Another Schoolboy Error

Ha! It's sometimes the simple things that catch us (me) out.....My petrol tank isn't fitted yet. So for my shakedown testing, I connected a long fuel hose to the fuel pump and  dropped the end into a fuel can. As well as being a necessity, the other benefit is that I'm only buying and using a few litres of fuel at a time - less chance of it going stale.

Now. the hose is long so that the fuel can can be some distance from the car. When not in use I hung the fuel hose up over some copper pipe at ceiling level. That way, any fuel left in the hose would drain towards the pump - rather than dribble out on the floor. It looks like a hospital drip.

Anyway, the 'patient' was doing well and I was pleased with testing so far. With the fuel hose being long, I was particularly surprised that it took only a few presses on the starter to pump fuel through and for the engine to catch. But not today! I went through my new routine:

• I took the battery of charge and put it into the engine bay.
• I connected the battery terminals
• I dropped the end of my fuel hose in the can
• I turned the engine over a couple of times
• i connected up my 'kill switch' that provides current to the coil
• I pulled out the choke and got ready to 'blip' the throttle rod under the bonnet.

After many presses of the starter, the engine still wasn't catching. I worried about flattening the battery and /or flooding the engine and so stopped for some head scratching and basic checks....

• The battery seemed healthy and had been happy turning the starter
• I checked I had fuel in the fuel can. Yes
• I checked that the hose extended far enough into the fuel can. Yes.
• I checked the electrical connections to and from the coil. All good.
• I checked for a spark on the HT lead to the coil. Bright and sharp.
• I removed the distributor cap and checked the rotor and plug gaps. Nothing untowards there
• i checked the HT leads were tightly connected. All okay.
• I pulled the plugs. They were not sodden, but were sooty - so got a clean.
• I checked for a spark on the HT leads - OK.
• I checked the gaps - they were fine.

I put everything back together and it STILL wouldn't start. It was really puzzling as it had run fine the day before. I began to fear that this  - now the engine was back in the car - was the first of many annoying niggles to come. The kind of niggles that go hand-in-hand with running a classic car. 

I decided that I needed to come away and have a proper think about this, so I started to pack up. And that's when I found it!

NOTE TO SELF: remember to remove the F'ing bung....

I'd forgotten that - to stop fuel vapour getting out, and dirt getting in - I'd decided to fit a bung to the open end of the fuel hose. I'd dunked the end in the fuel can but hadn't removed the bung!!! No fuel flow, no start.......

Problem solved! With the bung removed I went back to testing and the car started just fine. I don't think that's a mistake I'll be making again. I'm sure there will be plenty of other mistakes to make along the line.

Radiator Fitting and Shakedown Testing 1

It's been a LONG time since the engine was fired up in the car.  It could be as long ago as September 2014. You can read about that HERE.

I still have plenty of work to do and plenty of bits to fit but, after all this time, I just can't wait to get the car running again and see how it behaves. At the very least, I want to get some oil circulating. For the moment I've just connected up the radiator so that i can keep the engine cool while it runs.

Testing begins!

I can't test the hydraulics at this point. For a start, I need to fit the steering rack and replace to torn/ worn gaiters on the rear suspension. And I haven't fitted the reservoir and other hoses yet. 

Do you remember when they were going to phase out leaded fuel back in 1999? DS drivers didn't know whether their valve seats would survive the use of unleaded fuel and there were concerns about cars overheating. Back then my car was off the road and I took the opportunity to get my radiator re-cored with a new triple core - just to improve the cars cooling system once it was running on unleaded. Unfortunately the car only did a few more road miles before it went into a long hibernation. A hibernation it's only now coming out of 23 years later...... 

For some strange reason- and despite the costs and effort that were involved in getting back to this point, I'd always clung to the positive that my radiator had been re-cored and that was one job i didn't have to do. The reality though was a bit different. Despite only having been used for a few miles, during it's lay up between 1999 and 2014, it had really furred up!

Despite (or because of?) little use, the radiator was furred-up

A few years ago I tried many different chemicals to try and clean it out. Blocking the in/ out hose feeds as best i could, I tried filling it with caustic soda, citric acid, a solution of soda crystals. I tried hot liquids, I tried cold liquids. Some of the white deposits dissolved (a little) but I didn't find anything that really took it back to spotlessly clean.

I'd bought two new anti-vibration rubbers to go under the radiator feet. And prior to refitting the radiator, i replaced the cage for the cage nuts on the feet. Over the years any radiator spills gather at the feet and the cages rust. Mine were so  weakened that the cages were beginning to turn with the nuts when you tried to tighten a bolt against them. New cages and nuts can be bought from there usual places and, with a spot welder, replacing them was just a few moments work. 

