also rather tight so the new one went on hand tight with a bit of oil on the face. Glad this wasn't done on the drive as this would have made it very awkward.
I also don't have a drive!
Normal service of nothing happening should now resume for a few weeks.

Just been taken out for a spin in this. 

Fucking gorgeous interior. 

Mate has paid £2.5k for it which seems fair.
The electrics survived the drive to the pub. 

Last day of leave from work and once again, no parts arrived. So, more cleaning and little jobs instead.
The remainder of the gearbox was sprayed with degreaser and left to work in for a bit.
First shitty job was the bonnet catch.

Absolutely caked in old sticky grease and grime from 30 years of spraying any old shite onto it.
Bit more degreaser and some aggressive scrubbing got it looking presentable again.

Whilst re-lubricating the latch and operating the mechanism, it was clear that something wasn't quite right. The big spring on the left hand dislodged and was gouging into the catch.


I held the spring in place with steel wire and twatted the top of the bracket to bend it over to retain the screw - job done.

Was going to adjust the cable as there was quite a lot of slack in the system.

Nice and simple, just one tiny screw to undo aaaaand...

Never mind, it works just fine, I was just being picky.
Next small job, the temperature sensor earth return terminal had came away from the cable - my old crimping tool was well past it. Annoyingly, I ran out of my tiny ring terminals, and with the clearance available, a generic one wouldn't work.

In the end, I drilled out a male spade terminal to match the screw thread size and it fits perfectly.

Anyway, with that done, I cracked on, and cleaned the rest of the gearbox up.

Not perfect, but a hell of a lot better than what it was! Decided there was no better time to change the driveshaft seals. Old ones looked fine, but I had new ones so it made sense to change them!



Both sides were changed, and rubber grease syringed into the seal cavity.

I also greased up the gear change rod ball joints.
In all honesty, there's very little I can do now until the last of the engine parts get here, so I'm going to take a break.
LOL, as if.

Herman has been sat on the drive since November, and his MOT has lapsed. There's currently an ABS fault that I need to look into, but as it was the first dry day with no BX work in months, I decided to start small and fit some bits that I've had on the shelf.

For years and years, I've been told I need to change my throttle cable by Phill because it was corroded and the pedal felt stiff throughout the range of travel. I bought two replacement OE cables last year.
First up, the throttle pedal cable.

Surprisingly easy to strip and disconnect at the pedal box end, although the bulkhead clip was a bit of a twat to undo, due to the sound deadening. Brute force force got it out though. Followed the routing and it was adjusted and ready to go, resulting in a much smoother and lighter pedal.

Next one was even easier, this was for the traction control.
The actuator had to be unshipped for access to the other side of the cable. With a strong clip either side, I ended up taking it into the garage, clamping the free end of the cable in a vice, applying constant tension to the cable whilst simultaneously undoing both retaining clips.


But it worked just fine the was a pleasant job.
Sadly, whilst it needed changing, it wasn't the one I was intending to change, I was after the one for the cruise control actuator:

The cable in this one is also pretty shagged, and at £90 for a replacement one, I'll be trying my luck at the scrappies in due course. It does work for now so it's not urgent.
Whilst the airbox was out, I noticed some paint fretting and light corrosion on a contact surface. Treated it with Kurist, and applied some anti-chafing tape to the affected area.
Anyway, with that all done, it was a quick and easy reassembly.


Didn't start it up as the battery is still on conditioning charge in the garage.
Up close, you can see the replacements were required!

Anyway, I did decide to knock it on the head early for the night. I tidied the tools away and hoovered the garage floor, ready for the next evolution.
Tomorrow, I'm back to work and we have a torque wrench tester. Going to take mine in so I can see what I need to set the torque wrenches to, in order to get the 20 and 60nm figures required for the head bolt torquing.

Cheers!
 
 

Another day with no parts, so it was lots of small jobs to prep for reassembly.
First job was to source a new set of exhaust manifold studs. As I had a day off work, I went around all the local factors, including an exhaust specialist to get what I needed.
And I came back empty-handed. Luckily, I've found a company that does the specific studs and nuts for a BX for £11 delivered online, so that'll arrive at some point.
I also popped into @twosmoke300 who had a camshaft sprocket bolt, as well as lending me a set of engine head stands to check the valve clearances again. These turned out to be okay, only one was just out of limits and it wasn't enough to merit stripping down the head.

I also removed the fuel manifold pipelines to measure up the required lengths and diameters of pipelines to replace them. Whilst dismantled, I gave the unit a clean, and marked where the pipelines go.

I did get lucky at the exhaust place though, and got a manifold to downpipe fitting kit - I had to angle grind one of the bolts off during the engine removal.

The cup washers required a sustained twatting effort to remove, but they gave up the goods eventually and I fitted the new cup washers and the conical mesh gasket. One of the bolts had to be fitted with the washer as it cannot be fitted afterwards.

I gave the manifold mating faces a bit of a clean and scrub up too.

Next, I cracked on with the inlet manifold.

The carb had been replaced during my ownership by Dan, but I had a new set of carb gaskets and it seemed silly to let them go to waste.
Noticed a little bit of erosion damage on one of the chamfered edges, so I filed it down slightly.

Removed the old traces of gasket until the face was smooth.

Then I blanked the holes and got busy with some parts cleaner and a brush - the entirety of the engine bay is bloody filthy, and lagged in a thick coating of oil-based grime.

After a bit of time, I reassembled the inlet manifold. Looks much cleaner and nicer to handle!

I also fitted the inlet manifold studs back into the head, after wire brushing the threads, they went back
Finally, I decided to step away from engine and turn my attention to the next big component awaiting fitment. If the engine was considered dirty, this would be considered filthy.

Annoyingly, as I removed the clutch arm for access and a re-grease, the pivot bush disintegrated. Annoying, but better it happened now instead of when I put it all back together. £7 for a replacement bush on eBay and we'll cross fingers that it arrives soon.

The inner bellhousing did clean up nicely though.

The outside of the box is also taking a bit of time, but there is progress being made.

You can see the layer of grime I'm having to scrub off here, hopefully I'll finish this job tomorrow morning.

I'm still waiting for the piston rings and hockey stick seals for No.1 crank bearing to arrive, once they're here I can really get cracking with the rebuild, but I'm not holding out much hope for the NL trip now.
Not the end of the world as it's been a great target to strive for, but finding faults etc along the way adds extra time to the final date.
Cheers 😁

Thank you so much, I really feel it's important to tell it as it happens, warts and all. It certainly almost never goes according to plan but I'm not one to hide the fuckups and failures as it makes for a pretty dull thread otherwise.
Thankfully @twosmoke300has been absolutely phenomenal with his advice and obscure knowledge, otherwise I'd still be curled up in a corner of the room sobbing 😅
 

I won't get bored of saying it if you won't get bored of writing it up:  great work.