FatHarris - tales of a motoring moron ***Choking up 22/6***

[fatharris]

Well done!! Now what are you going to do with all the time you will have now you're not fixing the BX?? 
 

Oh don't you worry, there's still plenty of work to be done on the fleet, they've had six months of being ignored by me

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk

[fatharris]

So, after work, I picked the BX up from @twosmoke300, who was clearly a fan of my enthusiasm for labelling items 🤣

I was also left some helpful* advisories on my invoice 😁

Anyway, onto the remaining issues. 

The steering wheel was removed and refitted AGAIN as I still hadn't got it perfectly straight yet. Think I've got it this time!

And the important one - the coolant line between the thermostat block and the hard-line behind the head was weeping. Phill was kind enough to gift a scrap heating hose manifold set that I could cannibalise a solution from.

Once I found an appropriate section I could use, I removed the old hose, which was clearly not long for this world:

And fitted the new section.

The engine was fired up and ran to temperature, and the system bled. There were some moisture movement visible on the outer face of the top hose, so I've let the engine cool back down and re-secured the jubilee clip a little squarer.

Hopefully that should be the end of the cooling system SNAFUs!

Tonight, it's a hot tub evening, and we're cracking open the beers I bought to celebrate the end of the BX project phase.

Quite literally, cheers 🍻😁

[twosmoke300]

You are welcome

[fatharris]

Today, we went out as a family to a local cars and coffee meet in an adjacent town. Unfortunately, the impending poor weather and half the carpark being lost to scaffolding must have put a lot of people off as the turnout was really not at their usual level.

The BX was a nice talking point to a few people and broke up the wave of Porsches that were there.

It was quite amusing demonstrating the suspensions range of travel to some of the younger enthusiasts 😁

Keen to get the breaking miles in, we popped to a local farm for the kids to say hello to the donkeys.

And grabbed some fuel on the way home - some older gentleman in a Range Rover stopped me for a chat about the car whilst on the forecourt and seemed very polite about it which was nice.

The coolant system is now holding its level and there are no signs of leaks anywhere now, so I believe that it's now simply a case of breaking the engine in. It's a bloody delight to drive, with the exception of shifting down from 5th gear - there appears to be a bit of a knack to it. If it annoys me down the line then I'll look into it.

When we got home, we parked the BX outside - the rain would give me a chance to inspect the boot area for moisture ingress to see if I found/fixed the source of water ingress.

Initial signs are looking promising!

The next subject was parked in the garage for the evening - I'll hopefully start that tomorrow!

This is in for a bloody fiddly job, and I'd rather do it in the dry.

Cheers

[fatharris]

Sunday was meant to be a day of tinkering, but in the end, a trip out with the family in the BX ended up turning into a family day out, with the BX covering 50+ miles.

Even from a very long distance

I could still spot the BX 😅

The engine is feeling better with each and every mile,  although the coolant level is a bit tricky to establish - there's no max or min lines, so I'm tempted to let it establish it's own level.

That evening the boy and I went to a car show less than a mile from the house. Was full of pops and bangs dickheads, but there was one lovely motor there.

This morning, having been up for hours with a bad back, I decided to get into the garage and crack on with the Laguna.

To get access to the heater control panel, the interest console and stereo cubby had to be removed.

A clearer look of the cable at fault.

I bought the new cables (for a RHD car) from a Dutch seller, who delivered to @chatsharris house, where we collected it during the family holiday back in April.

It was a bit of a faff to get the new cable to match the old ones routing but it got there in the end - the cable was given a dousing in silicone lubricant to hopefully see this cable for the rest of the cars days!

All fitted! It was checked and found to be fully working once again, to the relief of MrsH who has had the heaters stuck on max heat since we found the fault 😅

When removed, the fault with the cable was even more obvious 😅

Reassembly was thankfully the reverse of removal

Onto the next job - MrsH informed me that the rear doors were graunching and stiff when opened.

