Bloody knackering weekend.CitroJim wrote:It's been an interesting weekend. Chris570 popped over to replace my Activa wishbone bush - it really was well-wornThanks Chris for doing that
Whilst Chris was here he did some work on his car which I'll let Chris tell us about as I did not witness it all.. It's an interesting tale I believe...
Now who on earth would do something as mad as that? Must have been something done by one of the former XM designers on the Xantia project as that is almost worthy of an XMThe same muppetry is present in both the S1 and the S2.
I gave the clock a new earth and touch-wood it's now good.
A good weekend
The "some work" Jim is referencing there was actually a simple N/S track rod end that had some 'slight' play (read 5mm) that I intended to swap. Team WFA have a theory that cars that are driven frequently are easier to work on as nothing ever really seizes. That idea went out of the window quite quickly. The track rod lock nut came off in about 3 seconds and I looked at it and thought "Hmmm, that thread looks too small". Bear in mind that mine is a 110 HDi so should have the thick track rods. Well the N/S didnt but the O/S did. On the last MOT before I bought the car it had had a new track rod end fitted (90k ago), it seems that the 'Citroen Specialist' that did the repair didn't fancy using the correct parts. I hate him so much right now.
At that point I had a decision, go to a motor factors and get the right/wrong part (depending on your outlook) or change the inner track rod to the correct type. As luck would have it I did have a spare pair of them on me. I thought, well, it would be quicker to get the wrong one but I wouldn't be able to be happy with the car knowing i'd bodged it and anyway, changing the inner track rod is fairly easy, isn't it?
NO
I tried and tried to get the inner joint to unscrew using, plumbers wrench, big arse grips, some fancy meaty toothed grip bastards and then a 4lb lump hammer and various chisels. None of these shifted it and by this point the balljoint was so knackered the car was now undriveable. I love Citroen 'mechanics'. In the end i got the angle grinder out and very carefully cut the arm off so I was just left with the joint itself. Then I fetched a 35mm socket and using the angle grinder cut some slots into the joint. I then hammered the socket onto the joint and fetched the breaker bar, no dice, it just slipped (after putting a stupid load of torque on it). At this point I was contemplating my options, I seriously didn't think I'd be able to get the car going again, using this rack. I then tried the extreme violence part, I hammered the socket back on even further (trying not to damage the socket but i'd got beyond that) and got my electric impact gun on it. That was hammering away for about 30-40 seconds before the joint finally gave way. That gun is rated to kick out 450ft/lb of torque so that joint was well and truley on there. I found out why, the thread was full of crap inside, what amazes me is just how the ape got the joint done up that tight in the first place!
Anyway, the car is tracked now and is lovely to drive following the rest of the work. Many thanks Jim for everything. <--- He does nice pizza and tea.
To get there it has to go via the bulkhead interconnect and the infamous loom under the rad that is well-known for rotting..
