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

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 09 Jun 2011, 19:06

Chris570 wrote:now i know i shouldnt be tempted

Chris, it's the same with the V6 and Activa. Once bitten, forever smitten

Not quite so much progress today due to the girls spending most of the day with me but I did get a bit of spannering done on Juliet. Her new Pressure Regulator is fitted as is her pump. Most of her engine bay ancillaries are refitted but time did not allow the fitting of the new cambelt or the fitting of the replacement pump to Old V6.

I did get some new tyres on Old V6. Got a good deal with some Bridgestones. No idea what they're like performance-wise by they're round, black, hold air and have tread on them - they seem to fulfill the basic role of a tyre. F1 cars seem to do well with them so I guess a V6 will too.. I do remember Bridgestones from my 70s Jap motorcycling days when they seemed to be made of a slipperier version of PTFE - bloody lethal in the wet! I hope they've improved since then...

They did as they said and used stick-on weights and they didn't do the wheelnuts up too tightly either. They seem to have done a good job as the car is silky smooth all the way to 80 without a trace of wobble or shimmy and the steering wheel is in the middle when travelling straight ahead. They seem a good bunch, this particular tyre fitting outfit, and are just at the end of my road...

Tomorrow a bit more spannering on Juliet but I'm determined to fit the new pump to Old V6 before the weekend. It's unlikely Old V6 will be all clean and sparkly for DSM now unless a miracle happens...

Citroenmad · Unread post by **Citroenmad** » 09 Jun 2011, 20:14

Bridgestones are pretty decent tyres Jim, I suspect they are ER300s?

Certainly get a better road test of many premium tyres, definitely the Pirelli P6000 which often gets slated.

I usually stick with Michelins but whatever deal looks appealing at the time with a decent tyre will do me very nicely.

Gareth: fancying another Activa already? I guess there is no staying away

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 09 Jun 2011, 20:20

Citroenmad wrote:Bridgestones are pretty decent tyres Jim, I suspect they are ER300s?

You suspect absolutely correctly Chris

They are the ER300. Hope they last longer than the BFGs they've just replaced.

Apart from their disappointingly short life, I found the BFG an excellent tyre, especially in the snow... It was a tad noisy though.

Hopefully the bridgestones will be a tad quieter too

Citroenmad · Unread post by **Citroenmad** » 09 Jun 2011, 20:27

Ah, the big friendly giant tyres, not used them myself! BF Goodrich are usually pretty decent, though only 12K miles from yours? Thats heavy wear.

I usually find Bridgestones noisy, but Ive not used the ER300, these were the previous model.

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 10 Jun 2011, 00:01

Jim, leave Juliet for a bit and concentrate on your V6

I'm looking at alternatives to selling Juliet, I know I shouldn't but it's hard to let her go even if she is a MK2.
Maybe an LPG conversion, or a rent-a-garage for a while...

red_dwarfers · Unread post by **red_dwarfers** » 10 Jun 2011, 12:28

Xac wrote: I'm looking at alternatives to selling Juliet, I know I shouldn't but it's hard to let her go even if she is a MK2.
Maybe an LPG conversion, or a rent-a-garage for a while...

Thats more like it Xac, just think of the ICCCCCCR next year. You'll want an Activa for that.

Citroenmad wrote:Ah, the big friendly giant tyres

Or if you played one of the Doom games in the 90s then BFG stands for something else

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 10 Jun 2011, 18:18

red_dwarfers wrote:
Xac wrote: I'm looking at alternatives to selling Juliet, I know I shouldn't but it's hard to let her go even if she is a MK2.
Maybe an LPG conversion, or a rent-a-garage for a while...
Thats more like it Xac, just think of the ICCCCCCR next year. You'll want an Activa for that.

I'd need a mortgage for the fuel bill!
Plus I have roof bars for Cassy but not Juliet or Jenny, and we'll need an empty boot for the dog

Citroenmad · Unread post by **Citroenmad** » 10 Jun 2011, 18:40

Xac wrote:
red_dwarfers wrote:
Xac wrote: I'm looking at alternatives to selling Juliet, I know I shouldn't but it's hard to let her go even if she is a MK2.
Maybe an LPG conversion, or a rent-a-garage for a while...
Thats more like it Xac, just think of the ICCCCCCR next year. You'll want an Activa for that.
I'd need a mortgage for the fuel bill!
Plus I have roof bars for Cassy but not Juliet or Jenny, and we'll need an empty boot for the dog

Ah, its not all that far from you, im sure if you have a fuel tanker in tow you might manage on one tank full

Im driving my Activa to Milton Keynes tomorrow, Im further North than the Harrogate show ground ...

I say keep the Activa, they are not worth anything to sell on anyway.

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 10 Jun 2011, 21:47

Been a good spannering day today

First off I replaced the HP pump on Old V6 and then found I really didn't need to

The leak finally revealed itself as a tiny split in the rubber stub pipe on the feed/suction pipe which grew until LHM flooded out all over the nice, shiny new pump.

I had my suspicions it was the stub pipe but the crack was initially so tiny and under the Jubilee clip that it was impossible to see.