New nut cages for the radiator feet

I straightened out a few bent fins and gave the radiator a spray of satin black paint. The metal pipe on my bottom radiator connection had rusted - and you can imagine where that rust had gone: into my cooling system. I'd bought a good secondhand replacement but - in the end - decided to buy a modern stainless steel one (which I vainly painted black).

Radiator bottom hose was corroded on the end.....

.......and internally

Fitting the radiator is straightforward - at least in terms of the number of connections. Fitting the lower hose was awkward as one end fits to the bottom of the water pump hidden away under the alternator. I had to remove the alternator to make that hose connection. 

I anticipated removing the radiator to fit the steering rack and other belts at some points so just used jubilee clips at this point. Even with jubilees, it proved quite tricky accessing the worm gear to tighten them up. The other end of the bottom radiator connection - the one on the radiator - is just as awkward: it's difficult to get a hose clip on at the right angle so that you can tighten it. especially when the aluminium surround is in place

Lower radiator hose is designed to curve over the steering rack

I cleaned up the thermostat for the top hose. I drilled a 2mm hole through it to prevent air locks - though when i looked carefully there was already a deliberate little 'nick' around the edge of the valve that stopped it sealing 100% and so allowed air past.

Thermostat before......

.....and after cleaning.

By suspending it over a pan of heating water I tested that it still worked.

Thermostat suspended in a pan of water

 It began to open at 79 degrees.......

Thermostat beginning to open (notice the bypass hole i drilled)

.......and by 85 degrees was well open.

Thermostat open

I don't know if that counts as 'fully' open but I judged that a success - although 79 degrees is a little higher than the manuals suggest for a DS thermostat so may buy a new one. However for the moment it will have to do, so I refitted it in my top hose.

The only drive belts I fitted were the matched pair between camshaft pulley, water pump and alternator. The alternator wasn't connected to anything else and I'd read (and hoped it was correct!) that it would not be damaged and would still charge. I will find out in due course.

It will need to come off again when the steering rack goes on, so I just temporarily fitted my battery tray. I've not fitted the dashboard so don't have the ignition key fitted. Instead I rigged up a wire directly from the battery positive to the coil. In lieu of an ignition key, I made an emergency 'kill switch'. Okay, okay - it was just a tagged bullet connection in the ignition wire by the coil,  but it enables me to quickly cut the engine in an emergency.

Emergency "kill switch" on the ignition wire.....

 My petrol tank isn't fitted yet. (There is some work to do there......)

Evidence of mice in the fuel tank area...

.....so i just supplied fuel to the carburettor from a can. I splashed out and bought five ltires of 99 RON from a local ESSO station. I reasoned that if the fuel started to go off, I could add it to the fuel of our daily drive car and use it up that way.

I filled the cooling system with the Penrite coolant I'd bought at Citroen Classics. I was pleased to find that the car took the full 10 litres without too much trouble and 'burping' to remove airlocks. At last it was time to test!

SHAKEDOWN TESTING

All things considered, initial testing went very well thank you. It was VERY satisfying. Here's a summary:

• The starter engaged. 

• The  pump pulled fuel and the engine started without much difficulty.

• some initial and alarming burning from the exhaust manifold. This was just the WD40 used to stop it flash-rusting burning off....

• No other obvious exhaust leaks and the Exhaust paste hardened up as the exhaust warmed up.

• A VERY loud and alarming rattle from the top end. Oh no! Turned out this was just the oil filer lid rattling (see video below). I'd already replaced the rubber seal on my good cap with one from a broken cap but it was still ver hard. I have found that modern replacements are available so I'll need to buy another seal.

• The engine warmed up and eventually the thermostat opened up. After a while i found a slight weep from the hose connection under the alternator and also around the bottom corner of the radiator nears its bottom join.

• The engine ran smoothly - though too fast when it settled down to idle.

• I turned on the heater valve and hot coolant flows through the hoses. No obvious leaks from the valve or its connections.

• I found a strange coolant drip on the block underneath the exhaust manifold. This was a BIG worry as i feared it meant I'd cracked the block when fitting the head. Investigation with a mirror and endoscope shows that the leak is coming from  a small round hole above where any crack might be. That's kind of reassuring Kind of....Further investigation is needed.

• I also have a very minor weep coming from the corner of the cylinder head near the distributor. That also needs some investigation. I hope I don't have to find a new head.

Here's a video of my testing so far.

VIDEO: shakedown testing - smoky manifold

And another......

