GT mediated Awesomeness

Tell us about life with your BX, or indeed life in general!
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Tinkley
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Re: GT mediated Awesomeness

Post by Tinkley »

The front clunking is most likely the drop links..... :wink: not too hard to do. Be prepared to saw off the top part of the old ones though as getting the nuts off is either easy or not possible. You do get clearance to get a saw or angle grinder in though. Have you checked the state of the wishbone bushes? I need to do one of mine as the rubber looks OK (ie intact), but I can feel how slack it has gone compared to my oter one with new(ish) bushes...
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saintjamesy89
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Re: GT mediated Awesomeness

Post by saintjamesy89 »

Got the carb back in the week, and popped it on today. What a difference! Still needs the timing looking at and perhaps a little adjustment to the mixture and idle but for plopping it straight back on the car it's surprising how well it runs now. Took a hle to get it started, but everytime i have starting issues I know I just need to plant the go pedal ad it'll start after a couple of turns, but im always nervous of flooding it!

Will get it booked ito a garage next week so they can use a gas analyser to adjust it and get it running spot on.

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mds141
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Re: GT mediated Awesomeness

Post by mds141 »

I'm not sure about carbed models, but the BX owners manual does state that the acc pedal should be depressed fully for hot starting.
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Re: GT mediated Awesomeness

Post by Kitch »

mds141 wrote:I'm not sure about carbed models, but the BX owners manual does state that the acc pedal should be depressed fully for hot starting.
That would only be for carb'd models I would have thought. Doesn't make sense on a diesel, and on an EFI car it's completely pointless provided the system is working properly.

Do have to do it on the AX when hot though, otherwise you're sat there spinning on the starter for hours!
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mat_fenwick
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Re: GT mediated Awesomeness

Post by mat_fenwick »

I think that's pretty normal - just that a bit of the fuel in the float bowl will evaporate when the engine is hot, so there'll be a lot of fuel vapour sat in the inlet manifold. This makes it too rich to start unless you open the throttle to allow more air in.
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saintjamesy89
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Re: GT mediated Awesomeness

Post by saintjamesy89 »

When cold it'll start on the second/third turn and when hot it the same it's only when it's somewhere in bewteen that it's tricky - or if it hasn't run for a while.

Booked in for tune upon Friday, then we're off to Exeter for a meal and a coupl of drinks with friends. It'll be the first longish trip with passengers,so good for the rear brakes and suspension!
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mat_fenwick
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Re: GT mediated Awesomeness

Post by mat_fenwick »

When it's hot an restarted pretty soon afterwards, there hasn't been enough time for much fuel to evaporate, so that fits with the symptoms. Enjoy your road trip!
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saintjamesy89
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Re: GT mediated Awesomeness

Post by saintjamesy89 »

Well, WHAT a difference! It's like a different car to drive now, much smoother and decidedly more quick. Also the 100 mile round trip to exeter used about an eighth of a tank of fuel whereas before it would have used a lot more. Now that it is running so smoothly i can feel a very slight misfire at very light throttle/cruising throttle so will investigate that in time.

Rebuilt carb seems to have imroved starting, might need a little bit of pedal to initially start but then the autochoke does it's thing and it's all good.

Really must have a look at the drivers window mechanism, is wedged up now - but before it kept falling down loose inside the door and is quite irritating!
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saintjamesy89
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Re: GT mediated Awesomeness

Post by saintjamesy89 »

One of the comments of the guys in the garage was that the distributor wiring is very nearly gone, so having just checked ebay international I found a new old stock distributor with all ancillaries for £80! Very happy days!
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Jaba
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Re: GT mediated Awesomeness

Post by Jaba »

saintjamesy89 wrote:Well, WHAT a difference!. Now that it is running so smoothly i can feel a very slight misfire at very light throttle/cruising throttle so will investigate that in time.
That might be the vacuum advance diaphragm on the dizzy failed. A temporary fix is to advance the ignition timing slightly to mimic the effect of automatic advancing.
saintjamesy89 wrote:Really must have a look at the drivers window mechanism, is wedged up now - but before it kept falling down loose inside the door and is quite irritating!
That will probably be the metal channel on the window glass. Chevronics are the only supplier now.
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mat_fenwick
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Re: GT mediated Awesomeness

