project Fumbler's Gone To America - Surgery Success

[Fumbler]

For clarification, @Mr Pastry, the entire premise around substituting the parts from the old carb to the new one was down to the fact that:

1. The engine had no trouble starting with the old carburettor. Instead, keeping the car running and in tune was a pain in the balls. Swapping them over has caused the reverse to happen- it runs well, very well in fact, it just doesn't start well now.
2. The float bowls are identical in volume and other crucial dimensions such as the bore diameter etc. are within tolerance. If they weren't I wouldn't have fitted it to the vehicle as it would be the wrong part.
3. Because of the equal volumetric capacity of said float bowls it was decided, after consultation with people more experienced than I, that substitution would be a good idea. This, coupled with the fact I had no fuelling issues with the old one, pointed to a potential restriction in fuel flow to the carb, causing a defecit of fuel when starting cold and starting hot.
4. The float valve, valve washer and float in the old carburettor were in very good condition -probably replacement parts- and were genuine items from Solex. They definitely looked superior in quality to the stuff that was in the new one, so I wanged them in. They physically fit like a glove, were identical in size and mechanically worked. It's reversible and I haven't much to lose. Perhaps I should have done a blow test before fitting but I didn't fancy petrol taste in my mouth.
5. As mentioned before, this is a clone of the one that was previously on the car. I cannot find a replacement genuine part that is anywhere near affordable. The intake manifold for the vehicle massively restricts what I can fit to it. I'm not all that happy having a clone carburettor running the car, but I have limited options, unless I find a different manifold. For this reason, I'm still looking for twin-choke carburettor intake manifolds for the engine, as the Solex twin choke carbs have much better parts availability and support, especially in Peugeot 205 circles.

9 hours ago, Jikovron said:

(maybe a different design more prone to releasing fuel maybe?) 

I'm holding onto this thought as it's entirely possible. Fortunately, I think this may have been rectified.

-----------------------------------------------------------

 

Anyway, I have news for you all. Yesterday I ran the car till it was up to temp and left it until just a few minutes ago, basically simulating the exact same conditions that caused me to discover that something was wrong. I started it up and it caught a lot more readily. I re-tuned the carb once the engine was at operating temperature and in general it sounds good. I'll start it again later on and see if the problem has indeed gone away. So far, it's looking good.

[Fumbler]

Great great great news. The car started very well after being left for an hour. I'd have problems starting it a mere 30 minutes after shutting it off before swapping valves over.

Not calling it mended yet, but this is incredibly promising behaviour.

[Fumbler]

It is mended.

I have mended a car.

(For now)

[loserone]

10 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

It is mended.

I have mended a car.

Fuck lads, he said it.

 

Hope you have a fire extinguisher Mr Fumbler

[Fumbler]

1 hour ago, loserone said:

Fuck lads, he said it.

 

Hope you have a fire extinguisher Mr Fumbler

I may have MENDED it today, I can guarantee something equally as annoying will pop up at some point 😆

I do have an ancient fire extinguisher at the ready just in case though. Better safe than sorry!

[Talbot]

1 hour ago, loserone said:

Fuck lads, he said it.

Indeed.  The first rule of mending-your-car club is....

[Fumbler]

5 minutes ago, Talbot said:

Indeed.  The first rule of mending-your-car club is....

To mend it and hope the next fault isn't worse than the one you've fixed?

[Talbot]

21 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

To mend it and hope the next fault isn't worse than the one you've fixed?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/

Youngster.

(or am I just old?)

[Fumbler]

15 minutes ago, Talbot said:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/

Youngster.

(or am I just old?)

Oh I got that bit, but "not talk about the fact you fixed something" didn't sound very good in my head!

[Talbot]

It does come out slightly* cumbersome doesn't it.

But.  Well done on the fix.  Very pleasing when a fix like that (moving parts about from one unit to another) works out.

[High Jetter]

Yep, well done. Now you have to remember what you did, for next time.