Whipped the door card off, snapping several impossible to source plastic lugs because that's just the way 30 year old plastics like to fuck with me.

And took the door check strap off.

A closer inspection on the bench showed heaps of dry grease and corrosion on the rollers.

The check strap was soaked in degreaser, scrubbed and degreaser before refitting to the door. Sounds a lot better now. The other side was was similarly graunchy, but instead of risking breaking more plastics, I elected to pack it with grease, push it in further with compressed air and exercise the door for a while - this seems to have done the trick!

Following all the work, it was time to employ some child labour to give the car a hoover. 

With that done, it was time to do a driveway shuffle - a bloody faff again with four cars needing shifting.

The BX was plonked at the front of the driveway as I'll be commuting in it for the next few weeks, in an attempt to drive up the running-in mileage.

For now, it's onto the next car.

Since I brought the Beat out of the winter lay-up, the stereo wasn't working, so now I had the time, I started to investigate, which means getting access to the back of the stereo.

Initial voltage checks showed 24v at the power socket (I ran a 24v converter a year or so ago to try and resolve the stereo cutting out problem at high volume - this turned out to be wet speaker connections) and the earth point was good.

Luckily, I had a spare stereo board in the cupboard and plugging this in proved the power supply was working, so the board itself was at fault.

Whilst I was there, I removed the 24v converter and associated wiring. As the  power to the converter was supplied by the cigarette lighter power lead, I was able to have a cigarette lighter socket again!

In the meantime, I transposed the board components over. The top cover etc had to be trimmed during the initial install to allow it to fit flush, so it made sense to carry them over instead of filing new ones to fit.

I chopped and resoldered the ends of the speaker cables and finished assembling what I could on the bench.

And brought it into the car for the last bits of installation. The blue light is the sign that everything was working correctly this time!

Nothing left to do but reassemble everything and give it another check - all is well!

The Best is going to go back to living in the garage again, the roof is still letting in water, so being dry is the best thing for it.

So, two cars fixed, shall we do a third?

The ABS sensor on the NSR end was found to be out of limits last month, and today was the first opportunity to change it.

Herman didn't let me down, and the bolt and sensor came out with no fuss at all!

New one slotted in nicely and was bolted down.

The cabling clipped to the original run, and electrically connected.

Somewhat shockingly, the fuel tank is starting to get a bit grotty, with rust evident under flaking paint. This was cleaned up, and a coating of lanoguard applied.

At the next available maintenance opportunity, it'll be going into the garage for a rusting and dusting session.

Wheel was refitted.

The wiring was checked at the ABS ECU plug, the old one was out of limits at 2300ohms, but the new one was around 960ohms. The other sensors are approx 865, so it'll be interesting to see if the difference causes any real issues.

Warning lights are still on so it'll need clearing at some point, but I believe its ready for MOT aside from that!

With the wiring checks done, the footwell were buttoned back up.

And I've gone inside to have a couple of beers for the evening. Pleased with the progress, and I'll be having a break from tinkering until payday! 

Once I get paid, it'll be time to get some more bloody parts 😅

Cheers!

[High Jetter]

5 hours ago, fatharris said:

Sunday was meant to be a day of tinkering, but in the end, a trip out with the family in the BX ended up turning into a family day out, with the BX covering 50+ miles.

Fake. Not fat!

[fatharris]

9 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Fake. Not fat!

Between my twin brother and I, I'm the fat one 😂

[fatharris]

Ah, finally, it's payday.
Treated the BX to its first full tank of fuel in four years.
Which went well.

A very slow drip was visible when I came back from paying, so I came home, got it back on the ramps:

And assumed the position.
The leak was found at the main filler pipe where it connects to the fuel tank, it's a bit of a daft design - being oval, a jubilee clip can struggle to seal all the way round.

The solution?
Two jubilee clips.

