Citrojim's AX, Pixo, C3, Running and Cycling Tales

[CitroJim]

It's been a busy and eventful week!

Tuesday Chris and I made a start on the XM 2.5 Clutch but before we could make much headway we had other work to do involving electrical wiring of the domestic variety...

Wednesday a friend and I went to the Isle of Sheppey in my XM and enjoyed a great day out, discovering the Isle is home to the most northerly colony of scorpions in Europe! Te Isle has a brilliant bridge (or rather a set of bridges) and to a bridge geek like me they are a real treat. Petrol is cheap and it has beaches so not a bad place at all..

Thursday we got stuck into the XM proper but not before Chris resolved some issues on his HDi. Later I discovered my iffy Activa cooling fan had finally died and I set about replacing it. To do it with the AC condenser in place required the fabrication of some special tools.

Friday saw more 2.5 action and now the engine is ready to lift.

Saturday saw me in action doing our summer karate tour at another village fête. This time on the village green in the achingly pretty village of Denton in Northants. We were lucky. It poured with rain all morning but by the afternoon it turned out lovely.

Today the XM and I have been to Nottingham to bring Sian home from Uni for the summer. Later I made the first batch of jam from my home-grown strawberries.

Tomorrow after taking Robyn to Oxford Chris and I will carry on with his XM and then have the strut tops off both his and my XM and get them off to KingAS for renovation. This was hastened by one of his falling to bits when he cracked off the lower swivel to extract a drive shaft!

Tuesday will be much the same and then Wednesday I'm of to see dad in Somerset.

It's proving to be a busy holiday! It looks like my cambelt replacements and Activa wheel bearing will have to wait a bit. The bearing is getting no worse so it can wait a bit...

With all that and some home domestic stuff going on I've been so busy that I've barely looked at the forum this past week and I need to catch up on what's been going on.

That may take a day or so...

[Hell Razor5543]

When you are in Oxford, if you can get to the Westgate Shopping Centre there should be a maroon and cream H Van to add to the list.

[CitroJim]

James, I shall go and look if I can find a few spare minutes... Unfortunately they’re in very short supply at the moment

They seem to have gone NFP

[KP]

Dont worry too much about the wheel bearing Jim, they go for ages as they are held in but just be wary of heat build up in them from repeated heavy breaking on a hot day, it could be enough to cease it up if the right conditions prevailed


By the sounds of the XM clutch im wondering if chris is starting to think that doing it in situ was a better idea lol. Apparently thats a 2-3hr job instead of 20hours!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Jim

Little poser for you, which bearing in mind your recent travels, and your admissions of geek-ery, should be quite easy.

What is the link between this bit of Welsh poetry:-

"Pedwar llew tew
Heb ddim blew
Dau 'ochr yma
A dau 'ochr drew"

and this from page 7 of the I-Spy Citroen H Vans thread



I can only offer a measly one mark, but 5 if you supply an appropriate picture

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Well I'm claiming quite a significant landmark.........I have just been responsible for the 35,000th view of your blog.............

Just imagine if you charged £0.01 a look, you would have £350 now

regards
Neil

[citronut]

Jim

Little poser for you, which bearing in mind your recent travels, and your admissions of geek-ery, should be quite easy.

What is the link between this bit of Welsh poetry:-

"Pedwar llew tew
Heb ddim blew
Dau 'ochr yma
A dau 'ochr drew"

and this from page 7 of the I-Spy Citroen H Vans thread



I can only offer a measly one mark, but 5 if you supply an appropriate picture

Regards Neil

me not know the answer but here is a translation of the Welsh through gooooogly translate

"Four plump lion
With no hair
Two 'side here
A two 'sides drew"

what ever that means

[NewcastleFalcon]

None of the Welsh/English translators seem to be able to cope with the "drew" word , maybe its poetic license just to make the rhyme.

The rest of the translation is spot on but I think the drew word means "there" in the context of the rhyme.

Regards Neil

[CitroJim]

Jim

Little poser for you, which bearing in mind your recent travels, and your admissions of geek-ery, should be quite easy.

What is the link between this bit of Welsh poetry:-

"Pedwar llew tew
Heb ddim blew
Dau 'ochr yma
A dau 'ochr drew"

and this from page 7 of the I-Spy Citroen H Vans thread



I can only offer a measly one mark, but 5 if you supply an appropriate picture

Regards Neil

me not know the answer but here is a translation of the Welsh through gooooogly translate

"Four plump lion
With no hair
Two 'side here
A two 'sides drew"

what ever that means

I do. You're asking that of a bridge geek

The poem refers to the four lions rampant guarding the portals of the Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait which leads on to the home of a famous Citroen specialist

The same is the the lions are hard to see nowadays as the A55 road deck is above them. Not sure how visible they are from the train but you can get close to themh on foot as the above mentioned Citroen specialist has and has posed pictures on FarceBook to prove it...

Thanks Neil, I enjoyed that

On to 2.5 XM clutch work...

It is is done... Easy-peasy. Don't know what all the fuss is about

Definitely best to lift the engine... It then just becomes a Xantia Matrix job. Not difficult, just long-winded and tedious.

The old clutch was literally down to the rivets

Just boxing up a batch of XM strut tops to send to KingAS for him to work some magic. My V6 ones were not too bad and might have lived on a bit but decided to have them done anyway.. KingAS is currently charging 75 Euro plus the inevitable for each one.

2.5 engine mounts are bizarre. Citroen designers must have had a particularly good liquid lunch that Friday

Two of Chris's, the torque reaction diamonds, are quite worn. KingAS will rebuild them for 75 Euros a pop...

Finally, in a remarkable and rare bout of common sense, we find 2.5 and ES9 V6 strut tops are identical...

And I now really love the 2.5 XM almost as much as the V6...

[Xaccers]

Excellent news Jim

[NewcastleFalcon]

Well done Jim I am pleased you enjoyed the poser, but I hope it wasn't too easy

I have scrutinised your answer though and find you have committed that fatal mistake of exam sitters since time immemorial of answering a question.........but not the one that was asked .

You are on the right track........but did you make the link with my latest pic from the I-spy Citroen H Vans thread?

regards
Neil

[citronut]

I do. You're asking that of a bridge geek

The poem refers to the four lions rampant guarding the portals of the Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait which leads on to the home of a famous Citroen specialist

aah ydych yn golygu ynys môn

[CitroJim]

V6 Xantia, Robyn and I have just arrived home in a recovery lorry. V6 Xantia threw her toys this afternoon just outside Bicester with a split regulator return hose and dumped most of her LHM..

So, with the XM off the road and the Activa still needing a new wheel bearing I'm having to borrow Robyn's 207 for the run to Somerset tomorrow...

[Hell Razor5543]

Oh, DRAT!!! (I would like to use stronger language, but the filters would have a fit!)

[CitroJim]

Oh, DRAT!!! (I would like to use stronger language, but the filters would have a fit!)

Strong language did not feature this afternoon James. We just giggled, called the breakdown services out and chatted whilst we waited.

They got to us in well under an hour and brought us home on a flatbed no problem at all.

I really quite recommend LV Britannia Rescue. Been with them for ever and each of the very few times I've needed them they have been excellent. This afternoon was no exception.