GT mediated Awesomeness

[Jaba]

Looking good Tom. You obviously like a challenge...

[Tim Leech]

I would get the bumpers painted myself,

NO Way you can break that beauty!

What a great project, a silver Mk1 Auto with factory wheels and A/C is pretty much my ideal!

[panky]

That really has come up well. Here's hoping nothing nasty turns up

[vulgalour]

For your sake, I hope all the suspension is knackered and the engine completely ruined, otherwise you're going to have a tough decision to make!

[saintjamesy89]

For your sake, I hope all the suspension is knackered and the engine completely ruined, otherwise you're going to have a tough decision to make!

Well, now that you mention it...

So, not only does it run, but it lifts, drives, stops and everything! Of course, the a/c doesn't work but that's ok as when I remove it i'll fettle as we go - fingers crossed it isn't completely borked! Although it does run, there is a missfire whenever you touch the throttle or choke (both of which are stiff AF) and it'll likely die, it idles ok apart from stalling every now and then. I hope it's ignition related as that's easy to fix, if she's going on as a whole car then new sparkies, HT leads, dizzy cap and rotor arm will be required anyway - but my hunch is it's fuel related - something odd going on with the carb/manual choke or something, this would be less good as I know fuck all about carbs! Especially as this one seems complex, with extra a/c and automatic gearbox stuff attached. I took some videos that I will see if i can upload.

This wee spade connector was disconnected, which im sure didn't help matters in starting it. There is a fair bit of naked copper too which probably isn't ideal, but not causing an issue yet.



The engine/gearbox earth cable (what is left of it) was also disconnected. Once this was fixed, and the spade on the starter motor, it cranked away like a good'un



BFO BATTERY! No chances taken here! There wasn't much cranking required once fuel had been pumped up them dry lines to be fair. There is no air filter, and the air feed pipework is borked, so that will also need replacing (or bodging!).



Fuel leak! Was pissing out of the bottom of the fuel filter, culpirt - a perished hose, so trimmed and replaced. At least I know the fuel pump is working well, filter looks quite clean too which is a bonus.



SHE LIVES! SHE RISES! Cough cough SHE SMOKES! But only initially, it soon cleared.



A little video I took of it running too, it'd been going for 5 -10 minutes by this point, so had some heat in there. Still, it occasionally stalled and as soon as you touched the throttle - it definitely stalled, whether this is ancient petrol (although I put 5L of fresh in) or an ignition/fuelling issued I know not. There is a little misfire anyway, so ignition components will be looked at/replaced, the manuyal choke and throttle cables are very stiff, and not sure they rest at off or the proper resting position - so lubrication is required at least. I had fun yesterday!

[panky]

RESULT. Great to see it alive and stretching it's little legs
The way the engine dies off I would suspect fuel starvation, blocked jet or weak pump maybe caused by crap being pulled from the tank. Not that I know anything about these carbs

[Tim Leech]

I think it is full of old stale fuel, a good flush through and some new ignition parts will have it sorted.

[Jaba]

Good progress so far. I wonder why it was laid up originally ?

[Tim Leech]

As per PM, old A/C systems can be a real pain, I gave up on my TZI trying to get it working, a A/C car as far as I know had a different sump amongst other things....

[saintjamesy89]

Good progress so far. I wonder why it was laid up originally ?

I wondered this too John, I hope it's nothing horrendous like a blown head gasket! I've only run it for less than 10 minutes at most, so not enough to get it up to temperature yet although the coolant is a bright blue, and the oil black. I've only driven it an inch or two forward and back due to the flat front RHS tyre, so i'm also hoping the autobox isn't knackered!

I spent an huor fettling last night and accomplished a couple of things and had a pleasant time, with a suitable cold hop-based beverage for these heat-wave conditions. On inspection, this car is WAAAAY more complex in the engine bay than my 19GT, the autobox seems to have all sorts of water and vacuum pipes all over the place, the a/c pipes look quite similar to these and there are bundles of little vacuum pipes that go all over the place, hopfully to do with the autobox rather than a/c, so they can stay put!

I put another 5L of petrol in the tank, to help dilute the ancient petrol, it seemed to help - it only stalled today because I put the choke in too early! I adjusted the throttle cable too, it was so slack that the cable would jump out of its tracks, although it's stiff at least it doesn't have play. I also thought I’d have a quickie lookie at the ignition components:

Dizzy cap - yup! Needs replacing!



Rotor arm, doesn’t look too bad but will replace anyway as they're hardly bank-breaking and it looks like it's been chewing on the inside of the dizzy cap housing. Dizzy cap definitely not sat right looking at the wear.



Far left and middle left spark plugs, uneven wear and both sooty and oil. Will replace these, along with the HT leads which are very stiff and may well fail anyway (if they aren't contributing to the misfire, especially under load)



Looks like the cambelt was done at 79,85? km which is 20k ago, but likely 10 years or more! Cambelt would need doing as a precautionary measure anyway before it was put into much use.



I found a leak! It runs from the accumulator/FDV to the LHM reservoir so think it must be a return line, as it only drips a tiny bit. Not too worried about this, it already looks like someone has put a rubber hose over the normal metal pipe, I cut a milk bottle up to act as a drip catcher.



I need some aqdvice on what the two following things are? They aren't on my GT so I’m hoping they're to do with the autobox and less hoping their a/c related, but have a hunch they're linked to both. The first thing is the dome shaped thingy just to the right of the sphere, and the second thing is above and left of the green breather pipe union (very technical and specific, I know!). My concern is that if they are vacuum systems to increase fuel injection when required for the autobox and a/c- I won't be able to swap them to the GT without affecting the running of the TRS, and then the GT will not run right with the a/c on... I'll have a look at citroen service to seeif I can puzzle out their function, but hopefully someone on here knows!