This has stopped the leak on its tracks but I'll be keeping a beady eye on it in future fillups. Gave some missed areas another spray with Lanoguard to really make sure it's protected.

It's now been 150+ miles since the engine rebuild, it's still driving okay and I'm starting to give it a bit more beans to help bed it in, still staying below 4000rpm at the moment though.
Cheers!

[fatharris]

I've been rattling more miles onto the BX in the past week or so and all is well.



The only thing I've had to do is adjust the throttle cable - the position it was previously in meant the pedal was sat way, way too high, so I had the boy in the car pressing the throttle when required and now it's much lower, but still gives the full range of movement for the throttle.

I'm now on the hunt for a decent keyring to be the cherry on top. Trying to find one in this style.


However, clicking that link made Google have a heart attack and wouldn't let me on

I'm also looking to upgrade the speakers - the current Edge units are weedy AF, and I can't fit the speaker grilles over them - do any BX owners on here have any recommendations? I'm also looking to go full retro with a pair of 6*9s in the parcel shelf



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[EyesWeldedShut]

26 minutes ago, fatharris said:

Trying to find one in this style.

 

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185750481503?itmmeta=01HZHCQ9C2AYPBAPJXK8S3ZVZ3&hash=item2b3f976a5f:g:dtkAAOSwMSlj0UMH&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4AKvNmYOV22TfE%2BTrochS5dhZD2OXuYfLb90AaEwebj%2BjeiwAbh67A1HwkQNwRlhI8iG%2BN%2BUKzmEWWH6uOGibCR5GDyYornHj9uhK1Njvx6ZS6xHPyaHRIhYuOpkMJPUDMfbVUgtfz6BmfIw4p4n00v5d%2BrrwIKXLNYMAajLYRF9fpWfIXbNyZLg2MmNYaz3FBxHpX6CG1%2B%2F3UWblqW24dHl0IOWl8DDQ7DuqM6CRfGiJ0iC2m4%2BWZ%2B90LfJFHOFQwxC4rLHV4%2B6rV133ivuDzDkLCVP0WxBStZtRBYx6%2Bci|tkp%3ABk9SR5iW3az8Yw

 

or this guy has a round style one

https://brummiebadgeman.co.uk/product/classic-british-1960s-car-key-fob-morris-mini-minor/

[grogee]

5 hours ago, fatharris said:

I'm also looking to upgrade the speakers - the current Edge units are weedy AF, and I can't fit the speaker grilles over them - do any BX owners on here have any recommendations? I'm also looking to go full retro with a pair of 6*9s in the parcel shelf

6x9s are the only thing that I can hear these days. The Maestro has 4x 4" speakers front and rear and they're pathetic. That's after upgrading them to some fairly serious name brands eg Kicker.

If it was me, I'd downgrade to some generic speakers that let you fit the original grilles, then fit 6x9s on the shelf powered by an amp.

I didn't like the thought of cutting the original Maestro parcel shelf, so I adapted* it such that the speaker pods can be removed if I'm at a sniffy show where you're 'not allowed' to have non-original equipment.

I cut a piece of 1/2" ply to sit under the shelf, and it's bolted through with plenty of bolts and washers. Then there are two single holes through that and the shelf to allow each speaker to bolt through: each speaker pod has a coach bolt sticking out of the bottom, then this is secured with a wing nut. The wiring is clipped to the underside and is nearly* invisible. I even upgraded the rear hatch gas struts so they're capable of lifting the heavier load.

The amp is screwed to the back of the rear seat backrest.

[grogee]

On 31/05/2024 at 18:50, fatharris said:

it's a bit of a daft design

you don't say

[fatharris]

Not much has been happening this week, work has had me pretty tired in the evenings.

The BX has been chuntering along nicely, although the coolant needed topping up after 200 miles from the last fillup. Didn't drop enough to set the low level warning light on though.

The Honda was still languishing in the garage, having not been driven since the MOT, with good reason.

