While I repainted the fuel tank, I also removed and tidied the tank filler neck. Now the tank's back in, I've been able to refit the filler.
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| Filler and breather back on the car |
I had to work hard to scrape off all the underseal and paint before I could give it a proper clean up. The muck was on the main metal filler pipe and also the nylon breather.
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| Cleaning..... |
That nylon breather is quite delicate. You can buy modern reproductions, but I don't know what the quality is like, and didn't want the expense of needing to buy a replacement. Once I could see what was underneath, I was able to undo the Ligarex buckles on the rubber joints and separate metal and nylon for a proper clean of both.
The nylon breather came up well. a bit yellowed but no cracks. I'd flushed it though with water to get the 'Jizer' off it and the water stubbornly sat in the bulbous section - so I left it in the greenhouse for a couple of days for it to evaporate.
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| Breather hose in the wheel arch |
I chose to repaint the metal filler neck. I've seen them unpainted but mine will ultimately end up with black underseal on it - so black paint isn't going to hurt. The gazebo came in handy again....
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| Handy paint rack! |
I assembled the pieces and did a test fit to orientate them correctly. I loosely assembled the nylon breather to the filler pipe with the rubber joins but didn't apply Ligarex at this point. It's easier to feed the long straight nylon pipe through the chassis into the tank area, if you remove the grommets and then refit them afterwards. The trick is to remember to pop the wheel arch side grommet on the pipe before you thread it through to the tank.
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| Nylon breather and grommet. A rubber strip on the chassis seam protects from chaffing |
I carefully manipulated the filler neck through the 'elephant's ear' and secured the breather vent. I'd like to have fitted new rubber seals to this as mine were cracking, but I couldn't find seals of the right square-profile shape.
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| Breather vent on the 'elephant's ear' |
I added the protective rubber collar to the filler neck. I just cleaned and refitted my old one.
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| Rubber sealing collar on the 'elephant's ear' |
On my car the rubber collar is black, but I believe later cars had greys ones fitted. If so, I'm not sure why Citroen would choose to change the colour?
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| Grey rubber collar and original filler cap |
With the parts in place, I secured the assembly to the wheel arch and attached the Ligarex to the breather join at the filler end.
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| I used Ligarex to secure the rubber hoses |
The nut and screw on the vent are often rusted and seized because of wheel spray but mine were salvageable - although I did grease them up to try and aid removal next time.....
I needed to wait for the tank to be fitted before I could orientate and secure the big hose at the bottom.
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| Waiting to fit the fuel tank..... |
With the tank back in the car I fitted the breather. Another trick: remember to slip the second chassis grommet over the breather line before you attach it to the tank. Then winkle the grommet into the chassis. The very end of the breather line has a brass insert in it. You can just about see it in the end of the nylon hose here.
That is meant to be there. It stops any hose clip around the rubber hose simply squashing the nylon breather hose within.
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| Breather join at the tank |
The last job was to fit Ligarex straps to the rubber hose joint tank and filler.
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| More Ligarex strapping |
With the filler all fitted, I could finally dig out my old 'Citroen' locking filler cap.
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| Lockable fuel cap |
I'm pretty sure this is just an after-market thing available at the time - not original to Ds.
Though the 'ZC' number on this old packaging is a Citroen part number - though maybe not for a DS? (The Ds part number for an 'anti-theft' cap was ZC 9 857 132 U).
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| Vintage after market cap. With two keys! |
You can buy a modern copy of those caps brand new.
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| Modern reproductions are available |
Aside from shinier chrome, the only other difference seems to be to the locks used, and so to the keys needed. On that point, I'd bought my cap at an auto jumble in Holland a few years ago. It only had one key. Since I'm planning to use it, I've just had another key cut. I was charged nearly £30! that's more than I paid for the cap and one key!
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| Family heirloom: filler cap keys |
When I picked myself off the floor, I was told it was because it was classed as a 'car key'. Oh - well that explained and justified the extortionate coast then.......It's just as well the DS is a gas-guzzler as it means I'll get plenty of use out of that cap and key.
