Winter Diversions 1 - Sharing The Love

The February Citroenian plopped through my door at the end of January and the following advert caught my eye:

Lots of people (as far away as Australia!) have helped me with my own restoration and the thing you realise is to take the opportunities to do the same and help others when you can - be it with knowledge, experience, a helping hand or parts. In this instance I had some spare seats that were just the thing Tim was looking for. This also had the potential to be a "win-win". 

Many years ago I'd acquired a couple of sets of Rhovyline-covered, early-style, low back, lever-operated seats. When I moved house in 2002, these ended up in the eaves of my parents garage down in Essex. As with my car, they sat forgotten for many, many years - but my aged parents would occasionally remind me they still had them. The last time they had mentioned this was Christmas 2018, and I had gradually come to realise that they were worried about them on my behalf. I had resolved to move them (somewhere) if only to stop my parents worrying. 

Anyway - here was a potential solution. I rang my parents to remind myself quite what I had stored away. I had no idea what the covers and foam would be like (they were pretty poor when i got them), but if Tim only wanted the frames, then he was welcome to them.

I rang Tim, checking what car he needed them for. It turned out that he has a 1968 DS21 bvh.  Seat condition wasn't going to be an issue: Tim planned to buy new foam liners and had sourced some red fabric. He was planning on making new covers with his own fair hands. The seats would be just fine and so I duly offered them up. 

It wouldn't have been practical or cost-effective for Tim to have the seats couriered. It turned out that Tim is based in Suffolk and, with my parents being down in Essex  - that was not too far away at all. Rather than me collect the seats and then have Tim collect them from me at a later date, it made sense just to meet at my parents and get it over and done with. A date was set. Tim would be driving his DS. That was a bonus. My car is also a 1968 DS21 bvh Pallas, so there was a great  opportunity to compare cars and notes. Especially as, at some point in time, his car had acquired a DX2 engine - just like mine once had.

Leaving early in the morning I arrived at my parents with time for a cup of tea and a sandwich before it was time to fish the seats out of the eaves. 

Waiting To Go

It wasn't much of a surprise to find that mice had been nesting in at least one of the seats. Boy, did it stink! 

There's a mouse nest in there somewhere.....

It was more of a surprise to find that they had chewed a neat, deep, round crater in the underside of the rear seat!

Mouse Action

Mouse Crater......

Tim arrived and over a cup of tea we spent some time admiring his car. He'd bought it while living in France. He'd spotted it at a garage where it had been left for work - either never completed or never paid-for. Maybe both. Anyway, there it sat. It took the intervention of another French friend before the garage owner agreed to sell it to this Englishman. Tim was thoroughly enjoying owning and driving his car and uses it to tow a vintage caravan - which he also plans to re-upholster! 

Tim's lovely 1968 DS21

I think Tim said his car had recently had a full engine rebuild, and he was getting through a few other jobs. He had, for example, re-sprayed the wrinkle finish on his dashboard using what we concluded would have been VHT grey wrinkle paint. I recall many years ago that Charles Vyse had also done this on his 1966 DS21 "Snoopy".

The dashboard has been re-painted with wrinkle paint

The colour of the wrinkle paint wasn't the factory-correct 'gris rose' but on seeing it, I felt that if I had the choice between smooth gris rose, or wrinkled mid grey - I would go for the wrinkled: that seemed to be that factor that made the mid period DS dashboard what it was meant to be, and the mid grey colour was not out of keeping.

As well as picking up a DX2 engine at some point, the car had also picked up a tired leather interior from a later car along the way, which was why Tim wanted to put back in a set of 'proper' lever operated seats. He'd been on a fruitless search for replacement "Jersey Rhovyline" fabric to recover his seats. It's a lovely material, with a felt-like feel. It's warm in winter but cool in summer. Unfortunately, that fabric is no longer manufactured. You can buy covers (and the foam) for the earlier style of seats from the usual suspects. The colours are a good match to what would have been available at the time. Unfortunately the material used is Jersey Nylon - as used from 1970 onwards. 