When I was rust proofing the wheel arches before the MOT, I noticed a scabby bit at the front drivers side inner arch, which turned into a hole when further prodded with a screwdriver. As it was behind the plastic wheel arch trim, I elected to get the MOT sorted first, and resolve the hole when I had the time.

The hole on the right is for the plastic trim clip.

Chopped the old section out - the metalwork behind it was given a drowning in lanoguard as it wasn't in the finest of health and well beyond my skillset to sort.

With the removed section on the bench

I got the new patch made up and welded in. I didn't bother redrilling the hole for the arch trim clip as that's just asking for water ingress.

This was then primed, seam sealed, primed again, painted and lanoguarded. IR heater helping shorten the time between coats.

The interior carpet was unshipped and the inner sills inspection bungs removed to check the inner sills on either side - these were okay, so a massive soaking in lanoguard went in.

Die to lack of access to one of the kickplate screws, the passenger seat had to come out.

It's all dried, protected, reassembled and ready to put a shift in soon, whilst it was on stands I re-secured a jubilee clip for a coolant hose which has been causing a slow drip.

Whilst at work, MrsH sent me a link to a FB advert for a hot tub unit that matches our one. In a previous life, our free hot tub had been used in London which has horribly hard water, which was causing the pump unit to spit out gritty bits of limescale into the tub which felt unpleasant underfoot. We caught the bigger bits by covering the outlet with an organza bag.

So this unit was only £50 and had been used in Cornwall for its entire time, so it was worth a shot!

First issue we found when we got it home was the power cable was a lot shorter than the old one, which meant we couldn't connect it to power.

This left only one solution!

Yep, cannibalise the power cable from the old one to go into the new one. Luckily these come apart really easily.

When you compare the sealed ends of the heater unit itself, you can see how much less limescale there is on the new unit compared to the old.

The old unit was stripped of as many useable spares as possible, and curiosity got the better of me, so I thought I'd see how bad the heater unit was for scale.

Turns out, it was pretty bad.

And that's just what I could be arsed to get out! Naturally, that went into the bin.

Once I stripped off anything of use, the remaining carcass was chucked in the bin.

And the spares boxed away for future use if required.

Lastly, the new unit was installed and fired up - all appears to be working correctly. The unit came with some paper filters and another filter housing, so I'm currently using that on the outlet so the water is filtered both on the way in and out of the tub itself.

It's a much better unit, the display hasn't faded due to UV exposure and it felt like it heated up a lot quicker.

I've got just over 100 miles to go until the BXs running in period is complete so I'll buy a filter and fresh oil and look to change that next weekend. 

Sorry it's not loads of exciting work, but I'm enjoying having a little bit of a break and enjoying the Citroen, weirdly it's been the car that I've had the most compliments for, including a cyclist, who shouted pleasantries through my open driver's window whilst he was going much faster than me in traffic! 😅

Cheers!

[fatharris]

Couple of small jobs the last couple of days.
First up, the brake lights were still a little bit intermittent every so often.
Keen not to get rear ended (given how sharp LHM brakes are, a rear concern!) the postman came bearing gifts!

I managed to find an OEM brake light switch for a pretty reasonable price, so I got stuck into it in the sunshine.

Luckily the access to the switch was nice and easy.

The new switch was tested with a multimeter and highlighted it needed a quick blast with contact cleaner - worked perfectly after that!
Swapping out the unit was remarkably simple, a 14mm spanner was all that was required.
The old one had several cracks in the body, suggesting it's been on the way out for a while.

Yesterday, the LHM pump belt started squealing under load, so that was adjusted.

I've spotted a small LHM drip appearing on one of the 'pigtail' pipelines that run under the engine - the level hasn't dropped significantly since the car when back on the road so I'm going to keep an eye on it for now.
The Rover hasn't done a lot of mileage since the BX returned to the road, but a friend was in dire need of a set of wheels whilst his Jag XE needed some remedial MOT work. Checked the levels and pressures and cleaned the windscreen of bird shit before letting him take it away for a week or so.
Coming from a Jag owner, I was pleasantly surprised with his feedback when he got home.

