Ducellier 7558B Alternator - Strip Down and Overhaul

Time to refurbish the alternator.

The main job was to change the brushes and check the bearing. I also wanted to see what I could do about the terminals as they were in a very rusty state. Some research showed that the refurbished alternators that you can buy seemed to show lovely clean terminals - so I guessed there would be a way to get at them and replace them.

I'd been waiting for the warmer, drier months as I'd been planning on trying baking soda to clean the alloy body shell. 

Grubby......26 October 2015

I'd already removed the fan blade, bolts and mounting bracket back in 2015 so that I could clean and zinc plate them.

Fan blade, pulley and Mounting Plate Removed - 26 October 2015

Now 2017. With the pulley already removed, disassembly was fairly straightforward. The front end of the casing slid off the spindle. That should have allowed the rotor to be pulled free - but the back 'business end' refused to budge. The end plate has a small plastic plug and I wasn't sure whether this was to lubricate a bearing within, or to use to 'drift' the spindle out.

Cover Over Lubricating Point? 28 May 2017

I took some advice from the CCC Forum and, by part-reassembling the pulley end (without casing), it gave me some leverage against which to persuade the back casing to relinquish it's grip.  With the end cover free, I peered inside, curious to see what was there. No bearing, just a bush - and fairly gummed up with dirt, too.

Bush and Brush at the 'Business End' - 28 May 2017

The brushes were removed.....

Location of Brushes

A Brush.....

Next job was to remove the stator ring. I tried to undo one of the nuts holding the black plastic rectifier cover on and the 'positive' post sheared. You can see how rusted it was. That would need to be fixed..... Removing the plastic cover revealed it was every bit as mucky inside as it was out, with the rectifier clogged up with dirt. That can't be good for conductivity or cooling........

Grubby Rectifier and Soldered Wires - 28 May 2017

Unsoldering the three wires and opening up the clamps, I was able to remove the diode carrier assembly/ rectifier. This also enabled me to pull the stator ring off the rear casing.

Removing the rectifier enabled me to get at the terminals on the casing and - importantly - to replace that broken post. There are a range of different sized bolts and washers used for the terminals but, by digging through various pots and tubs I managed to find equivalents for replacement.

The bolt for the 'negative' post is crimped into the body, but luckily for me, the 'positive' is insulated from the body by sitting in a plastic holder. 

I was able to find a suitable replacement bolt that would fit. 

New Positive Post in Insulator

On the front case I removed the cover and bearing beneath. The bearing looked absolutely fine.

Front bearing Removed

Removing the bearing left the body halves free to clean. I was careful not to blast the passages that hold the brushes as they need to slide in to take-up gradual wear. I was similarly careful to avoid the bush on the rear end as i did not want any burrs or rough spots. Soda blasting leave parts dusty, so I gave them a good wash and dried them with compressed air. I was really pleased with how well the soda blasting worked. The parts came up really clean and without any obvious signs of damage to the detail. (SEE FOOTNOTE AT END).

Clean Body. Crimped Negative Post (bottom LHS) and Hole for Positive Post

I cleaned up and gave the stator assembly on the rotor a fresh coat of green paint as it was peeling in several places. One of the stator wires broke where it had been slotted down into the 'comb' (cooling fins) of the diode carrier so I soldered a new length on.

One thing I didn't do was replace the slip ring. One track was significantly more worn than the other and the slip ring really needed replacing. I couldn't find reference for a replacement intended for a Dueller 7558, and so trying to take measurements as best I could I looked for a near equivalent. I drew a blank and removing mine to get a better idea of shape and measurements would have meant destroying it. I left well alone. Perhaps this is a job I will come back to. As consolation I gently rubbed the rotor shaft down with some very fine wet and dry to remove any burrs  - though there was nothing obvious. 

One Worn Track on the Slip Ring

I carefully dismantled the rectifier, laying out all the pieces and diodes in order.  Everything was cleaned, including each diode. The two alloy 'combs' were soda blasted. 

Rectifier Pieces

Four 'washers' inside each Diode Cradle

The rectifier was re-assembled. Somewhere along the line I got confused and muddled the diodes up! Exactly what I didn't want to do! They all looked the same: one flat side and one 'nipple' side. All the same colour. I did a bit of Googling......