Initially I was a bit niggled I'd wasted an hour swapping a perfectly good pump and having spent a lot of money having my spare refurbished unnecessarily but once I fired up, I found I hadn't. the 'new' pump is a lot quieter and it gets pressure up a lot faster. Also, to measure the tick rate I had to dig out my radio-carbon dating equipment...

Swapping a pump on a V6 is no trivial matter. the ECU box has to come out and then, because of access, a lot of it is done by feel and blind faith. Mind you, after the Activa exhaust manifold I'm sort of used to doing things in very confined spaces now.

Next week I'm going to decorate my hallway and do the entire job through the letterbox...

After Old V6 was sorted I resumed work on Juliet. I'm delighted to say she's now all done bar needing filling with coolant, having a new battery and the CV boot. Xac brought me a boot today but sadly it was the for the wrong side. The driveshaft diameters are very different on each side.

Juliet's cambelt tensioner was well past its sell-by date. It was both very sloppy and rumbly... We now know why the cambelt was so floppy

I nearly had a disaster though. On disassembly we found the auxiliary belt tensioner was a bit stiff and this made the belt very hard to remove. For reassembly I 'worked' it a bit with a small breaker bar in the square hole and it came good

I then went to do it one more time to fit the belt and crunch! Ping! a bit of the casting around the square hole broke off and flew across the driveway

This sort of made the square unavailable and basically it seemed impossible now to set the tensioner so the belt could be fitted. Those tensioners have a hell of a spring to them and it seemed that whilst the tensioner itself was perfectly good, there was no way of setting it so as the belt could be fitted.

I tried a few ideas, all of which failed

And then hit upon an idea after noticing the threaded hole where the jockey wheel screws in was about 3mm deep. Also, by the broken square was a smaller hole for pinning the tensioner in its released position. I made up a pin bar that would place a pin in each of these holes and I'm delighted to say it worked a treat

In fact a heck of a lot better than using a bar in the original square hole. So, a potential showstopper turned out to be an opportunity to find a much better way of doing the job...

Here's a shot of the pin bar in place on the tensioner. It really makes light work of the job

Xantia V6 called over this afternoon in his E-Type to replace his driveshaft UJs. His car outside my house attracted a fair bit of interest and it was good hear a couple of young lads saying "Hey look, there's an E-Type!!!"

Others said "Thats a funny Citroen!" or words generally to that effect...

robert_e_smart · Unread post by **robert_e_smart** » 10 Jun 2011, 21:57

Next week I'm going to decorate my hallway and do the entire job through the letterbox...

I came across the same problem as your tensioner in a 2.0 16V XM, Fortunately on the Xm there is a small bar linking the subframe to the shell, so I could lever a crowbar against it to push the tensioner back, but I like your solution, I'll store that in the memory bank.

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 14 Jun 2011, 20:48

I'm happy to report Juliet is back in full running order and in quiet running order at that

I filled her with coolant, borrowed the battery from my Activa and went for it.

All as well, the new gasket and exhaust manifold smoked a bit, burning off all the Plus Gas and burning in the new gasket but no leaks of any sort.

The suspension is 1000% better. No dancing and no slow oscillations and height changes.

Just one small problem remains. The front electrovalve is a bit 'sticky' and sometimes he's a bit reluctant to switch to soft mode.

I gave her a quick MOT this evening and apart from the need of a driveshaft boot she's ready to meet the man from the ministry...

I'm wondering if the electrovalve may settle but if not I'll have it in bits and give the springs a bit of a tug...

We're nearly there

red_dwarfers · Unread post by **red_dwarfers** » 14 Jun 2011, 21:03

Not bad going Jim, you've put some serious work into that! I really do respect you!

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 14 Jun 2011, 21:11

Thanks Kev

Don't tell anyone but I've rather enjoyed it...

I did have one heartstopper though

The Power Steering was all over the place at first, the wheel was hard to turn and all notchy. Worrying as the car has a newly reconditioned pump on it...

Luckily, it was a very simple problem and entirely my fault. I looked in the LHM reservoir and it was full of froth. I had a leak on the suction pipe to the pump.

I'd forgotten to tighten the jubilee clip on the LHM reservoir end of the pipe and it was drawing lots of air

red_dwarfers · Unread post by **red_dwarfers** » 14 Jun 2011, 22:03

CitroJim wrote: I'd forgotten to tighten the jubilee clip on the LHM reservoir end of the pipe and it was drawing lots of air

I've done that, though not before driving a good few hundred miles thinking that it was just the really cold weather taking its toll.

To be fair though, it wasn't exhibiting the classic notchy symptoms, just a bit stiff (really small bubbles maybe?!)

Chris570 · Unread post by **Chris570** » 15 Jun 2011, 07:35

CitroJim wrote:Thanks Kev Don't tell anyone but I've rather enjoyed it...

I did have one heartstopper though The Power Steering was all over the place at first, the wheel was hard to turn and all notchy. Worrying as the car has a newly reconditioned pump on it...

Luckily, it was a very simple problem and entirely my fault. I looked in the LHM reservoir and it was full of froth. I had a leak on the suction pipe to the pump.

I'd forgotten to tighten the jubilee clip on the LHM reservoir end of the pipe and it was drawing lots of air

you were just testing to see if LHM and air would do the same job, they don't. You've learnt that now, but it was worth a go