The Final Chapter of the Stripey Saga - RIP supermachine

Tell us about life with your BX, or indeed life in general!
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Dollywobbler
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Re: The Stripey Saga Continues - 22/04 - Update

Post by Dollywobbler »

This sort of thing justifies my decision not to break it up! I knew that yes, it had problem areas, but felt it was more solid than rust overall.
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Re: The Stripey Saga Continues - 22/04 - Update

Post by citsncycles »

..that_ that rear box section looks worse than mine, but the rest isn't bad at all. Despite the estates supposedly not being as well rustproofed as the hatchbacks, their boot floors don't seem to be as rust prone, and at least the box section is (for the most part) a fairly simple structure.
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Re: The Stripey Saga Continues - 22/04 - Update

Post by vulgalour »

There's very little of the box section that's solid, but the boot floor side is good and the closing end pieces are nice and solid so it'll just need a bit of folded sheet to reinstate which shouldn't be too much of a hardship. We hope.
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Re: The Stripey Saga Continues - 22/04 - Update

Post by vulgalour »

Today, I have mostly been dismantling the BX. First though, I dumped the bottle of LHM I had into the system to make things happier. A litre of the good stuff made the STOP and ! lights go out and the car rises much faster now. Tick time is back up to 10-11 seconds too, which is acceptable. No fresh leaks apparent under the car either.
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Little yellow bobble is where it should be. Need to clean the top of the drum, it's all covered in oily gunk of some sort, not sure what that is.
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I had difficulty removing this in the past, I couldn't find all the bolts for the crusty oil all over it, but with a manual to hand I managed to find the other 4 bolts I couldn't find and lifted it free. The whole thing is covered in engine oil and there's oil in the top of the inlet manifold that bolts onto the engine. So much oil.
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Rocker cover removed too. The gasket has gone hard and doesn't seal at all, it's a wonder any oil stays in the car at all really. It's on my list of things to order from AEP later this year so I can fully sort out the engine anyway, in the meantime I'll clean it all up.
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I can now see a bit better what I'm doing. You can just make out in the middle of the head where I've cleaned some of the gunk off, it's really quite thick but does come off easily enough once you get around all the pipes and whatnot. In the meantime, I've put some tissue in the inlet holes and a plastic sheet (not shown) over the head so nothing can get into the engine while I'm cleaning the rocker cover and top box. All the bolts were put back in their respective holes so I don't misplace them.
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With the air box off, I could see a bit better where possible leaks would be. The return pipe from what I assume is the diesel pump is perished and in need of replacement as are one or two other hoses that look a bit past their best now. It's much the same job as I've done on the Princess so it'll be a case of replacing just about every rubber component I can find to freshen everything up and get the engine back into good health. The other thing I noticed is what looks like a missing pipe on the thermostat, there's no sign of it knocking around the engine bay so it might not be supposed to be there, but it seems a bit odd to me that there would be a flanged pipe with no hose or blanking plug attached.
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I've also found where my water is escaping from for definite. Once I have a new thermostat I'll split and clean up the housing so it doesn't make this mess everywhere. It seems to leak most at start up and then seal as the engine gets hot which means it takes a while to lose enough water to light up the dash, but doesn't lose enough at once to leave puddles. Easy fix this one, I've had to do it on every car I've owned.
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Once I've cleaned all the excess oil off I'll put the engine back together so that I can perform regular Citaerobics. Happily, I can report the height adjuster is getting easier and easier to use and while I still plan to remove the rear adjust to clean it fully, in the meantime I'm happy enough that I don't have to fight so much with it to keep the car off the grass.

I've not had chance to practice welding any further or to cut out more metal in preparation for repairs as I've had some health issues to work through. Doing less involved work is the order of the day for a while, but as long as I do something it'll help with therapy and with getting the jobs worked through on the car in readiness for returning to the road later this year.
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Re: The Stripey Saga Continues - 27/04 - Update

Post by vulgalour »

Wheels. I've got some Lancia wheels that were going on the Polo, but I kept them back as I thought they might come in handy in the future. I've got a few more measurements to make, but they're looking likely as a candidate for the BX.

So, Lancia is a 4x98 while the BX is 4x108 so there's going to need to be an adaptor, I also need to space the Lancia wheels by 20mm to make them sit where the BX steels sit. Centre bore measures 62mm on the BX steel and 58mm on the Lancia alloy so that needs to be taken into account as well when ordering the appropriate adaptors. The Lancia wheels are only a 13", so I need to be extra sure they clear the brakes as at the moment I can't do that with the car sat on the floor and the engine in bits, I need to be able to make use of the uppy-downy lever to stop the jack getting trapped, you see. I can make up the difference in wheel size with tyre sidewall without it looking comical and it looks to be a readily available and affordable size.

