09-04-2023, 07:51 PM (This post was last modified: 09-04-2023, 08:01 PM by AustinWood.)
(09-04-2023, 11:31 AM)Ruairidh Dunford Wrote: I have only just removed an original Ricardo head from the Ulster, because it was leaking on all four plugs! This gave incredibly lean running, which took ages to solve.
I have fitted a steel head which has immediately cured the issue and will ponder on a suitable repair that will ensure leak free running. The other original I have gave superb performance on the Chummy until it started to crumble…
Citroen 2CVs and CXs both have a habit of occasionally blowing sparkplugs out of their heads and leaving no thread in the head.
These are 14mm short reach plugs in an aluminium head.
They can be helicoiled and Citroen specialists can do this with the head in situ.
How do I know? It's happened to me twice, once in each variety of Citroen.
It's easy with practice!
I had a 1934 4-seat tourer on which the flywheel taper had been badly machined. The flywheel key sheared regularly.
When this happened I was able to remove the engine, replace the key and have it back in in 3/4 hour. There were no unnecessary bolts or nuts. eg radiator only held on by its hoses and the bonnet. Minimum number of bell housing nuts etc, and of course, much practice.
Went on to Oxfordshire Sevens where Hilda was treated to a gearbox transplant, fitting a close-ratio (22/29) gearbox from Andy Bird. Also changed the high-compression cylinder head for one which doesn't have worn (and leaky) core plug holes, and fitted a refurbished fuel gauge sender with new cork gasket, resulting in a working petrol gauge for the first time in 5 years
Yes it was! I was careful to remove it before fitting...
I was very pleased to find that the new gearbox is a great improvement: I now have to start off in 1st gear instead of usually using 2nd, and I can get up to about 45mph in 3rd if I want to. It's also quieter in the intermediate gears and we've stopped the rattle which was being transmitted up the gearlever.
(11-04-2023, 09:51 AM)David Cochrane Wrote: Yes it was! I was careful to remove it before fitting...
I was very pleased to find that the new gearbox is a great improvement: I now have to start off in 1st gear instead of usually using 2nd, and I can get up to about 45mph in 3rd if I want to. It's also quieter in the intermediate gears and we've stopped the rattle which was being transmitted up the gearlever.
That's good to hear David. I've built up a box with the same ratios for my Nippy but the rest of the car has a way to go yet so I haven't had a chance to try it.
I didn’t know the event was on at Stratton, it’s ten minutes down the lane from my place and I would have loved to go along and you would have had two box saloons!
Oh well, back to the household maintenance, hanging 13 new doors...
11-04-2023, 03:00 PM (This post was last modified: 11-04-2023, 03:03 PM by Reckless Rat.)
I had a run to the filling station (supermarket) after lunch to fill the RP prior to my run out this coming Sunday. Carrefour were out of petrol, both E10 95 and E5 98 so I went along the road to Intermarché where they only had diesel and E10. Filled the car up with E10 (as usual). It must have been nearly dry because it took just over 17 litres. There is still some degree of fuel shortage here in the Gard, but deliveries seem to be getting through and there's no panic buying. We did have a situation over a week or so ago where you could only draw a maximum of 30 litres, but that seems to have been abandoned. There was no-one on the pumps, only me, but it was just after lunch.
Then had a tootle along the Cèze valley to Bessèges and then back over the Col de Trelis where near the summit there was a crowd of people staring at a modern that was in the ditch. No idea how the driver managed to get it there, it was on a straight piece of road on an uphill gradient... whatever. I did think about offering to help them pull it out but there were enough people there. The Gendarmerie had been and gone. (I passed them on the way up the climb).
I did try to have a listen to my "quiet" gearbox on the way round but couldn't hear anything due to the noise from everything else. It'll do. Diff is pretty quiet too. All seems in order for Sunday, although driving about will take second place to eating drinking and being merry and not worrying about what's happening in Paris or anywhere else, as is per normal round here.