[Fumbler]

6 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Yep, well done. Now you have to remember what you did, for next time.

I'm sure* it'll all be fun* and games with this fine steed. I can taste the vehicle's contempt for being reliable from here.

[Fumbler]

Have edited my rejoicing to reflect the reality of owning a petrol BX that has spent most of its life mouldering in a garage.

[Fumbler]

Here we go then.

Proof marking

Accessing the captive nuts here with a bevvy of adapters and extensions

Then two bolts were lost. The one on the left was one in the engine bay, fortunately there was a replacement under the rear washer bottle (I checked under there for more rust and there isn't any!)! I have a spare nut too. The one on the right is the captive nut for the arch plastic and wing. It became un-captive so I had to dremel it off. I'll  squeeze a rivnut onto it again in the same position.

I still don't know what this is, but it made removal of the wing a ballache. It latches onto the bumper and Haynes says nothing about it. They make everything sound sooooo simple in that book.

Here's our victim for today. Someone's even gone to the trouble of cavity waxing the A pillar. How kind!

Inside of the wing needs some attention. A wire wheel and paint will do it the world of good. The side repeater is glued in place with paint so I couldn't remove it.

Tappity tap

Tappity CLANK! There's our hole!

Chop

Z

Zzzzzzzzt. Luuuuuuverly. It was late in the day so Angry Grinder can come out to play tomorrow and expose all the pinholes I've created. I got good at filling in blown holes though.
This is the bottom piece for the arch tub which'll also make the lip which the arch liner grips onto. I shall then weld in a piece or two to fill out the vertical part of the hole.

Stay choond for tomorrow.

[Fumbler]

My favourite quote on this forum is: "The fine art that is welding, is like trying to shovel butter into a badger's arse with a soldering iron."

How true. It isn't helped by using a gasless welder. The amount of spatter is biblical. I really need to get a MIG if I want to carry on doing stuff like this. Doing it this way is just way too stressful and messy. Have more gory photos-

Once the piece was fully glued in with pigeon shit, I went to town with a flapdisk and made it marginally less gash. It was at this point where I wished I had seam sealer.

Genolite applied and left to dry.

 

I then turned my attention to the wing. What appears to have happened here is that a skim of glaze or filler (the yellow stuff) wasn't applied on the folded edge on the bottom. Rust set in and lifted it up. There's a fair amount of pitting but this entire wing needs repainting at some point so I just slapped on some Genolite primer and the wrong colour of red.

Primer was then applied after more flap disk cleaning up.

Yeah, that.

 

Paint slapped on in copious amounts, in and out, and hot and scalding (I found out the hard way) Dynax UB applied to the whole area and the seam underneath.

This was hilarous* The fitment of the arch liner is so poor that, when I went to slip over one tab, the other two would then fall off. Cue this happening for 10 minutes while I got very angry and may have swore at the thing a bit. The tape was so useful, It's still there now!

Fitted at long last. I acquired a few scratches and the wing needs a severe polishing now. I'll do that tomorrow.

Vaseline applied to all the wing bolts as they're just mild steel things. Now that I've crached the paint on them, they'll rust to fucc if I don't do anything about them.

I also tensioned the auxilliary belts as they were slipping bad, like, screechy no turney bad. Tensioning the belts on this car is so painful. One, the hydraulic pump cantilevers down, the alternator cantilevers up, and there's flexible pipework and a chassis rail in the way of the tensioners. Not great, but what takes the biscuit is that the belts cross over the tensioner bolts, meaning the adjuster bolt for the alternator is obscured completely by the fecking tensioned alternator belt, making your socket fall off and yourself keel over trying to reach through the engine bay to find it. This may be because the alternator belt is knackered and stretched, but seriously, it was a fight and a half. I'll order replacements as well as the rocker cover gasket because I could do without suddenly losing hydraulics and electricity. A good drive was done afterwards. There is so much torque! Driving this thing is sublime.