Tim was more than happy with the seats frames. The seats themselves tend to go a little bald and loose their shape because the 'Dunlopillo' foam inside hardens and compresses. Although he had managed to find some suitable fabric he was happy with, he was even happier to see that the Rhovyline covers on the seats I was giving him were dark red - just the look he was trying to recreate.  Since he planned to buy new foam anyway, Tim was considering washing and re-using the covers from my seats. On that basis, I gave him the two halves of the rear seat too. I've also got the other red front seat somewhere and when I find it I'll give Tim a call. Perhaps it's just as well I didn't have it at the moment: all the seat pieces just about fitted in his DS. I took a couple more reference photos of under his bonnet to aid my own rebuild and with that he was on his way.

All Loaded Up and Ready To Go

Since I was on a road trip, and sharing the love, I'd also made arrangements to drop in and see Peter 'Badabec' on my return journey. He's over Epping Forest way. He had been kind enough to give me a set of pistons and liners when I was rebuilding my engine. More recently he'd lent me a gearbox input shaft to help realign my clutch  - and I needed to get  that back to him.

Using Peter's gearbox shaft to refit my clutch

Peter had restored his own D Super 5 and carried out a number of improvements along the way. He's a great believer in fitting relays to ease the burden on electrical switches and wiring: using relays for your headlights means they can be wired to draw power straight from the battery, rather than through the delicate contacts of switches and so can be more consistently brighter. Fitting the relays requires a bit of a re-think of the wiring loom so a rebuild is the ideal time to 'future-proof' the car. 

My 1968 DS has a single relay fitted for the high beam of both headlamps. There is no relay for the low beams. I've already bought a couple of period 'Sanor' relays and am planning to fit those as part of the rebuild. As Peter has done, I'm thinking of mounting them to the battery cage under the bonnet and have sourced an old mounting bracket from Citroen Classics with that in mind.

Peter's Ambulance - All Relayed-Up

Peter had also devised a very clever solution to the poor design of the plastic-bodied valve mounted on top of the heater matrix in later cars. He used an in-line valve intended for a TX1 taxi cab.

TX1 taxi heater valve

Like the later Ds, it's also cable-operated, but the open and closed positions are the reverse of the Citroen tap (and so the reverse of the hot/ cold indicator on the dashboard lever). It will still work that way, but to rectify this, Peter took the tap apart and swapped the lever around.  For the hose connection to the top of the matrix, Peter made a plate from 1/8" brass, soldered on a 15mm copper 90 degree elbow and a short length of copper pipe. It all looks like this. All very neat and looks as though Citroen designed it that way. 

Peter's in-line heater valve

As well as owning, driving, maintaining and improving his D Super 5, Peter is now also getting stuck into restoring a DS20 Safari - and I was very keen to see it. When he bought it, it was an ambulance, and part of the transformation will be to return it to standard spec. 

I say "standard spec" but I'm sure there will be a few modifications along the way.

I'll keep you posted!

Engine Start-Up!

This was so rewarding. A definite milestone that put a silly grin all over my stupid fat face.

I guess I could have tried this several months before - even before the gearbox was joined to the engine. However, keen to feel I was making visible progress, I cracked on with other peripheral and superficial jobs instead - such as fitting the ancillaries and pulley belts.

With the car now out of my garage and back at the barn, I was kind of at a loss for further productive things I could do. One thing that had been at the back of my mind though was whether or not the rebuilt engine actually ran! Before the year was out I wanted to know - one way or the other - whether all the effort thus far had been worth it, or whether I would have to start all over again.

In planning to start the engine, one of the first things I needed to do was remove the pulley belts from the ancillaries......With no radiator and cooling circuit, no LHM reservoir and no voltage regulator, I didn't want to be running dry pumps and alternators. So all the set up work had to be undone. I'm sure there's a lesson there for me somewhere. If only I was clever enough to learn it.....

With the engine out of the car, all I can do is a basic set up of the timing (known as 'pre-setting the static timing') - which is only enough to get the engine running. The process for doing this is covered in Operation D.210-0 in Volume 1 of Manual 814. It won't be accurate enough for optimum engine running under normal driving conditions. The actual setting of the  'static timing'  (sometimes also known as 'distributor timing' or 'advance checking') checks for the correct advance of the timing at higher than tickover revs and needs to be carried out with a tachometer and stroboscope.

I had discovered some time ago that my car has got the wrong distributor fitted to it for the engine. My DX engine should have a Dx-05b distributor but has a Dv-010 - as used on D Specials (and then DS23s). I searched but couldn't find the correct distributor so eventually I gave in and bought 123 electronic ignition. It can be set up to mimic just about all (if not all) the mechanical distributors originally fitted to various Ds over the years, by virtue of a small selector hidden behind a hex nut cover. However for the purposes of this trial start up I used my mechanical dizzy. Although not intended for my DX engine, it would be good enough for pre-setting the static timing.

