Look. I know I keep writing that everything at the moment is a 'milestone' - but this really WAS a milestone. The reservoir is so visual. Getting that big green reservoir back into the car, suddenly made it look like a proper DS again.
My car - and so my reservoir - is from one of the first couple of years after LHM was introduced. There were still many, many LHS-filled cars on the roads so the reservoirs were painted green to distinguish them from the earlier back reservoirs used with LHS fluid and to stop errant garages topping up the systems with LHM.
Additionally, they had BIG yellow labels on top inviting the filler to 'see instruction book'.
 |
| Warning notice on my reservoir |
But there was no specific mention of LHM there, nor on the writing on the side of the reservoir. If an owner/ driver, the crucial information was all in the glove box book.....
 |
| 1968 French owners manual |
 |
| UK 1967 owners manual |
Or if a garage, in the repair manual.
 |
| Warning in the workshop repair manual |
But who was going to bother to check? Perhaps that's why - for the first couple of years after the introduction of LHM - new cars also had a BIG tag hung on the reservoir saying 'LHM'......
 |
| LHM 'warning tag' by the sight tube on a 1967 car (credit: Citrowagon site) |
 |
| Just visible on this highly original 1967 car |
 |
| Tag as seen in a 1968 sales brochure (credit: Citrowagon) |
 |
| Modern addition on this 1969 car? |
Perhaps those paper labels were an after-thought as there are also different 'top labels' that DO specifically mention LHM. Perhaps these were fitted to later reservoirs?
 |
| Clear LHM warning label by the filler cap |
Anyway, Citroen really did try VERY hard to help people avoid mishaps.
 |
| LHM warning label for US cars...... |
 |
| .....and Italian market cars |
But still LHM cars got filled with LHS or brake fluid (or oil, or screen wash......) wth costly results. You'd think that - 56 years after the change - there'd be no more mistakes, but there are still reports of failed parts removed from cars that are found to have been run with the wrong hydraulic fluid.....
Later cars still had the warning labels, but the reservoirs were unpainted and just had a simple 'mini'/ 'maxi' label. While completely accurate for the time, they are a bit of a disappointment under the bonnet - especially when they begin to rust.
 |
| Later cars were supplied with unpainted reservoirs |
For this reason, People paint, or re-paint their reservoirs green. The first problem with this is finding *just* the right green paint colour. The second problem is the lettering. You can buy stickers that reproduce the lettering.
 |
| After-market reservoir label (photo credit: Der Franzose) |
These don't look bad at all - but you can see that they are stickers rather than direct printing because of the border around the edges. And they must be quite awkward to fit around the ribs on the reservoir body. Some people have gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid the 'sticker look'.
 |
| Individual letters! (credit: Mathieu Dutre) |
 |
| (Credit: Mathieu Dutre) |
And I think Alex reprint the wording on his reservoir. No sticker marks!
 |
| Printed lettering (credit: Alex Zivanovic) |
Printing is no mean feat. You can read about my similar efforts to replace the wording on my air cleaner HERE.
Incidentally I noticed that there seems to be some variation in where the 'mini' and 'maxi' marks are found on original reservoirs. And the distance between them. On some reservoirs the 'maxi' mark seems to be just below the rib of the reservoir, while on others the marks are considerably lower - and 'mini' and 'maxi' are closer together.
 | |
|
I had wondered whether the difference in fluid level markers might be due to whether a car was bvh or manual. But in the photo here there are reservoirs with six bottom inlets (bvh) and five inlets (bvm) - and the mini/ maxi labels are at the same levels and distances. And they differ from the five-inlet unpainted tank.
I'd have thought that positioning was quite important so that you don't get a false (unsafe) level reading? I'm only aware of one type of after-market 'mini'/ 'maxi' sticker for unpainted reservoirs being for sale and that appears to be the narrow type.
 |
| Narrow mini/ maxi marks? (Credit: Der Franzose) |
In contrast, the big sticker with wording intended for green tanks (earlier photo above) has the higher level marks and bigger gap between them. So if you paint an unpainted tank and add that big sticker or the small sticker..... you potentially give a false level to your mini/ maxi marks? Maybe......
I'm just fitting my reservoir as it is.
 |
| My LHM reservoir |
It's been carefully stored away for a number of years. It has the odd scratch here and there and what looks like an attempt to paint over a scratch at some point.
 |
| A few scratches - but I'm content |
I think that scratches on the top tend to happen because it's tempting to use the reservoir as a table for bolts, washers and spanners.
 |
| Handy table top (credit: Stephen Leech) |
And the marks on the side can get caused when the reservoir is moved out of the way to remove the engine or for other major work.
I know that has certainly been the case with my car and reservoir.
 |
| My car - March 2000 |
I see all of these marks as battle scars and love it just the way it is. I've got no intention of repainting it. It would never quite look original.
For most years of production, the battery of a DS was over on the left side of the car. The support for the reservoir was part of the battery box.
 |
| Combined battery tray and reservoir mount (credit: Colin Smith) |
Being a 1968 car, my car has the battery on the right hand side and so the reservoir support is a far simpler affair. I'd cleaned and painted that up some time previously when 'batch-painting' black parts. I'd also had the long bracing rod zinc-plated.
 |
| My reservoir mount |
My reservoir had a thin black film of muck inside. Ideally I'd have sloshed some petrol around inside - hoping it would loosen it up. That wasn't really practical because of all the pipe outlets on the top and bottom of the reservoir. I did manage to get some of the muck out with a nylon bottle brush. I removed and cleaned the clear sight tube that fits on the outside of the reservoir, and cleaned the drain tube.
 |
| Drain tube on the reservoir |
Initially I'm going to fill the system with 'Hydraurincage' rather than LHM. it's for cleaning out Citroen LHM hydraulic systems.