Post by mat_fenwick »

They've still got a few OE channels in (I've just bought one) and are getting more re-manufactured for when these run out. It's a nice feeling not having to stockpile parts!
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saintjamesy89
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Re: GT mediated Awesomeness

Post by saintjamesy89 »

Small update. Was dog sitting at mums last weekend as they were in Turkey this week but didn't manage to get a dog sitter for the weekend. So to stave off the boredom of 'sitting' and because I had loads of jobs to do at home, but being stuck at another house and not being able to relax because of said jobs needing doing, I discovered mum has a rug doctor/carpet cleaner thing!
So, the wool in the GT being dirty as it is, I spent most of the weekend cleaning the seats/carpet/any fabric in the GT with the handy hand-held bit of the carpet cleaner. The waste water was BROWN fellow BXers, brown! Here are the results.

Passenger seat done, drivers not. PS, this isn't a trick of the light, they were THAT dirty! The drivers seat especially.
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Rear seats, far side and middle done, nearside not. Again, no trick of the light, they were quite beige, much more grey now.
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The seats are much softer now, and although the car smelt of wet dog for a couple of days (took ages to dry!) it is so much better now. I think they could do with another go over with the cleaner to be properly clean but the improvement is quite something.

Also, brand new old stock distributor arrived :) Very happy purchase, will put it on today. Will hopefully solve uneven running and less than ideal starting.
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Next job has to be drivers window, it's wedged up wwith bits of card at the moment, but not a very good solution!
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Tim Leech
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Re: GT mediated Awesomeness

Post by Tim Leech »

Amazing how much filth you get out of the seats, probably the first time they've been cleaned, you could lift the bases out and scrub them to make life easier plus they will dry better in fresh air?
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saintjamesy89
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Re: GT mediated Awesomeness

Post by saintjamesy89 »

New distributor seems to have made quite a difference! The engine is smoother, and seems to be much quieter - I had to guess the timing but think I have it as close to the previous adjustment as possible. Getting lots of looks today driving the GT around, it's still spotless after last weekends valeting sessions.

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It does show up how dirty and manky the rocker cover is though, it's easy enough to take off so may clean it at some point, but then the block is stained and dirty, the cambelt casing is dirty and has some surface rust... Perhaps it's best not to go down that route just yet!
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saintjamesy89
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Re: GT mediated Awesomeness

Post by saintjamesy89 »

Long time no GTing! Haven't been to see the old gal or to drive her for over a month. Today though I had a day to myself, so among other household chores I thought i'd clean out the LHM reservoir as I haven't even looked in there since she came onto the road. I assumed the LHM would be all nice and fresh, as when the front HP pipe went, nearly all the LHM went on the floor/walls/garage door etc!

However, this is what I found...

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The filters were filthy, and there was a decent couple of mm of gunk in the bottom of the reservoir. Also, the LHM isn't precisely bright neon green is it? It's more of a forest green. Before the challenge I will see if I can get some hydraflush in there - all that mountain driving should clean all the crap out of the system! Contrary to common experience, I was very cautious but my LHM reservoir doesn't seem to be sharp around the rim at all, had my hand and arm inside scrubbing it and not even a scratch.

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When it was all back together, I did some citroebics, the front end seems to likje thios as even after i'm done and the HC lever is in normal the front continues to go bottom to top a coupl eof times before stopping - it's done this before once - perhaps a front HC rebuild is going to be necessary in the near future. Also whilst I was citroebicing I was keeping an eye out for any leaks, the only one I could fing is from the exhaust, water is coming ou
of the exhaust - not sure I like that, and the coolant is a brown rusty colour (i had thought it was rust from when the car was sat for so many years) I do hope the head hasn't gone... Check out the video
Also, see the new rear mud flaps! Not entirely sure they're straight but the ground isn't level so difficult to tell.

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I'm not a Saint, or a James, but a Tom Saint-James!

Mes voitures:
1985 Citroen BX19 GT
1988 Volvo 740 2.0 GL Hearse
2006 Lexus RX 400h SE hybrid
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