Preparations. With the rocker cover off I lubricated the rockers, shafts and pushrods. Refitting the rocker cover I filled up with 5 litres of engine oil and 2 litres of gearbox oil. Spark plugs were cleaned and the gaps were set. The point gap was set on the distributor.

The first major task was to find the timing firing point. The technique is that a 6mm pin (many people use a twist drill) is inserted in the timing hole under the alternator. 

6mm twist drill in timing hole under the alternator

WITH THE IGNITION SWITCHED OFF AND/ OR BATTERY DISCONNECTED, the engine is cranked using the starting handle or, for five speed cars, by jacking up the front of the car and rotating one of the wheels. It will be easier to crank the engine if you remove the spark plugs. At a particular point, the pin will engage in a shallow slot on the flywheel - locking it in that position. It's easier if you get a willing assistant to press gently on the end of the pin while you crank. 

With the firing point identified, I MADE SURE I REMOVED THE PIN FROM THE HOLE IN THE CRANK and did not turn the engine any more. You don't want to start the engine up and bend the pin in the slot.......

I fitted the base plate to the distributor and loosely tightened the pinch bolt so that I could still, just, rotate the dizzy independently of the base plate.

Base Plate and pinch bolt on the Distributor

I located the distributor lugs of the distributor drive in the grooves in the drive socket at the bottom of the distributor tower. You need to take care when you do this as the lugs and grooves of the drive socket are not central to the axis of the shaft: for the distributor lugs to correctly locate, the distributor shaft needs to be rotated until it is the right way round. It should then push home into the drive socket at the base of the tower.

Drive Tower: as the piston is before TDC, the grooves of the
 distributor drive have not yet rotated parallel to the camshaft line

The lugs on the distributor base are off-centre  - 
there is a 'small half' and a 'big half'

With the distributor pushed home, I did up the nut that holds the plate to the distributor tower. The next step was to correctly orientate the distributor within the tower.

As the engine was out of the car, I rigged up a 12 volt supply to mimic the car battery - though you could just as easily use a car battery! I temporarily mounted the ignition coil on one of the legs of the stand I had made and connected the condenser terminal on the distributor to the negative terminal on the coil. 

Distributor connected to negative terminal of the coil

I took a lead from the positive connection of the power supply to the positive terminal on the coil. The negative of the power supply was earthed to the engine - just as the battery would be.

Power supply to the positive terminal

Using a 12 volt bulb in a holder, and with crocodile clips on leads on it's terminals, I connected one lead to the negative terminal of the coil.......

Test lamp on the negative of the coil

.....and earthed the other end to the engine.

With my power supply (in lieu of a car battery) switched on, I SLOWLY rotated the distributor in an anti-clockwise direction until the test bulb just lit up. I rotated the distributor clockwise a little, then anti-clockwise again until I was satisfied I had found the 'sweet spot' - the point at which the bulb JUST lit up. Like this:

VIDEO: setting the contact opening point

Without moving the distributor anymore I tightened up the pinch bolt on the base plate, then disconnected the power supply.

The point I had just found was the point at which the contact breakers just opened and, since I had started by setting number one cylinder of the engine to it's firing point, I had now pre-set the static timing! - in other words the approximate ignition firing point.

I did a test fit of the distributor cap. It only fits on the distributor one way round as it has a lug that sits in a notch in the distributor body.

Protruding lug on distributor cap edge

Locating notch for distributor cap lug on the distributor body

If you are following this and have done it correctly (firing position of number one cylinder correctly set, distributor correctly located in the drive socket on the tower, distributor rotated until the points just open), the cap will be pointing past the oil filler and back towards number 3 or 4 spark plug.

Distributor cap points towards number 3 or 4 cylinder

Putting the rotor arm on the distributor I could see, and confirm, that the distributor was orientated as I expected it to be. As a rough guide, the rotor should be pointing roughly towards the number one spark plug position of the rocker cover. This was the firing position for number one cylinder.

