Citrojim's AX, Pixo, C3, Running and Cycling Tales

[CitroJim]

Cathode / negative terminal. All the rage again as there are plans to use electrolysis to generate hydrogen with 'spare' renewable electricity. We are working on a couple of projects for this at the moment - in the Mega Watt scale.

Now there's some interesting projects Richard

I think that my dad made a new reed for it and had it working, but the front panel had fairly deep rust pitting and he started making a replica panel. I intend to take a different route and fill the pitting in the original panel while preserving the stamped (or engraved?) legends for the terminals and control.

That's the better way Mike, always good to preserve originality in something like this if at all possible.

The use of power schottky diodes is a good call Just to make it functional, a bit of a higher Vf can be tolerated, just means the boost charge setting will be more like the normal setting; at least the charger will be revived and can continue to be useful. I think it's worth it.

?? Would that not negate the "need" to recover the abused "field" batteries ?

Not really Alasdair as it'll still be useful for maintenance charging and being able to bring a low, but otherwise healthy, battery up to be able to start a car reasonably quickly.

A simple constant-voltage charger, as this one is, will enjoy very little success in reviving one of your abused 'field' (electric fence?) batteries however much charging current it can deliver. Once a lead-acid battery is sulphated - as your abused ones will be - then really it's game over as nothing can really reverse the sulphation except by dismantling the battery and replacing the electrolyte and plate paste. You may stand a little more chance with one of the modern 'intelligent' chargers but even then, results are not always amazing.

Modern automotive batteries are not designed for slow deep discharge - as they will be on an electric fence - and object to being in a low state of charge or fully discharged for any length of time; they're intended to be rapidly recharged after the brief but heavy discharge in starting an engine and then be on float for the rest of the time. For a long and a happy life they need to be kept fully charged always...

Your electric fences are really best off powered by 'leisure' batteries that are expressly designed for a slow, deep discharge and can stand being flat for a while. Problem is, such batteries are expensive and low-spec. automotive batteries are relatively cheap.

That battery on my bench is still good after 15 years because I regularly give it a gentle maintenance charge.

[xantia_v6]

My dad (amongst other careers) owned a wholesale car and truck battery distribution company in the 1960s. He always said that a sulphated battery could be rejuvenated.with the use of Glauber's Salt, but I never saw him demonstrate this.
Here is someone who has done some experiments. https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki ... _Treatment.

My recollection is that the process involved dumping out the old acid, filling the battery with a Glauber's Salt solution, leaving it for a day or two, then dumping the salt solution and refilling with fresh, correctly diluted acid.

[CitroJim]

My dad (amongst other careers) owned a wholesale car and truck battery distribution company in the 1960s. He always said that a sulphated battery could be rejuvenated.with the use of Glauber's Salt, but I never saw him demonstrate this.
Here is someone who has done some experiments. https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki ... _Treatment.

My recollection is that the process involved dumping out the old acid, filling the battery with a Glauber's Salt solution, leaving it for a day or two, then dumping the salt solution and refilling with fresh, correctly diluted acid.

That's got to be worth a try Mike Nothing to loose I guess. Only problem I see is that some modern semi-sealed batteries can be hard to open up to drain down the old electrolyte. and do the flush/refill... Looking at the battery on Strawberry it would be impossible... I suppose large holes could be made in the appropriate place and caps fabricated...

[Vic Evans]

I have a battery charger which is more than 100 years old. It is in NZ, so I can't take a photo right now, but it has a mains-synchronous vibrating reed rectifier.

The vibrating reed thingy reminded me of a very early car radio I installed in a mini cooper in the late 60s I guess.
This radio had a vibrating 'thing' that buzzed & had a habit of stopping buzzing & smoking at the most inconvenient times which was pretty dangerous when going for the ton on the motorway.
It was fitted under the parcel shelf where a quick kick usually sorted things out.
It got changed for a new transistor jobby as soon a finances permitted.

[CitroJim]

I have a battery charger which is more than 100 years old. It is in NZ, so I can't take a photo right now, but it has a mains-synchronous vibrating reed rectifier.

The vibrating reed thingy reminded me of a very early car radio I installed in a mini cooper in the late 60s I guess.
This radio had a vibrating 'thing' that buzzed & had a habit of stopping buzzing & smoking at the most inconvenient times which was pretty dangerous when going for the ton on the motorway.

Oh yes, the good old vibrator used to generate the high voltage (around 200v) required by the valves in the radio... Terrible things... Nowadays there are plug-in solid-state replacements available... They look like the real thing but contain a transistorised circuit that replicates the function of the vibrator. Those old radios were incredibly thirsty of battery power and it was always advisable to keep the engine running whilst listening - unless you fancied a bump-start!

A bit of good work on Strawberry today, in amongst other essential work...

Valve clearances checked and all OK And all nice and clean up-top

Removing the cambelt covers revealed a bit of oil on the sump and around the crank pulley. This means the crank oil seal is stating to fail - a very common problem with the TU engine and fairly straightforward to resolve. I last did the job on my old Saxo.

Removing the lower cambelt cover shows it's not yet too bad and can wait until I replace the cambelt and water pump in the not too distant. Happily, there's no oil on the belt itself.

