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Three Speed

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  1. Spring loaded key yes Remote central locking yes Keyless entry no Push button start no Pull start yes - Traction Avant Handle cranking start yes - 2CV, Traction Avant Automatic gearbox yes - New Yorker CVT gearbox no Overdrive (that isn't a selectable gear) no Odd number of cylinders no Turbocharger yes Twin turbo no Supercharger no V6 no V8 yes Boxer engine yes 2CV! Air cooled engine yes 2CV Electric no RWD yes Part time 4WD no Full time 4WD no Locking differentials no Hydrolastic suspension no Hydro-pneumatic suspension yes GS, GSA, 3xCX, BX, DS Adjustable ride height yes - above Longitudinal mounted FWD yes Traction Avant, DS Mid Engined yes Traction Avant, DS! Rear Engined no ICE which doesn't drive the wheels by design no Front wheel handbrake yes GS, GSA, DS Electric handbrake yes Golf Left hand drive yes Traction Avant, BX, New Yorker, Cruise control yes Radar cruise yes Heated seats no Heated rear seats no Air conditioning yes Two seats yes More than five seats yes CX Familiale Fabric roof yes 2CV Sunroof yes Carburettor yes DMF yes DPF yes Android auto no Bluetooth yes Speech Synthesis / talking dashboard no Ribbon / drum speedo yes No speedo no Odd number of doors no Gullwing doors no Pillarless windows yes New Yorker Plastic windows yes Herald's hardtop No windows no Opening front windscreen yes Traction Avant Opening rear windscreen yes Renault Scenic One or more heated SIDE windows no Heated mirrors yes Heated washer jets no No radio of any sort yes No belts in fitted rear seats yes Herald, Scimitar, Triumph 2000, Rover 3500S - and no belts in front seats either - Traction Avant, New Yorker Built from a kit no Plastic bodypanels yes Scimitar Plastic / GRP bodypanels yes Scimitar Electric pop-up lights no Manual pop-up lights no Sliding PASSENGER door no Fresh air face ventilation with the heating on yes GS, GSA, DS Wood rimmed steering wheel yes Herald Imported from abroad yes New Yorker, DS Made by a manufacturer which no longer exists. yes Triumph, Reliant, Rover Made before you were born yes Traction Avant, New Yorker Owned more cars than you have lived years no Car bought from an Autoshiter no Car owned previously(or subsequently) by three or more Autoshiters no Bought sight unseen yes Saab 900 Bought without even a photograph no Collection included flight yes BX Collection included more than two trains no Collection included a drive home to a pre-booked MOT of more than 100 miles. yes BX Won in a ROFFLE no Brought home on an A Frame / used to A frame another vehicle on its first journey yes CX Familiale bought from breakers Didn't make it home on it's first collection attempt no Sold within a week of purchase no Ex-taxi yes CX2500D Car had previously been off the road for five or more years yes Spitfire Mk2, CX Familiale (also son's Scimitar) Owned the exact same car (not just the same model) previously no Owned in part, as part of a convoluted shared ownership scheme no Required solicitors letters / police assistance / detective work / confrontation / breaking and entering to collect after purchase no Was displaying the wrong identity at purchase no Given for free yes Cortina Mk5 Estate Scored 50 - must try harder
  2. Nice to see you all today. A nice selection of cars and even though there were no Citroens there was still a car leaking LHM.And it was nice to see a car that does this:
  3. very happy to see this at the local pub. I used to have one just like it except more silver.