Rotor arm points roughly towards number one spark plug

With the number one firing position determined, by matching the rotor arm position just established to the contacts inside the distributor cap, I could identify which HT lead position on the cap needed to go to number one cylinder. The firing order of a DS is 1,3,4,2,  and the rotor arm rotates clockwise so, working around the cap, I could also then work out which HT lead positions needed to go to which other cylinders. 

Knowing which contact aligns to no.1 spark plug, the rotation of the
 rotor and firing order, the location of the HT leads can be worked out

I connected the HT leads and refitted the distributor cap. I fitted a short length of wire to the choke pulley on the carb.

I rigged up a choke cable

I rigged up my car battery, connecting the positive to the starter motor lead and also running a cable round to the positive of the coil. The negative from the battery was earthed to the chassis. I took a length of fuel pipe from a can of fuel into the fuel pump and I was all ready to go......

My car is a 1968. Note the positions of the battery terminal posts

Using the piece of wire I had fitted I set the choke. I used the button on the bottom of the 'daisy' on the battery terminal to start the car.  It took quite a bit of turning over to prime the petrol pump and carburettor, as both had been rebuilt and were bone dry inside.  When the car did eventually start, it startled me: with no exhaust it was loud.

With the choke engaged it ran fast and I quickly put the choke off to slow the engine down. I gently blipped the throttle a couple of times but didn't let the engine run for more than about 10 seconds. I was worried that with no coolant it would overheat. 

I made a cup of tea and came back for seconds - and with a video camera this time. This was how it went:

VIDEO: Trial Start-Up

I'm very pleased with the experiment. Even though it sounded more like a tractor than a DS, the engine seemed to run smoothly and with no missed 'beats'. And even though it was stone cold, I reckon it would have ticked over quite happily - well, at least until it seized!

I discovered I had a fuel leak from under the lid of my rebuilt fuel pump. Turns out some idiot had failed to screw the lid on tightly enough. That wiped a little of the silly grin off my face, but a further test run confirmed all was now working fine and with no fuel leak.

I will set up the timing properly once the engine is back in the car. I plan to follow the settings of the factory manual, but need to work out how I adjust any settings to compensate for modern unleaded fuel and possible engine 'pinking' - which can damage the engine. When I eventually get to that job, I THINK that the timing will need to be retarded more than the factory settings to compensate for the use of unleaded fuel - which ignites more slowly (fractions of a second) than leaded fuel.

Even though I have 123 electronic ignition to fit, it's good practice to carry a spare distributor with you. With that in mind I might strip and rebuild my mechanical dizzy and keep it in the car for emergencies. I'm pretty sure there are instructions for a rebuild in manual 518.

Interlude: Anticipating Citromobile 2019

Only 157 sleeps until Citromobile 2019! That’s less than half a year!

The ‘Citromobile’ event is an annual, large indoor Citroen auto jumble. In recent years it’s been based at Haarlem on the edge of Amsterdam. In 2019 it will take place over the weekend of 4 and 5 May.

The event includes many new old stock and used parts for Citroens of all ages and many of the well known traders and sellers of reproduction parts are there. You can browse new, old stock parts, used parts or buy new reproduction parts.

Parts.....

Watch displays and ask awkward questions.

The Dutch DS-TT Technical Team in action

Harry Mertens five speed bvh gearboxes

Go green with envy at the show cars 

It's just as well the key wasn't in it.

You can buy whole, restored cars......

Cars for sale

....or simply marvel at the wonderful selection of visitors cars lined up in the car park.

A lot of people will be heading over to the Citroen ‘100 year’ celebrations in France in July and I’m assuming that is equally like to include a big auto jumble. However my diary isn’t going to see me there – so I’ve booked up for Citromobile again. And talked Richard Burch into it again too.

From the UK it makes for a great and productive DS weekend. This is how we do it:

-        Choose your biggest, spaciest car

-        Take the Friday night ferry from Harwich to Hook of Holland

-        Good company with like minded souls on board

-        A comfortable nights sleep and wake up in Holland.

-        A hearty breakfast and an hour or so’s drive up to Haarlem.

-        Browse and buy all day

-        Camping Saturday night

-        More browsing and buying on Sunday - last minute bargains

-        Quick dash back to Hook of Holland for the overnight ferry back to the UK

-        A comfortable nights sleep

-        Arrive back in the UK on bank holiday Monday
-        A hearty breakfast 

-        Drive home and unload our treasure.

From my wants list, this was some of my haul in 2018:

Haul.......