VIDEO: Shakedown testing - rattling oil filler cap

And a final one.

VIDEO: shakedown testing - just for the joy of it

All in all, I'm very happy. I'll have to do further testing of course, and need to see how those leaks pan out.......

Fitting The Exhaust System

I'm not ready to do a proper test of the car as I still have a lot of work to do checking and fitting the hydraulic system. but I am ready (itching in fact) to do some prolonged testing of the engine now it's back in the chassis. Until this point, i'd only run the engine for a matter of seconds as I hadn't fitted the radiator and cooling system. Unfortunately, further testing means I need to fit the radiator and an exhaust.

Front silencer fitted

The first problem was that i didn't have an exhaust system! The rear silencer had rusted away to a nothing and I'd had to hack it to off with a saw when the engine came out of my chassis about eight years ago. The front silencer was removed when i painted the underside of the car. it was in better shape but still on it's last legs.

Even before the engine went back in the car, I'd started to half-heartedly prepare the front silencer hangers. They were quite rusty but cleaned up well. I was able to reuse the square/ oblong rubber blocks that clamp the arm to the crescent-shaped brackets, but the pairs of bolts set into rubber blocks were worn, rusted and bent and so I used new ones.

Hanger for front exhaust box

Oh. I also found a bit I'd been looking for for ages. it was driving me nuts.... see the little bracket arrowed in this photo?

That arrowed bit is one of the brackets that holds the long tube under the car. you know - the tube that holds the cable that is part of the light dipping mechanism. Anyway, that bracket fits right up by the front exhaust silencer. It doubles as a bolt to hold the exhaust hanger bracket on - which is why I'd squirrelled it away with the exhaust parts. 

Maybe it's the shape it is to allow some flexing in the tube?? i'm not really sure about that.....

Back to my exhaust.....I gave Citroen Classics a call and they had exhaust systems in stock. I just went for a mild steel system. For a start it's cheaper, but i also heard that the stainless systems kind of sound 'different'......

I already had a spare flexi-pipe and as my car is a Pallas, I bought a front box, two straight pipes, a back box and a hanging kit. As well as the exhaust system (and with engine start-up in mind) I also decided to buy a 20 litre drum of Penrite premixed engine coolant. All together, these are big and heavy things. Rather than wait for them to be posted I decided to nip down the M1 and M25 and collect the bits from them that same day. 2 hours later I was standing in Citroen Classics new parts depot by the river. And 2 hours after that, the booty was back in my garage.

Booty!

It was probably at about this point (or more likely the drive home) that I realised that before I could fit the exhaust, i needed to tidy up the front silencer hangers and polish the exhaust heat shields.....

The main shield is big. Very big. And took a lot of cleaning and polishing. It's large but lightweight (and dished) and proved very tricky to both hold down AND polish without bending it out of shape. While both sides got a clean, only the concave surfaces of the shields facing the exhaust were polished. I reasoned that they were the sides that did all the work -  reflecting heat away from the car.

Exhaust heat shields polished. Awkward buggers.....

Fitting the shields was tricky. for each of the bolts holding the shields in place there is, between the shield and the chassis is a fibre washer (if they haven't crumbled away to nothing). Crawling under the car, it proved very difficult to hold the shield up, slip a bolt through a hole, match a fibre washer to the blind side AND then locate the bolt in it's designated hole in the chassis: the fibre washers kept moving and not being bolted in place......In the end I decided to glue the washers in place on the back of the shields. That showed 'em.

At last it was time to fit the exhaust. I started at the front and worked back.

Front silencer parts - 1966 to 1969

First things first. The collar-like clamp that joins the front end of the flexi-pipe to the exhaust manifold downpipe attaches to the bracket on the sump. I guess it stops the downpipes vibrating. the thing to note is that there are at least two different kinds of those collars. On the collars for cars prior to September 1968 (so from the 10969 model year) the caged nut can move up and down the bracket.

Pre 1968: caged nut moves up and down

On cars from September 1968 onwards, the caged nut is such that the nut can ACROSS the bracket......

From 1968: caged nut moves across bracket

These differences might not seem very relevant - but they relate to changes to the support part on the sump/ block that the bracket attaches to. The pre 68 support (part 13 in the diagram earlier in this post) has a sideways slot. The post September 68 support (part 14 in the diagram) has an up and down slot.....The correct pairing of bracket and support gives both up, down and sideways adjustment.

Post September 1968 support

Another change from september 1968 is that cars have a small stabilising bracket.....for the bracket. It's part 12 in the diagram and looks like this.

My bracket had a stress fracture in its fold (and so did the second hand replacement I picked up). I welded that up and hope it will hold.

