Rob's 19TRS work in progress

[robfreeland]

As it's been an extremely long time since I last posted I thought I'd bring you all up to speed how it's going. It's been a bit of a marathon to be honest, first of all we removed the exhaust pipe, then dropped the fuel tank to give access to all the rusty suspension pipes. After that it was a case of removing each pipe in turn then fabricating a new one, each with flares, new union nuts and new seals - this was far more of a job then expected - many were so corroded that removing them took hours (the one that goes into the off-side sphere was by far the worst, it took absolutely ages, including shearing off the nut with a special rounded-nut tool, then having to use a reverse thread drill to draw it out, both requiring new tools that I didn't have...). Despite all of these problems, just last weekend we got all the pipes replaced (after having owned the car for 2 and a half years... ) I'm not sure exactly how much pipe we used, but it was without doubt metres and metres, all lovely shiny new kunifer now
I changed all of the spheres to brand new comfort ones (I've got to change the accumulator one though). Oh and I had to make up some new copper fuel lines as the original steel ones were shot.
After all of this, just last night we were ready to fire her up, I was sceptical as to whether it would run as the battery hasn't been used in two years, however, she ran! After about 8 goes she fired up, unfortunately there was no lift in the suspension... we checked the haynes manual, tried out a few things, including undoing the pressure valve slightly, also undoing the the output pipe from the hydraulic pump after priming it to check it was actually working, which it was.
After all of this, it still wasn't working, so I suggested we left it running for a bit and come back to it, and as we turned to leave the shed we saw the front of the car lift! She raised herself up right up to the high position for the first time in 14 years! I still can't believe it's working!
So, after what seemed like an unending list of jobs to do (which I was quoted £1200 just to do the suspension pipes by a citroen specialist...) I've finally had some reward, sure there's still things to do - when I pressed the brake pedal a green spurt of LHM shot across the shed floor... and the brake pads and discs need changing, but they're minor compared to the suspension pipes. All in all I'm delighted - I'll post some proper pictures and videos later in the light, I'll try to add a link to the video I made last night shortly, although it's quite dark.
Just a quick question, what's the best way of removing the accumulator sphere? I tried today with a chain wrench but failed...

[rutter123]

Good work there, you mite want to try Malcolm Lockwood in Bradford for brakes, i believe he does a full set front and rear discs with pads very cheap about £30 the lot.

[Tinkley]

Strange that the Accumulator is so hard to remove. I have never had problems with them, so far. The rears are the worst in my experience. In fact I'll even use a rubber strap BOA on the front(s) and accumulator. Another good tool is a chain wrench with 24mm socket - this gives more rotation to the sphere than a chisel generally.

Ironically GSF sell Bendix discs and pads currently at 'reasonable' prices if you pick up from branch. These are OE and therefore matched. Do not buy the really cheap ie £6 discs that are available, complete waste of time and money. AEP are changing from Bendix to something else, they would not tell me, after I tried to get the Bendix discs thay advertised (as available) but could not supply....

Yup, I got 20 meters of Cunifer (3.5mm) which did the runs quite easily with a fair bit spare.

[robfreeland]

It is odd about the accumulator, however all the others took quite a bit of effort as they've been on the car for probably 15+ years.
Thanks for the advice about the brake items, I've actually got new pads and discs that have been waiting to go on for a good few months now.