Things Discovered:

• The wheels aren't silver, they're dove grey! I actually quite like that colour and will buy some, but that is £10.98 down the drain. Ho hum.
• I need a MIG welder and some more practice.
• I'll probably revisit this repair once I'm better at welding because, well, just LOOK AT IT.
• I might need a hydraulic line at some point, the flexi is being rubbed out by the wheel on full lock.

Things Learned:

• Perhaps not cut out such a complicated shape next time?
• The construction of this car is bonkers, so whatever I do to it, chances are it'll be nonstandard.

The next time I drag the welder out for this will be for the driver's door hinges. Access isn't bad, but that bloody arch liner better be easier to refit.

 

[Crackers]

46 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

The construction of this car is French, so whatever I do to it, chances are it'll be better.

FTFY. 

[High Jetter]

C'est magnifique. Il est parfait. Vous anglais...

[Fumbler]

11 hours ago, High Jetter said:

C'est magnifique. Il est parfait. Vous anglais...

Je ne sais quois *shrugs*

[Crackers]

16 hours ago, High Jetter said:

C'est magnifique. Il est parfait. Vous anglais...

En Angleterre, nous avons les Rovers. Ils sont comme des Citroens, mais ils ont plus de problèmes avec les hedgasquites.

[Ghosty]

MOTEUR HONDA FIABLE!!

[Fumbler]

32 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

MOTEUR HONDA FIABLE!!

Imbecile de la hedgasquite.

[Fumbler]

I've discovered radio reception in this car is very poor. Firstly, the radio will not autotune when the frequency shifts as I drive (I have to do that myself), and secondly there is a ton of interference from the engine. The radio currently in the car is a Blaupunkt Boston for anytone interested.

The latter should be easily solved by cleaning up the earth points at the Faraday cage on the bonnet. However, the fact I can hear the engine note coming through the speakers suggests other issues are afoot.

I probably need to read the radio's manual again to see if I have it configured correctly and can make it autoscan once it loses the station. It may also say if I need to earth the chassis as well. There is a stud provided on the back.

It could also be that the filtering technology within the radio isn't very good. Could anyone name a good quality period looking replacement ifI can't fix this one?

[Noel Tidybeard]

the setting on the wireless set radio is AF switched on

as for engine noise go old skool and fit a supressor

[Fumbler]

1 minute ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

the setting on the wireless set radio is AF switched on

as for engine noise go old skool and fit a supressor

Aye, the good folk on the BX forum concur. I have the suspicion this radio doesn't have RDS but it definitely should have supression built in. If not there's a cavern behind the back of the radio for me to fit one!

[High Jetter]

5 hours ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

as for engine noise go old skool and fit a supressor

Used to sell generic ones by the bucketload, mostly to suppress the LT side of the coil, or the wiper motor.

[Fumbler]

2 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Used to sell generic ones by the bucketload, mostly to suppress the LT side of the coil, or the wiper motor.

Ah that's right! I get interference from the washer motors and the wiper motor.

[High Jetter]

IIRC, 1 microfarad. Others may correct me

[Fumbler]

OK so not much has happened. Instead, I bimbled back to Somerset for the final stint of college this year. Have some vehicle statuses:

BX: Working

Micra: Japanese

Yes indeed, all is currently going well. The Micra has acted as as very good commuter car and the front brakes have been fixed. I've yet to do the welding on the sill but I'm waiting until I get a proper MIG welder before doing repairs. I'd like to make sure that the repair structurally sound. I also need to buy a can of cavity wax and drill a hole in the patches I made for the crossmember. I forgot to do it last year an it's gone through one winter(!) without me actually protecting the reverse side of the patch. Oops. It's likely that I'll take the front off at some point anyway to have some more fun welding on the front when I get a proper MIG. I don't really want to buy a replacement crossmember just yet, but I'll re-evaluate once I can see what's inside. My silencer bodge needs another bodge. Fortunately I can weld onto at least one part of it, however, It'd probably be better if I just slapped on the replacement I got and just swapped over the exhaust tips. I've also been naughty and now am overdue an oil change by 2 months. Not particularly concerned, however, because I've only put a few thousand miles on at best. In summery, the things to do on it are still:

1. Repaint wheels and trims
2. Re-repair my paint repair on the passenger door
3. Do that one final bit of welding
4. Fix silencer
5. Change oil
6. Replace water pump belt.