Keen to enjoy the rare burst of uninterrupted sunshine, I fired up the Beat and dragged it out for a wash in preparation for a local car meet 12 miles away.

There was a bit of Lanoguard overspray on the paintwork, but it all cleaned up nicely.

And I added some AS recognition on the rear.

The meet was all right, highlight was seeing a Nissan 300ZX turbo from the late 80s.
The drive there was a bit concerning - the EML didn't light up when I turned the ignition on and the car felt a little flatter than usual. The light came on when I started it later so I'll need to keep an eye on that as I think the ECU may be unhappy. It did drive a bit nicer on the way home though.
One thing it did highlight was the alternator belt was squeaking under load, so I got home from work today and got into the garage.

Access in this is tight, as you have to go in via the engine access panel behind the seats, which is a pain to remove with the roof fitted. This means you have to kneel on the passenger seat and lean over it with the roof up.

Still, it's adjusted now and the test drive will reveal if I've nipped it up enough. The alternator bearings are whirring a bit so I imagine this year will be require a rebuild.
In other news, the BX has just passed 500 miles since the rebuild, so the engine is now bedded-in! I even got it up to 5500rpm to celebrate and nothing went bang!

There'll be an oil change over the weekend and it'll be used as AN CAR. It's got a couple of thousand miles of long journeys planned for it so this is a good indication of how it'll go

(I'll wait until it's a bit drier, mind!)
It's currently sat at around 350 miles to this tank and the low light is coming on occasionally, I imagine the next tank will see me get further.
Cheers!

[2flags]

Great to see it finally done and on the road. Good to see you enjoying the Beet in what little sunshine we're having at the moment. I'm working tomorrow, was going to take the Renault convertible. Looking at the forecast, it'll be the Rover 75.

[fatharris]

6 hours ago, 2flags said:

Great to see it finally done and on the road. Good to see you enjoying the Beet in what little sunshine we're having at the moment. I'm working tomorrow, was going to take the Renault convertible. Looking at the forecast, it'll be the Rover 75.

These last couple of years have been so bloody awful with the weather, which is compounded by the Met Office weather forecasting app being worse than useless.

More than once I've been driving in a torrential downpour whilst the Met Office app gleefully tells me it's blue skies and blazing sunshine out there 😅

[motorpunk]

Great fleet and interesting updates, thanks, Fatty 👍🏼

[fatharris]

Today, a few hard corners have confirmed it: I've lost a socket somewhere inside the car.

A quick search in the interior and the boot hasn't revealed it, which means it must be underneath the interior. Think it's under the rear bench as you can hear it roll and rattle from one side to the other.

Hope it's my 13mm one, I've not been able to find that one yet.

[twosmoke300]

3 hours ago, fatharris said:

Today, a few hard corners have confirmed it: I've lost a socket somewhere inside the car.

A quick search in the interior and the boot hasn't revealed it, which means it must be underneath the interior. Think it's under the rear bench as you can hear it roll and rattle from one side to the other.

Hope it's my 13mm one, I've not been able to find that one yet.

Is it labeled?

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 22/05/2024 at 11:27, twosmoke300 said:

His normal test centre would have failed it on gingercators all round🤣

EFA

[twosmoke300]

1 hour ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

EFA

So they should have . 

[fatharris]

Early finish at work so a chance to look over the car, to see how 530 miles has fared.

That bloody coolant bleed point was found to be weeping AGAIN. This time, I've slipped a length of fuel hose over and jubilee clamped it too - hopefully this will have done the job. Certainly seems to have stopped so far.

An oil change on this car is a breeze - no jacks or axle stands required, just set it on high, and crack on!

