CitroJim's AX, C3 Picasso, Cycling and Running Tales

[bxzx16v]

It's good to hear your keeping well Jim , enjoy the bit of spannering on the activa .

Mark

[CitroJim]

Nice to see you back again Jim. I fancy a ride up to see you one day for a brew and a bit of cake! Can never work out when you’ll be in!

Thanks Mike

I'm very hard to pin down as I'm very much a free spirit these days and often out cycling or running... My life is very full-on and I'm determined never to waste a minute of it. Life is very precious...

It would be good to meet up one of these days I'm sure we can arrange...

[Michel]

It would be good to meet up one of these days I'm sure we can arrange...

I was thinking the next few days or however long the Xantia is with you would be good as there’s a chance you might actually be near your house

[CitroJim]

I'll advise Mike Now off out on a bike ride...

[Skull]

Looks at home on your driveway Jim

[CitroJim]

Looks at home on your driveway Jim

Doesn't it just

[NewcastleFalcon]

'You don't fancy doing a suspension bush on a Xantia do you Jim?'
...... ready to have spanners applied

Or the angle grinder applied if my recent experience with my Bargain Basement Micra is anything to go by

Choose a sunny day for the work Jim

Whats the thing next to the Xantia? Mazda 6 Executive Saloon maybe?

Good to see you raring to go with the spanners/angle grinder/breaker bar/scaffolding pole etc

REgards Neil

[Michel]

I'll advise Mike Now off out on a bike ride...

You’ll love the noise of my new motorcycle. 900cc triple, with a nice, but not obnoxious exhaust

[Peter.N.]

Hi Jim

Nice to see you in writing again, and taking your spanners out of retirement Hope you are fairly well recovered from your 'experience' a while back. I have a couple of C5s now so am still well into spanners.

Peter

[Hell Razor5543]

It is great to see you back on here, Jim. Please don't be a stranger here (although I do get to 'see' you on Instagram). Even if you only pop in a few times a year you will always be welcome, as you brighten up the place well.

I hope that, if the battery is shot for having been stood for so long, the garage will replace it (without clouting Zel for it), as they should have taken steps to keep the battery in a topped up stage. Hopefully it was just very low, and not rotted. Some time back (after having done a few short journeys that were not enough to recharge the battery) my C5 wouldn't unlock. When I popped the battery on charge it showed 7.5v (OUCH!). I have one of those £15 Lidl chargers. I was VERY impressed to find that, a few days later, it had recovered the battery and saved me a chunk of cash. Nowadays, if I do a few short journeys over a couple of days, I will do a run to Newbury and back, and that seems to keep the battery healthy.

[CitroJim]

I'll advise Mike Now off out on a bike ride...

You’ll love the noise of my new motorcycle. 900cc triple, with a nice, but not obnoxious exhaust

Yum I do love a nice tuneful Exhaust Mike Looking forward to both seeing you and hearing it... How are you fixed for one day next week?

[CitroJim]

Hi Jim

Nice to see you in writing again, and taking your spanners out of retirement Hope you are fairly well recovered from your 'experience' a while back. I have a couple of C5s now so am still well into spanners.

Peter

Peter, it's good to see you are here too and going strong I do see your posts on the vintage radio forum from time to time and I'm a regular lurker... I never post as I find it a bit too heavily moderated for my liking and moderated by some right miserable old codgers

'You don't fancy doing a suspension bush on a Xantia do you Jim?'
...... ready to have spanners applied

Good to see you raring to go with the spanners/angle grinder/breaker bar/scaffolding pole etc

Funny you should mention angle grinders Neil, read on in a later post

It is great to see you back on here, Jim. Please don't be a stranger here (although I do get to 'see' you on Instagram). Even if you only pop in a few times a year you will always be welcome, as you brighten up the place well.

James, that's lovely, thank you I'd be on here more if only I could find the time! But I will try to as doing Zel's Activa has rather rekindled an interest

Today, I'm delighted to report my little Saxo passed her MoT with a clean sheet She's a good 'un and a perfect car for me and my very tiny annual mileage...

Sally, fresh from MoT...

Anyway, enough of all that... Read on for progress so far on Zel's Activa... Next post please nurse!!!

[CitroJim]

Zel's Activa... The adventure so far...

She failed her MoT a while back on a failed nearside suspension bush. Not the 'P' Bush but the front bush. Unsual.

The replacement of same is complicated by this being the Activa ram side...

After much to'ing and fro'ing to where the car was parked with my Saxo's battery in the boot of the Pixo I finally got the Activa relieved of her dead battery, started and driven to mine. Gosh! did it feel strange to drive an Activa after a Pixo and a Saxo

The first job was to remove the wishbone... Easy! undo the lower swivel joint, the Activa roll linkage and three more bolts and it will drop out in your hand...

If only... All came apart easily except the nut from the swivel... It would only undo almost a turn before locking up and spinning the taper in the housing Never known such a thing... I tried every trick I knew but it was not having it at all...

Only thing to do was to remove the wishbone complete with the hub!! This we did...

Everything else disassembled easily thanks to my liberal use of copper grease over the years... This was the result...

Hub and wishbone removed...

The 'P' bush was also found to be rubbish, it fell apart upon wishbone removal! This was missed by the MoT man!

Wishbone and 'P' Bush

The next task was to separate the wishbone from the hub... Miss Angel Grinder please step forward

Before

I cut through what I thought was about 7/8th of the nut and thread. I then took a cold chisel to it but even before the cold chisel make contact the nut and shaft declared defeat and promptly fell off... Zel and I got the giggles...

After

Then it was necessary to remove the remains of the lower swivel... Miss 5ft. Breaker Bar please step forward

Go Swivel!

The old front bush was truly gone!

Very gone!

Last job of the day was to remove the remains of the old 'P' Bush and front bush...

Ready for new bushes...

So now it's a case of fitting new bits, reassembly, new brake pads and a new MoT...

To say I enjoyed this work would be a big understatement. I was in a very, very happy place all day I did not realise just how much I've really missed not doing lots of spanner work on old Citroens

To be continued... Watch this space...

[NewcastleFalcon]

Nice work Jim, and looks like you sailed through the "problems" which cropped up. Looks like you have a fairly meaty vice there so the "removal of the remains of the swivel" with the aid of a five foot breaker bar didnt pull the vice off the bench, spin the hub in the jaws, or break the "castellated socket" which I presume you need to unscrew it.

Maybe you have been there before

REgards Neil

[CitroJim]

Maybe you have been there before

Many times Neil

That old vice is a blacksmiths's vice and is one of the best tools I have