project Fumbler's Crocks- Boring Oil Change

[Fumbler]

In the meantime, I had a look at the bodywork. Very minimal rust, just scabbyness.

It seems the nearside wing has been in a bit of a prang at some point of its life and has had a cosmetic repair, judging by all the filler I was sanding away to get to the end of the corroded metal. There's also evidence of a respray on both wings, with a hefty drip on the offside. I've applied some rust converter which I'll overcoat with primer and some totally incorrect red enamel. The wings will need to be off as a matter of course for when I do repairs to the inner wings and the subsequent rustproofing. This'll help slow the process down a little bit.
I think I also found one of the reasons why the car is still with us, someone's bunged loads of waxoyl or something in the frame. A massive confidence booster that someone, at some point, was giving the car a nice amount of TLC.

 

Also, what are these mystery connectors for? The one hanging on the wire is just floating around in the engine bay.

I presume the spade terminal on the thermostat housing is a temperature sender?

[jamescarruthers]

I can’t remember exactly what it looked like but I remember asking Pleiades the same about a plig with my TU engines one and they said it was the measure RPM when plugged in to Citroen computer or tester. 

[Zelandeth]

There is likely wiring present for options not necessarily there on your car too. 

Worth tracking down the connection for that temperature sender.  If I'm remembering rightly, the Mk 2 didn't get an actual temperature gauge either did it?  So just a warning light...so you really want that light to work properly!

Would be really interested if it worked out one day to compare these two cars side by side given they're basically identical in spec save for being a few years apart.

[barrett]

Yep, pretty sure the mystery dangling wire is something to do with engine servicing and actually shouldn't be connected to anything

[jamescarruthers]

Oh God yes I forgot the cooked engine light! What a stupid idea of Citroen. 

[Fumbler]

1 hour ago, barrett said:

Yep, pretty sure the mystery dangling wire is something to do with engine servicing and actually shouldn't be connected to anything

8 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

There is likely wiring present for options not necessarily there on your car too.

After looking at it again, I'm fairly sure it's a tachometer hookup for carburettor adjustment.

8 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Worth tracking down the connection for that temperature sender.  If I'm remembering rightly, the Mk 2 didn't get an actual temperature gauge either did it?  So just a warning light...so you really want that light to work properly!

Indeed, the same flashing and solid red lamps to tell you that the engine is either boiling over or "you should have stopped 2 miles back" are present here. I'll try and find the space connector it fits onto!

 

8 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Would be really interested if it worked out one day to compare these two cars side by side given they're basically identical in spec save for being a few years apart.

As would I- it would be a fun exercise I think. The Beige BX was in no way* an inspiration for buying mine...

 

Two Haynes manuals for the petrol BX landed on my desk yesterday. One has been very helpful in describing the adjustment locations and the theory of operation for the carburettor on my car. I've taken photos of the pages to help with my fettling later on today.

[jamescarruthers]

23 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

First though make sure that the solenoid on the carb is still connected (it's easy to snag the wire when working in the area).

Isn’t this just the fuel stop solenoid that cuts fuel on either the over-run or when ignition off?

[Fumbler]

1 minute ago, jamescarruthers said:

Isn’t this just the fuel stop solenoid that cuts fuel on either the over-run or when ignition off?

I think so. Some Solexes had an idle solenoid as well, but mine doesn't.

 

[Fumbler]

Step 1: Research carburettor in manual of your choice

Step 2: attempt to understand what the drawings look like in real life

Throttle stop screw                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Mixture adjustment

Step 3: get vehicle to idle without choke and running warm to adjust mixture

Step 4: profit!

Turns out the throttle stop and mixture were rather out of whack. I'm near certain it still isn't right though. She's tooned.

 

I also took the opportunity to use the wrong colour of red to get rid of the treated rusty patch

 

Not long afterwards I noticed that the bottom is needing help as well

This accident damage repair hasn't fared all that well. The other side is fine. Good job I need this wing off at some point anyway.

[Ghosty]

My diesel 205 had errant connectors too... 

[Fumbler]

Smol Micra update:

After 1 week of commuting ~50 miles each way the NSF caliper had had enough and seized in place, causing much burnage of the brake pads

As one can see, they're a bit glazed over. Not really worn much but they weren't doing their job. Lucas pads which suggests they're original to the car.

The disc itself has a few rust pits in it and a fairly sizeable lip on the inside. May replace in future.

NAPA. Oh yes. I polished the offending caliper piston and cleaned up the anti vibration slider thingies on the caliper bracket. Greased everything that needed greasing and fitted everything back together. The brakes feel a lot better with new pads and greased sliders and stuff. A lot stiffer and less spongey. I haven't driven it enough to see if the problem was fixed as it's now parked up at the unit, having only had a small test drive to bed in the brakes.