New filter, sump plug and copper washer went with the new filter, the areas were cleaned up, oil filled and level re-established. Went for 10W40 Semi synthetic this time. All went well with the change.

I took a small sample of the oil from the drain point whilst I could and this was what came out.

That's.... unusually dark. It had a stronger than usual fuel smell too, so I think the carb is running rich.

This would also explain the 33MPG tank of fuel too.

So, now I'm on the hunt for a solution, but before I knocked it on the head for the day, I changed the rear wiper blade because the old one was worse than useless.

Oh yeah, speaking of awkward spares, I tried sourcing a K&N air filter for the Beat, but got an email back saying they're no longer made so I have  been given a refund. Balls.

Cheers 😎

 

[fatharris]

Hoo boy.

The carb was definitely overfuelling - the BX was taken out of service whilst this was investigated.

The carb itself was replaced back in 2020 with a second hand unit, because the original unit had a botched manual choke conversion - when operated, this would only close the flap, and had zero interaction with the throttle (Picture from when it was fitted to the car)

Thankfully, I kept this in my spares pile, as I figured it could yield some useful spares one day.

This is the carb that was fitted in it's place.

As it was overfuelling, I wanted to check the size of the jets and the emulsifier tubes - if they were more restrictive then I could fit these instead to try and balance the fuelling.

The bits were taken off both carbs and compared:

The figures of each were noted - it looked like the old carb jets and emulsifiers would drop the fuelling a bit.

To add to the stress, removing the throttle cable highlighted a weakness in the throttle quadrant, which snapped a small section off. Super glue to the rescue for that one!

I went for a test drive and checked the plugs - they were now too lean according to expert opinions!

Some more investigating occured and it eventually transpired that this carb, despite the sellers assertions, wasn't the correct one for the engine. The outlet bores are only 30mm each instead of the correct 32/34mm combination.

Eventually, I worked out it was for a 1.4 BX which would also explain the overfuelling - it wasn't getting enough air!

This led me to knock it on the head and attempt to source a carburettor. A fella on the BX forum got in touch and said he had a Solex that would fit, so I paid the money asked and waited patiently. It looked a little crusty but I figured it would do.

When it arrived, it became very quickly evident that it would not do - the entire assembly has seized solid with corrosion and no use to anyone! The throttle plates wouldn't budge, so it was scrap. A very quick exchange of emails occured and I got a full refund.

I left it alone for a few days as I was busy with work and pissed off with what was happening. But good news! An old friend was returned!

Yes, my mate finally got his Jag back and he very kindly returned the car with a full tank of petrol. I've added him to the insurance should he ever need to use it again - it cost £70 to add him for a fortnight, or £26 to make him a named driver. Madness.

Unfortunately, parking it on the driveway highlighted one of the rear calipers was binding slightly, so the Rover was jacked up and the rear brakes cleaned and greased up.

This has highlighted a crusty brake pipe that will need attention very soon - I'll whip it off once I get Herman back on the road and get a new one made up. Lanoguarded to hopefully stem the deterioration.

Fuck it, back to the BX.

I now had three carbs, the original, the small one, and the seized one.

The throttle quadrant was removed to show just how corroded the linkages were.

I had a manual choke conversion kit from several years ago, but as I didn't have the auto choke system on the original carb, I couldn't use it.

I decided to attempt to convert the auto choke to a manual system.

The inside of this was just as funky.

Thankfully, it cleaned up and the conversion was carried out (forgot to get photos).

With that done, onto the next phase - debodge the original carb. 

Turns out the choke flap was also a bodge - someone had made it out of aluminium 😅

The manual choke conversion was removed from the seized carb.

And transposed onto the original carburettor.

The small carb was removed and the jets/emulsifiers taken out and returned to the original carb.

The repaired carb was fitted.

The choke cable was too short to fit, so I employed MrsH for the cockpit whilst I held the choke lever open.

