Cyril's progress

Post by **Tim Leech** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 11:57 pm

Did someone mention hubcaps?

Graeme, the guy with the interior and the other Mk1 bits has some metric alloys too!

Aerodynamica · Post by **Aerodynamica** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 12:09 am

Apologies for my disgraceful behaviour

Did someone mention hubcaps? Very Happy Graeme, the guy with the interior and the other Mk1 bits has some metric alloys too!

- really? he never did say. Is it only CXs where the metric wheels have expensive tyres or is the BX similarly afflicted?

I'd love a set of those old style BX wheels but they'd have to be properly shiny to suit my (admittedly very shallow) purposes. I want my car to look just like the one in the brochure..

Aerodynamica · Post by **Aerodynamica** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 7:18 pm

Bak pon internets!!

Cyril is now back on the road - and sporting a pair of replacement and RUST FREE doors!! Thanks to Mr Rutherford for bringing the 2 doors to the CCC rally - they're now in place and the colour is correct. However, they're a little faded compared to Cyril's striking fire engine shiny red. Seems odd that the older car is faded less than the younger doors. Cyril spent all of his life in Cornwall so I'd expect a pink car from there.. anyway.

Changing the doors:

The old front passenger door I'd previously fillered and left for dead

- why keep a door full of blat when you have a similar coloured, rust and dent free replacement?

I must admit that removing Cyril's doors was actually very difficult. Surprisingly so. I'd love to know why they thought it was a good idea to weld the hinges to the frame - on the CX I can remove a door in about 4 minutes (so long as I'm ready for the incomparable weight of the thing that is... as the hinges are bolted on and there are shims to adjust the fit.

Anyway, after an unanticipated length of time, both front and rear LH doors were in place. The line along the car now is nice and dent free and the front door is 'all door' and no air there.

Same shot without polariser to see the reflections:

Colour match seemingly perfect at first after the doors were given a bit of a clean.

It took a lot longer too as the wiring looms for the window motors, locking and such had to be refitted - I thought the whole thing was going to be easy until I spotted some extra wires on Cyril's front and rear door wiring looms! wtf? there were extra pairs of wires leading up to the actual locl mechanism on both of the out going doors. Then I realised: there are little 'doors open' warning lights on the dash and this must be the wiring for them but the new doors didn't have these - simple I thought just fit them to the new locks? nah - the new locks didn't have the connection for them nor did they have the device that does the 'sensing' of the door being open. and can these bits be reached? not a bit of it - they're built into the lock mechanism!! so both needed swapping. I knew I'd have to swap the lock barrel over but didn't think I'd need to do this too

also, the new rear door has keep fit window winders - to fit the leccy one to the rear was seemingly just a case of removing the windy handle and its shaft and fitting the electric motor in place? not a bit of it - although the mechanism is identical and the 3 mounting holes are there - the splined shaft can't be removed and the 3 studs are missing. So the whole winder mechanism needed to be swapped.... groan. But it was a success and I took the opportunity to grease up the scissor lifter rollers and the motor pinion teeth and bearing as this window had been a bit grindy and tempremental anyway.

Surprising amount of bits lying around afterwards..

New doors on, locks swapped and adjusted, window winders both functional, central locking functional and the ever so essential 'door open' lights now work..

Check out the colour match

it's a little off but the doors are still dirty.

Comedy mis matched 80s coachlines:

The old, dented door revealed that it had been replaced once in the past. Painted red from some dark blue colour.

Note the black red/black door card is spare if anyone wants it - comes with an unmarked arm rest/ grab handle.

So doors improved but still have the bad front wings

Thinking I'm now going to be on the look out for a replacement pair of front wings and then get them painted in the future as the repaired wing isn't so good and I think a part respray is going to be needed anyway.

Looking better?

Aerodynamica · Post by **Aerodynamica** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 7:27 pm

Ne-e-e-e-ext!

About a month ago I'd won a pair of new replacement lights on evilbay - good price too and combined postage.

The parcel:

Revealing:

Lovely new lighty

Crappy old lights, broken and one reaseled with black tiger sealant..

And with the outgoing pair

Fitted

Post by **Tim Leech** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:55 pm

Graeme Im upgrading the interior of the TRS soon, so I will have a pristine set of grey tweed seats up for grabs if your interested?