 

Yes, this means the BX is now my only mode of personal transport.

These arrived via APC today. Unfortunately there's only two as they're the last ones in stock anywhere, SE Tyres have got two Goodyear all-season tyres on order which can be fitted on Monday. I can't wait to just drive the thing without fear of a tyre blowout.

[Fumbler]

Despite the snow, I got the car started and idling to warm up and get to the tyre fitters.

 

Then it wouldn't idle as I pulled in.

Had to abandon in the carpark. "No probs!" the fitters said. They're a lovely bunch over there. SE Tyres in Uckfield are always brilliant with their customers. I highly recommend.

While they were being fitted, I found a dog

 

Wheels balanced perfectly and they're rather clean inside and out too. New valvestems and everything. All good here.

Except the fucker won't idle when hot. I've obviously fixed too much on it and it's not happy. The gear selector at the 'box is weeping too. Despite this, it's like riding in a comfy chair- road roar has virtually disappeared. It's such fun chucking round bends.

Considering it will only start and run on choke when warm, is this an idle circuit problem? I'm beginning to suspect the idle jet is bunged up with crap. In speaking to the PO, it was an unknown one he had laying around which happened to work. It's likely the jets haven't been cleaned recently. What's going on here?

[Fumbler]

Some investigation points to a vacuum leak here:

This is a picture from the previous owner, not myself. I'll tighten the screws and see if anything improves. Going by the state of the gasket, I may have to get one myself and replace. The rest are fine, including the intake manifold.

While the engine warmed up I fixed the OSR door. Child lock was engaged. Small victories.

[Fumbler]

Tightening the bolts did help a bit, but it won't respond to mixture adjustment. I have a feeling both the idle jet and gasket are causing it to not work at all.

I'm slightly grumpy and will set to buying a sheet of gasket paper on the offchance that fixes it.
 

[Fumbler]

Today's main position was this-

This is becoming a familiar sight. Who would have thought?

 

Whipped the top of the carburettor off-

Much crud was cleaned. Accelerator pump valve (removed in last picture) was clear, as was the main jet.

Q tips were deployed to clean the bowl. All of them I used turned out black. I doubt it was ever cleaned at all.

Then I managed to locate the idle jet, which was blocked. I cleaned it out and flushed it through with cleaner. I refitted it and it runs slightly better. I have a hunch the rubber O ring has crushed meaning it's getting wound in too far into the carburettor. If paper shims don't help, I can order a new jet, but I suspect there are deeper issues. I may yet replace it in its entirety but I'm holding off as soon as possible. I wonder if ignition time may be of issue as well.

[High Jetter]

Is it the correct jet or a poor sub, do you reckon?

[Fumbler]

Just now, High Jetter said:

Is it the correct jet or a poor sub, do you reckon?

I cannot find another Solex jet like it- they all have larger holes. The exterior is as dirty and covered in shit as the rest of the carburettor, so it's been on there for a decent amount of time.

[Fumbler]

The BX is being Daily Driver, and it does so very well.

The gearbox is still wet with oil but it hasn't dropped any more since. Ever since buying the car, I knew it was low on coolant because of the engine rebuild so I plopped some water into the radiator. It didn't need much and I feel better now that it's done.

Then, I got bored and decided to fix some stuff, namely the passenger side interior light which was bugging me. The switch fell out before I bought the car so it wouldn't turn on. Observe:

No switch contact on the left                                                                                  Switch contact on the right.
Some probing found that the spade terminal with the blue connectors on it are the door switch operated contacts, so I warmed up the soldering iron and did a bodge

Which worked until it didn't

Oops. I can get a direct replacement, but if I can get an LED tomorrow I'll bung that in. I was doing this on the rear passenger seat because it's easier. The door has't been open that much in 20 or so years so the switch decided it'd not come out to play.

I levered it out with the key

It's a bit stiff to operate so I might, one day, take it out and clean it up... if I can be bothered to. It's not like it's an essential function of the car.

 

I should probably pull my finger out and get the welding sorted on both cars. I'll only have Friday off next half term. Who knows, it might be an activity this weekend if I bring back the welder.

[Fumbler]

Picture warning.

Gave it a wash, replaced the interior bulb and I looked underneath. I am genuinely astounded at how good it looks under there

I've got some stuff that I can easily fix over the weekend. How it hasn't corroded through, I have no idea. I do need to make a spare wheel carrier, though, It'll be a fun little project with some steel rod and some measurements. I have two spare wheels to measure off of too.