"There are always 6 main diodes, which are often arranged in two groups of three. Diodes within the groups are identical but the group connected to the negative terminal is likely to be assembled from diodes whose body is their anode connection. This is simply for the convenience of being able to bolt all three to the same heat sink. Diodes connected to the positive terminal have the reverse configuration".

Ah. That explained it....... The larger flat sides go against the finned heat sinks, but to maintain current polarity, one set have to be a 'reverse set'. I used a volt meter to test which was the positive side of each and, based on the way they needed to fit back in the assembly, paired them back up together. The Volt meter also suggested that none of the diodes were blown as they only allowed current to pass in one direction. We shall see......

Re-assmbling the Rectifier.....

I began the major re-assembly. All the parts were laid out ready.

Ducellier 7558B Alternator - Main Components

Terminal bolts were replaced. Greasing the bush, I reassembled the rotor and stator loosely on the back end. I was then able to slide the rectifier over the 'positive' and 'negative' posts.

The front bearing was replaced with it's cover and the front end then slotted over the rotor. The whole thing was loosely reassembled with its three bolts and nuts. I made sure that the rotor spun freely on it's bearings and did not catch the stator ring. When I was happy, iItighten the body back up. 

With the body back together back together and the stator ring correctly located, the brushes were then replaced. I re-soldered the stator wires to the rectifier. The black plastic cover plate and the various nuts and washers on the terminals were then added.......

Shiny New Terminals!

All Shiny

I dug out the mounting bracket.........

Shiny Zinc Mounting Bracket

.......and the fan blade and pulley:

Zinc Fan Blade and Painted Pulley

All done. It just remains to be seen if this alternator still works! 

UPDATE - MAY 2018:
Although I was very happy with the results of my baking soda cleaning, a helpful soul at the 2017 CCC D rally offered a view that soda blasting leaves the surface 'open' and more liable to pick up and hold dirt marks. Vapour blasting was offered as a better alternative as it leaves a 'closed' surface. At that time (May 2017) I hadn't investigated vapour blasting but did eventually use it on my cylinder head with impressive results. To cut a long story short, I dismantled my alternator all over again in May 2018 and had the casing vapour blasted! I re-assembled it again about 12 months to the day after my first attempt. To be honest, it looks just like it did when I soda blasted it. 

The pulley has been added and painted and the whole thing now looks like this:

Pulley Added

After Vapour Blasting - May 2018

Before: grubby......26 October 2015

Getting Organised (Part 2) - Shelving in the Garage

During the many years that my car was left, unloved at the barn my spares, and the few bits already taken from the car (roof trim and indicators - that kind of thing), had been stored at a council lock up I rented on the other side of the town where I lived. These had been transported to the lock up in shallow, stackable cardboard vegetable crates - secured from a well know high street supermarket chain. Probably eight or nine crates.

The Lock Up. Body panels stored in the rafters

When I woke up and decided to restore my car, the first plan had been to bring the car back to this lock up and work on it there......somehow.....I was going to figure out a workaround for the lack of space and electricity later on.......

Anyway, with space clearing in mind, I retrieved the boxes of bits to the wooden shed at the end of our garden. I was always worried about them being stolen from the lock up, so this was no bad thing. I also took the wooden work bench I'd been storing at the lock up and, by cutting 18" off the end and 4" off the back, manage to shoehorn that into the garden shed too - turning what had been a bike and lawn mower store into....... you've guessed it: a Man Cave!

Zinc plating action in the Man Cave - April 2016

I managed to do some initial work on car bits in that shed (and fill a couple more veg crates with more bits removed rom the car) but it wasn't very satisfying and the car itself was still many miles away. One of the best things I did though, was to empty all the boxes out over the lawn and to catalogue everything. EVERYTHING. Every rusty nut, every perished grommet (almost). I maintain this as a spreadsheet to this day. One or two things still go astray, but generally I can lay my hands on the things I want or remember having.

When we moved to our new, bestest, house in May 2106, the garage here served as a holding point for our household belongings as we settled in. The workbench and DS veg. crates were un-ceremonially dumped in a corner. Low down the list of priorities.

DS Bits - August 2016

As the garage gradually began to clear, I started to trickle in all the other big bits and pieces that had been left at the lock up - seats, wheels, wings and doors. It couldn't happen soon enough as I was worried that someone would break into the lock up and sell everything for scrap. There was a lot of stuff....