Now my car is pre-september 1968 so SHOULD have parts 11 and 13, but has somehow ended up with parts 12 and 14. Still with me? Suffice to say that I bought a clamp for a POST September 1968 car.... When fitted, it looked like this. You can just about make it out....

Downpipe to flexi-pipe join

I used Holts exhaust assembly paste on all the joints - especially where the flexi-pipe fits onto the down pipe on the engine as that was quite pitted. I used a trolley jack to raise the front silencer into its approximate position and then loosely bolted the two side brackets to the chassis to hold it in place.

Mounting bracket for front silencer

The two long pipes were clamped to the back end of the front silencer (more assembly paste).  The front ends of the twin pipes are angled and have flanges welded to them.

Angled ends on long pipes

Care is needed to fit them to the front silencer so that are parallel to each other AND provide a gas-tight seal. 

With the long pipes fitted at one end, the rear silencer was fitted to the other ends and again i used a trolley jack to raise it so that i could fit its strap/ bracket in place on the chassis. and that is where I hit my snag......

The bracket/ strap needs to go over the mouths of the rear silencer holes to hold the long pipes in place. Except that if it was lined up in that way, it was out of alignment with the bolt holes on the chassis? I couldn't get both bolts to fit without potentially cross threading one of them and/ or putting excessive strain on the strap. The best i could manage was where the clamp covered the join of the pipes to the rear silencer. it didn't really seal and the silencer was touching the underside of the car - rather than hanging.

The hanging bracket was out of alignment and under strain

If the bracket/ strap was lined up with the chassis bolt holes, then it only aligned to the two long pipes. it didn't clamp on the rear silencer at all. That wasn't enabling a gas-tight seal.

Bracket straight but not on the rear silencer

The only way I could get the strap clamp to align with the chassis bolt holes AND to clamp around pipes and rear silencer was if the rear silencer was brought forward slightly..... To achieve this, I cut about an inch of each of the long pies at their rear ends.

It was very difficult trying to get a socket on the nuts of this bracket and a spanner on the bolt end. especially laying on my back under the car. And i had to put-on and remove that bracket several times....Anyway, this is what i ended up with.

End result

The strap/ bracket thing is bolted in a straight line and is around the mouths of the rear silencer and the two long tubes.

That seems to have sorted that. However the other thing i'm not happy with is the final bracket/ strap that hangs down under the left rear wing and holds the angled and bevelled ends of the exhaust pies. The bracket didn't align laterally with the two pipes! 

Another lack of alignment.......

The angled pipes are part of the rear silencer. I need to get out a slide rule, protractor and compass to check, but I suspect the lack of alignment is at least partly because i shortened the twin pipes and brought the rear silencer (and it's tail pipe bend) forward so that the pipes kick out sooner. But what is one meant to do? Fit the back hanger correctly but not the middle hanger? Fit the middle hanger correctly but not the back? I'm too tired to worry about it now. i want to get on with some engine testing. I'll look at a few cars at the next d rally and see how everyone else has done it.

UPDATE (November 2023)

With my engine testing, i'm finding that I have a moisture drip at the front of the rear silencer - where I shortened the two long pipes. I don't think the pipe shortening has anything to do with it.  That should have improved the pipe seal. I think things are going to have to come apart and see if more exhaust sealing paste is going to to get used. I may even decide I need to buy two new long pipes - but they are relatively cheap.

I'm also disappointed to say that I've discovered rust on my front silencer brackets already - and the car has only been sitting in the garage. This must surely say something about my preparation before painting - but i also have a vague memory of cutting a corner (in my haste to get the exhaust system fitted) and using a cheap can of of Halfraurds black rattle paint on those parts.

Rust already....

If I need to remove the exhaust again to tackle that rear silencer bracket, I can repaint these parts at the same time.

Fitting The Parking Brake Cable And Springs

Before the big bolts holding the parking brake units to the bellhousing  are tightened, the parking brake cable should first be fitted. I fitted my calibers when the engine was out of the car - so couldn't do that (see my post HERE). Now the engine was back in, it was cable time.

Compressing the springs can be quite fiddly. Or daunting. Or both. The reason for this is that there are two strong springs that need to be compressed ald located in lugs on the levels: compressing the springs AND locating the cable and springs require more than two hands. And nerves of steel.

 

I'd watched a Youtube video of a DS engine being removed and a very handy valve spring compressor had been used to compress the parking brake springs.

