Zut alors it’s brownnova’s Deux Chevaux!! I am not a number I am a free snail!! Portmerion pictures

[Skizzer]

16 hours ago, brownnova said:

It says to turn all the electrical items on (it suggests lights, radio heated screen air con) so I put the lights on... 

This made me laugh. The joys of old cars...and especially 2CVs.

[brownnova]

YouTube made it look easy.... 

My fan belt was the obvious culprit for the low voltage reading on my on board volt meter. To be honest I’d seen more teeth on a wizened old hag than on this fan belt, so it needed a change. 

Simple case of fan off, loosen alternator swap belt. HBOL says theres no need to remove the fan to swap the belt but as I’ve never removed my fan, it seemed like a good opportunity. 

Problem the first. My 14mm ratchet is too big to fit in the hole. 

Break out the smaller ratchet. 

Once I eventually loosened the nut (after jamming the flywheel to stop the fan spinning which thwarted my first attempts) I set about trying to free the fan. The videos I watched both involved hammers and tapping. I’d also read a method of wiggling. 

But no. The bastard would not budge. It just looked so easy on YouTube. 

I got a bigger bar in there, I wiggled and tapped, and whacked. I even summonsed Mrs_b and she did the same, all to no avail. It won’t come off. 

“Fuck it” quoth I, I’ll do it the HBOL way. 

Loosen the alternator, slip the belt off, manoeuvre it past each blade of the fan individually, yep that’s pretty smooth.... 

and refit by doing the reverse (which was easier.) and voila! New fan belt.  

After retrieving a lost socket, we fired up and.... 

Still underreading. I’m concluding faulty volt meter. 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

On 8/24/2019 at 1:29 AM, LightBulbFun said:

 

I recently got this in to fit to the Invacar, its a neat combo Volt meter and USB charger, so I can keep an eye on the voltage directly, while keeping my USB gadgets charged  

I got this specific one as I think it fits the dash aesthetic in the invacar pretty well, and it looks very 80s with the red digitis and red/green bar graph and i'm a sucker for things like that  ill probably find a suitable location under the dash to zip tie it to

(USB Volt meter 12v is the search term I used, then sort by UK only and price lowest first)

Occurs to me that the CX could do with one,  to indicate when it's poisoning me with hydrogen sulphide.....

[dollywobbler]

Yeah, fan removal is a technique to learn. Sometimes they are a right sod. Hope you refitted the bolt nice and tight - jam the flywheel again.

[Skizzer]

11 hours ago, brownnova said:

But no. The bastard would not budge. It just looked so easy on YouTube. 

I got a bigger bar in there, I wiggled and tapped, and whacked. I even summonsed Mrs_b and she did the same, all to no avail. It won’t come off. 

“Fuck it” quoth I.

This'll learn the fecker: 320Touring’s Famous Patented Remonstrating Fluid.

Resistance is futile.  Haven’t met a seized bolt yet that this stuff couldn’t (eventually) beat into submission.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-penetrating-lubricating-oil-750ml/

[brownnova]

Resistance is so futile it has an 18 rating!! 

The bolt came free, it was the fan that wouldn’t budge... 

At least I guess I know it’s not going to come loose! 

[500tops]

The fan can be a pita to remove. Thing is it's on a taper.

Graeme Seed's drift is a good bit of kit

https://www.2cvtools.com/

[brownnova]

Thanks, I’ll have a look! 

[brownnova]

Sacre bleu!! Sunday marked a year since we bought the 2CV! 

Here she is with a ‘special’ at a show on Sunday to celebrate! 

[richardmorris]

Lomax 223 (two cylinders, two seats and three wheels).

[xtriple]

Don't you have to remove the fan to do the points on those? I'm sure (not that sure really) that I had to take the fan off mine to do so and it cured a whole load of running problems. I seem to recall a HUGE amount of brutality was involved, but I'm good at that  

Actually, I tried being nice then tried being not so nice then used my head (which hurt) and  put the bolt back in halfway and belted it. That worked as the fan fell off.

[brownnova]

Yes, fan has to come off for the points. But mine has electronic ignition so the fan may well not have been removed for years! 

 

In other news news I do need to get my grease on and grease the suspension! 

[richardmorris]

47 minutes ago, brownnova said:

Yes, fan has to come off for the points. But mine has electronic ignition so the fan may well not have been removed for years! 

 

In other news news I do need to get my grease on and grease the suspension! 

I’ve driven this 2cv since 1996 and haven’t greased it yet. I do pay people to do it for me though. I do oil the suspension cans with castor oil occasionally.

[brownnova]

12 hours ago, richardmorris said:

I’ve driven this 2cv since 1996 and haven’t greased it yet. I do pay people to do it for me though. I do oil the suspension cans with castor oil occasionally.

I guess that relies on having a 2CV mechanic handy!

[brownnova]

Off on a 2CV road trip today... weather looks... erm... shite.

 

[brownnova]

We came... we saw... we even drank tea... then we left before it started raining.. 

[brownnova]

Despite the weather warnings and forecasts of rain in abundance, a thoroughly pleasant day out was had at Portmerion. 

We met at the usual pub and in an amazing turn of events no one was late! We set off in plenty of time. Our first stop was Bala in order to pick up a fellow Shiter, and have a comfort break.

Wobbler retrieved we huddled together in the drizzle and discussed all things number 6(02).

Our arrival at Portmerion was saluted by a man in High viz with a hairdryer in his hand... odd... but we hooned past him and into the coach parking where the 11 cars gathered ready for the drive into the village.

The spectacle was created and we all lined up for ‘the’ photo... 

As I hurriedly tried to get the photo through the metal arch we were already being hurried along to leave the village! 

Portmerion is a truly stunning place, we’ll worth the visit! 

We all made our separate ways home and managed to mostly avoid the rain...

A slightly sticky throttle cable aside the journey was trouble free, and well worth it!