Blind luck.

[DavidRutherford]

Today, I went to buy a BX. It was advertised on eBay, but finished with no bids.

A Red 17TZD turbo, with a broken ignition barrel. MOT just out, and Tax expires at the end of feb. Looked tidy enough. Offered the bloke £50 over the phone, and he said he'd take £70 for it. I said that if it was reasonable when we came to have a look, then £70 was fair enough.

Anyway... went to have a look, and sure enough it's got a beaten-to-death steering lock that you use a pair of needlenose pliers on now. Only 112k miles, clean and tidy bodywork, runs and drives well, all the electrics work (including the sunroof) and the glovebox is in one piece. The rear arm bearings are fairly bad, but not awful, and the front struts need lubricating. Fairly good for a 15 year old TZD I thought, so paid him the £70, shoved it on the braked-A-frame, and brought it home.

Now, how on earth I missed this when looking over the car, I have no idea, but on having a fiddle under the bonnet once we got the car back, I noticed some pipes around the top of the rad that I wasn't expecting, and that I immediately though looked like A/C lines. Which they are. Look inside the car, and sure enough, there's the A/C slider, and the recirc slider.

The bloke who sold it evidently had no idea about the car (he said he had no interest in the car at all) and I'd managed to completely miss the A/C!... I suppose I wasn't really looking for it.

So... amazingly... that's a BX17TZD turbo, with A/C for £70, without even realising it. Maybe I should go and buy some lottery tickets!

[Stinkwheel]

you jammy swine!!!!

pics please

[Stewart (oily!)]

Sounds like you got a bargain there David, many folks seem to be having difficulty managing their BX collections, hows your parking situation?
Stewart

[DavidRutherford]

hows your parking situation?

Thankfully, this car isn't actually for me, it's for my sister as a first car (start as you mean to go on!) so it doesn't really "count" But I do now have 9.5 cars on the driveway.

Still better than last week when at one point there was 13.5!

[DavidRutherford]

I apologise in advance for the quality of these pictures... they're rubbish! (but then so's my camera)

Like all good BX's, the first thing it needs is some work! Full service and a Cambelt at this end of the car:



and some radius arm bearings are needed at the other end of the car

(pic to follow)

How on earth I missed this:



when I test drove the car, I'll never know.

[DavidRutherford]

Finally got around to doing the rear arm bearing on the the TZD today.. and so here are some pics...

Is this good, bad or indifferent for a BX rear arm?



it was certainly beginning to wear the tyre on it's inner edge, which isn't good.

Is everyone else's garage as much of a mess as this? I REALLY must have a tidy up!



The marks that the broken rolling elements had left in the casting were amazing, and needed a good filing/sanding to get the burrs out:



And this is the rather nice little mess that came out of the arm!



Clearing out the garage is now TOP priority, as there wasn't enough space to get the car completely in. Had to work with the garage door open, which was a tad chill today!



How do other people rate doing rear arm bearings? I thought it was a fairly easy straightforward process (first time I've ever done one by myself). Managed to do the one side in about 2 hours.

[Stewart (oily!)]

Glad to see someone else has an untidy garage David, I put off doing rear arm bearings for a long time until learning about the plastic tube, my car is aBS so I had to disconnect the co-axial cable under the rear seat and leave the sensor in situ, not too bad a job otherwise, I ended up grinding the head off one of the through bolts which acually turned out to make a perfect drift for the outer tracks c couple of hors seems about right, looking out of the window today my BX is covered in snow and frozen , might start it and let it idle for a bit to loosen it all.
Stewart

[ken newbold]

That arm looks so badly worn, you'll be lucky if you get the new bearings and seal to seal OK.

[sleepy0905]

I had the same problem i put a new bearing in the arm but it only lasted a couple of months so i had to change the arm my old one was this worn so i would say it is beyond recovery

[AlanS]

You guys get it too easy over there.
Those arms are good by our standards mainly because if we want to replace them, in my case, the closest I can get them (or should I say, the only place I would be brave enough to buy sight unseen) is about 3000 klms away, so we need to use a bit of initiative.
Look at the surface the bearing actually sits in not the area the seal sits on.
If it's OK and it usually is because I've yet to see an outer case worn through, then that's where the actual load bearing part will sit. Tap the outer shell out and clean up. Take the area where the seal actually fits and fill it with Devcon. Use the outer casing to scribe a mark so that the area that the seal sits in can be scribed out. Using a Dremel or similar and using the scribe mark as a guide, grind the Devcon or other epoxy out to almost the size required. Hand fit the seal by grinding it gradually so it is a tight fit. Use a sealant on the outside of the seal when fitting.
Providing the area the seal is mounted in has been set in a central position (not offset) then the bearings are taking the load such as it is and all the seal is doing is stopping moisture from contaminating the grease.
Doing the mod I posted on the French car forum which allows for grease nipples to be fitted and the arm bearings will outlast the car.
IMHO, most premature failures following new bearings and seals being fitted are caused through incorrect pre-laod being set when the thrust washers are fitted.


Alan S

[DavidRutherford]

Well, when I reassembled the bearing and repair kit into the arm, the bearings went in perfectly, and the seals were a good press into the end of the arm, and are definitely sealing. There's enough grease in the bearings and between the steel and plastic tube's to last a lifetime, and it all appears to be good.

Even Mr. MOT seemed to think it was OK:



(Yes, that's a new-type MOT cerificate under the wiper blade.)

And after all that, I now have to give the car to my sister for her to learn to drive in.

[Oscar]

Pity - you did all that work on the car and your sister will prang it a week after she passes her driving test. At least, that's what I did with my first BX....

Is that Tom's CX in the background? How's it going?

[DavidRutherford]

Thankfully, I doubt she will prang it, as she's no longer a teenager bent on driving as fast as humanly possible, and can drive a forklift-truck extremely well.

And yes, that is tom's (now mine!) CX... there's stuff about it at www.cxclub.co.uk/forum if you're interested.

[stuart_hedges]

I pranged Mum's 309 a couple of weeks after I passed my test. Only slightly though, and it did deserve it.