GEEEE'z what an adventure!

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 20 Apr 2010, 21:47

That was a lucky one on the cambelt Kev!!!!!! Well spotted otherwise it might have been a case of goodnight Vienna....

In mentioning the A38 being a long road, it's the longest A road entirely in England at 292 miles, starting in Bodmin and ending in Mansfield...

The A1 and A5 are longer maybe but they're not entirely in England...

Another long road that starts down your way is the A361. It starts at Barnstable and ends near Rugby. It's special to me as I was born and raised near one end of it and have lived these past 35 years near the other end of it... It was once a very long road but now it is discontinuous since a part of it became the A4361 between Swindon and Devizes...

I still regularly travel along it now when taking the scenic route to Somerset avoiding the A303 when it gets clogged with tourists and holiday makers...

red_dwarfers · Unread post by **red_dwarfers** » 25 Apr 2010, 18:01

Interesting stuff Jim! I picked up a book a few days ago entitled "Devon roads that time forgot". It's about a chap called Ogilby, who in 1675, decided that it might be a good idea to write down directions from one place to another. It then goes on to detail these routes and the closest way to travel on them today. Now the Xantia is back up and running I will be able to have a go at this Ogilby roading

Fitting the cambelt was much easier and more straightforward than sorting out the wishbone bushes and track rod ends mostly due to the cleverly designed 'constant lubrication' system on most of the outside of the engine block

I didn't get around to creating a video or photo guide as I wanted to get it up and running as soon as possible.

When changing the cambelt, I also took the opportunity to replace the idler pulley, tensioner, water pump, crankshaft pulley and the coolant. Didn't bother with the aux belt as its only been on there a year and its a 10 minute job to change.

Taking the crankshaft pulley off wasn't too bad a job, managed to hold it on the handbrake and 5th gear to crack it. Cam belt covers required a lot of patience, it was easier to get the lower one off by feeding it out the top of the engine. The tensioner plunger was also a bit of a laugh. Tried making up a Haynes special tool but due to the chassis being in the way I couldn't remove the stud that holds the tensioner bracket and cam belt cover. A modified tool was made to hook onto this stud but it was destined to fail. In the end I just undid the automatic tensioner bolts, pushed up on the plunger and pulled out the tensioner, similar way to put the new one in.
Glad I did replace them all as they were looking and sounding a bit worn, the crankshaft pulley didn't turn out to be cracked all the way through, just a bit all the way around but I replaced it anyway, even if it did cost as much as a cambelt and tensioner kit

I thought that sticking the timing pins in would be easier than it was, the flywheel one, what a silly place to put it

I must confess that it took me a few minutes to find where the starter motor was, for some reason I was looking over on top the diff area

I did find a hole on top the gearbox which I thought might be the hole but no. I made up a tool to circumnavigate around under the starter to where I could feel the hole was with the tip of one of my fingers and it slotted straight in

Putting the belt on wasn't too bad, tested the tension and that there was no contact between pistons and valves, after that everything slotted back together nicely...apart from the covers which took a lot of moving about!

I'd personally put the job on par with replacing a rear ABS sensor but with a bit more time needed. Reason I say that it you don't need to be Mr Incredible as with the steering rack gaiters, you just need a fair amount of PERCY WHAT SIT and patience.

Right, time to alter my signature!

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 26 Apr 2010, 09:24

Excellent stuff Kev

The history of roads and mapping is a fascinating subject.

I love maps and can spend hours looking at them, any maps. Even for places I've never been to or likely to go to...

I agree on the cambelt. There are only three difficult areas in my experience; getting the belt covers off, undoing the crank bolt and struggling with the 11mm bolt securing the rear top cover, the bolt that hides in amonst the turbo piping...

I so agree about the flywheel timming hole being in a silly place. It was the old French sense of humour at work I reckon...

Now you've done a 1.9TD though, any other belt you'll find easy.

red_dwarfers · Unread post by **red_dwarfers** » 31 May 2010, 21:55

After a bit of a pointer in the right direction yesterday regarding there still being inaccuracies with the height. It would be spot on if going from high to normal but a good couple of inches too high if going from low to normal. This proves to be a problem as when I look at the car from the outside and all looks fine, I get in, it sinks and self corrects too high, get out, it rises and falls to the correct height

I can certainly notice the difference when the height is correct, much smoother. I can bomb down the long patch of communal grass (left over bumpy field) to our house when its right all in comfort.

Decided to sort out the rear linkage to start as its a 5 minute job to remove without having to faff about removing the height corrector itself. Now its off and I've been told what the problem is (Thanks Jim) its obvious

There is a lot of movement of the bit where the springs live which is down to the nylon inserts in which the rivets go through. These nylon bits almost look like they are replaceable parts though I won't be going to the trouble of finding out if they are as I'm sure Mr Citroen would want me to buy the whole linkage unit. I've drilled through the rivet and will be turning down a suitable bolt on the lathe to give a snug fit. Once I've replaced both the rivets on the rear HC linkage I'll see if it settles better and then I'll move onto the front.

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 01 Jun 2010, 07:47

That's good Kev

Pleased my thoughts on the problem bore a bit of fruit.

You should be able to easily turn up a new nylon insert on the lathe, along with a new pivot.

