And so it goes . . .

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Stonehopper
Posts: 340
Joined: 24 Feb 2012, 16:10
Location: Shropshire
My Cars: 1975 GS Pallas
1967 2cv AZAM
Previously;
1982 Acadiane
1990 BX TZD turbo
1982 2cv Charleston
1971 AK 250
1978 AK 400
1982 Ami 8 break
1971 Ami 8 break
1979 CX Familiale
1960 2cv AZL (Belgian built)
x 115

And so it goes . . .

Post by Stonehopper »

Having fitted new front exhaust pipes, Y section, and manifold gaskets about a year ago, I one day get that regular chuffing sound from number 1 exhaust. Dismay. I should gave guessed that the bodged repair of a stripped stud by a previous owner replacing said stud with an M8 bolt tapped into the head, was not the correct solution, and would one day fail. So out come the lamps, off comes the lamp panel, corner bumpers and valance/undertray. Access! Disappointingly, the pukka Citroen exhaust manifold nuts with a coppery finish had rusted. Shock horror! A magnet showed them to be copper plated steel. They have been replaced with brass.

The exhaust manifold had to be drilled to take the extra diameter, but whoever did the job failed to drill and tap the full depth into the head, so when my stud with M8 thread of 1.25mm pitch and M7 x 1mm went in the previously tapped hole – it stood too proud. Rather than re-drill the hole with the possibility of causing damage to the existing thread within, I cut a little off the new stud. Still plenty of meat to bite on, and loctite’d it in place. All back, sounds sweet, and re-tightened after a warm up. But there’s a little general chuffing from somewhere else – or am I imagining things?

MOT booked for next week, and having two new tyres up front asked to have the tracking checked (the old were excessively worn on the inside edges denoting toe out). In the process, there is oil spotted where oil should not be. It’s seeping down from the T pieces on the return side of the hydraulics that are tucked up behind the right hand wing and beneath the heater box. Joy.

I had been here before too, concocting new sections of tubing to replace two short sections of rubber pipe with different diameters at each end. Needless to say such sections are no longer available. So the solution was to take fuel grade line and fit an LHM pipe seal inside one end – voila! Solution. It’s never been dry around that area, but not flowing oil, and not leaving spots when parked. But the view from beneath during the tracking check did look poor. So it got mopped up from below, and with heater box off the junctions were checked for visible leakage whilst running. Nothing exuding, so a clean up and a tweak of the pipe clips – but not too much.

Whilst checking beneath, there’s that chuffing again. Y piece to long pipe joint with visible smoke stains. I was not imagining it. Gather the required goodies, and remove clamp. As the joint comes apart, the long pipe springs backward under the influence of the back end rubbers leaving a gap of a couple of inches. Aids cleaning the flanges, but try holding the pipe against the effects of the rear end rubbers whilst heaving on the pipe with one arm and feeding the clamps together with the other and threading nuts on, all the time maintaining sufficient pull on the tailpipe to keep the joint together. Never going to happen – certainly not whilst lying on a carpet of half inch granite chippings and in close contact with a well waxed underpan. Could have done with another pair of hands, but . . . Nope, I’m on my own as usual.

So, used a ratchet strap with one end wrapped around the tailpipe aft, and hooked the other end to the cross member of the front subframe, a gentle clickety click and the two pieces come together to mate perfectly!

Where there’s a will etc.

Will it pass? Bloody well ought to! Had an advisory of wheel bearing play last year. Except that it wasn’t. It was one ball joint on the right hand rack end to tie bar that was worn. I bought and fitted two new ones, only to find that the opposite item to the worn one was nigh perfect. It’s in the spares box now. Naturally – I’ll never need it . . . .
Derek
sandybx
Posts: 65
Joined: 22 Apr 2013, 18:40
Location: Tonbridge KENT
My Cars: Ctroen,s SAAB, s Vauxhall,s.
x 2

Re: And so it goes . . .

Post by sandybx »

Dear Derek,
It is the attention " to detail " my friend :) :wink: that makes all the difference :)
1992 Citroen BX TX i 1.6 auto with air con in White with 47,000 miles.
1988 SAAB classic 900 i with 3 spoke Ronals in rose quartz with 69,000 miles.
Raul
Posts: 146
Joined: 05 May 2012, 05:37
Location: Estonia
My Cars:
x 2

Re: And so it goes . . .

Post by Raul »

Hi

My car arrived last week and it is a very good car but the famous y-pice has a little hole. The seller told me that it needs replacement. My plan is to grease it with some exhaust grease and wrap some exchaust tape to cover the hole and keep the car going. I am building the garage to work on my citroens but it takes at least a year to finish it. One thing that I am sure of - without the two post lift I am not going to work on the citroens again.


Raul
Citroen gsa 1299 , 1982
Citroen gs 1,2 pallas 1977
Citroen xantia 1,9 td estate 1996
Citroen Xantia 2.0 hdi 90 2000
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