Wings and doors went into the new shed at the end of the garden. Leather seats and soft stuff were quickly relocated to the spare bedroom before Gayle could object. Veg crates stayed on top of the workbench........

I got by for a while with the veg. crates stacked on top of each other, but it was inconvenient having to get at that crate right at the bottom..... I needed a better solution. 

I had brought with me a couple of cheap DIY store shelving units and had inherited several home made shelf units made from angle in my new workshop. Initially I was using these for little odds and ends, but felt I could make better use of them.

After a little bit of planning and measuring, with a day at home to myself, I set about turning these into some more useful storage down one side of the garage. I dismantled everything and re-assembled to optimise the space.

There was a lot to accommodate.

Some of the inherited angle was very hefty and I used this to make an extra strong run of shelving with strengthened shelves for the heaviest pieces - such as engine blocks. Deep bins underneath for those handy to have spare gearboxes.

All the shelving was fixed to the wall and stood on feet to minimise the chance of the legs buckling. As part of the wider reorganisation I found a safe home, away from the kids, for the engine crane. I chained it to the wall to stop it falling over.

Most spaces are filled with DS things of one sort or another.

And a lot is still in the workshop too.

A Quick Word About..........Stereolab

Well what a surprise! My mate Jerry has just texted me this. I'm not sure who to credit it to. I suspect it came from one of the old weekly music papers:

The Groop - Summer 1991?

It features the early core members of a band I would possibly rate as my favourite - certainly consistently up there in the top two at any particular point in time. The Groop - STEREOLAB. Formed in 1991 and active through the 90s and 00s, Sterolab soundtracked my life and accompanied me on many of my Ds fries in the early and mid 1990s.

'SYE 29 something'. The car doesn't have clap-hand wipers - so is possibly 1965 to 1967 vintage? Tim's got the door open - so was either being cheeky or they'd arranged to use it for a photoshoot.

The band line up dates the photo as probably summer 1991. Is that DS still out there I wonder? I've not seen it at rallies.

Anyway, more about Stereolab: the photo shows Tim - ex of McCarthy (another great band) - his French girlfriend and sometime McCarthy contributor Seaya (aka Laetitia)  in the foreground - and Gina Morris (a friend and NME journalist) in the background. Together with Russell (from Moose), Martin Kean (The Chills) and Joe Dilworth (Th'Faith Healers) they formed an indie superGroop. Oh, hang on. This says it far better:

From south London, England, Stereolab wear their John Cage and John Cale influences on their sleeves, but within a short time-span have amassed an impressive body of work. The principal mover is Tim Gane (12 July 1964, Barking, Essex, England; ex-McCarthy), who was at first joined by his girlfriend Laetitia Sadier (b. Paris, France), Martin Kean (ex-Chills) and Th’ Faith Healers’ drummer Joe Dilworth, also a Melody Maker photographer.

Gane gave the band its name, after an obscure offshoot of 60s folk label Vanguard Records (it has also been stated that the title was taken from a hi-fi testing label). At their early gigs they were joined by Russell Yates (Moose) on guitar and Gina Morris (New Musical Express journalist) on vocals. Too Pure signed them, allowing them to keep their own Duophonic imprint. By the time of the release of the ‘Low-Fi’ 10-inch in September 1992, Mary Hansen (b. 1 November 1966, Maryborough, Queensland, Australia, d. 9 December 2002, London, England) had arrived to lend keyboard and vocal support, and Andy Ramsay replaced Dilworth on drums. ‘John Cage Bubblegum’, which some critics have noted as an adequate description of their sound, was released in the USA only, on Slumberland, via a limited edition version containing a stick of gum. By the time The Groop Played Space Age Bachelor Pad Music was released in March 1993, further line-up changes had occurred, with Duncan Brown joining on bass and ex-Microdisney guitarist Sean O’Hagan also guesting. This set was the closest to ambient soundscapes, à la Martin Denny or Arthur Lyman, that they had yet come.