  4. Time for an update. It’s been a while. Quite a lot to report. I’m not saying any of it is interesting. I promised myself that I would get the Herald out of the garage and on the road this year. Didn’t happen. I’ve forgotten what I was doing to it before I got distracted years ago. I think it was the clutch slave cylinder. I imagine a number of other things need fixing now. I did recover the hardtop from my brother - it needs the rubber seals replacing. Will renew the vow for 2024. We’ll see if I actually do anything. The Traction did get fettled a little bit and has put in a lot of miles in 2023 - TOC rallies to Jersey and Devon. The fettling must have been of a high standard as nothing went wrong. One of the things I did was to fit hazard warning lights. The Traction has also been my daily driver when the DS was not feeling well. Which was quite often… Having changed the DS front brake pads I thought I should look at the rear shoes. When I eventually got the rear drums off (which took much heat and hammering) I found I had a weeping slave cylinder and also found a rear suspension cylinder boot was shredded - both on the offside. I ordered the parts but didn’t bother to fix it until I started finding green puddles under the rear offside wing. I assumed this was from the shredded boot. I didn’t have time to fix this so just used the Traction instead whilst i waited for some free time to coincide with good weather. Some weeks later I started to be aware of a knocking noise from the engine. I tried to ignore it but really knew I couldn’t. Its final drive was to get me home from a dinner after work. I took the long way home to avoid Handcross Hill which would not be a good place to get stuck - even with my newly fitted hazard warning lights. No AA trucks were required but the the Traction was now off the road with suspected big end failure and I hadn’t fixed the DS yet. It was now the New Yorker’s turn to be my daily wheels. I had attempted to take this to the American Car day at Brooklands in May. We got half way there and had an FTP on the M25 just after passing Cobham services. The AA took us back to Cobham to await recovery. This turned out to be a 10 hour wait which was not good. The problem was a combination of no fuel in the carb and a battery flattened by trying to start it. The root cause of the fuel problem was a perished rubber pipe on the pump inlet - I blame that on E10. I assumed the battery problem was just that the car hadn’t been used much and that the battery was a bit low when we left home. We made it to Mopar Muscle Day at Brooklands later in the year. Now the New Yorker had to get me to work and anywhere else wanted to go. Driving back from Guildford to Horsham on a dark and stormy night with the wipers, lights and blower on I realised the headlights were getting very dim. This thing is not charging. I had the dynamo reconditioned a few years ago and replaced the regulator but one of them is not doing its job. I haven’t worked out the problem yet but just made sure I charged the battery every night. That gives it enough Joules to get to work and home with the lights and wipers on. I found out about 10 years ago that it will get from Horsham to Bremen on one charge if you don’t need lights. I think there must be some crap in the float chamber as it stalled in the middle of Burgess Hill and took ages to restart. Anyway, this was the motivation to fix the DS. I replaced the the wheel cylinder and the suspension boot and then discovered that the leak was actually a brake pipe. So that needed another week of driving the non-charging New Yorker waiting for the pipe. I fitted it and fixed that leak - and a new one immediately developed at the front of the car. The steel return pipe had rusted through. Pipe ordered from Germany - wrong one arrived but I made it fit anyway. The DS was now back on the road and I could now pay attention to the Traction. I had assumed the knocking was a big end and so it proved to be. Two of them. I had hoped that my engine had been converted to shell bearings and that I might have caught it soon enough to not need a crankshaft regrind. Neither of these things was true. I opted to buy another engine. The “new” one is an ID19 engine which means it has shell bearings (the original Perfo engine has white metal big ends). It didn’t come with a head and I have used my old one. I had to replace an exhaust valve as one had a crack. Once I had torqued the head down I realised I had forgotten to fit the cam followers so it had to come off again. I had to modify my flywheel to fit the ID engine. It’s fixed to the crankshaft with 10mm bolts instead of 8mm. I could have done that myself but it also needed a dowel hole added which I could not do accurately enough. More significantly the ID crankshaft is 5mm shorter than the Perfo’s. I had 2mm machined off the back of it and a 2mm spacer made. This gives 4mm clearance between the block and the flywheel and puts the starter ring and the clutch face within 3 mm of where they should be which is close enough. This whole exercise has given me the opportunity to seal the gearbox a bit better