Good news, it starts and the choke allowed a fast idle at 1500. It warmed up and held an idle. The base adjustments have been carried out and I'll give it a proper run out when I get a new choke cable.

For now, everything was reassembled as far as possible:

And a set of fresh plugs popped in. I'll be watching  them closely.

Cheers!

[fatharris]

Oh, and because I'm never really done:

One of my best mates has lived in Japan for just over a year, and his visa has come to an end. I was looking forward to having him back when I got this message:

Why yes, yes I did. I sent him £LOTS and a list of part numbers and left him to it.

Got this in the group chat today.

Whoops 🤭 

That *might* be a pain to bring home!

Don't worry, he's getting rewarded handsomely, as he'll be having a lend of the Mazda when he gets back until he gets himself sorted 😁

[fatharris]

Not many pictures yesterday because my knee was very painful and I just want to get everything done.

I was very close to booking the BMW in for an MOT when I remembered the washer jets weren't working, instead pissing loads of fluid through the bonnet vent.

Didn't take long to identify the culprit when the vents were removed.

The tubing had cracked in several places - presumably weakened by UV light from the sun. It would easily snap in my hand so it was clearly in need of replacement.

Popped to Halfords and bought a length of 4.7mm washer tube. This did the trick and the jets were working once again.

Sadly, the Lion battery fitted to Herman has finally bitten the dust, and I've decided not to limp it along with a charge any more. The battery was knocking on for 8 years old and had been giving me plenty of issues since December 2019, so enough is enough.

Onto the Beat then. The oil pressure light hasn't been working for a few days, I handily had a new oil pressure switch from when it stopped working for a few days 18 months ago.

Unfortunately, I couldn't fit under it without raising the car which ain't happening where it is at the moment. It sprung back into life this morning and it's due a service and another work package soon so I'll change it then.

The BX was next on the list, with the new carb fitted, it was time for a test drive! Because I'm still waiting on a new choke cable, I had to operate the lever by hand until the car would hold an idle, then set off.

It drove rather nicely, pulling over occasionally to twiddle screws with a long screwdriver. The result is a car that now pulls cleanly with plenty of power, although the idle is ever so slightly higher than expected. Acceptable enough though, and the plugs were checked on completion of the 10 miles.

To be honest, it's a bit too early to tell, but once the choke cable is here I'll run it again - it's meant to be covering 1200 miles over the course of 2 weekends, Shitefest being one of them, so I need to iron out the kinks where I can!

Cheers!

[fatharris]

Small job today.

New choke cable was plumbed in, but it's a lot stiffer to operate than the old one, which kept resulting in the choke panel popping out.

Couple of drill holes:

More holes marked up for drilling.

And secured, thankfully I had some black screws 🤣. Worked a treat and doesn't move at all now.

The end of the cable was tinned with solder to stop it from fraying.

A quick test drive has shown that it's all driving lovely now. The carb only needs a little bit of choke for a couple of minutes before it can go off. The idle is still a little high but not too far out of limits.

Going to take it on a long drive over the weekend to make sure it's all good before the long trips begin.

Cheers.

 

[twosmoke300]

Just wind the idle down if it’s too high surely ? 

[fatharris]

Just wind the idle down if it’s too high surely ? 

I'm going to have another look at it, the limits are stated in the carb manual to be between 750-850, this sits at around 900 when up to temperature but drops to 750 when the LHM pump kicks in.

[Stinkwheel]

Quote

An oil change on this car is a breeze - no jacks or axle stands required, just set it on high, and crack on!

Please dont do that. Its a known fact within Citroen club (not that im a member anymore) that they can and do ocasionally just drop. Ask @Rust Collector how fast the XM sometimes used to just fall flat. If your arm or head is under when undoing the sump plug, baaaaaaad news.

This has been a public service safety announcement, thank you for listening.

[fatharris]

Lesson learned for next time, cheers