Using a valve spring compressor (image credit Steve Hammond/ BerjFilms)

It wasn't a typical 'G' or 'C' clamp and I couldn't find a valve tool quite like that one. When I removed the springs, I had just used mole grips as they - at least - were adjustable and had a locking action. The problem was, that they simply gripped and tried to compress one side of the spring - meaning it curved and distorted. The mole grips were also heavy and, in laying them down, were prone to slip off the springs. I say 'slip'. What I mean is that the spring maliciously, violently and hell-bent on causing injury, jumped out of the jaws.

So what's the alternative and why didn't I use it? The Citroen manuals  shows a cheap and easy tool for holding the two spings in place while they are correctly located: a collar with two strong split pins to hold the spring in a compressed state.

The idea is the you fit the collars when you are removing the springs and they are already in a compressed state. The holes for the split pins needs to go through the coils of the spring, but are positioned  so that the cable can still be slid out. Do they work?

 

Yes they can do. Here is one in action.

Spring collar in action (photo credit unknown)

You can see that the split pins have to be positioned to leave enough room for the cable - but also need to 'catch' the spring edge. It's a delicate balance and some people had reported that their springs also tore loose - just as mine did with mole grips. To me, they look about as safe as a loose pin in a hand grenade.

 

These days you can buy a tool that compresses the springs quite easily......

The '1577-T' reference above suggests that this tool was originally an official workshop tool made by Fenwick and available to Citroen garages/ dealers, however I've not yet seen it listed in old Fenwick catalogue from back in the day. The manuals are full enough of of photos of other specialised and obscure tools. If this was the workshop tool of choice, why would the workshop manuals include the collar clamp thing instead of these?  They even give measurements and plans for how to make the collar-typre tool.

Measurements for making the simple 'sleeve' tool

 Anyway, here's Adie Pease using the 'proper' tool.

Tool 1577-T in action (image credit Fly-On-The-Wall/ Peacock Productions)

Note how Adie is also having to use mole grips to pull the cable loose of the cleat in the brake arm. That's because there is a second spring on the brake arms on the other side of the car - and so that pulls the cable back even though the first spring is compressed. A plus of this tool is that it has a little metal hook to clamp the handle ends together. and free-up a hand. Another plus is that the business ends of the arms are machined to locate on the spring ends, and the long handles make easy work of compressing the spring. 

Note the jaws of the tool (image credit Fly-On-The-Wall/ Peacock Productions)

 Given the size, these scissor tools are expensive. Especially considering how often you are likely to use them, and for how long they are actually used/ needed. Given the cost and use I'd get from them, I'd also found (through Googling) that you can buy a tool to compress the door springs of certain General Motors vehicles....

 Here is the principle of how they work. 

I was attracted to it because it held the spring squarely on its ends - which I reasoned would compress it squrely, and significantly  reduce the chance of the DS spring twisting and jumping free. It could be tightened slowly and carefully via the bolt and looked sturdy enough to hold the spring compressed with out any real effort. It even had a notch in it's arms - which could accomodate the cable passing through the spring. This looked to be suitable for the task on a DS parking brake cable. 

 

They were cheap, but at the time they weren't available in the UK. However it still worked out cheaper to buy one of these from the USA than to buy the scissor tool here! here is the one I bought many years ago - way back in 2016(!) - in anticipation of this DS task.

As hoped, the tool is of the right scale to tackle DS parking brake springs. You can see how much the spring is compressed in this photo.

The tool was effective at compressing the spring

I also found that I could replace the tightening bolt with a longer one - meaning the arms could be spread so that they encompassed more of the springs length. The two arms are folded to add strength and that means they hold the springs well. And the notches in the arms leave room for the springs.

The tool will allow for a brake cable through the spring

Fast forward to 2023 and, by chance, Peter Bremner - also baulking at the cost of the proper tool - decided he fancied having a go at making himself a pair of the scissor-type himself. I supplied him with a few photos to help with his design and he set to work. As a 'thank you' he gave me a pair he had made. Here they are.

You can see how much bigger they are than the GM door spring tool I bought. They might look a bit rudimentary compared to the shop-sold version, but are good enough for the job they need to do. And, importantly, Peter included the recess on each arm to locate over the spring more effectively.Plus the business ends of the arms are better angled so that they are parallel when closed over a spring and hold it straight - so there is less temptation for it to 'ping' out.

 

 I used the GM Door spring tool and Peters copy of the 'scissor' tool to put my springs on. 

Peter's copy tool in action

Both work, but I think Peter's tool had the edge for simplicity and ease of use. However if you can't make, or afford to buy the scissor tool, the GM tool is a good, cheap option. These days the GM door spring tools I bought is widely (and cheaply) available in the UK. Not sure why!