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

[myglaren]

One of those turned up at my granddaughters house in April.
This just dropped in today.

Lily

[NewcastleFalcon]

Congratulations to all the G-Dads, and their bundles of joy. Enjoy every second

Regards Neil

[Skull]

Congratulations Jim and Mick

[Stickyfinger]

I have a strange Blue thing in my garage !

[CitroJim]

Definitely well overdue for an update! It's been a heck of a few weeks and only now are tings beginning to settle!

Firstly, Bluebell is home

She arrived yesterday on the back of a transporter and today I have delivered Daffodil to Alasdair. He seems quite pleased with her

Bluebell needs a little more work for her MoT, mainly to her well seized front brake calipers, a common S1 AX issue, a few other odds and ends. The bigger issue is she needs re-registeting in the UK as she currently has a permanent export marker on her DVLA record so logistically, best to bring her home and free Alasdair's garage up for his Acriva...

Between all the Bluebell fun and to distract me from being anxious about my granddaughter's arrival I set to work on fixing my Saxo crankshaft oil leak. Bad move in retrospect. It all went well until it came to the removal of the oil seal flange/cambelt guide. Haynes said it would just slip out but mine was stuck fast. In trying to remove it in haste due to my mind being elsewhere I broke it.

And finding a replacement has been very elusive! Alasdair and I even raided a scrapyard and thought we'd found one on a late 106 but around 2000 they changed the design. I did however get the later cam sprocket from it with built-in cambelt guide...

Older TU engined cars just don't exist in scrapyards any more...

To get my Saxo mobile again I borrowed Bluebell's flange and that one came out easily with no need of tools... My Saxo is now back up and running again with not only a new oil seal but new cam belt and water pump as the old one was showing distinct signs of distress...

So what about Bluebell now lacking a flange?

See my next post...

[CitroJim]

So, being unable to source a replacement flange in a reasonable timescale, a plan was needed to get Bluebell mobile again...

Richard mentioned the lathe in another post...

Here's the broken flange and a good one side by side...

It's essentially a spacer between tne cambelt sprocket and oil pump drive sprocket, a cam belt guide and a surface for the oil seal inner lip. On the later TU engine tbe oil pump sprocket incorporates the spacer and the cambelt sprocket has the belt guide.

So, on that basis, I turned the broken flange into a spacer on the lathe...

To marry it with the later cambelt sprocket...

And when I get home I'll see if it works on Bluebell...

[CitroJim]

And amongst all of this car fun I've been spending lots of quality time with Autunm...

And doing lots of cycling and running...

Here's me just crossing the finish line at last Sunday's MK Autumn Half Marathon...

And once the weather turns bad I've still got a pile of S1 XM radios to fix and determine the best way to Bluetooth them...

Plenty to do but for now Bluebell is my priority...

I'll now try to keep this updated. The above has just been a very abbreviated digest of the past few weeks of activity and does not reflect all the devil in a lot of detail...

[CitroJim]

In a change from four-wheeled work today...

Working on my 'Trigger's Broom' fixie bike

She's a real mish-mash of bits of all ages built around a beautifully light vintage Reynolds 531 racing frame

Shes's been treated to new tyres and Alasdair worked his cleaning magic on the frame and oily bits

Autosol polished up the wheels and they properly shine now...

An 8.5 mile ride around these hilly Mendips hereabouts is a good workout when your bike has only one gear!

She does ride rather nicely

[Stickyfinger]

MINE....alll MINE......muuuuhahahahahha

• • 

[CitroJim]

MINE....alll MINE......muuuuhahahahahha

She's back where she belongs Alasdair

Enjoy her and love her

I've just been out to check on my little girl

I'm hoping tomorrow I'll find a bit of time to get some more done on her...

[Stickyfinger]

I see finger prints already !

[Skull]

...and a bit of BABY DROOL ...


oh sorry that's just my laptop screen

[CitroJim]

...and a bit of BABY DROOL ...


oh sorry that's just my laptop screen

I see finger prints already !

Those of the Shiply transporter driver maybe? Not mine as I always wear white cotton gloves when caressing her body

I've not done too much on Bluebell today as most of it has been taken up with baking, parkrun, cooking, spending high-quality time with younger daughter and enjoying lunch with her in a swanky cafe in MK

I did however do a bit of prep work on her and a bit of study into the fitting of my 'modified' cambelt crank sprocket and spacer. My vernier calipers say it should be good

I've also been working on her front brakes and have now got a little caliper movement and a loose disc after successfully impact driving out the Philips screw holding it. Both the pad pins and the caliper mounting bolts remain firm but hopefully a long soak in Plus Gas and heat will do the necessary...

One big problem I have is very thin and delicate skin on my arms that bruise and bleed with the merest of touches... My arms can look like I've been wresting brambles after a good spanner session

Alastair, the top bloke he is, hates to see my arms like this and last week found on Amazon some cut-proof arm protectors... They were only a tenner so no great loss if they proved rubbish...

Arm Protectors

Rubbish they are not! They are truly magical and work brilliantly

I really cannot thank Alasdair enough for finding them and highly recommend them. They also keep your arms warm in cold weather

After my 10K run tomorrow morning I'll continue Bluebell work... I have plenty to keep me amused

[myglaren]

Could do with some of them for my brother Jim, he has the same problem as you.

[CitroJim]

Could do with some of them for my brother Jim, he has the same problem as you.

If you can't find them on the Amazon app. Steve, I'll dig out their proper description...