Stereolab left Too Pure for Elektra Records at the end of 1993, once again retaining the Duophonic Ultra High Frequency Disks imprint for their domestic releases. Duophonic would also issue material by Arcwelder and Herzfeld, the latter featuring another former McCarthy member, Malcolm Eden. The double LP Transient Random Noise-Bursts With Announcements straddled both indie and dance music markets. This was more minimalist than ambient, and maintained their reputation not only as a competent rock outfit, but also as an important fixture of the experimental dance axis. The addictive Music For The Amorphous Body Study Centre continued to embrace subjects outside of pop music convention, on this occasion acting as a soundtrack to the work of artist Charles Long for an exhibition at New York’s Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. The excellent Emperor Tomato Ketchup (the title was taken from a Japanese cult movie) was another mix of melodies that crept under the skin. It is almost irrelevant that many could not understand the French lyrics, such was the strength of the songs.

Stereolab, with all their influences, from the sparse sounds of Moondog to the gentle side of Nico’s Velvet Underground, remain hauntingly original and one of the most rewarding acts to emerge from the 90s. Ever prolific, they have released several albums including the dance-orientated Dots And Loops and Cobra And Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night, indicating a willingness to experiment with their established sound. Gane has also collaborated with O’Hagan as Turn On. Tragedy struck in December 2002 when Mary Hansen was knocked off her bicycle in London by a lorry and died from the injuries sustained.

Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze

Cleaning the Engine Block

I used a wire brush on a drill to clean all the rust from inside the block - trying hard to get into all the nooks and crannies.

Removing the Liners Revealed Rust in the Block

I used a Dremmel (actually a cheap Dremmel copy) for those hard to reach areas around the bend. I also used a grinding head to remove the flash from when the block had been cast so that there would be better coolant flow when it was all re-assembled.

I used a gasket scraper to clean up the head top surface. There was some pitting where the gasket closed around the water ways. I also used the gasket scraper to clean the flat circular surfaces that the liners (and their delicate paper gaskets) would close against. These surfaces had some really stubborn stuff on and it took quite a bit of effort in the confined space to clean up the flat surface and vertical edges. It's vital this is done properly: if any bits are missed, the liner and gasket will not sit flat and so not seal properly when the engine is assembled. If this happens, coolant will find it's way down into the sump.

Flash Removed and Top Face Scraped

I used a wire brush on a bit of coat hanger to clean out the oil gallery. I removed the side plug and plug at the flywheel end, but not the alloy plug at the timing chain end. These have to be drilled out and replaced: I hadn't managed to find a source for the replacements and from advice I had taken decided to leave that one in situ. 

With the inside of the block cleaned I set about cleaning the outside.

Cleaning The Block - 4 December 2016

The domed cover over the oil breather was removed, as was the dip stick tube, the remaining hex plugs and the petrol pump mounting bracket. Again I used a wire wheel, wire brush to clean. Anything that got in the nooks and crannies.

With the initial cleaning done I hoovered everything out and also used some compressed air in all the narrow channels.

Dismantling The Engines (Part 2)

With the DX engine dismantled, I strapped it up and suspended it from my crane. Freeing it from the engine stand I lowered it  - still upside down - onto a couple of blocks on a work bench.

Using a block of wood and hammer I was able to remove the liners from three of the cylinders. Theses came out reluctantly and with the gift of large amounts of rust. 

Piston Liner Released

The fourth liner came out with the stuck piston still attached. With the piston and con rod still in place, there was no scope to push out the piston from the bottom of the liner. Working from the top end meant hammering on to the crown of the piston itself and meant that the piston might not be usable afterwards. it would all depend on how readily it yielded......

I placed the liner over the jaws of an open vice so that the con rod hound free below. As my hammer blows on the piston got more and more forceful I split several blocks of wood. The piston wouldn't budge. Taking a tip, I bought a plastic fence post driver from my local DIY store. And had soon smashed that into splinters. I bought ANOTHER fence post block from my local DIY store. Splinters. I tried heat. I tried freezing. I tried heat AND freezing. I tried going away for half and hour and then suddenly coming back to tackle it. Nothing worked.

That Troublesome Piston Soaking - December 2015

What finally worked was giving up for the time being. I put the piston/ liner combination in my appropriately numbered tub (that felt good), and tried not to think about them anymore. I moved the engine block to a bench in the other garage and turned my attention to the DX2 engine I had pulled from my DS.

The procedure for stripping the DX2 was pretty much as before, except that this time I had to remove the clutch and flywheel before I could fit the engine to the stand. The clutch was straightforward. The flywheel was more stubborn: I had to replace the clutch assembly bolts back into the flywheel and then use a bar to brace between them to stop the flywheel revolving. With that done it was placed on the engine stand for stripping. 

