Help, major LMH leak after sphere renew

clivetheitman · Post by **clivetheitman** » 12 Oct 2004, 03:11

replaced the rear spheres on my BX16 txi on saturday all went smoothly and ride was excelent. did some further citrobics on sunday to clear any remaining air in the system and lo and behold the front octopus pipes failed, LMH runing all over the place. spent monday daytime trying to track down what pipe failed and splice in new piping. after finding three pipes leaking due to the rubber pipes hardening with age and cracking I have decided to replace the entire octopus assy. has anyone done this before and have they any advice on how long and how dificult a job this is keeping in mind I do not have a garage so its all outdoors work and only limited tools and no experiance of this type of work, or can someone suggest someone local to my location (jcn 25 m25 / broxbourne hertfordshire ) who could do this for me without breaking the bank ( the car only cost £100 of ebay a couple of months ago )

oilyspanner · Post by **oilyspanner** » 12 Oct 2004, 04:57

Ramps and double jointed elbows, combined with some swearing should do it.
Stewart

pwatson · Post by **pwatson** » 12 Oct 2004, 05:07

Have a look at this http://citroenz.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=327
But also note that when I did it on my BX several years ago I didn't shift the engine but did remove off side drive shaft which made access much easier - (almost) impossible to do without moving engine or removing driveshaft - and swearing a lot!!.
If you do a search for "octopus" there are other helpful tips on this site

JohnD · Post by **JohnD** » 12 Oct 2004, 10:47

I did mine outside - just not sufficient room and light in the garage. You'll need around four or five hours to complete what is a very dirty job. Unlike PWatson, I didn't go for the driveshaft removal. I took off the top engine mount, raised the engine and at the same time, let it roll forward. Use the 'search' for loads of other help.

bxbodger · Post by **bxbodger** » 12 Oct 2004, 15:36

If you don't have the time or inclination to do it yourself there's a bloke on Sedge Green Rd (at the Harlow end of Dobbs Weir Road) who breaks Xantias, 405's, and BX's (mainly Xantias now the BX is getting uncommon....) and also does work on them- I haven't used him myself because I do my own stuff, so I can't say what he's like for price/quality!!
Unfortunately I don't have the phone number, but if you go looking its not hard to spot-just look for the Xantias and 405's in one of the nursery yards.

clivetheitman · Post by **clivetheitman** » 12 Oct 2004, 18:22

Thanks for the info guys. hope the weather holds ok for the weekend so I can get this job sorted. I may pop over to to see the guy at sedge green as well, as it is only about 5 miles from my home and the old war horse diesel BX could do with some TLC soon, which is why I bought the petrol TXI, so I could take the diesel off the road for a major restore. its just typical of citroens just when you finish fixing one thing on them the next item in the chain busts.[:(]

jonathan_dyane · Post by **jonathan_dyane** » 12 Oct 2004, 23:00

Hi Clive, commiserations, it's a bit of a bugger. I guess those citaeobics must have finished it off...
Here's how I did it:
Car with front wheels on ramp.
1) Slacken driveshaft nut then jack drivers front wheel off ramp and remove. Support properly with axle stands.
2) Break bottom ball joint (you'll need a ball joint splitter, very handy and IIRC about £11) and manoever out driveshaft after slackening the L bolt thingys..
3) Working from underneath remove the lower engine mount and unbolt the combined driveshaft support bearing and lower engine mount.
4) There is now *just* enough room to manouver to replace the octopus. I put a masking tape label on each pipe as I removed it so I knew what I'd pulled it off from. It helps having the new octopus to hand so you can see the shape of the thing. I had to cheat as I could not get the clear plastic pipes which go to the rear back into the octopus due to access and my hand size, I cut them off about a foot further back, where you could get to them, and rejoined with spare pipe after fitting the octopus with the cut-off pipes attatched...
Hope this helps,

wrinklet1 · Post by **wrinklet1** » 13 Oct 2004, 15:20

Clive, I did it on my old BX, I made a drawing of the octopus pipes and marked each pipe and what if came of on the drawing. Its not a hard job to do.
One big tip I would give you is to gunk the engine and underneath and power wash it. Do that the day before you start the job, that way you wont get wet through.
Good Luck
Paul