Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[white exec]

A good few BX14 petrol engines listed on wikipedia. One has a 'dual chamber' carb, and 71bhp...
There are some early BX documents (and I think a parts list) in our Resources library/mechanic's booklets.
The paint code looks decently legible, behind the air cleaner.

Your re-trimming skills will come in very handy with that interior. Although the '92 BX here has tinted glass, it's nothing like as effective at blocking heat (and presumably UV) as that in the '96 XM, so I guess these early cars need keeping out of continual direct sunlight. At least you don't have lacquer on that beige!

[NewcastleFalcon]

The paint code looks decently legible, behind the air cleaner.

Looks like GDY to me....not Beige Sloughi but Beige Impala

Regards Neil

[Gibbo2286]

Those controls bring back memories for me, over the years I think I've owned most of the BX range including that model but not that colour, looking at your under bonnet photos I can see that the areas usually most affected by rust appear to be rust free so a good chance that the other areas, boot floor etc. will be likewise.

I have a Haynes manual on the shelf here you can have if you haven't already got one. (Petrols from 83 to 89) 1360 - 1580 -1905cc.

[myglaren]

I was surprised at how different the controls were to the BX I had - I like yours better. Mine was an 'E' reg 19RD estate. Wonderfully roomy and comfortable and surprisingly quick.

Lots to keep you occupied there. Your other cars are going to be jealous.

[white exec]

Sloughi . . . apparently a smooth-haired hound, originating in Morocco.
Gosh.

...and nothing to do with Citroen's 80-year presence on the famous Industrial Estate

[Zelandeth]

Annoyingly today I had barely any time to look at the cars, though I did drop the last two instruments into their holder on the Invacar when they arrived. Not wired up yet, but they look far better than the cheap modern tat I had previously in there.



Yes I'll clean all the finger prints off once the wiring has been done. I'll need to pull them out again to so that so it would be pointless doing it now.



Location seems a good blend between out of the way and clearly visible.



My garage is about a worst case scenario where reflections are concerned because of the lighting. If I have issues with that on the road I can adjust the angle of the bracket a bit as required.

Once I was finally released from my boring actual responsibilities I really was only left with just over half an hour of usable daylight to look at the BX. Based on yesterday's testing first task was to remove the fuel pump.



Pretty trivial to get to, all of those coolant lines nearby have enough give that you can push them out of the way as needed.

Five minutes later we had the pump off and in bits on the workbench.



Not too dirty actually. The diaphragm isn't as supple as I'd like but I've seen far worse still working. I couldn't actually find any cracks or pinholes in it.

After it was cleaned and put back into the car...absolutely nothing changed.

Best I can tell one of the valves is damaged or the diaphragm has a pinhole I can't detect. It just doesn't seem to be able to generate any decent pressure. I've checked again and can get a solid flow of fuel from the tank under vacuum, so this pump looks to be to blame.

I did note that the oil smells quite strongly of petrol, I had put that down initially to the reported miss and lack of a decent run in forever, but if the pump has been leaking internally that could also explain it.

If I'm not mistaken This looks to be the right part even though the body design is slightly different.

There is at least some electrical oddness going on too. The clock resets every time you turn the ignition off, so looks as though the permanent 12V feed for that has gone walkies somewhere. Also there's no side light position on the switch - first click takes it straight to dipped beam. Would have thought 84 would have been early enough to escape the need for dim/dip devices wouldn't it?

[bobins]

Is your fuel pump the same as this gen-u-wine Citroen one on Fleabay ?

BX fuel pump - eBay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Citroen-BX-1 ... 1909488000


Edit - cheaper non-genuine one for £18.05 if you get in before close of business tonight ?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fuel-Pump-fi ... 3844305997

[Zelandeth]

Is your fuel pump the same as this gen-u-wine Citroen one on Fleabay ?


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Citroen-BX-1 ... 1909488000


Edit - cheaper non-genuine one for £18.05 if you get in before close of business tonight ?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fuel-Pump-fi ... 3844305997

That's the one.

Have gone for the third party one for now - I've not had great luck with NOS things involving diaphragms in the past so figured we'd try this first.

[Gibbo2286]

Back in the distant past we were able to buy repair kits for those pumps, gaskets valves and diaphragm.

Test with a vacuum gauge on the intake side.

[Zelandeth]

I was determined that today the BX was going to run.

Borrowed the fuel pump from the Invacar.



This got a decent amount of fuel flowing through the filter. Still no interest in starting though. I did block off the return line just in case the pump was having issues with the return. No difference.