It's still a way off as a plan, I've got to refurb the alloys, buy the tyres, source and buy the adaptors, make sure all the measurements are correct... it's a fair amount of stuff and money still to spend and quite low priority, but it keeps my brain busy.

What started this off was my brother wanting to swap the Lancias and the Tarantulas around as we've got limited storage and he has plans for the VW alloys. Propped one of the Lancia wheels against the car and oh look, that's not half bad.

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What else? Polishing, really. There's not a lot I can do at the moment beyond that and it's good to keep myself busy on something. The electric drill died just as my brother and I were starting some polishing efforts and I've really needed something monotonous to do today so I made a start hand polishing the rocker cover for the BX since it's a nice lump of solid cast aluminium.

Needs more work as there's still some minor peppering of pits on the polished side which is keeping it from a full mirror finish, but it's okay for about an hour's work. I'd've done more, but it turns out I have some sort of contact allergy with something I was using and with no gloves to hand I didn't want to exacerbate matters.

It's a bit silly really, polishing the rocker cover, as you can hardly see it with the normal BX set up. However, Peugeots 309 and 405 have the same engine with a different air intake set up that does put the rocker cover on display as well as improving general engine access which is something I plan to investigate further as I do like a clean and tidy engine bay.

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It's kept me out of mischief at least, weather has been miserable today so it's been good to have something to do.
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Re: The Stripey Saga Continues - 28/04 - Wheels & Polish

Post by saintjamesy89 »

You're right with those Lancia alloys, they do look quite nifty! It's frustrating when you have to wait for things to happen, for me it's usually time or money holding stuff back. What a difference in the rocker cover! Looks new.
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Re: The Stripey Saga Continues - 28/04 - Wheels & Polish

Post by Mickey taker »

You may be able to get a 20mm thick 4x 98 / 4x 108 adaptor which solves two problems at once.
With the spacer on you may also avoid having to open up the centre bore as much as a lot of hub centres arent very deep and the bearing caps taper in if that makes sense.
There are some arguents that the weigt of the car on just the wheel bolts can cause stress on the wheel bolts but not sure about this as spigot rings that take up the space between aftermarket alloys and standard hubs are plastic which suggests they are only there to centralize the wheel and aid fitting.
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Re: The Stripey Saga Continues - 28/04 - Wheels & Polish

Post by Mickey taker »

Theres a company called H&R that make adaptors, looked on ebay closest was 4x108 / 4x100 and they were 140 quid
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Re: The Stripey Saga Continues - 28/04 - Wheels & Polish

Post by Mickey taker »

judt done some research re adaptors, Performancealloys.com do the H&R ones for what you want for 155.00 quid
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Re: The Stripey Saga Continues - 28/04 - Wheels & Polish

Post by mat_fenwick »

Mickey taker wrote:There are some arguents that the weigt of the car on just the wheel bolts can cause stress on the wheel bolts
Interesting you should mention that, as one of the guys on another forum had just that problem. Being a van the problem would be magnified though, and he'd made his own so who knows what calculations (if any) he'd done for material strengths.

If it wasn't for the offset it might be easier/cheaper for you to drill and tap the hubs (and drill the discs) to the new PCD and get the wheels machined to suit. Don't think I'd try it without a bench drill though...
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Re: The Stripey Saga Continues - 28/04 - Wheels & Polish

Post by vulgalour »

The ideal is probably to redrill the hubs and just use spacers so I can fit any 4x108 or 4x98 wheels then (what choice!). For all the conflicting info I find out there, it seems that as long as you buy a decent spacer-adaptor you should be perfectly okay and shouldn't experience any problems. I could probably get the alloys remachined, but that has problems all its own as extra strength is normally built in to the bolt hole in the way they're designed and to fart around with that without knowing precisely what's gone into the design can cause all sorts of horrors like oval bolt holes which we obviously don't want.

Of all the jobs on the car, alloy wheels is probably the furthest away, but it's nice to play about with ideas. If a nice set of CX alloys came up at the right price then things would be different, I do like CX alloys.
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Re: The Stripey Saga Continues - 28/04 - Wheels & Polish

Post by vulgalour »