DX2 Engine - Preparing to Remove The Oil Pump - 18 November 2016

As before,  once stripped the engine was placed on blocks on a bench and the liners removed.

On Blocks - Removing The Liners - 18 November 2016

With this being my second engine strip, I didn't take anywhere near as many reference photos. I was, however, equally careful to put the parts I removed into labelled pots and tubs. 

Pots and Tubs

A few surprises along the way:

• the tappets were badly worn and pitted
• The bottom end of the engine was very glued-up with burnt engine oil.
• The sump was similarly full of sticky tar. 
• The main and big end bearing shells showed significant pitting and wear tracks
• There were linear marks on the bearing shells where contaminents had gone through the oil ways and onto the bearing surfaces. 
• Pushing the pistons through the liners revealed that there were broken top piston rings on two of the pistons (!)
• There was some pitting on the engine block top surface

Water damage - Pitting In The Block Surface

The next step would be to clean everything up.........

Dismantling The Engines (Part 1)

I finally got round to starting to strip the engine. I've never done anything like this before so had been very nervous. But there was no going back. I was going to get plenty of experience as I as going to dismantle two!

The procedure for dismantling the engine is covered in Operation 100-3, which you can find in Section 2 of Volume 2 of manual 814. I was going to start by dismantling the DX engine engine I'd bought from Adie Pease at the back end of 2015, so I also studied the version of operation 100-3 that is in the older Manual 518.

I'd asked for a lovely shiny engine stand as a Christmas present back in 2015 and now was going to build it and get it dirty. As well as deciding what weight the stand needed to be able to bear, I'd also  done my research on how to actually fit a DS engine to a stand: The stand was going to bolt to the gearbox end of the engine. Engine stands tend to have four arms with a good level of adjustment - but you need to decide what mounting points you can/ will use on the DS engine itself. And you need to make sure that the engine stand arms spread wide enough for these.

Research: Mounting An Engine (Photo Credit: Pallasuto.co.uk)

SAFETY: I bought myself a pair of steel toe capped shoes: you don't want to drop and engine block on your feet. You don't want to drop a crankshaft on them. While I wanted to pour as much of my available money into the car as I could, my feet were worth the £35 it cost me for some proper footwear.

My engines had been sitting on a couple of trollies rigged from pallets and castors. Using straps and my engine crane, and through a bit of trial and error, I managed to get the engine in the air and fairly level. 

Using a Crane at the Barn - September 2016

I wheeled the engine stand over and introduced the two. I tried to pick mounting points that held the engine evenly around it's circumference but that's not that simple: One of the mount points was going to need to be on the top of the 'eye where the starter motor fits. With gravity pulling the engine down, I felt there was a risk that the cast block could break at that point.

Mounting An Engine over the Starter Motor Point  (Photo Credit Unknown)

Based on the bolt holes from where the gearbox is mounted to the engine, I ended up putting two bolts directly into threaded holes on the casting (so no nuts on the end) and putting too long bolts and nuts  straight through holes. In all cases I used several large washers to spread the load - and to stop the bolts pulling through the mount points

Engine stands allow you to rotate the engine to work on top, bottom or side.  I fiddled with the adjustment of the arms and positioning of the engine so that the engine was central to the axis of the engine stand and the weight distributed fairly evenly.

Having tightened the bolts I gingerly lowered the crane. RESULT! It didn't all buckle and fold into crumpled heap!

The very rusty timing chain cover was removed to reveal very clean and tidy gears and chain within. I compressed and locked the timing chain tension before removing it. How you do that will depend on which of the two chain tensions you have fitted. See step 6 of Operation 100-3 in the workshop manual for details. The hole it locates to on the block is an oil shaft and, if it doesn't come out on the end of the chain tensioner, you will find a delicate meal gauze oil filter hiding in that hole. Winkle it out carefully.

Adie had already removed and inspected the tappets when i bought the engine so, I turned the engine over and removed the sump. A couple of the bolts were stubborn and I gradually loosened and tightened them to get them going, giving a blast of WD40 as I did so. Not all the bolts holding the sump in place are the same length. In particular there are two longer bolts that also serve as a mounting point for the bracket that supports the down pipe/ flexi pipe joint. 