In the space of 48 hours I found bits that might have taken months or years to find.
Can't wait. I'm going to start a 2019 list

Interlude: Back To The Future.....

Well...... I hadn't anticipated this. My DS is back up at the farm and languishing in a barn! It's like de ja vu all over again! 

"Big Barn" - 11 May 2004

..........."Big Barn" - 10 November 2018

A few things have changed since my DS was last there: I'm pleased to see that the caravan conversion seems to have been finished - it's been transformed into two tractors by the looks of it - and that black DS in front of mine (Richard's) may look the same as previously but it's a different car.

At least it's the 'BIG barn'  - as that one is rodent proof (allegedly) as the farmer uses it to store grain in the summer. Previously my DS had spent many unhappy years in the 'Little Barn'  across the yard - which is airy and a rats paradise. That's where my DS was back in 2014 when I woke up and decided to restore it. It had sat there for 10+ years and had been in one or other barn for even longer.

Sleeping Beauty - 'Little Barn', 14 September 2014. Can you spot it?

So anyway - if it has to be back at the farm, then 'Big Barn' is the place to be. 

What's going on? Well, having moved house a couple of years ago and gained a lovely garage for DS restoration..........

DS arriving - 15 October 2016........

...........we are having an extension over the garage. That means everything's got to come out - especially the DS. 

The plan this time is THAT SPENDS NO MORE THAN FIVE MONTHS AWAY FROM HOME. I repeat: FIVE MONTHS. NOT 16 YEARS.

The engine is going to stay at home. I'm close to finishing the rebuild and have vowed not to put it in the car until I've tested it, and until the engine bay is tidied.

And so the big move. Once again I'm indebted to Doug the race driver for use of his trailer. He's based up at the farm, so it's very handy to use. Richard picked up the trailer and brought it over to Bedford on Saturday. I spent the the first part of the morning putting air in the tyres and replacing the broom handle pieces that were in the suspension cylinders. As the car was going to go on the back of a bumpy trailer, I substituted the rods for one with rubber doorsteps cunningly screwed to the end. I reasoned that this would at least provide a little flex on the bumpy journey to the farm.

Suspension Props

Overall length of each of three of the props is 9cm. The fourth one is 13.7cm to allow for the  suspension cylinder extension piece fitted to the front right side (exhaust manifold side). You can use 29mm diameter broom handle for all four - but it's a pretty close fit in the extension piece, so I used 23.5mm broom handle in that one. Some people don't like this method of holding the suspension up. partly because of the risk of splinters in the cylinders and partly because of potential damage to the dampers on the ends of the spheres. I sanded the ends to remove rough bits and fitted sacrificial, expendable, welded spheres.

I've been using the half-room over the garage to store a few DS things - nothing much: one and half leather interiors, rear screen, spare front screen, steering wheel - that kind of thing....... That space will also have to be cleared for the building work, so I spent the rest of Saturday morning loading my DS to the gunnels. I used every inch. The only way I could get everything to fit was by taking off the interior door handles and window winders!

Richard arrived early afternoon and we spent an hour or so drinking tea and chatting DS - just long enough for the rain to start...... We then spent another 30 mins fashioning a tarp. cover to keep the car dry during it's journey. The car has no rear screen and the last thing it needs is to sit in a barn with a boot full of water. Luckily I have a car port area in front of the garage and we worked in the dry. That handy car port will be reinstated after the building work. 

.......DS Leaving - 10 November 2018

With the car secured on the trailer, we set off. As it was already hitched to Richard's car, we left it that way and I followed behind in convoy.  With no engine in the car, it's easier - and safer - to tow and, other than the tarp billowing away and threatening to tear itself off, the journey was uneventful.

We arrived in rainy darkness. The barn is a working barn and as well as the farmer, others use it for storing cars and caravans and, in Richard's case, their collection of Citroens. We set about shuffling the other cars in the barn to make some space for my DS at the back. There are no lights in the barns, so this wasn't as easy as it sounds.  We positioned my car headlights and worked amongst the elongated and exaggerated shadows.

Richard's DS was moved back into place and we were just about done - other than parking and locking the trailer.

Once again, another task successfully completed only because of the kindness and support of others. Thanks Doug. Thanks Richard.

Teamwork: Richard on the right, me on the left

Now all I have to do is to find room for this lot!