Elmas Xantia V6 and Musical Stuff

[elma]

I've been a bit silly then. Reds always made the high pitched buzzing noise. I just assumed it was a bit bumpy because I replaced all the spheres except the front centre one so far. When I drove green it clearly switched between hard and soft mode, it does the clunk 30s after closing a door and cuts off the high pitched noise too. Red doesn't, the high pitched noise goes on a couple of minutes. When I saw the diode pack on green I just assumed that was the fault in red.

In the meantime I've taken the ECU apart and found no faults as you already knew. I wish I'd been more patient, the rubber seal was a pain. Its reassembled and installed now.

My neighbour has a few oscilloscopes and I'm sure he'll be willing to lend a hand. I think citroenxm has a lexia and is local. I'll swap the front centre spheres between the cars as I know greens gives a soft ride and get onto it.

Is it necessary to arrange both or does lexia negate oscilloscope?

[CitroJim]

Is it necessary to arrange both or does lexia negate oscilloscope?

Nope, you need both

[elma]

At the same time? Or can I get started with an oscilloscope only? Is there a thread? I can't find a useful one. I don't think I know enough to start poking yet.

[CitroJim]

Yes, get started with the oscilloscope first... Lexia can come later...

With the suspension in soft you should see something like this:



The waveform should be about 12V peak to peak...

If you see pronounced 'ringing' on the waveforms and they look generally a bit fuzzy or are hard to trigger then the diode mod has not been done properly..

Ringing on a waveform is hard to describe without pictures but this Wikipedia article may help...

Elma, if all else fails, I have about 200,000 spare Hydractive ECUs here...You are welcome to borrow one known clear of faults if you hit a wall on this...

[elma]

Thanks Jim. Sorry to keep on, is that waveform measured between the white wire and earth?

[CitroJim]

Yes, exactly

No worries about all the questions, always happy to advise!

[elma]

I've finally found my camera lead and have a bit of a quiet day to play cars. Heres the first picture, Red Xantia at 111111miles. It's a big year for her as she's 21 in about 7 weeks. Hopefully a nice new pair of drop links and a centre sphere will make a perfect birthday present.

I have to check the rear suspension on Red today, it's developed a habit of sinking at the back whilst driving. I'm not sure why yet so I'll be inspecting, cleaning and lubricating the rear height corrector firstly. I'll have a good old nose around as well and see if theres anything out of the ordinary.

My main objective for today though is to get the green one clean and attempt to remove this clutch pin. I'm just about to pm Malcom the vin for a birth certificate as well. The green car is impressive to drive, much softer than red but flicks into firm like it should. It doesn't have any knocks or rattles from the suspension, but it does have a terribly soft brake pedal and needs tracking. The boot handle and lock need some attention although they do work, it needs a foglight, windscreen wipers and strut tops but not much else that I have noticed. As it's lived in Kent it feels a bit tight from all the traffic, nothing 10,000miles up here shouldn't clean out. Nearly forgot that the sunroof is jammed, mech itself rather than fuse or relay. It's due a timing belt as well as a a service, should keep me busy. I've got some work at the minute as well so I'll be investing in the support beam, clutch kit and associated parts reasonably soon. The interior is a little worn in places, new lower rear seat bench, nor door card and steering wheel would really spruce it up. I'm not too worried about that for now though and I'm made up that the remote central locking came to life with a new battery.

As promised heres the inner workings of an ice cream van, note the weird bolt on pto which is industry standard. We need to overhaul the ice cream machine itself next, so if anyone finds it interesting I'll put up some pics of the internals afterwards. This one was knocking because of the bent shaft, should be obvious in the pictures. They shake even when they are good though.


Finally, not really related, but exciting to me heres my latest project. It's a bed levelling probe for a 3d printer. Plan is to get a couple of designs out there then do a kickstarter project for our colour mixing, anti goo hot end which I unfortunately cannot show you yet. Sorry I haven't done the pipe block yet Sticky, been so busy.

Anyway I'm off to the car now, I'll take some pictures today the colour is stunning and apparently quite rare.

[Stickyfinger]

Never seen the guts of a Ice Cream van .......keep it going and I will buy a 99 from you as long as you have a Mr Whip-me machine.

I would still like to chat with you on the connector, I have an idea that will help secure the pipes and prevent flex/constant pressure at the insert edge.

[CitroJim]

Most interesting Elma The coupling on the PTO looks very much like the coupling on the Hillman Imp drive shafts... I'm racking my brains trying to think what their common name was now...

Just remembered - Rotoflex Couplings...

Initially I was thinking of the original Mini drive shaft inboard joints - Hardy Spicers.. Gosh did they ever make you cuss changing them

Do show us the insides of the ice cream maker... Very interested indeed even though I'm not a lover of any ice cream except for a bit of coconut...

[elma]

They are the exact same couplings, possible in a different size. I saw a restoration programme a while ago with an old lotus which had the same couplings on the rear. They replaced them with ujs which seems more sensible.

Green cars cleanish now on the outside. Its silly windy so I've given up with cars for the day now.

Pictures don't do the colour justice, it's got a fine glitter to it and changes shade as you move around it.

Does anyone know if the black bit pops out of the rear bumper, as you can see this ones kaput. The car came with a spare red bumper that has immaculate black bits, I'm not sure it comes apart though.


Heres old faithful, didn't want to favouritise.


I also took pictures of the bits I need to sort on the estate as they work better for me than a written list.



That didn't seem like enough problems, heres the rest of them.

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I believe the intermediate driveshift bearing needs changing and the gear linkage is worn too (not pictured).

[Zelandeth]

Please feel free to share the innards of the ice cream van. Must be about the only bit of refrigeration equipment I've not helped sort so far! Had a friend up north who was a Fridgie and tagged along lending a hand many times. Keep wondering if I should look at moving into that field...

[elma]

Small amount of stuff done today. I swapped the front centre spheres between the cars, hasn't improved reds ride but it does rise a lot faster and the back has stopped dropping (so far). Definitely moving onto oscilloscope next as it's got 8 good spheres now. I hadn't realised but theres a spare accumulator and rear centre sphere with the estate, handy as the estate needs an accumulator. The estates lhm is yucky brown so I will throw in the hydra flush when I can.
Theres a new lower shaft for the ice cream machine on order so we'll have it apart soon. It needs a new valve as well which I expect we will be making, the units 50 years old and not all spares are available.

[Xantianut]

The ice cream van is fascinating.

Is it just me or do ice cream vans come into being when they are 25 years old and tatty? There must be some new ones somewhere!!!!!

[Zelandeth]

No idea, but the one running around near us is an E plate Transit. Can recognise the sound of it from about half a mile away...Was the Kent engine they used back then wasn't it? The one that stops down by Willen Lake though is new and shiny...it's just wrong and I'm not sure I trust it...

[Xantianut]

Transits would have, initially, an Essex V4. Horrible engine, though it's worse problems can be cured these days. It's the direct injection diesels that make the racket. Some nutjob round here has removed the silencer from a pickup and it rattles windows from half a mile away, while sounding awful!