mrcitroen

Running on could be an issue with the stop solenoid in the carb. While the engine is running at idle, pull the lead from the solenoid. The car should stop dead, if it continues to run as normal the solenoid is not working. Purpose of the stop solenoid is to block carb idle pathway when ignition is cut to prevent run on at shutdown. AKA Dieseling.

I know I keep going on about it like a broken record, but I was not that keen on the HT leads on your car. They were a very poor fit onto the plugs. Possible there could be a small gap between the lead terminal and plug.

I did think the car was running quite rich. The exhaust had that smell.

Don't get too hung up,on those marks on the dizzy. I know you are trying to get your head round what is going on. They would have been scribed on dizzy by some previous owner or mechanic. We have no evidence that they would have ever had any accuracy. Only accurate way to set timing is how we done it on Saturday. As it is, it's set to the book 10 dead BTDC, but the car may benefit from a little advance. I know on my G that if a go much above 12 or 13 deg BTDC it can start to pink.

Sometimes tuning cars is not all about book figures, but how it drives on the road and a small tweak may be needed.

It's all good fun and you can learn loads from just trying things. Getting an old car with un known history, to run like a Swiss watch can take ages! The rough running on mine was the carb. It was just so clogged up I'm surprised it ran. Best move ever though was fitting the electronic ignition.

I shortened an Allen key so that the inner wing did not get in the way. To adjust, I flicked the clip, inserted the key, re attached clip then measured the dwell.

The above is all a bit academic now as I run electronic these days. What a difference!

Yep, mine just loves to rev and rev and rev! The more it revs the smoother it becomes. It just encourages you to press on.

Good good.

Once a G is on song, it's unbeatable. Lovely smooth turbine like engines. Gave it some beans when we went across the dukes pass last night. One if my fav roads.

Yesterday was good fun. I enjoyed it.

Yes, we gapped the points to the recommended .35mm set the timing to 10 deg btdc using my fancy snap on strobe and fitted new correctly gapped plugs.

It did run much better after that. The points had closed up considerably. The SEV Marchal cassette points are a nightmare. To adjust them the dizzy needs to come out, but I showed Neil that you can drill a hole in the dizzy body and insert an Allen key and adjust in situ. A dwell gauge is used if going that route.

Incidentally, I have the factory manual and it recommends setting the points by dwell rather than gap.

I definatley think the carby needs a service kit thrown at it. I done that on my more complicated Solex and it made the world of a difference. Luckily Neil has the much nicer Webber.

All good fun. The car is a wee cracker really. Most importantly it's solid in all the right bits.

If starting probs recur then NGK plugs seem to give up the ghost fast in these engines, whether the Japanese or French-made ones. Denso plugs appear ever-lasting in comparison. Worth checking their resistance and compare with new.

Worth putting a NRV in the fuel line, pumps eventually allow petrol back down overnight but will continue to pump fine, plus new ones unless NOS are probably shit.

Plugs are easy to change with the NS headlamp unit out, which takes a couple of minutes or less.

PS what's with the metric units, has the land of the brave already begun preps for the next indy vote?

Good stuff that you're using one of these plenty, I rarely used to travel at less than 85, once had a gf pulled over (and let off) by a decent rto who was concerned she was doing "very nearly three figures and still accelerating".

Cant say I have had any issues using NGK. The ones in mine have been in the last few years and no issues.

Only issue I have had is when I was working in the car over a prolonged time. I would move the car in and out of the garage, started from cold & on choke. After a while the plugs sooted up and caused a misfire. Apart from that, the NGK's have been as reliable as any plug as I have used in any car, Apart from Bosch super 4's which were shit from day 1.

Tonight, this got a short bimble along to the Citroen car club monthly meet..

Upon arrival, I got the chance to park next to MrCitroen of this parish.

IMG_20180426_201120.jpg

His is an absolutely stunning GS Pallas with the 1222cc lump.

It's clean enough to eat your dinner off.

IMG_20180426_205309.jpg

He was good enough to take my GSA out for a drive, and to give it a quick perusal.

Overall he was most complementary - identifying only the need for new spheres/LHM and curing the exhaust blow as priorities.

This chimes with my initial impressions, and after a shot of the GS, I am accutely aware of how badly the new spheres are needed.

The only thing that confused me re the GS was the very conventional dash

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Yes, that was good fun last night. Quite a good meeting all in. Paul followed me to old inns in his C15 so it was a wee bit of a mini convoy.

Your GSA is fundamentally a really good car. It just really needs the few wee bits and bobs done as we discussed. All fairly easy stuff. It's mechanically sound and drives well.

Had silly issues like that with mine when I first got it. One if the starting / running issues was the amount of silt in the carb float bowl. Caused idle jet to block so car would not start or run cleanly when it did start. This was intermittent though.

Condenser failed too and the cassette points in the SEV Marchal dizzys are evil. (I'm all electronic noo)

Keep an eye on it and see how it goes.

New CX parts are mostly monopolised by the profiteers at CX-Basis. Their business model is basically hoover up all the NOS parts, then jack up the price by a factor of 3 or 4.

Had a feckin' heart attack when I realised they were charging 80 Euros for a badge. 440 Euros for a headlight is not on, and a grand for a used front S2 bumper moulding is beyond the pale.

That's sort of happening with some of the G suppliers too. In fairness to Rob Moss who runs Chevronics, he says he ploughs his profits from G parts sales back into re manufacture of NFP parts. Prices are salty, but no where as near as bad as CX Basis.

I also got details of its economy at 120(ISH)KPH.