Removing the sump was very satisfying and gave me my first sight of the workings of a DS engine!

DX Engine Bottom End - 10 November 2016

Having first removed the locking pin in the tower, I'd removed the oil pump. I'd been warned these could bind. Mine was very tight but by some twisting action and a spray of Plus Gas, I managed to gradually corkscrew it out. The timing chain tensioner was removed, as was the chain and large gearwheel on the end of the camshaft.

I removed the bearing caps - noting that they were numbered according to position and relative to the water pump/ flywheel end of the engine.

Caps On The Crank Bearings Are Numbered

The caps were reluctant to pull off. I don't know if they are intended for this purpose but there is a small metal tab at one end that proved very useful for lifting the caps free.

A Bit Of Leverage.....

As well as taking lots of reference photos, I was carefully popping all these dirty greasy parts into ice cream tubs already labelled up with their respective positions. A quick glance at the bearing shells showed these to be in very good condition. No significant pitting at all.

With growing confidence, I moved on to the caps of the piston con rods. These are paired with their respective con rods. There is a hand written 3 digit number written on the two halves. it's sometimes very difficult to see these under all the grease and dirt. 

Con Rods and Caps are Numbered Pairs

I'd labelled up tubs and dropped the bits in as they were removed. One of the trickiest things (especially with the upside down, in bits and with points of reference removed) was to remember which cylinder was which: Cylinder 1 is at the water pump end. Cylinder 4 is at the timing chain end.

With the con rod caps off, the crank was ceremonially lifted off the block.

Crankshaft Removed - 10 November 2016

As this was my first engine strip down I'd like to say I held it aloft over my head like the conquering god I surely was - but I'm no weight lifter and that thing was heavy. So I popped it on a workbench out of the way and took a photo instead.....

Hammer of the Gods - Crankshaft Removed

With the crankshaft out of the way, the con rod rod and piston combinations were pushed down and through the block, being caught neatly under the engine. Well - three of them were.......When I'd bought the engine from Adie it was seized and hadn't turned over - I knew that. I had been liberally dosing all four pots with Plus Gas to loosen them up but, in the case of one of pot, it stubbornly sat and pooled. Guess what? It was this same piston that wouldn't now shift. 

THAT Piston.......

With the engine suspended on the engine stand I didn't want to risk trying a few hammer blows to loosen things up so moved on.

Removing the locating fork, the camshaft was carefully pulled out from the block. It wasn't that heavy. I held it aloft over my head - like the conquering god I most definitely was! A triumph of man over machine! The rest would surely be easy.........

In which my 1968 D21bvh Pallas finally comes home..... FINALLY

My DS may only have been over in a barn an hours drive away, but it had been a long, long journey, (and with a few delays and wrong turns up dead ends), to get to this point.  After years of plotting and planning, finally, FINALLY, my car was coming back home.......

As It Was: Big Barn - May 2004

Initially I'd thought of hiring a flatbed and driver to recover the car, but that was likely to prove expensive. Car money was tight and I wanted to save as much of it as I could to spend directly on the car. Doug, the race car builder from the barn, had a long, four wheeled trailer and generously agreed to lend it to me.  I assured Doug I'd towed before. That much was true, but I'd found it a hair-raising experience. I  had hired one to collect my DS from Doctor Chevron back in 2001. I used a Citroen BX to tow on that occasion and, in hindsight suspect the BX was woefully inadequate for the job. At one point on the journey home the trailer developed a swerve which grew in intensity. Only by speeding up before gradually slowing right down, was I able to calm the beast. I was lucky I didn't lose everything. With that in mind, and since it was his trailer I would be borrowing, I asked Doug for any advice he might want to give. "Just don't fuck it up".

Now, 2017, the family car was a 1.9 diesel Vauxhall Zafira. Far more suited for the job in hand. Especially as the DS was without an engine - so considerably lighter than when I was towing the DS with the BX. The big snag was that I had zero experience of manoeuvring a trailer, so reversing it onto the drive at our new house was going to be a problem for me. As I did back in 2001, I contacted Richard (always my 'go-to' co-conspirator for all things-DS) and a plan was hatched. He was in: Richard would help me load the car at the barn end. I would drive the Zafira and Richard would follow along in his car. At the Bedford end, Richard would take over and get the trailer on to the driveway, from where we could push it into the garage. Richard would hook the trailer up to his car and return it to the barn before going home. now that's what I call a plan!