Aerodynamica · Post by **Aerodynamica** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 12:27 am

Tim, that would be great! Would you hang on to them for me? I am chronically short of green at present..

Dare I ask what you're doing to upgrade?

gotta be leather ?

Anyway, I'd be delighted to change the seats as they're pretty rubbish. Only the driver's seat is semi - worn looking really but the cloth upholstery is so soft and seems really prone to wear. The tweed is so much tougher.

Post by **Tim Leech** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 12:33 am

No im not into leather (ooh err

) but Ive been given a set of the TR seats from the 19DTR/TRS which in my option are alot more nicer as Ive given up trying to get some zenith velour!.

You can pick them up from me on the way home from stratford if you wanted too or I can bring them with me dependant on how many passengers I will have.

As for payment, you can have them gratis but if you like please give a small donation to the bxagon.

Bearing in mind this is from a Mk2 so the front door cards arent any use.

Aerodynamica · Post by **Aerodynamica** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 6:07 pm

is from a Mk2 so the front door cards arent any use.

Hi Tim, thank you! why can't the Mk2 door cards be used? I thought the only difference was the plastic moulding up top next to the dash end. Is there another major reason why they dont swap? The replacement door just fitted to Cyril is from a Mk2 and seemed identical save for a bunch of wires that come through an extra grommet at the bottom.

Anyone have a photo of a Mk2 door interior to refresh my memory?

Aerodynamica · Post by **Aerodynamica** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 7:34 pm

Today's adventure.

Was out doing some drivage in Cyril when I hit traffic. All was well but with the window down I could hear a NOISE.

There was a constant squeak-squeak like a cartoon pulley sound effect. I thought it was coming from the ass-ugly X5 in front of me but of course it was emanating from my 25 year old BX

Traffic moves a little and then there's a kind of 'clunk' from up ahead in the nose some place and immediately the battery charge light comes on. O shyte - I wanna gun it back home now!! but of course, these things always happen when you're stuck in traffic!! It must be the alternator belt (but it looked healthy?) now a bit of movement to the traffic flow but slow and very shortly the Hydraulic pressure and stop light come on too!! Uh oh! maybe it's the HP pump belt that's twanged - but I was sure the alternator was driven independently..... must be mistaken. luckily the traffic eased up quickly and I hit the motorway with lots of red lights on the dash

Got near home with very heavy steering and although the ride height was seemingly not lost it certainly felt a bit lower at the back. I remembered suddenly that our street has a series of big long speed humps - was there enough clearance still to take 'em?

I needn't have worried as there was. Got into the drive still with full brake power.

Left the engine running and with the red lights on

-note that the rpms are up around 1.3-1.5K with no pump and alt load.

Here is what greeted me upon inspection

That's the HP pump belt wrapped around the alternator pulley - but where is the alternator belt?

First thoughts were the HP belt snapped and got caught in the alt belt that then also snapped. Improbable but not impossible?

Then I looked low down at the crank pulley and saw that the alt belt was intact and was hanging out the bottom. I fished it out and it was totally fine and undamaged. The HP pump belt was mauled beyond belief!! it was tightly jammed in the alternator but finally came off.

It was in tatters

So I took the CX to Halfords and set about getting a belt. The BX is still listed and I was given a belt for 1984 BX 16 with power steering. It looked a bit long to me but the girl said I could exchange it if it didn't fit.

Back home - raining like shit - tried to fit and it's too big

After refitting the alt belt alone and running the car I had to put it out on the street to get the CX past - back in and after the belt fitting FAIL a repeat of the manoeuvrings took place - now the back suspension was on the stops and there was a scrape of gravel on the bottom of the BX at the end of the drive

The brakes now gave no stopping power suddenly (the reserve lasted for a long time but the loss was sudden!)
Parked round the street now. Went back to halfords and got the 'NON PAS' belt for the BX - it was a little shorter but still thought it might be too long.

Back with the BX and the belt was the right length but was a swine to get it on the pulley and tensioner even with the tensioner loosened back to minimal position it was a mare to get on. The alternater had to come off then the HP pump loosened then it went on...

All on and good and tightened the tensioner to get the essential tight HP pump belt the BX needs. Nipping up the 13mm bolts of the tensioner one suddenly goes loose!! great something's a miss - stripped threads?

