Don'tShine's Citroen C2 project car thread

[TheSunWhereDontShine]

replaced the busted cylinder and tried to change the other one, but I swear the last person to change the brakes used the car's weight to torque the left nut, it's even got a broken.. lip? ring? the part that you have to hammer into the nook on the shaft. there's a section just gone. again, I forgot to take pictures, but I do have the before photos:

very rusted, the e-brake was almost seized.

the piston just *plopped* out...
my theory is that due to the severe rust, especially in the moving parts, the front half was seized so much, that the rear piston moved twice the distance it normally does, and pic related hapened.

now, the replacement part, while every retailer said it was a matching replacement weren't lying, they did omit that the mounting hole was in the wrong place and the brake line fitting recepticle OD was larger. so I ended up having to bore out the latter a couple mm and drill a hole in the former, a washer and some rtv should fix that in the meantime as it's basically a bean shaped hole now. I did consider rebuilding the old cylinder, but looking at the back of it, it was so corroded I deemed it a safety risk.

am finally omw to pick up more of my tools, I can feel it in my bones I'm gonna need 'em

[PaulC5]

The hub nuts are replaced with new ones each time they are removed, a bit expensive though, so it does not matter about the bit that breaks off the lip. Before undoing the nut I have always tapped out the nut lip from the shaft cut out to make it easier to undo. They are done up tight, depending on drum size it was 300 Nm on our last C3 with 9 inch drums and 245 Nm on our Cactus with 8 inch drums. To undo has needed a long bar on the socket wrench.

[ozvtr]

The hub nuts are replaced with new ones each time they are removed

Should be replaced! Most...er...people, swap the left and the right nuts giving them a new spot to deform. OR, just tighten it further to get a new spot.
Then the hub nut manufactures make the wall of the retainer so thick that you need a sledge hammer to deform it into the recess!!
Then some gorilla smashes the wall all the way down into the recess and you can not get anything between the recess and the wall of the nut!!
And then 8 pound for each nut!!! Give me a break!
At least they have a one piece bearing. The old 3 piece conical bearings needed to be preloaded using the hub nut before they were staked.

[TheSunWhereDontShine]

well, yeah I know you're supposed to change 'em every time you remove them, I just don't have them on hand atm and the brakes will soon need changing so a temporary measure it is.
also the left nut is just torqued way beyond the german guten-tight torque spec, I bent my wrench way outa whack, comically so!

how bad of an idea would it be to strategically drill 2mm holes in the nut weaken it? the country's largest tool supplier (depo) only has torque wrenches rated for 210Nm, and I doubt a regulat 1/2" 90deg wrench won't get bent too.
I already tried heat and penetrating oil.

going back to my original post, I can't source any mini fuses with breakout wires or equivalents, how should I go about getting power into the fuses? is there a convenient wire I can tap, like pin 2 of the black connector?

[Paul-R]

You don't need, or want, a torque wrench to undo the nut. You need what's called a breaker bar. 1/2" drive is probably the most useful although 3/8"(why?), 3/4" and even 1" drives are also available. You obviously then need suitable sockets or adapters.

I have two breaker bars in my tool armoury. One is 37 cm long and the other 60 cm long. And if the 60 cm bar won't shift the nut (I'm looking at you front drive shaft nuts!) then I have a 3-1/2 ft length of gas pipe to slip over the 60 cm bar to give some extra heft. It hasn't failed me yet although my son-in-law managed to bend the pipe once somehow.

[ozvtr]

Most...er...people, swap the left and the right nuts giving them a new spot to deform. OR, just tighten it further to get a new spot.

I'm not condoning this practice by the way.

If you cut a hole in the end of a hydraulic jack handle, the jack handle will fit over the braker bar handle, giving you an extension.

Only buy tools stamped "Chrome Vanadium". There are a lot of tools made of cheese!

[ozvtr]

going back to my original post, I can't source any mini fuses with breakout wires or equivalents, how should I go about getting power into the fuses? is there a convenient wire I can tap, like pin 2 of the black connector?

There is a stud on the BSM that goes to the positive of the battery. A crimp lug will go on there and give you a positive supply. Not sure, it might be M5 or M6. Be careful, it's connected directly to the battery and is unfused!