Doug uses the trailer to get cars to race meetings and so I had to wait for a convenient weekend to get access to the trailer. On a trip to the barn one workday lunchtime I gave the trailer the once-over: seeing what it's maximum load was. I noticed it had it's own breaks. When the towing vehicle slows down, the continuing momentum of the trailer pushes car and trailer together. Through a lever, this action operates a cable which pulls the trailers bakes. I was reassured when I noticed this. I also investigated towing regulations and techniques. I also had to estimate the weight of a DS without engine and associated peripherals. Cars have a 'recommended' maximum towing weight limit, with the absolute max being a little above this. Remembering my experiences with the BX, I wanted to be safer this time. I can't now remember the figures, but I estimated that the DS was just at - or only slightly over - the 'recommended' towing ability of our diesel Zafira, and almost certainly below the 'maximum' limit. That was good enough. I checked my insurance cover - all was fine. I made up a number plate for the back of the trailer. I couldn't check the hook up for the brakes and indicators. i just had to hope they were going to be okay. 

It's Really Happening! 15 October 2016

 Supervised by Doug we got the car on the trailer. In terms of technique, the way to load a car is engine end first. If you do it the other way round, all the weight is at the back of the train and you are at far greater risk of developing a snaking, uncontrollable whiplash. As the DS had no engine, the weight distribution of the vehicle was more even, but overall weight was still up at the towing maximum and I would need to take care.

As it turned out, the DS needed to be loaded nose-first anyway to get the wheels suitably placed over the trailer axles to create the right level of pressure on the towing hook. The rack on the trailer for storing race tyres got in the way of the DS nose.  Any hard braking and the DS bonnet might be ruined. Rather than remove the rack, we opened the DS bonnet over the rack. It looked odd, but did the job.

Gently Does It - 15 October 2016

The journey back to Bedford was uneventful. I felt like a triumphant returning king. With storage costs for the car having been a frequent source of friction, as we pulled up at the house Gayle came out to see me to find out just what all the fuss over the past 15 years had been about. Secretly I was worried about the state of the car and what Gayle would think - especially given that I'd spent the past two years telling her that everything needed to be fixed. "It's not nearly as bad as it looks" I offered. "Oh. It's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be" was the reply. Thanks Babe. Love you. XX

A Quick Word About........Flywheels and Timing Marks

Back in 2002, having dropped in a new three-finger clutch, Mick Groombridge had wondered whether my 'clutch snatch' problem might be down to the clutch being married to the wrong type of flywheel. By this time he had reassembled the car and it was too late to check again!

When I'd brought the DX2 engine back home, one of the first things I did was count the teeth on the flywheel: 95 This was VERY useful information........

From October 1969 (so for the 1970 model year), the flywheel was changed from 95 teeth and from then on had 123 teeth. 95 teeth on the flywheel, told me that either:

• the DX2 engine was pre October 1969 - i.e one of the first DX2s from 1968/9  (which from other clues I doubted) or;
• that, in dropping the DX2 in the DS instead of the DX, whoever did it had gone to the trouble of re-fitting the original 1968 flywheel. (This was far more likely).

95 teeth also told me that (once re-assembled) inserting a pin......... 

The hole for the timing pin is under the alternator mounting point

.........in the timing notch in the flywheel........... 

Timing Notch In The Flywheel

.......would show the firing point for number one cylinder i.e 12 degrees before TDC (top dead centre) *.

It was very helpful to know this for sure - especially as I am going to have to set the timing up from scratch.

Something else it was useful to be able to confirm: a 95 tooth flywheel marries to a starter motor with a 10 tooth pinion. Since my car had it's original Ducellier 6182A with 10 tooth pinion, it was good to know it was being used with the correct flywheel!

Told you it was all useful!

* Something to note if your DS is 1972 model year or later: initially - after the flywheels changed to 123 teeth - the timing notch continued to show 12 degrees before TDC. However, Manual 814 Op. 210 notes that the flywheel changed after July 71: from that point the notch in the flywheel corresponds to TDC i.e. zero degrees. 

Parts Manual 604 concurs:.the part number for the 123 tooth flywheel changed from 5 413 852 to 5 414 483 from 6/71 onward with the annotation that the timing mark is now 0 degrees.......