Pulling the top off the carb revealed we *did* actually have fuel in the float bowl which was progress from yesterday. I was able to blast a bit of gunk out of a few of the passages. There's definitely something amiss with the accelerator pump though... doesn't feel like the plunger is moving at all. So I'll need to pull the carb and do some detective work there. Hopefully I can find a decent exploded diagram so I don't need to reverse engineer it in my head.

Back together and we tried again. Result?



That's progress. Huge progress. She still dies if you give her any real throttle because there's no accelerator pump working, but other than that she seems happy enough. Bit of a miss now and then, but the fuel coming through the filter is the colour of weak black tea, so think we need to put a couple more gallons of fresh fuel in the tank before we read too much into that. No smoke whatsoever, no rattles, she sounds pretty good. Even though that puff from the front to mid exhaust join is going to drive my OCD mad now I've noticed it.

With the engine actually running I could check things out better. Clutch seems okay. Brakes (based on 3 feet of movement) are working.

Suspension comes up very quickly and settles down fine. Based on the regulator tick rate I think the accumulator sphere is fine. The bounce test seems to show the front spheres are fine...very floaty - the amount of travel is huge compared to the Xantia. The rear ones...not so much. No notable travel. We'll need some new spheres for the rear then.

Yeah, these have been on there for a while.



I was pretty happy with where we got to today. Meant I could move the car forward a couple of feet so she wasn't blocking the path.

Oh, and I put the wheel trims back on, which has vastly improved things.





This was the first time I was able in decent weather conditions to have a look at the car.

The bodywork on this car is (aside from the one obvious dent just forward of the nearside rear wheel which looks repairable) is astonishingly straight. Like ridiculously so. The lack of scrapes and dings just blows my mind.





I didn't realise that the front bumper is actually brown rather than beige!



I couldn't resist hitting one tiny bit with the polish. I reckon she's going to look decent once she's had a polish.



The exterior has an appointment with the pressure washer then a load of polish soon.













I knew I wasn't going to have time for that today though, had about an hour of daylight left at that point. That was plenty of time for a first shot at the interior though.

First order of business there was to get rid of the disintegrating slip covers on the seats. Front seats aren't in terrible condition under them, though they're grubby as all hell and the fabric has come away from the foam which is why they look so baggy.

After an hour or so, some attention with the vacuum cleaner and a first wipe down of the plastics this is where we were.











Still a huge amount to do but it's got rid of a lot of grime, and the dash looks so much better.

Did spot one area I'll need to break out the welder for though... hardly catastrophic though!



Only real grumble there will be the sheer amount of interior I'll need to dismantle to get to it without melting things.

Looks like the weather will be going downhill again tomorrow, if it does stay dry I'll try to get some exterior cleanup started.

Finally made a point of noting the paint code as well so I can get some made up for touch in purposes.



Quite happy with the progress so far.

Is it still possible to get a vehicle's "birth certificate" from the VIN these days and for such an old car? Does remind me that I really need to get the whole forum donation thing done again for part numbers etc...been meaning to do it for ages but I'll bet I'm going to need it going forward!

[CitroJim]

Zel, this is epic So enjoying reading this

[xantia_v6]

Zel, you may find http://www.bxclub.cz/files/pdf/carb3.pdf useful...

Also, be careful when ordering Citroen paint by paint code, in the mid 1990s they changed paint supplier and many of the colours changed slightly, but they kept using the same paint codes. For example Meteor grey (early) and Silex (storm) grey (later) are different colours but both have the code ETW.

There may not be a later formulation of GDY, but be aware.

[white exec]

There's some rather nice colour lurking under that paint oxidation.

The front bumper colour is a real surprise. I have vague recollection that BX bumpers were originally self-coloured, but that they later got painted in body colours. Our dark red ones (for a Delage red car) gradually acquired a pinkish surface as time went on, which no amount of cleaning really removed. I guess that's why factory decided to paint them.

IIRC, BX was effectively the last of the "long travel" hydraulic suspensions. Ours is quite impressive over elevated crossings and long speed ramps, leaving small hot-hatches having to brake, then catch up .

[RichardW]

Sounds good, usually the tappets rattle, as adjusting them is almost possible!!

Post up the Vin and I'll see if there's any info, it's pretty sketch that far back mind....

[white exec]

Yes, the VIN will be handy, not least to check the exact engine that's in the car.

Peter Russek did a manual specifically for the BX14...

Found one site offering a download of it, but unsure how good/safe:
https://books-now.com/book?isbn=9780907 ... rce=google