Basically, you run the car for no more than 2000 miles filled with Hydraurincage rather than LHM, then drain it out, clean your filter and replace with LHM.
The vast majority of my system should already be clean because much of the pipework and many of the components have been individually cleaned. However I didn't rebuild the steering rack and am saving the rebuilding the rear suspension units as a winter job. There are also some runs of pipework that I chose not to remove and clean - such as those running through the left sill (mine are one-piece without joins in the middle). All in all, I reasoned that running on Hydraurincage for a while would not be a bad thing.It proved hard to get hold of and I'd read that Total had stopped making it.
Fitting the reservoir was very straightforward. I fitted its support and bracing bar. the main mount is a fitting to a lug on the front engine mount bar.
An adjustable metal rod steadies the support towards the front.
The reservoir sits on a foot on the support. Before I clamped the reservoir to the support using its two metal belts, I lined up the filter and outlet tube with the cradle in the support where the rubber hose to the HP pump would eventually sit..I had a bit of a ponder about where to fit those two belts and their bolts. My bottom belt originally fitted between 'mini' and 'maxi'......
 |
| Original belt position |
But I opted to put it a little lower. Probably for no more than cosmetic reasons.
 |
| Reservoir fitted |
I wouldn't be surprised it I moved it back though.....
Reservoir Connections
Being a bvh model, my car has - amongst other things - a centrifugal regulator and a clutch re-engagement control (CRC) unit. Because of these, the reservoir on my car has a few inlet connections on top and bottom that the reservoirs of manual gear change cars don't have.
 |
| Just five connections on this one..... |
 |
| ....but an extra sixth connection on a bvh reservoir for the CRC unit |
And, for good measure, a bvh reservoir has two inlets on the top for the centrifugal regulator.
 |
| Note the two BVH inlets on the top of the reservoir |
For my 1968 car, most of the rubber return hoses run directly back into the reservoir.
 |
| Return hoses to the reservoir for my 1968 car |
In later years, the return plumbing changed - with some metal piping introduced.
 |
| Return hoses to the reservoir after 1972 |
But the basic connections at the reservoir remained the same. When my engine was removed back in 2015(!) I'd attempted to label up the reservoir connections.
 |
| Connections labelled back in 2015. |
But 8 years down the line and with the car, pipes and hoses fully dismantled, that code was meaningless. Externally, the size of the hose connections is a clue as to what hose connects to what inlet on the reservoir.
 |
| Underside hose connections vary in size |
But internally, even same-sized outlets terminate differently: some simply rise up and terminate. Others rise up and arc down.....
In their 'hydraulic Course Notes' training manual Citroen produced these diagrams to show what connects to where. They're a bit basic (and omit the connection for the drain tube on the side of the reservoir) but show what they need to show.
 |
| BVH reservoir connections |
 |
| BVM reservoir connections |
The pipes down by the left front wheel are a tangled mess of spaghetti.....
...but I worked out what went where by a process of elimination, threading hoses between pipes as necessary.
 |
| View from under the reservoir |
It's a lot neater and cleaner than it had been!
 |
| Before - back in 2015 |
I connected the steering rack to the hydraulic system.....
 |
| Steering rack connection |
...and with that done was just about ready to go!
Priming The Hydraulic System
I didn't take any photos of this. I was busy throwing Hydraurincage around and that made it too messy to operate a camera.
The reason for priming the system is that - when started from empty - the HP pump will struggle to pull hydraulic fluid from the reservoir, up over the top of the radiator/ engine and then down into the pump. It needs help to get the process going.
There may be more than one technique for doing this, but the proven technique involves using the filter assembly in the reservoir like a funnel - leading to the HP pump. Sounds easy enough.....
- I poured just over 4 litres of fluid into the reservoir (and did a quick check for leaks!). I left the filler lid off for the time being.
- I put another 3/4 of a litre of fluid in a jug with a spout.
- I opened the bleed screw on the pressure regulator about 1/4 of a turn. This is important as it will eventually allow the free-flow of fluid from reservoir to pump and back and so fill the system.
- I fitted a battery and turned the engine over a couple of times without actually starting the car - just to make sure it WOULD start.
- I removed the filter assembly from the top of the reservoir - pulling the hose gently from the eyelet on its support bracket so that I could hold the filter up higher.
- Holding the filter inverted - so that it was like a funnel - I slowly poured-in fluid from my jug until it was full (and inevitably spilled everywhere.....).
- I quickly re-inserted the filter back in the reservoir (inevitably spilling more fluid everywhere) and latched it down with it's catch.
- Equally quickly, I started the car - before the fluid I'd added to the hose drained back into the reservoir.
- Once the engine was running, I peered into the reservoir with a torch and was able to see that fluid was gurgling and flowing into, and from the reservoir.
- Once happy that I had flow, I checked the fluid level in the reservoir against the 'mini'/ maxi' marks. I couldn't really fill the system fully at this point as my suspension system is not rigged up yet.
- I refitted the reservoir filler cap and closed the screw on the pressure regulator.
After a short while I heard the familiar purr and click as the pressure in the system built and pressure regulator cut-in. All I had to do now was to clean up all the hydraulic fluid I had inevitably spilled from the reservoir and surrounding area.......And of course the system will need to be bled in due course.
Another MILESTONE! I'm amazed at the progress on my car in the last two months. It's gone from being an engineless shell, to a running car.
But I STILL don't like the look of that steering rack.......