A mixed bag today, I seem to have spent a lot of time getting nowhere. I discovered quite by accident that Astonish brand bathroom cleaner, which is only £1 per bottle, is the best engine degreaser I've yet used. Applied carefully with a toothbrush and then wiped off it removes all the crusty stuff with surprising ease. You can also use it in small quantities to shift grease and oil from your hands, just be sure to wash your hands with regular soap afterwards. Here's a close up to show what it shifts with a single application and very little effort.
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This is after I'd done what I could reach of the head and the inlet manifold. I also removed the bonnet and scuttle for ease of access and to investigate for rust, of which I found nothing new, happily. I can also get some of the awkward bits of the plastic panels cleaned up and look at reinstating the spray bar a bit easier now.
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Bolted the freshly polished (needs more work yet) rocker cover back on which seemed to seat better than when I removed it, the gasket seems more flexible too, just so I could get the car started and keep it off the grass as much as possible. It's a shame the stock airbox obscures this polishing completely, but that's why I'm looking at fitting the Peugeot alternative that was used on this engine, I just have to investigate further as to what does and doesn't fit this lump and what other changes I might need to make.
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So, you'd think it would be a simple case of reinstating some pipes where they were disconnected (no fluids lost or drained) and bolting the six bolts back in that hold the airbox to the inlet manifold, right? Wrong. I managed to drop one bolt down the back of the engine and because it was getting dark and the car is sat on the floor at the front I couldn't see it to find it. I think I've also managed to cross thread a bolt and by this point was fast losing patience with myself. Things were seated well enough that the car should at least start, or so I thought. It made a spirited effort but I just ended up draining the battery to the point that it won't start now, just churn lazily.

When I can be bothered/it's light outside I'll have a proper look and put it all right again. It'll be something stupid, it always is. I did discover that the feed pipe from the pump to the first injector is just starting to collapse on one end so they'll be up for replacement, as is the diesel return pipe from the pump as that's perished at the pump end. I'm very tempted to drop the engine fully as I also need to do the timing belt and water pump, it would give me an opportunity to give it a clean and replace anything that might need it while also getting a good look around the engine bay without it being sat in there. However, I don't want this to turn into a full restoration, I'm only supposed to be fixing things to get the car back on the road in solid, MoTable condition as soon as possible.

in summary: yay shiny bits! Boo, I broke something.
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Re: The Stripey Saga Continues - 01/05 - Update

Post by Tim Leech »

Ive found "Elbow Grease" also for £1 from bargain shops is very effective!

As for the shiny bits and breaking something then I assure you youre not alone on that point!
Lots of Motors, mostly semi broken....
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Re: The Stripey Saga Continues - 01/05 - Update

Post by vulgalour »

So, today I finally got my arse in gear and set to on Stripey again. I decided that I'd check the health of the battery before charging it and discovered it needed a wee drop of de-ionised water just to hide the little feet inside. Nice to have a battery I can do this with, I'm sure it'll have a longer lifespan than a sealed jobbie.
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Gave the primer a test push and realised I had indeed been a derp. So I unbolted the airbox, discovered I have cross-threaded one of the inlet manifold threads, and rebolted it down less a bolt in the cross-threaded hole. That'll be the bolt that's under the car somewhere. All went together without a hitch and the rocker gasket is, unsurprisingly, already leaking again but I can at least see where from now. Not worrying about that in the short term, it'll be fixed before the car is returned to the road.

While I waited for the battery to charge I had a go at removing one of the front wings. I wanted to see how bad the common grot spot was. I did have a bit of a scrape on the inner arch where there were some bubbles and was quite surprised to find solid metal beneath. Looks like it's going on this seam and I expect I'll have to drop the suspension to do all the repairs in this area which I'm not looking forward to. VIN plate modified to hide identity, it doesn't actually look like that.
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Bashed the door pin back in which I'd been meaning to do for ages but found easier with the wing removed. That counts as a problem fixed, one point to me.
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So, that wing. On the whole it was fairly easy to remove. The front bumper has had a bash on this corner so it was unseated from its mount and was therefore easy to move out of the way. Crud catchers were a bit of a battle, but not as much as the upper A pillar bolt whose captive nut wasn't and which was cross-threaded making for a right ballache of a job. Got there in the end, but it's made a bit of a mess of the wing bolt hole when the captive nut span and chewed it up and I'm going to have to weld a new nut in as the old one is fubarred.

Otherwise, there's not really any rot under here. Yes, there's the usual grot spot where the arch lip has crumbled away, but it's not the horror I was expecting to find and I was quite jabby with the screwdriver. Looks like it's going to be a fiddly repair rather than a large one. Because the inner arch has been well treated with black gunge there's no rust to find.
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For all I was expecting this to be quite a rusty car, it's really not that bad. Certainly, having to weld patches measured in inches rather than feet is a surprise. I'll remove the other wing and the bumper to fully inspect the front end, but it might make more sense to get the front repaired, cleaned and rebuilt before sorting out the mess at the back because of there being that much less to do.
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Re: The Stripey Saga Continues - 04/05 - Rot Hunting

Post by MULLEY »

I applaud your efforts, well worth it in the long run to get this stuff sorted, should last another 20 years before needing to be done again :)
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