Only one day of time..

rmattila · Post by **rmattila** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 10:11 pm

..to dismantle a BX (GTi with a Xantia diesel engine) and salvage everything I want, before the car turns into a cube.

The reason I bought the carcass (and promised to break it at the owner's yard on one sunny day sometime in May) is the XUD9 engine, which has only 210 000 km and should be in very good condition - the reason for giving up the car is extensive rust damage. Headlights are already gone, as are e.g. the ignition switch and the seats.

What should I concentrate on to get as much value saved as possible? Rear arms naturally, hydraulics components (pump, brake valve, reservoir, octopus..), heater, radiator and the rearview mirrors. Gearchange levers. Front struts, wishbones and the subframe. Seat belt locks.

Dashboard would be nice to have, but it tends to take too much time to take off.

What else?

toddao · Post by **toddao** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 10:21 pm

I think you won't even be able to remove half that stuff in a day ( and photograph everything!), though perhaps if you wait til it's mid summer then you'll have two days for the price of one. Isn't the daylight almost 24hrs in Finland at that time?

rmattila · Post by **rmattila** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 10:30 pm

The latest one I did was in last March, with the car inside half a meter of snow, and still I managed to get all that plus some more (had a friend to help out, though). Surely I've learnt something, and at least there should be no more snow in May.

(Besides, I'm pretty sure I'll have two helping hands from the owner - who has spent most his time since retiring salvaging and breaking down abandoned BX:s. If my memory serves me right, he has even a tractor with a front loader that can be used to lift the car for the underbody work. No need for a farmer's jack and concrete slabs to get the crawling space this time.)

Just have to make two check lists: one for the tools to take along and the other for the parts to return home with.

rmattila · Post by **rmattila** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 10:41 pm

Height correctors.

Missed them the last time and felt very bad afterwards.

rmattila · Post by **rmattila** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 9:49 pm

Sun visors. Their mechanism is not designed to the same level of durability as most of the car.

And the height control lever at the rear. The original design of its pivot shaft does not endure the winter salt baths forever, and when it fails, the lever falls off and gets lost.

toddao · Post by **toddao** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 9:53 pm

the XUD9 engine, which has only 210 000 km

Practically factory fresh compared to your 800,000 km monsters!

rmattila · Post by **rmattila** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 10:13 pm

toddao wrote:
the XUD9 engine, which has only 210 000 km
Practically factory fresh compared to your 800,000 km monsters!

That's what I thought too, when the owner called me yesterday and asked if I would want to break this one he's been saving.

Last autumn I installed the XUD9 I got from the aforementioned March exercise into my Wife's Break:

http://www.rmattila.com/images/remontit ... nnus_1.JPG

I thought THAT was brand new with only 360 000 behind, but this new one is twice newer.

The old XUD in the Break was only 550 000 km old, but had a nasty habit to randomly vomit most of its engine oil through the breather into the air cleaner and from there on to the engine, with a surprising (but rather smoky) acceleration as a consequence. My Wife didn't like those surprises, so I needed to fit a new engine. Since this phenomenon only occurs at high RPM, I'm planning to fit the old engine in front of the firewood processor (where it only needs to run at 1600 rpm), thus relieving the tractor to more productive work at the end of the chain (=holding and transporting sacks at the end of the conveyor).

toddao · Post by **toddao** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 10:20 pm

Is that pic taken on the one day a year you're not snowed in?

rmattila · Post by **rmattila** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 10:34 pm

toddao wrote:Is that pic taken on the one day a year you're not snowed in?

Tell me about it: if I close my eyes, I can still hear the mosquitoes and feel the bites.. Give me a decent winter weather any time.

rmattila · Post by **rmattila** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 7:09 am

Fuses & exhaust support rubbers. Easy and fast to take off.

Post by **mat_fenwick** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 9:43 am

rmattila wrote:Fuses & exhaust support rubbers. Easy and fast to take off.

Fuses - yes (and bulbs, I always grab the bulbs and haven't had to buy any for years). But exhaust rubbers (unless they're hard to obtain over there) I wouldn't bother with as new ones are cheap and easy to find (here).

rmattila · Post by **rmattila** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 9:54 am

mat_fenwick wrote:But exhaust rubbers (unless they're hard to obtain over there) I wouldn't bother with as new ones are cheap and easy to find (here).

They're easy to find here too, and the price is not too bad either at 1,35 euro apiece, but it's still money, and they're so easy to grab while underneath the car that I will probably take them anyway.

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 10:04 am

If it's an early car, check the door glass runners, the aluminium runners last for many years, providing the bonding is in tact.

Worth keeping.

Post by **mat_fenwick** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 10:12 am

rmattila wrote:I will probably take them anyway.

I suppose they could come in handy as spares - if one fails on a journey and you have one in the car you can just pop underneath and fit it. I can see how much you enjoy rolling in the snow.

rmattila · Post by **rmattila** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 10:48 am

Brian wrote:If it's an early car, check the door glass runners, the aluminium runners last for many years, providing the bonding is in tact.

Worth keeping.

That's a good idea - actually it might be worthwhile to get the entire front doors (though it's kind of a pain to find storage space for them). You never know when somebody decides to pop inside in search of valuables, and the professional ethics of these specialists seems to require smashing the window even though the doors were unlocked.