than it was and hopefully minimise the amount of oil I drop on the driveway. Since I have had the gearbox out I have taken the opportunity to add a strengthening plate - the gearbox is the Achilles Heel of the Traction Avant, having the potential to split the casing when the crown wheel fails. The plate won’t save the crown wheel but will make it less likely that the casing will split. As things stand, the engine and gearbox are back in the car and I just need to fit the ancillaries and make all the adjustments to the mountings and timing before fitting the radiator grille, bonnet and bumper. Another day’s work if all goes well. And then I can look at the New Yorker’s charging problem and my son’s Scimitar which is waiting for attention to it’s clutch release mechanism - again. Having invested in an engine hoist I’m going to using it to pull the Scimitar’s engine out instead of wrestling the gearbox out from underneath. While it’s out we’ll take the heads off and replace the valve stem seals which may stop it smoking - and fix whatever else we find. Meanwhile my son has got himself a 2003 Hyundai Coupe to use while the Scimitar is off the road. It’s a 2003 car with only 45,000 miles on the clock. Of course the window regulator dumped the driver’s window into the door and then the alternator belt snapped soon after he got it. Both things now fixed. The moral of all this is that, whilst you can use an old car as your daily driver, which both I and my son do, you need to have a back up. And if your back up vehicle is also old, then you probably need a back up for that as well - and so on. As soon as I get the Traction out of the garage, and before I start anything else, I’m going to tidy up because it’s a real mess. This year, as well as being the year I get the Herald going again, may well be the year I buy a MIG welder and learn to use it. The DS is getting quite frilly and needs tidying as much as the garage does. If things go to plan in 2024 the Traction will get us to Clermont Ferrand for the 90th anniversary of its launch, to Torun in Poland for the ICCCR and to Northumberland for the TOC Rally. So, not much chance for the Herald then.
  5. this Hunter was enjoying premium parking in Ealing yesterday. Is it a Paykan? Very nice anyway.
  6. Poor old Picasso seems quite static now. Not moved for ages. Don’t even think it can now. Still full of crap. No parking tickets though. I wonder if this Corolla is the owner’s new means of transport.
  7. Welcome @Uncleben! Very nice motor. Here's my yank. Currently my daily ride as all the others are broken. Driving a huge LHD barge is not a difficult as people think since it's no wider than many modern cars. Longer though.
  8. seen on the A303. With those graphics on the back I wonder if the owner comes here?
  9. A pair of Aygos and their bungalow
  10. A Bristol taxi…and I assume this is a 20 tonner…apologies for the blurriness - it was early.
  11. This thing comes and goes from this local car park. Or at least it is not always in the same spot. Always has a valid car park ticket - MOT, not so much. Impressive list of 3 "do not drive" and 10 "repair immediately" defects - none for corrosion though. Good job as it is quite loaded.
  12. I was in Taiwan earlier this week. On my way to Taipei Songshan airport I was surprised to see the back end of a beige DS peeking out from under a ragged tarp. Looked like it had been there a while. I didn't bother to try to ask the taxi driver to turn back so I could get a photo.
  13. I humbly submit this Mondeo for your approval:
  14. Not only twins but sequential number plates too. Only one of these trucks was for me. But you know how it is - you wait all day for one and two come along at the same time.
  15. Bit of a cheat but these two beauties stood out at Brooklands today.
  16. The DS is finally back together and not leaking. When I tried to fit the new brake pads I found one of the pistons was stuck fast so needed a recon calliper which is now fitted. I started it up yesterday to check the clutch pushrod setting as I had to disconnect this to change the belts (RHD manual change cars have a complicated clutch arrangement where the cable pulls a bell crank which pushes a pushrod which pushes the clutch fork). I got distracted by a noise that wasn’t there before and couldn’t work out what it was. I hoped it wasn’t the pump or the alternator but it was coming from that general direction. Stopped the engine, restarted it a couple of times then - oops - the starter relay buzzed and smoke escaped from somewhere near the battery. Quickly switched off everything and hunted for 13mm spanner to disconnect. Turns out the noise was the wire from the starter relay to the motor solenoid rubbing on the alternator fan making a ringing sound as it stripped the insulation off. Quick fix with tape and a tie wrap and no harm done. Not even a blown fuse 🤨. Thanks to Darrin at Citroen Classics for advice of setting clutch. Much simpler than the words in the manual. Now the DS can back to doing its job of being a car and I can fettle the Traction.
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