Hi, some of you may already know me, but for those that don't, Jay Bruce is my real name is my forum name, no masks or secrets, I'm a freelance engineer, and I'm also a citroen enthusiast, the first car I can remember was our CX estate, later my parents in their decidedly finite wisdom replaced that car with a string of conventional cars, but in the nineties one of my friends dads had a BX, so hydropneumatics remained a part of my life. Later on my first car was a BX, and I later bought a BX 'valver, which sadly now needs restored, but will get a "whatever it takes" restoration. I'm also a hydractively suspended citroen owner, owning a C5 x7 3.0hdi exclusive tourer, so I am all too aware of the looming problems we face with rapidly corroding pipe work for which replacement parts are either practicably or totally unavailable. For example, when changin all 7 spheres recently I discovered that I've got this bundle of joy to sort:
![Image](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/339810774501294087/1015993800981758063/unknown.png)
As a BX owner, I know Pleiades can supply kuni pipe, pipe nuts, rubber seals and flaring tools to make our own LHM pipe ends, but I know that there aren't any suppliers of LDS ends; yet... So, I've taken it upon myself to reverse engineer the LDS fittings, and make replacements. If you look at the following picture of a LDS end from our X7....
![Image](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/339810774501294087/1015989357448020098/unknown.png)
...you will probably see that the pipe end assembly / fitting in that picture bares more than a passing resemblance to the following screenshot of my early CAD models...
![Image](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/339810774501294087/961073138546933810/Animated_Gif.gif)
I'm on the cusp of starting to test the LDS pipe fitting parts I've been designing, to give you more details, I'll go through the various components in my "piping system". Starting with the pipework, I've got a stock of special, brake-pipe-sized tubing, which has been tested to and rated for significantly higher pressure than brake pipe material, to the extent of being slightly overkill for our application, but can still be flared by conventional brake pipe tools. I've got the O-Rings in a compoond that is chemically compatible with LDS fluid, the current supplier provides them in black rather than the green in my cad model, once I'm through testing, I may be able to source the O-Rings in green. The first small pilot batch of some of the metal components has been produced and is sitting in my workshop on hand, with a similar small pilot batch of the remainder of the components in the LDS ends currently being machined.
My next moves will be to test these on my own C5 X7, looking to iron out any design issues in these fittings, and prove they work as a direct replacement for LDS fittings. I'll do this on my own C5 X7 before putting them offering them to the public. During that testing/refinement process I'm going to try and streamline the design to simplify the production of them to reduce the cost. Because I'm a Citroen enthusiast, not just a cynical business, I'll pass on any savings from these refinements as I want to help rather than gouge y'all. Although testing will be slightly delayed as I'm currently out in the North Sea as part of the team involved in decommissioning an oil rig as part of "my real job".
The pricing is going to be a bit of a thorny issue, because these ends are multi-component assemblies, and are constructed utilising multiple bespoke, custom made, precision machined parts, that I've spent a lot of time and effort developing, they are, as such, despite my best efforts, unfortunately going to be a little pricey. I'm acutely aware that you can buy standard brake pipe fittings for pennies, which makes me almost embarrassed to say this, but we are probably looking at £10-£15 per pipe-end-assembly, and about ~£5 per metre for the tubing, maybe less depending on volume purchased. So you'd get some change out of a hundred quid to buy the materials for replacing a BHI to rear firmness regulator pipe on an X7 for example, or ~£120 to buy the materials to replace the pipes from BHI to both firmness regulators. It's more expensive than I'd have liked to have been, but significantly less than Citroen prices, even were the parts available, which is not always the case.
(The X7's Firmness regulators to wheel cylinders on an X7 use entirely different pipework so are outside the scope of this system)
Since the engineering development work is about to enter it's final phase, I'm now at the stage of assessing the market for this "product". Is this something you'd be interested in buying? What do you think of the pricing? Would y'all be interested in paying a smidgeon more money for stainless steel components in the pipe end assembly? Would you be prefer buying these supplies through a reseller with one of the better known hydraulics people? (I'm thinking on offering this to Pleiades) Or would you prefer to deal with my VAT registered company directly mail order?