It's bottomed out once in its life so that I'll fix at the same time. I suspect this is from when it was dragged out of wherever it lived when the engine was seized.

What's more important is this:

Not only has absolutely everywhere been waxoyled at some point (which has probably helped it live this long), the height corrector and pipes don't look all that bad. Helps ease the mind a bit. Now, while I do have a spare height corrector and pipes are obtainable, I'd rather not have the headache of one of these going anytime soon. Their condition alone makes me happier. Looking at the front of the car, a line from the accumulator has been renewed, as has another going to the brakes. One pipe from the octopus has been done as well. Where it goes to, however, I have yet to find out.

There's evidence of a respray, too. Basically, the bottom half of the car has been redone some point in its life.

The new paint is peeling off the old, the top half has faded a lot more, and they never took out the side repeaters fully when doing the job. The front bumper was originally black by the looks of things. I suspect it was a replacement that was sprayed (rather poorly) when it was put on the car. She's a good 10-footer.

 

Then I pointed a hosepipe underneath the rear arches. It started off as normal...

...and then, 45 minutes later, the ground looked like a river bed

I wonder if the arches were washed that much, if at all over the past decade or so.

I set to washing. Used just one (!) bucket with black, gritty water in it. Shoot me. The main aim was to strip all the Turtlewax and other shit off the car and the plastics. The wing trims went from a pasty pink to this:

Just slightly pinky red. A scrubbing brush and toothbrush were deployed on the bumpers and they, too, are now pinky red instead of this horrible milky colour. The paint itself is weird. The top half is factory sprayed so doesn't look too bad. The bottom half is resprayed with some crazing and all sorts. The paint has been laid on THICK in places, but at least I can polish it smooth somewhat. I'm not too concerned really- there's tar spots and imperfections galore which helps this look nice and 'honest'. It's a good no-frills steed. Oh, the sills weren't originally black. I was able to scrub off the stonechip with a brush and the water, leaving gloss red behind. Unsure what I should do with that. I'd prefer the sills to be red as well.

I also polished off the overspray and hard edges on the wing paint patch thingie I did in the completely wrong shade of red.

I used some old Autoglym paint renovator stuff, which is basically a cutting compound, followed by some Super Resin Polish. It is now the shiniest part of the car by a country mile.

It is indeed, in the words of Louis Balfour,

Looks like we have new strut gaiters on the front too. Very nice.

On full height it looks just plain bonkers.

From the front, not so bad. Most likely because it was on a ramp at the time.

That's enough for now I should think.

 

Edited April 16, 2021 by Fumbler
Removed errant picture.

[Fumbler]

So I made a small* list of things to fix/ignore on the BX. Here goes.

• Make crusty bits of metal metallic again through the action of welding Revisit in future with MIG welder.
• Make spare wheel carrier Buy spare wheel carrier and sundries from Edwards and Son
• Replace dash lighting rheostat with a spare I have. It's either on or off
• Replace heater control bulbs
• Clean up and modify heater control board as per @jamescarruthers's helpful link
• Give the interior another good clean. There's dust everywhere
• Replace map lights if I can be bothered
• Fix boot light switch
• Fix corrosion on the driver's door window frame
• Grease sunroof
• Replace battery negative clamp, engine earth lead and clean up the earth connection
• Replace boot struts
• Replace air filter element- it's got a different one bodged in
• Replace fuel filter
• Replace air intake mount ziptie with a removable fitting
• Remove, repaint and reinstall hot air cowel for carburettor
• Fit hose from said cowel to the air intake
• Paint wheels
• Refurbish wheeltrims
• Polish the paint repair I did to the rear wing Further polish rear wing with Autoglym Paint Renovator. The T-Cut I used was shit.
• Treat rusty bits on the underside and re-undercoat them
• Tracking
• Change ignition module. Replacement part here: https://www.ignitioncarparts.co.uk/PartDetails.aspx?s_pc=PM00230&s_vid=
• Seal and paint holes from the old alarm
• De-rust and paint boot floor
• Adjust exhaust to not hit the bumper.

20/06/2021: 13 items left. Toot toot.

 

[Fumbler]

Two insignificant and pointless items crossed off the list- the latter being a rather spontaneous one after fitting the two super duper bright AF LEDs into the overhead lights in the cabin. The boot switch on the BX can be completely disassembled and reconditioned.

Thanks to the BX's judicious use of spade connectors everywhere, it was really easy to bypass the switch and verify everything's working


So off we go with the switch!

It's a really simple and effective design: The spring pushes up on the plunger, which has a brass tab on it. This tab bridges the two brass tangs on either side, which both serve as runners and as the spade connections for the light wiring.