The trouble is that rust on the pivot digs into the nylon and wears it like sandpaper. Rust is surprisingly abrasive...

red_dwarfers · Unread post by **red_dwarfers** » 01 Jun 2010, 22:36

Well, today was rather productive

Picked up a few M14 bolts with 3cm shanks from MST in Tiverton. Doing one pivot at a time, we turned down and smoothed off the shanks and a few threads to fit each nylon bit snugly. This takes up the play between the pivot and nylon insert but we still had half the amount of play between the nylon insert and the metal bit the spring sits on. This was solved by using PTFE to fill up the wear on the outside of the insert and overlapping onto the squarey bit so that when it slides back in, I fill up some of the vertical play.
I could have made up a new insert, but if the amount of wear on it was from 200k miles of use, I'm sure I won't mind doing it again in another 200k miles

The new pivots are held in with a couple of dabs of weld. There is now no play but the springs are still able to move freely. After a dab of paint its looking quite smart, I'll upload a few pictures and will add to the height corrector writeup at some point.

The linkage is now all fixed back onto the car and when going to normal height from both high and low it stops near as dammit in the right place, just under one finger width between the top of the tyre and the wheel arch. A pleasant side effect of the increased accuracy and no loss of motion at the rear means that the 'high clearance' setting on the lever in the car actually works! The rear of the car rises almost to the top but not fully as before and gives a good bit of suspension travel. This means that I will be able to do the following in more comfort:

andmcit · Unread post by **andmcit** » 01 Jun 2010, 22:51

Looks like the Xantia ABS wasn't working resulting in calamity after some
nutter in a tractor was spreading grass cuttings all over the road Kev...

Andrew

red_dwarfers · Unread post by **red_dwarfers** » 01 Jun 2010, 23:03

andmcit wrote:Looks like the Xantia ABS wasn't working resulting in calamity after some
nutter in a tractor was spreading grass cuttings all over the road Kev...
Andrew

The only time I've driven through a field or two in the Xantia that, helping out with some bailing.
Maybe I should get a 2.1 TD and fit a 3 point linkage to the back? Get the Xantia out bailing too

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 02 Jun 2010, 05:56

Great news Kev

Did you take any pictures of the mod?

I love the very atmospheric farming scene

red_dwarfers · Unread post by **red_dwarfers** » 04 Jun 2010, 21:21

I do have a few photos Jim and will post them shortly, when I can find the cable for my camera that is

The front HC linkage is now all tightened up and back on the car. Heights at both ends are now settling at the same place from high and low, which is nice. I have a feeling that the heights are out slightly, moreso at the front where I still don't have a 'high clearance' setting, but there is still a marked improvement from before. The 'high clearance' setting also only works on the rear when going from normal and not from high. Still, I suppose this is all you need if you encounter a particularly unused bit of road with lots of grass growing in the middle of it

Also this afternoon I changed the old yellow/brown LHM for some Hydraflush. Quite deceiving really as in the tank it looked nice and green. I followed the excellent sticky thread and it wasn't half as difficult as I was expecting. I took this opportunity to kill two birds with one stone as I wanted to swap the back and front tyres around as the Goodyear's I had put on in Jan last year are starting to get a little low, quite surprised really as I've only covered about 60000 miles in that time and I'm only an occasional spirited driver. While doing this I also bled the brakes, all were fine to do apart from the OSR which required a little help from the universal adjuster (AKA mole grips

) to start off with. Its not bad enough to warrant me buying a brand new set of two, more of an inbetween sized hex.

I took it out for a test drive and all is well apart from a quiet scraping noise which appears to increase with road speed until the engine covers it up. Sounds like a brake on disk sound but I'm not so sure. I shall be investigating tomorrow.

Unread post by **myglaren** » 05 Jun 2010, 11:01

red_dwarfers wrote:I do have a few photos Jim and will post them shortly, when I can find the cable for my camera that is

I have ten USB ports on this computer with all camera and phone etc leads permanently plugged in - except the one I want, of course, which always seems to be missing for one reason or another.
Invested (£6) in a card reader that reads all the different camera and phone cards, damned sight easier.

red_dwarfers · Unread post by **red_dwarfers** » 05 Jun 2010, 15:58

I've also got a card reader which supports a good 8 or so cards. Typically though, not mine

No matter though as I have just found the lead

red_dwarfers · Unread post by **red_dwarfers** » 05 Jun 2010, 16:10

Here are pictures of the newly pivoted front and rear height corrector linkages. Used turned down M14 bolts with a 3cm shank, tapered one end and tapped it in the increased sized hole where the rivet used to be.

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 06 Jun 2010, 11:42

Excellent stuff Kev

red_dwarfers · Unread post by **red_dwarfers** » 19 Jul 2010, 22:06

This one's not quite Citroen related but still, none the less worthy of a post. Just finishing off my morning shower and I hear sudden shouting and screaming from downstairs. This prompts me to jump out and see whats up. I go down to find water streaming out of a couple of light switches, mains electric sockets and dripping from a large area of the ceiling. The pressure of the water had flicked the switch and turned the light on. In the immediate panic, rash thinking and all that, mum had tried to switch the light switch off and gained a minor electric shock.
We immediately turned the electric, mains and storage tank water off and gradually the flow was decreasing. Once the flow near as dammit stopped, photos were taken and the cleanup started.
Bear in mind that we for the first time got someone else to fit a new bathroom about 9 months ago as usually we do house refitting ourselves.
British Gas turned up to asses the situation and put it down to poor workmanship on the part of the subcontractors of B&Q who had botched the poor thread on the bath tub waste water pipe with lots of PTFE tape. Selfish, cheapskate bar stools. It just goes to show that you need to watch and verify everything anyone else does.
I've taken my Xantia to garages a total of 4 times, 3 times I've needed to go back as I wasn't happy with the standard of work. Firstly, the air con regas. That went swimmingly. New tyres and tracking - steering wheel miles off centre. Clutch - gearbox oil leaking (identified by Jim's hawk eyed Dad!) due to them catching the brand new diff seal when putting the drive shafts back in. Windscreen - scuttle lifted off the windscreen as it didn't bond.

Once again. The moral of the story, if a job's worth doing, do it yourself (or of course with your mates

)