The 13mm bolt unwinds safely enough and once out reveals that it was just short of snapping - I had to find a replacement and used the alternator tensioner bolt to fit it - replaced the alternator bolt and nut were replaed temporarily with a smaller set.

Finally sorted and ran the engine to check everything was fine and rechecked the tensions. All good now but OMG why do the small repairs turn out so problematic?

So I'd been right in that the alt belt and HPpump belt were seperate. I wonder how the alternator belt came off though. I guess the HP belt got jammed in the alternator pulley and popped it off.

Aerodynamica · Post by **Aerodynamica** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 7:44 pm

New bitz!!

I received a new reconditioned distributor in the post as the old unit though functional showed signs of heavy tracking inside (after the epic GSA distributor fails I considered that distributors are parts that I tend to 'just replace')

Anyway, at £38 plus post I considered it a good buy. I set about swapping it over with the old one.

Marked the positions, set the rotor arm and taped it.

Removed the old one and set about fitting the new one.

It wouldn't fit

but why? I found out in short time, it was the drive dog that was not mating up despite setting the positions in advance. The dog is offset so it can only fit one way but it turns out it's 180? out! means that when fitted and engaged the rotor arm is pointing 180? out!

You can see here the problem

The drive dog is fitted half a turn out. I contacted the seller off ebay and was told I could just swap all the leads 180 deg out. I wasn't satisfied with this idea as No. 1 lead on the BX16 is too short to reach No.4 lead on the dizzy cap. I tried it anyway just to run it on the nez dizzy. It ran like a bag of spanners - moved the timing right to the end of the adjustment and still really bad.

Hmm, I wanted to remove the drive dog and refit it right. It looks possible after removing the spring around the dog to reveal a roll pin that does through the shaft. I had a go but it wouldn't easily come out and at this point I'm not keen on applying much force.

The seller says it'll just come out as it's "just a roll pin" but not so far.

Anyone know the score here? will this push out? will it need a bit of heat to the drive shaft?

So I just refitted the old unit back but with the new cap and rotor fitted (the old one was in some state internally) no sign of tracking now but I'd like to fix this distributor.

Upon inspection it seems that

Post by **mat_fenwick** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 9:22 pm

Aerodynamica wrote:Upon inspection it seems that

Seems what??? Don't keep us all in suspense man!

Aerodynamica · Post by **Aerodynamica** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 9:31 pm

mat_fenwick wrote:
Aerodynamica wrote:Upon inspection it seems that
Seems what??? Don't keep us all in suspense man!

- wtf did I do there? er, moving on..

-upon inspection it seems that the drive dog should remove easily by removing that roll pin through the shaft and drive dog but it's not for budging so I just need that answered that's all. I think

Anyway I didn't pass out or anything and I was not shot - I have no explanation for that^^ sorry about that!

Aerodynamica · Post by **Aerodynamica** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 5:08 pm

Well I FAILed to remove the roll pin from the dizzy and hence, can't do squat about the state of it. The supplying company do not have another of this type so can only offer a refund (minus postage no doubt) so I decided to dismantle the dizzy, the old one and compare. Then I swapped all the new bits over which includes everything save for the lower half of the dizzy body and the shaft itself. I made a hybrid.

Then it turns out that the hybrid doesn't work!! runs like a bag of spanners and cannot adjust it to run properly at all with the timing... god, I PAID for this hassle.

Anyway, by process of elimination it turns out that the magnetic triggering cartridge/ coil thing in the new dizzy is faulty so I put the 'old' one in the hybrid and it runs smooth as silk.

Fitted new plugs and leads too before the hybrid was created

What a fuss

Aerodynamica · Post by **Aerodynamica** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 10:46 pm

The Hybrid distributor being sorted out

Both advance mechanisms - couldn't remove these or the central shaft.

The magnetic trigger/ coil 'cartridge' - this was faulty on the new dizzy so this also was not swapped

But everything else was: cap, rotor, sender and wiring, vac advance and mechanism.

All swapped and it runs very well.

MULLEY · Post by **MULLEY** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 9:35 pm

I'm always amazed at your ingenuity, well done for sorting it out

& for posting piccies etc as well which makes for great reading/looking.