The Lay Up (Part 1)

The Lay Up

After driving the car for a couple of years, I'd noticed that the gear change was becoming 'snatchy' and I'd failed to correct this to my satisfaction - despite much tinkering with the centrifugal regulator and CRC unit. On 1 November 1998 I set out in the car. I changed gear. There was a lurch and then a 'bang'. The car rolled to a halt. Although the engine ran, there was no power to the gearbox.

Doctor Chevrons - 1999

Although I only lived around the corner, I elected to have the nice RAC man recover the car to Doctor Chevrons garage over near Soham in Cambridgehire: a hidden world of rusting donor Ds and buried treasure. Mick Groombridge diagnosed (see what I did there?) that the drive shaft to the gearbox had sheared because of the excessive clutch snatch. Apparently it's a sacrificial part and is designed to shear in favour of other more catastrophic damage. The bottom line was that the engine would have to come out..... That kind of work and mechanical understanding was beyond me and couldn't be undertaken on the highway outside my house anyway. That's why I'd had it recovered to Mick's in the first place. And so my car joined a long line of Citroens waiting for attention at Doctor Chevrons.

I drew up a list of other things to be done while the engine was out. Timing chain replacement new clutch, that kind of thing. I waited for ages for the work to get underway. The debate about the use of unleaded fuel was raging with uncertainty over whether a DS could cope, or would need hardened valve seats fitting. If Ds needed to be modified in some way - then this was the time for my car. This delayed any start to the work my car until there was a consensus that Ds had 'lead memory'. I visited my D occasionally and noted how grubby and run down the engine looked. I had a half-hearted go at cleaning the engine bay while the engine was out.

Engine And Gearbox Out: Doctor Chevrons - 1999

The Car ended up being with Doctor Chevron for several years before it was finally worked on and repaired. As well as a timing belt change and re-cored radiator, Mick dropped in a different low mileage gearbox - but it hadn't been fully road-tested. He still wasn't happy with the clutch take up - despite fitting a refurbished CRC unit from Pleiades over in nearby Sawtry. To this day the CRC unit remains suspect and joins the list of things to be investigated as part of this restoration.

A lot had gone on while the car was with Doctor Chevron. I'd moved house - and town. Moving from Bedford I was now living in Winslow and was lucky enough to have a 25ft garage, 1 1/2 cars wide. I set the garage up with a long sturdy workbench at the far end and loose car parts stored underneath it. With the luxury of this new garage space, and the car already having been off the road so long, I decided that I needed to do a fuller restoration on the car before I put it back on the road - starting with roof removal as part of a planned body respray. The car was trailered back to Winslow (with a couple of spare gearboxes as compensation for the delay and as insurance in case the one fitted was duff) on 16 June 2001 and I pulled the roof. Being a 1968 car, it had the bolt-on roof and while the crimped edge on the fibreglass showed a few signs of rust, overall it was very, very good. Progress was slow. I removed the aluminium air scoop and gave it a clean. by 2002 had I got as far as stripping and priming the cant rail, 'C' pillars and roof edge before events took a turn. The bits I removed were stored in boxes, ready for the expected rebuild. A change of circumstances early in the year saw me leaving Winslow and returning to my native Bedford.