After disassembly and some emery cloth, all the corrosion on the brass is removed. Incidentally, I flipped the brass washer thing over as the reverse side had lots of pitting from the boot being repeatedly opened and closed.

Reassembled and we have light again. Don't let the picture fool you, it's not bright at all. There's so much light being shot behind it's more suited to an LED panel than the cabin lights are! I shall order a slightly smaller collapsed sun to go there instead while I'm at college.

In the meantime, I'd say the cabin is Well Illuminated.

It now lights up the walls of the house. Nicesch.

[Fumbler]

Picture dump. This stuff is 2 weeks old and involves shoddy bodywork. I advise you to close your browser immediately.

I've since polished it and burned straight into the primer. I am a bodyshop god. There's heaps of filler in this spot too. Try to ignore the overspray onto my ONCE LOVELY NEW TYRES and wheeltrims. One of my tutors ran a bodyshop for 20 years and worked on these cars. The front bumper on thio is smooth and grey, indicating it was a replacement bumper. Citroen sold the texturing kit separately which hasn't been done very well on this car.

To me, the bodywork done on this side looks like a very shit insurance repair. Comforting, really, as any interference I do looks as good if not worse than what's already there!

[Fumbler]

Replaced one bodge and made another.

ECP doesn't sell the correct filters for these, and with the BANK70 promo code it cost me mere tuppence so I thought "why not" and bought a Bosch filter to replace the old (but genuine) Purflux filter in it. For the mitigation of doubt I added zipties to make sure the fuel lines wouldn't randomly fall off and cause death and destruction. I'm not all that comfortable with that so I'll fetch some jubilee clips at some point. The old fit did do its job though, the paper was a lot darker than it should have been. The other reason for doing this was the fact that the idle jet on the carburettor had blocked again. I made a shim for it but I need to fit a few more to get the jet's position correct.

Replaced this masterpiece of late 20th Century bodging with the intake. It was absolutely useless at filtering anything because bottom of the filter never touched the bottom of the airbox, and the filter iself wasn't sealed at the bottom so it was just letting air in without actually cleaning it. Also, being so old, the foam was turning to dust so the engine was sucking that in too.

Crosland filter replaced it, something actually made for the intake assembly.

None of this made any actual improvement, but it's something that needed doing regardless of any performance increase.

Also checked if the alternator was charging, and it is. Main engine earth lead replacement due tomorrow.

[Ghosty]

8 hours ago, Fumbler said:

To me, the bodywork done on this side looks like a very shit insurance repair. Comforting, really, as any interference I do looks as good if not worse than what's already there!

I love cars like this, as I don't feel like it's as bad that I'm messing up originality when I fix things up. My current 416 is such an example, it has a lacquered wing when it shouldn't as the factory paint is solid colour. I'll have no qualms sanding it back and doing up the lacquer...

My old Civic was another example, it was super clean but had been crashed into front and back and was supposedly Cat C but had a clean V5. The repairs to it were good, but a section of rotten wheelarch that had been cut out and replaced (with what?) was in the spare wheel well, it'd been repaired very well but I didn't want to open Pandora's box so I just ignored it and had my fun with the car. 

Bugger hasn't seen the road since I sold it, hope it's OK. 

 

[Noel Tidybeard]

why do you need to fabricate a spare wheel basket? i would imagine its the same one fitted to most if not all PSA motors

[Fumbler]

2 minutes ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

why do you need to fabricate a spare wheel basket? i would imagine its the same one fitted to most if not all PSA motors

If I can find one, I'll buy it. The hard part is finding one that matches.

I see a fair few baskets for 206s as well as the improved hook+bolt that secures it for sale on eBay, so that may be worth a try. What's currently on the car is mangled and all sorts, probably destroying the basket in the first place.

[jamescarruthers]

7 hours ago, Fumbler said:

If I can find one, I'll buy it. The hard part is finding one that matches.

I see a fair few baskets for 206s as well as the improved hook+bolt that secures it for sale on eBay, so that may be worth a try. What's currently on the car is mangled and all sorts, probably destroying the basket in the first place.

There are a few BXs being broken over on BX Club. Are you on there?

 

If not, Edwards & Sons are likely to have one. 

[Fumbler]

Just now, jamescarruthers said:

There are a few BXs being broken over on BX Club. Are you on there?

No- I should be. It's been quite some help with electrical stuff.

[jamescarruthers]

11 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

No- I should be. It's been quite some help with electrical stuff.

You’d be very welcome  

Here is a BX in Telford that is being broken. Seems rusty so the wheel cage may need some TLC.

 

 

[stuboy]

reminds me of my mates mums old 17 diesel, same colour too