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

[Zelandeth]

Finally managed to find time to get the webpage for the BX live on my website yesterday.

I really wanted to get caught up on there as my intention is to keep updating it as things progress...which is far easier when I'm not playing catch-up! Nothing on there you've not seen on here as far as I'm aware aside from full resolution versions of all photos used.

Have also applied a bit of common sense and rearranged the list on the cars page so that they're listed by manufacture date rather than completely randomly (think I'd just added each new addition at the top originally) before.

Invacar will probably be the next one to go live - though my earlier comment about trying to get caught up applies there as there's a lot more pre-existing story that I need to get caught up on! Reckon I'm about 60% of the way through it so far.

[CitroJim]

Great web page Zel It must have taken days to put that lot together!

[Zelandeth]

Great web page Zel It must have taken days to put that lot together!

It is quite time consuming. Worst part is trying to find a decent chunk of time where I can just get stuck into it and have a workflow going. Always getting dragged away every half hour really slows things down as it takes ten minutes to figure out where I'd got to again so I don't wind up repeating myself. Especially where photos are concerned.

Future updates will be easier at least. Each one will probably just get it's resources stuffed in a subdirectory to make it easier to keep tabs on when updating the page - there are already the best part of 200 images involved so keeping track of which one goes where is a bit of a game.

[CitroJim]

Future updates will be easier at least.

Do you use any special editing tools Zel? Or is it all done by composing/editing the HTML by hand?

[Zelandeth]

Future updates will be easier at least.

Do you use any special editing tools Zel? Or is it all done by composing/editing the HTML by hand?

I could do it by hand...and occasionally do wrangle bits of it sometimes, but by and large it's put together these days just as it has been for about as long as I can remember by Microsoft FrontPage, circa 2002.

I just don't have the patience for hand coding HTML to be honest. Playing around with Z80 assembler, programming ladder logic into a PLC (still have a Mitsubishi F12 floating around here I need to find a use for...), sure, I'll even play about with 6502 machine code (even though I never quite got my head around how it handled memory addressing) Throwing web pages together though, nope! I've played about with a load of editors over the years, but much as I hate to give MS credit, FrontPage as shipped with Office XP just does what it says on the tin... it's a basic WYSIWYG editor without any *catastrophically* annoying issues. It also keeps tabs on all the relative file paths...which when I'm three or four layers deep in subdirectories I do appreciate.

To be fair, there's relatively little design work done day to day, that's why I took the time to make templates.

[CitroJim]

FrontPage 2002 - now there's a blast from the past I remember using that back in the day and great to know it's still earing its keep 20 years on!

I've tried various WYSIWYG editors over the years and just like you, I found them all wanting... Ended up doing all mine by hand...

[Zelandeth]

FrontPage 2002 - now there's a blast from the past I remember using that back in the day and great to know it's still earing its keep 20 years on!

I've tried various WYSIWYG editors over the years and just like you, I found them all wanting... Ended up doing all mine by hand...

It's basically the sole reason that there's a Windows 2000 VM on here, as Office XP refuses to play nicely with Wine (the next iteration along, 2003 works absolutely seamlessly...But they'd dropped FrontPage by then. The same functionality in theory being provided by Publisher). Though the VM starts up in less than a second so it's hardly a hardship!

I had kind of hoped that I would be clearly able to see where the LHM leak was coming from once the wheel was off the BX, however it obviously wasn't going to be that easy. For a start, the wheel required the six foot breaker bar to shift the wheel bolts. That's always a fun start to a job.

I reckon this line has to be the culprit.



Though I can't actually SEE the leak - there's a finely atomised mist of LHM being blasted at the floor directly above here when the brake pedal is pressed - I'm not daft enough to stick my fingers in there when the system is pressurised to see if I can feel it. Fact is we know it's on the brake circuit and it definitely appears that the leak is on the axle line rather than the body side, so that tells me which line needs replacing. Access will be an absolute pig I can see.

On the plus side, the rear of the sill looks to be in decent shape, and while there have clearly been repairs made to the rear of the boot floor I don't see anything which sends me running screaming.



No horrible crunching noises while I was jacking the car either which is always a plus!

Time for me to have a look and see if pre-made replacement lines exist...

Can I ask what to folks who have been working on these cars for years probably seems a really stupid question? Why is it that flare joints are such a no-no on the hydraulic systems on these cars? I'd not expect the working pressure to be any higher than in a conventional braking system when you stamp on the brake pedal...Yet they seem fine there. I'm just honestly curious.

[white exec]

I think that Citroen, having developed the bulge-and-sleeve joint for high-pressure (suspension) lines - system pressure i.r.o.170bar - simply used them pretty much right across the whole car, this one and others. The Citroen joint increases its resistance to leakage as the pressure increases, which is clever.

Avoid being tempted to use any of the 3.5mm compression 'repair' joints advertised on the web. These are inherently not suitable for steel pipelines, because any separate olive must be harder than the pipe, in order to embed itself. These olive joints are prohibited for vehicle brake use in the UK by MoT regulations.

[Zelandeth]

I think that Citroen, having developed the bulge-and-sleeve joint for high-pressure (suspension) lines - system pressure i.r.o.170bar - simply used them pretty much right across the whole car, this one and others. The Citroen joint increases its resistance to leakage as the pressure increases, which is clever.

Avoid being tempted to use any of the 3.5mm compression 'repair' joints advertised on the web. These are inherently not suitable for steel pipelines, because any separate olive must be harder than the pipe, in order to embed itself. These olive joints are prohibited for vehicle brake use in the UK by MoT regulations.

Makes sense, and yes the Citroen joints are a clever design. I was just curious as to why I'd heard exclamations of horror when folks had uncovered normal brake line style flare fittings used.

Don't worry, I'd never even consider taking a compression fitting anywhere near an automotive hydraulic system. Not *quite* as bad as finding a bit of fuel hose held on by about twenty jubilee clips on an air line on a HGV...but to my mind the degree of potentially fatal bodge they present is similar.

Yes, that "repair" I just described was one that I found in the real world. No, it wasn't just a "get it from one side of the yard into the workshop" type bodge either...The bus in question had a current MOT, and had been in service only days before. The repair looked like it had been there for years.

[RichardW]

Not done a BX, but the pipe appears to be similar to a Xantia - Chevronics have got them listed:

https://www.chevronics.co.uk/product/bx ... cba1185463
https://www.chevronics.co.uk/product/bx ... cba1185463

On a Xantia they are not as hard as they look! You could probably get the pipe cheaper from Eurocarcare or Plaedies, and wind your own spiral, plus it will be a bit easier to fit if it's Cunifer which is a bit more bendy.

[myglaren]

The GS had those too, and failed when I replaced a brake disc (and all the other pipes followed).
I gently wound it around the hub instead of doing the sensible thing and taking the hub off.
They don't seem to have increased in price as much as I expected - mine were £17 in 1983.

[Zelandeth]

Nice. Had hoped they'd be available pre-made, just hadn't got as far as looking yet.

Will probably buy both sides as if one has failed most likely the companion on the opposite side won't be in the first flush of youth either.

Edit: Wait...they want HOW much for shipping?!?

[mickthemaverick]

A lot cheaper to go and collect them yourself Zel, Hitchin is not toooo far from you!!

[white exec]

Those are international postal prices - surely don't apply to orders within the UK??

[Zelandeth]

Those are international postal prices - surely don't apply to orders within the UK??

That's kinda what I thought, but it's what the system spits out when entering our postcode. Might need to send an email.