Tomorrow I'll check and properly reset the belt tension. I can already tell, using the 'rotate through 90 degrees using finger and thumb' method, it's a bit tight...

[CitroJim]

Happily, Strawberry no longer has a whining cambelt

I properly tensioned the belt today using the 'dangling weight' method and is, in my experience, the only way to set tension on an early 8V TU..

Here's the calibrated weight on a wire. It's exactly 1.5Kg and fabricated from a selection of sockets weighed out on kitchen scales...

Hang it off the tensioner, as per:

A square-section right-angled tool fits into the tensioner and has a groove at the prescribed distance from which the weight hangs...

Loosen the clamp nut on the tensioner, allow the tensioner to settle and then re-tighten the nut. Torque up to 200 Inch Pounds...

Inch Pounds because that's what my little 1/4" drive torque wrench is calibrated in... It has a nice, slim head and will fit where a bigger one won't, such as here.

Conversion is easy... Multiply foot pounds by 12...

Here's the weight hanging from underneath...

Simple and elegant...

[CitroJim]

Both of mine at The Chevrons Rally today This feat was achieved by driving Bluebell there with my bike, then cycling home and driving Strawberry back to the rally

Here they both are:

Full album from day 1 here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBGybX

Strawberry was a bit troublesome on the way there. Her left front indicator and repeater ceased to work...

It was caused by a manky connector under the bonnet...

A bit of cleaning with fine emery and a bit of preventative lube soon had it all good again

An excellent first day at the rally; not a tremendously big turn-out but still lots to see and lots of friends, both old and new, to natter to

Tomorrow should see many more cars there...

[CitroJim]

Some rather nice AX stuff I brought home from the Chevrons Rally over the weekend

I'd love an AX Volcane Based on the Series 1 GT and with added poshness Sadly never imported into the UK and LHD only...

[CitroJim]

Another souvenir from the Chevrons

Spot the AX...

There's more than one

[CitroJim]

Both Mick and I purchased one of these a while back:

The 'Chinglish' of the label did not inspire huge confidence!

I tried all functions on mine today and it all works well. The tyre inflator gauge is a bit pessimistic. The impact gun undid some unbelievely tight wheel studs on Strawberry and the electric jack does the job

Ideal to carry in the back of the car, just in case

Here it is in action:

When I pulled off Stawberry's wheel trims, I was pleased to see this

Shame the monkey last there interpreted it as 666 ft. lbs The studs were very seriously over-tightened and one was slightly damaged

There was very good reason to have strawberry up in the air with wheels off. Yesterday, Mick drove Strawberry back to mine from the Chevrons following me in Bluebell. Mick noted there was a little play in Strawberry's steering and also saw that Bluebell's rear indicators were a bit dim and her brake lights flickered in sympathy with the indicators. Just shows the benefits of having a knowledgeable and observant person drive your cars occasionally - they see and feel things you may not notice. Thanks Mick!

So, to work. Strawberry's track rod ends were fine and one looked very recent:

The problem came down to the rubber bushes at the rack ends of the track rods being perished. The AX has a bit of an unconventional rack with both track rods meeting in the middle of the rack...

Bluebell's aren't very good either, which is maybe why I never noticed... I need to source some new ones. NFP I expect, although the Saxo used them.

Bluebell's rear lighting problems were all down to a bad earth...

A bit corroded and covered in paint!

Cleaned up and all now good

Whilst I was at it I did the same job on Strawberry.

A very good day of very enjoyable AX'ing

And that was all after a very good run this morning when I got a superb 'runner's high' and ended up sky-high on endorphins

[Zelandeth]

Small world. It is a bit of an odd arrangement having the track rods running all the way to the centre. A certain other small car I know does this though. Here's a couple of complete Trabant 601 racks and track rod setups out of the car.

In this case attaching to a tiny arm which bolts onto the inbound end of the steering rack itself.

[MattBLancs]

Only sensible question now is it a case of:

Work out if is an upgrade to fit Trabant inner rack bushes to an AX....


.... Or AX bushes to a Trabant!

(Suspect answer is likely "either, to either" so long as replacing knackered with nice fresh rubber!!)

[Zelandeth]

Only sensible question now is it a case of:

Work out if is an upgrade to fit Trabant inner rack bushes to an AX....


.... Or AX bushes to a Trabant!

(Suspect answer is likely "either, to either" so long as replacing knackered with nice fresh rubber!!)

Well I know which is likely easier to get hold of...

I keep meaning to see what the ratio on the rack on the Trabant is. It's something daft like 1.5 turns lock to lock. Yet because the engine is so light it's still lighter than many cars I've driven with power steering.

[CitroJim]

That's interesting to see the Trabant uses a very similar rack!

Only sensible question now is it a case of:

Work out if is an upgrade to fit Trabant inner rack bushes to an AX....


.... Or AX bushes to a Trabant!

No, it looks like the Trabant rack has balljoints on the inner ends of the track rods whereas the AX has rubber bushes...

This eBay listing give some good views of the arrangement...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/315692518385

[RichardW]

2CV also uses a rack with centre track rod connections - although in that case the front suspension leading arms are mounted on the ends of it!