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Philip Chidlow wrote:'Citroebics' are starting the car up, set the height lever to max, let it rise up to that maximum, drop the lever down to minimum and so on for a few times. Gives it some exercise... Mind you not as good as an 'Alpine work out'!
Its recently been welded up but does have a few bits of rust here and there so I would tred with caution. It is very bright white, very unlike the grey flat mess it was, Make sure you polish it regularly so it doesnt go flat again!!the_baron wrote:Philip Chidlow wrote:'Citroebics' are starting the car up, set the height lever to max, let it rise up to that maximum, drop the lever down to minimum and so on for a few times. Gives it some exercise... Mind you not as good as an 'Alpine work out'!
Ahhhhh I can see clearly now...
Still I cannot look directly at the BX in daylight without danger of getting arc eye, man it sure is bright.
I have new spark plugs in my hand, my word they are weeny, make the ones on the Wartburg look huge in comparison.
I have located some OE leads at a motor factor too so hopefully get those in and fitted soon.
Whist I'm waiting for a Haynes to arrive via ebay, can anyone tell me what the plug gap should be?
Also, how strong are BX boot floors? I only ask as I've got to take a 2CV engine to the west country and I don't want to damage the car.
OK Phil pointed out the little bit by the washer bottle, is there anything else I need to keep an eye on or attend to? Not really knowing these cars.Roverman wrote:
Its recently been welded up but does have a few bits of rust here and there so I would tred with caution. It is very bright white, very unlike the grey flat mess it was, Make sure you polish it regularly so it doesnt go flat again!!
It would be a truly stupid mistake to put in ones that were too long wouldn't it?
I've been thinking about this citerobics business and I'm not convinced. These return pipes are only there for leakage. i.e. if the strut in leaking lhm past the seal, then at least any leaked oil get returned to the tank rather than on the road. It's like the overflow from your toilet. So, it has no bearing at all on how the suspension works - you just fill up the air space with LHM and using your method Mulley, any crap that's in the bottom of the strut gets pushed back in the bottle of lovely clean lhm and then you suck it up again, in/out, in/out etc but once you do get a leak you're gonna push all the crud back in the tank! It doesn't make sense to me at all.MULLEY wrote:Welcome, front strut lubrication is pretty easy, even if my description isnt
Pop car on high, get the strut return pipes & pull them off (make sure car isnt on, as it'll just pump lhm out of the strut return pipes) at the connection point with the metal pipes that go under the bodywork, not where its attached to the actual strut. You'll then have 2 pipes dangling, get a small bottle, one of those pop one's or anything & put some lhm in it, not too little & not too much, as what you want to do is pop both the pipes into the bottle & they must be fair way into the lhm. You can now fire up the car again. If you put too much in, you might get a bit of spillage. You'll need to zip tie or similar method, the bottle with the lhm in it, to the strut, ensuring that it doesnt tip over at a weird angle when you lower & raise the car. So in effect you may find that dropping the car gradually, you can take a look to see if the bottle is positioned ok, or whether you need to re-site it. Do citreabics qute a few times, you may notice some crap going into the bottle, this is unfortunately quite normal. If its really dirty, take the bottle off, & put some fresh lhm in after cleaning all the crap out & re-do the exercise. Once your'e happy that it appears fairly clean, then pop the strut return pipes back onto where they should go.
Next job is to use something like 3in1 oil, not lhm or silicone spray (unless they are really seized tight) & where the strut turret is, there will be a plastic bung on one side whilst on the other it will be open, pop some oil in the open end, doesnt need to be a huge amount. You can also when the suspension is on high, get the strut gaiter & push this upwards, it'll be connected at the bottom, just needs easing off the plastic disc catch on the strut & then it'll be easily moved upwards, then when you can see the strut piston, squirt some oil at the base where you can see it, do some more citreobics & hopefully the sticky struts will either be cured, or slightly better.
If none of that works, perhaps using hydraflush in the main lhm tank may help, last resort is to replace the struts, or put up with a bit of groaning, as long as it doesnt make much noise when in the normal height position i wouldnt worry too much, if it gets noisey it'll eventually blow off the strut return pipes, thats pretty much as bad as it will get & you will then need to replace the strut, had that happen to me.
Hope the above makes sense?
I think most (if not all) plugs do, certainly I haven't had to change the gap on new plugs for a while. But I still check them, 'cos I'm a bit sad like that...Philip Chidlow wrote:Matt, don't the plugs come pre-gapped?