51.59L for 563.3km

30.84mpg, or 9.16L/100km

Additionally, as I got out the car to fuel it up, an Alfa 159 hammered to a halt directly behind me.

It turned out to be Mrcitroen of this parish, who had spied me as I entered the shopping park:)

It was indeed a bit of a chance meet. I seen you heading towards me & I done a 360.

With a combination of Mrcitroen's assistance on here, plus some Google Fu, it looks a bit better than CX parts.

But nowhere near the support I'm used to with old BMWs.

Seems to be a relatively well supplied specialist/enthusiast source of spares.

I'll report back once I've started ordering / fitting bits.

I think some trim parts can be nigh on impossible to get. Always managed to get any mechanical parts OK either from eBay, the German GS place or Chevronics.

A good GS or GSA does buzz along vvvv nicely indeed. The engine note is very addictive and they just love to rev.

Mine with the 1220 engine will sit at above legal limit without too much fuss. I always feel it needs that 5th gear and it will be just perfect.

Definitely a car that needs to be tried.

Over to Foghorn Leghorn to explain :-

Ahhh say boy, ahhh say boy...........

As far as I can see, the Toyo is not available in 145x15.

The van tyres for the CX have reinforced sidewalls and give a harsher ride. DS guys have the same issue with the 185x15's they use. I know someone who had Kumho van tyres in his D. Swapped over to 185x15 car spec tyres and could not believe the difference in ride/handling.

Not a fan of Nankangs myself - they have managed to make a power-understeer driftmonster out of a pushrod Renault 16 with 3-speed auto, and to enable my Lotus to aquaplane severely at 50mph.

Plus a GS(A) without round shoulder tyres is just plain wrong.

Agreed. I have Nankang as spare. When I got my GS it still was on the original tyres. Cracked sidewalls and tread as hard as a Glesga polis. Stopping with them in damp was interesting. I suppose it could be argued that the Nankangs in this case would be safer, but the car would never be right in a way. Plus square shoulder tyres would screw up the centre point geometry.

Michelin £100 per corner. Nankang 40 per corner. Money could swing it for a lot if people.

To make servicing a lot easier, you can by an oil filter adaptor from Chevronics. This allows more widely available filters to be used. The standard GS size is hard to get in reputable brands. I think the Mann filter that fits is around 14 squid. Fit this adaptor then buy the Purflux ones that fit the petrol BX & Xantias. Get them from GSF when they do the cheap weekend deals and they are pennies. Purflux is Citroen OE and are VV high quality. I use 10w40 semi synth. Not brand fussy.

Timing belts are easy to do. Hard / time consuming part is getting the headlamp panel off (if all the bolts have rusted) and removing the fan & starting handle dog. Deep 42mm socket and windy gun needed.

Whole debate about tyres. I fitted Michelin XZX. 145X15 is not an easy size. You can get Nankang in that size, but they have a modern square shoulder, not the rounded shoulder like the Michelins do. Rounded shoulder is more suited to the GS' unique centre point steering. However, in real world terms I don't know how much difference that makes.

Front spheres are easy least, rears not. Issue being the cylinders need to come out. Pushrods pin could be seized and pipe union rusted/ seized. These round for fun as the union nuts are made from Brie.

Not sure if this is truck shite or bus shite. I'll post it here since this hybrid is predominantly bus. Would love a go on something like this. Interesting concept though.

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Praha,_Holešovice,_Výstaviště,_Návěs_NO_80_II.JPG

Talking of oil brands, my GS takes 4l to fill from empty. I usually buy whatever brand is cheapest at the time in 5l containers. It never needs topped up between changes so I have a number of them with a lite review still in them.

I now think I have enough saved up to do a full change with the mixed dregs.

I don't think mixing brands will do any harm.

I have saved halfords, total & shell. All same grade.

Penny pinching at its best!

LHD GS instruments. This one has same brown interior as mine

Closeup of above instruments

It's a bit of a bummer that our cars never got this. How boring!

Not Smiths, posh Jaeger ones

Cumbernauld is another fucking world.

No snow in EK on Sunday (which in itself is unusual except for sometimes in July or August in a good summer)

Went to What's It Called to do an X5 key and it's about three to four inches deep.

Isn't it just! It was brutal here a few weeks back in the snokaos carry on. I live in one of the highest points of the town which does not help.

The GSA's with the round dial instruments, had a slightly different warning light layout. The round dials may look sporty for the X2 models, but the PRN on the GSA's and the set up on the LHD GS models just fit the quirkiness of the cars a lot better.

Same with the Mk1 BX. Much better dash.

No far Fae I then..

Ooo another local GSA. Could give you a wee look over mine at some point.

Need to sort my clutch. It's slipping worse today than yesterday. Just need to get the part and then get it done. Engine oot job grrrrrrrrrrr.

Cummernaud

The GSA instrument panel is brilliant. Way better than the kit car style the RHD GS models got. Why could they not have given them the ones fitted in LHD. Far more Citroen like.

Took mine out for a wee buzz yesterday. That flat 4 sound is so nice. Quite addictive in a way. Clutch is slipping a bit. Arrrgghhh I'll try adjusting it up a bit, otherwise it's new clutch time.

Keep up the good work!

Therrs another blue GSA kicking about West Central Scotland, now it has a friend!

That blue one lives only a mile or so from me. Al least 4 GS / GSA's I know of here alone!

Good choice that man, they are mega fun!

Enjoyed the vid. Must have made MOT man's day!

One thing I noticed was that it has no headlining. Is that the case with them all? Real billy basic no frills.

Keep up the good work. I really don't know how this can be topped.