It would also appear that I've now owned this car for two years. TOOT TOOT.

The BX is also doing well. It's very civilised and is very fun to drive at any speed. The petrol station was out of fuel when I arrived, so I filled up on Friday and met a very pristine looking C15 in the forecourt. MPG calculates to a rounded-up 39MPG- what I was hoping for and that makes me very pleased. I have had no problems starting it up apart from some false starts as I'm still trying to retrain myself for using a car with a fully-functioning carburettor. I'm getting better though!
That's not to say everything is a bed of roses, because it isn't. Besides, most roses are thorny so a bed of them wouldn't be very nice. Anyway, there are still things to do mechanically. Firstly, I need to replace the rocker cover gasket, as this is where my oil leak woes are coming from. It's split on the two front corners and completely along its length at the back. Tracing the wetness from the head explains why there was fresh golden engine oil dripping from the gearbox and the accumulator. I also had to top up the oil because it was 2/3 full. While I'm in there, I'll clean up and possibly repaint the rocker cover and check and adjust the valve clearances. I also have a refurbished head to go it at some point. so that'll be a nice exercise one day. So, here are the things I've yet to do on this car:

1. Repaint wheels and trims
2. Refurbish wheel nuts
3. Have spare wheel assembly collected and get it refurbished
4. Clean up and restore the spare wheel, stick a new tyre on it
5. Fix the exhaust clearance issue with the bumper
6. Replace rocker cover gasket
7. Replace auxiliary belts
8. Repaint exhaust cowel in VHT silver
9. Weld stud onto exhaust header
10. Change oil
11. Inspect+adjust valve clearances
12. Paint boot floor and protect the seam
13. Detail the interior + install giffer rug for protection purposes
14. Replace starter motor (easy job this one)
15. Fix the bloody radio again
16. Maybe install a hidden temperature readout somewhere. It isn't hard to do
17. Properly repaint NSF wing
18. Take off OSF wing and have a little look
19. Revisit welded repair once I have a good and proper MIG
20. Replace the ciggie lighter and make it ignition controlled
21. Install lighting harness
22. Sell spares that aren't for my car
23. Fill, flat and repaint the spolier holes.

Quite a lot of these things are little tiny jobs. Some aren't even necessary, such as the lighting harness, but would be good for the long-term ownership of the car. In short, everything is going good, for the time being.

 

[Fumbler]

Right, I thought I'd put this in a separate post owing to size and subject. I found out that the wheels on the BX are actually light grey, and I like it a lot!

I have An Question regarding the colours. Do I:

Go stock and have the wheels grey and the trims silver-

Or,

Have both the trims and the wheels grey?

I've got a bit more freedom to do cosmetics on the BX, as the Micra doesn't really need any and is silver/grey throughout. It would be a shame to break up the dull appearance.

[Fumbler]

As mentioned before, while I was doing the welding, I re-tensioned the auxilliary belts as both were slipping badly. They also look rather old and tired. I've decided to order replacements. but I cannot find the recommended belt sizes for the hydraulic pump and alternator. Does anybody know what they are?

The oil filter as well could do with replacing, at which time I'll put new oil in as the engine is probably still running the original oil from the rebuild. ECP's dimensions for their filter choice is 89/62/76mm (Height, I/D, O/D). Is this correct for the engine or do I need to fork out the big bucks for the filter on Chevronics (which is the same brand of filter currently fitted, pleasantly enough)?