GEEEE'z what an adventure!

[citronut]

Try putting a scissor jack on it, with a bit of wood interspersed to avoid damaging anything, and force the taper in sufficiently to prevent it spinning while you tighten the nut down.

i just place the trolley jack under them if they try turning,

i have just last week fitted an O/S rack boot on a customers XANT, i found by carefully sliding a very long thin screw driver in from the small end through the length of the boot, and placed the tip onto the lip of the rack body, this worked a treat to aid getting the inner neck onto the rack

i have spoken to Mr Salter the other evening and he looked La Grave up on his map,so he knows were to find it now,

when you get out of the cable car at the top/summit there is a cafe which all the materials to build it were shipped up there by ely copter i belive somewhere around 1972, there a poster along one wall inside the cafe with a picy of the ely copter, the deck around the cafe hangs out over the glacier

[myglaren]

This one Malcolm?

[red_dwarfers]

Thanks for the tips, though I think I'm missing something as when I jack up the hub, the steering arm just goes up without any resistance. Are you mixing up with the wishbone ball joint? I've used the jack trick on that before. In the end I used two G clamps to push the track rod end on the taper.

The new crankshaft pulley is on the car aswell now. Not too bad a job with my 3/4" socket set, meaty hollow steel pipe and tractor axle stand It was so nice to start it up and not hear a peep from that flaming pulley
Something I did notice when I went to rev the engine a touch to see if it complained was that the accelerator cable had a grand total of 2 strands holding it together. A quick trip into GSF saw me with a universal Pug/Citroen cable. I started laying it all out when I got home and realised that there was a bit missing, the barrel nipple on the pump end. Typical and GSF had closed by that time. I found the bit of metal dowel rod I used for the window cables on the XM, turned it down to size on the lathe, filed a flat and drilled a hole for the cable. Just need to get it brazed in and the rod cut down to size then we should be back in business.

We should then be near enough sorted for the European road trip. Just got the mirror glass to faff about with, a tow ball cover to fit, GB sticker to stick and if I get time sort out the switch on the drivers door as the courtesy lights don't come on properly.

[citronut]

Thanks for the tips, though I think I'm missing something as when I jack up the hub, the steering arm just goes up without any resistance. Are you mixing up with the wishbone ball joint? I've used the jack trick on that before. In the end I used two G clamps to push the track rod end on the taper.

no no our Kev mo mix up the trolley jack method is just to put upwards load onto the T/R/E which push's the tapper home enough to stop it rotating,

Just need to get it brazed in and the rod cut down to size then we should be back in business.

braze the nipple onto the cable!!!!!!!!

i think the cable will fail in a short period of time if heated enough for brazing hun

[red_dwarfers]

Ah I see what you mean now Malcolm.

The XM electric windows have held up well so far, I'm sure it will be fine...hopefully I will keep an eye on it now you've mentioned it.

[citronut]

how was the Alps hun and did you venture up the cable car at La Grave

[red_dwarfers]

Amazing Malcolm

We didn't get to the cable car in the end, we did look at prices for a couple nearer to where we ended up but they were mega expensive.

I need to sort through the photos but for the moment here are a few. We drove 2,500 miles in total through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Austria and Germany and had some fantastic experiences. If you ever feel that diesel is getting a bit pricey, make sure you fill up in Luxembourg as it's cheaper than petrol and is only 121 Euro cents!

French Alps


Just parking up in Italy


An amphitheatre in Aosta, Italy

[CitroJim]

Excellent stuff Kev

That's an interesting piece of wildlife in the Alps..... native to that region is it?

Doesn't look too well

[vince]

Lol, i did a double take at that

Kev you do go on some great trips.....jealous?...you bet i am

[Citroenmad]

An amazing adventure Kev! I wish I could have gone, looking forward to hearing all about it and seeing the pics

[citronut]

if your feeling the cold Kev you could go and do some welding to warm your self up

[red_dwarfers]

if your feeling the cold Kev you could go and do some welding to warm your self up

Tyres are mostly replaced along with one headlight glass which had a big chip on its shoulder, steering rack sorted, it was the NS inner ball joint. I'm not looking forward to knocking back the metal on the front floor but that'll be the next job. Need to order a washer squirter thing too actually.

In Xantia news, glow plugs appear to have gone to the...erm...great glow plug place in the sky...

Still haven't got around to sorting the photos properly

The seal almost got left behind by accident it was only as we were pulling off Mr Salter said in a rather concerned voice "Where's the seal?" that I carefully tip toed out and brought it back in to the warmth of the car.

[citronut]

if you have the electro magnetic type washer pumps and they havent swollen up as if they are pregy's ( expecting little washer pumps ),

you can quite often get them working again as i did on Tiffany,

just tap them gently without to much force and keep tapping and shaking tapping and shaking tapping and shaking tapping and shaking, till the metal rod inside moves up and down, don't shake them so hard the rod pops the bottom end off though,
now attach some wire to each terminal, connect one to one to a car battery terminal and just dab the other on and off, ( do not hold on continuously or you will burn them out ) once the rod is moving under battery power try them with a water supply,

Mr Salter knows how to fix them as he saw me doing Tiff's

[red_dwarfers]

Right, time to book an MoT test I think, Ooo Monday at 16:15, thank you very much

[Citroenmad]

Excellent work Kev!

Good luck for the MOT