Both have vacuum attachments, the first has 3 vacuum hoses, at least 2 attach to the second thing. The second thing appears to have a movable diaphragm thingy underneath it that attaches to the carb, it has an electrical connection to the relay that is attached to the a/c compressor and quite a few vacuum hoses, that I didn't write down where they attach to.

I think i'll swap the GT's almost new ignition parts over to this TRS and treat the GT to new stuff. I meant to look at the lights and other MOT consumables but time was getting on, perhaps I’ll have time at the weekend? Although it is beginning to look like quite a busy one, again!

Thanks folks.

[Jaba]

Tom I have no idea what those two items do exactly or how they might interact with the auto box. Its possible that one or both is used to kill the aircon when the vacuum is low which would be when maximum power and /or acceleration is used. But it would only need a single pipe and vacuum switch to control the aircon compressor so there is more to it than that as I think you have worked out already. The ECU on later cars switches off the aircon during max acceleration so on yours a mechanical method similar to what you have would have to be used.
In theory at least the vacuum could be used by an auto box to decide whether to change gear sooner or later. Perhaps the first device is a vacuum pressure sensor diverter switch with one input and two outputs only one of which is active according to whether vac is high or low. It would be easy to establish this with a running engine.

Perhaps someone else with a Mk1 Auto could advise here ?

[saintjamesy89]

Thanks John, I’ll post on fb to see if any other auto owners have them. At least one of the two *thingies*, I'm pretty sure, is involved in the fast idle circuit for the a/c (when on) and autobox (when in drive or reverse), not that I'm at all sure they are working!

Bad news has happened, I have to do ANOTHER year of studying, after I thought I had ticked all the boxes for my new, more senior role that I start on Monday! It is a 'development' post, so there is wriggle room for this luckily, but it will put me back until next June progression-wise. Outside of work it means that all work on the house and cars will have to be put back similarly - as I will be coming home from work, eating dinner and locking myself in the study until bedtime... Weekends will be similar, although I don't work weekends at the moment. It is very very frustrating.

Regarding the TRS, tinkering has occurred. It is idling waaaaay better now, and starts a lot easier although it still misfires under load. I haven't checked the cambelt for a slipped tooth, also the distributor isn't in the middle of its adjustment so may tweak that - the distributor on the GT is almost dead central in its adjustment range. I also had a reccy at the lights, I swapped over the RHD headlights and put in some old bulbs had lying around, all lights worked except for the front indicators! A clean of the contacts saw that right, so now all exterior lights work.

New bits!



I replaced the fuel filter; they are very cheap and I’d hope it at least would help it's running. The old one didn't look too bad, but it is at least 10 years old and soaked with old fuel. I put a new fuel pump to filter hose section in too, as it was splitting.





I also replaced the thermostat as the radiator coolant wasn't getting hot after a reasonable amount of idling, I wasn't confident the stat was opening and was worried it was stuck closed. When I took it out, it could be pushed open, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it opened at temperature, new ones are cheap so replaced anyway. Coolant is a very satisfying bright green! Old stat is tarnished but both are stamped 82 degrees so I managed to find the right one after all, there was quite a lot of choice, my thoughts were an automatic would need the lowest opening temperature. The new stat was very very slightly too big and wouldn't sit recessed in the housing, so I used the chunkiest O-ring so a good seal could be made, no leaks so far! Quite a lot of coolant escaped during the replacement, so I ran the engine until the coolant level dropped (=stat opening) and topped it up and once the temperature rose, the low speed fan came on! So, the fans do work, this is good news. On closer inspection, the radiator seems quite good too - which means I hopefully don't have to buy a new one when it gets swapped to the GT, they're fecking expensive, these twin-fan radiators as used in the 16v and TD BX's.



Next I looked at fixing the LHM leak, it was a return line from the FDV to the LHM reservoir, a new pipe section is over £100! So, as it was a low pressure return line, I made one up out of 8mm fuel hose, a couple of connectors and some pipe clips. The old pipe was broken at the T piece.



There are three connections, the existing sound return pipe to the reservoir, the FDV return line and possibly an accumulator or power steering return?



The homemade Y piece, couldn't find a T piece locally. I hope the plastic inline and Y piece connectors stand up to the task, I would have gone with metal/brass etc if there was an option so these will have to do for now. I will keep an eye out for leaks, but there are none so far.





All done! I now have confidence in the cooling system, there are no current LHM leaks (risky statement on an ancient BX!), the ignition system is mostly new (all except coil and ignition module) and the fuel system is likewise sorted (not carb, this may yet be the running issue under load). So, it is ready to be moved over to the barn where it's bigger sibling, the GT is, they can snuggle up together then until I finish my studying next June-ish. There should be room for the two of them in my end of the barn, the owner is my husband’s Aunt and so far took no money from me for storage, but I have insisted now that I will have two in there, the other end is also used for car storage by someone else - but mine are way more interesting compared to a new Mini and smart fortwo!



*sigh* Miss my GT. Testament to the cover, apart from a little dust she is still clean after 15 months of storage.

[TizzyD]

Tom that green thing does seem to be a genuine Citroen part

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Citroen-BX-A ... SwJFRcgBkD

But translate doesn't help with understanding what it is "Citroen BX separator steam bubbles detox green can 97516798 original NOS"

[vulgalour]

Stuck the "Citroen 97516798" into eBay and it comes back as a breather filter for a GS/A. So that's what it is. Steam bubbles separator sounds more fun, I vote we call it that instead.

[Tim Leech]

Happy big 30 Tom! have a fabulous day

xx