Black holes

Hmmm... Don't really know where to start but here goes.
Went to the ICCCR at Harrogate and bought some really good looking repair panels for the sills and floor, jacking points etc. as mine have disappeared into black holes! So started to strip the interior ready for cutting out some rusty metal. I will post some pics of the progress but as this is very labour intensive I wont be blogging to much, keep checking back!

N/S floor center

N/S/F corner

N/S jacking point

N/S/R boot floor

N/S/R floor corner

Started by stripping out the interior. Front and rear seats removed and carpet, fuel tank out and pipework. 

Stripping out the interior

On the drivers side the inner sill is not too bad, the floor has taken the biggest hit, this will have to be cut out and new panels welded in, some work is needed around the pedal plate as well.

Tin worms been at pedal box

The worst of the corrosion on the inner sill O/S/F corner

O/S/F jacking point with fuel and hydraulic pipes removed

Rear brakes

The rear brakes are quite serviceable, however, the lining on the shoes are wearing quite thin. The wheel cylinders are not leaking and the pistons are free to move. The brake drum is showing very little signs of internal wear although the outside is rusty. New brake shoes are to be fitted and seal kits for the wheel cylinders. The brake pipe from the wheel cylinder to the flexible pipe has corroded badly and was removed in pieces, so a replacement has been made from cunifer. Pictures shown are the O/S the same treatment was for the N/S

Brake drum removed, this was shotblasted, skimmed and painted with black enamel.

Wheel cylinder stripped down, the body was honed inside and painted outside.
Pistons polished with 2000 grit wet and dry paper, new seals and dust covers replaced.
Here we can see the broken brake pipe as well.

 All built up ready for adjusting cams and eccentrics.

Tool made for adjusting the bottom eccentrics so the shoes line up with the top cams.
You can use an old brake drum for this, but I think this is more accurate.

Carburettor trouble

The base of the carburettor has warped over time causing air to be drawn into the manifold. This causes a rich mixture and rough running.

Here we can see the carburettor base warped by about 1.5mm.

Thanks to Darrin of Citroen Classics for the advice. This is a common problem and with some careful filing the base was straightend and the holes for the studs re-drilled at 90 degrees. While the carb was off it had a good clean with all the jets blown out, new gaskets etc. The carb was refitted and the mixture and idle speed adjusted.

Float height cheked at 5mm and new gasket fitted.

The carburettor base after filing, a little blue hylomar around the edges just to make sure.

New insulator and gaskets on inlet manifold.

Carburettor refitted ready to adjust mixture and idle speed.

Gear change bushes

The gear change bushes are notorious for perishing giving a gear change like stirring soup, so both ends of the rod have had the bushes replaced and adjusted.

New rubber bush and rilsan half bushes replaced both ends.

LHM suction feed

Replaced the LHM suction feed pipe from the filter to the HP pump with new hydraulic pipe and new mirex buckles. The old pipe was a bit of a stretch at 800mm so the new one was cut a bit longer.

New pipe sleeve and mirex buckle.

A piece of brown sleeving was added for heat shielding the top hose.

Accumulator

The accumulator stores a reserve of 62 bar pressure for the suspension and steering. Without it the hydraulic pump will continually try to keep up with pressure demand, which it can't do. This is not good for the pump and makes steering and suspension unresponsive and unsafe. The accumulator is similar to a suspension sphere as it has a diaphragm with nitrogen gas under pressure but without a damper valve. It screws onto the pressure regulator which cuts in and out according to demand. Replacing the accumulator is 10 steps back but well worth doing. Removal of the complete unit is required to unscrew the accumulator along with some other equipment, battery alternator etc.

Regulator and accumulator removed from car.

Here's a handy tool I made to remove spheres.
Needed a 5 foot long jack handle on the end as well!

New seals wetted with LHM.

Complete unit again ready for refitting.

Back on the car with new pipe seals and obligatory yellow paint marks.

Carburettor safety

On carburetted ID19, DS19, DS21 and DS23 with Weber or Solex carburettors fitted there is a chance that the brass fuel supply fitting that is pressed into the carburettor body could work loose. This is completely easy to accept as they are of dissimilar metals and decades of heating and cooling will eventually loosen it due to galvanic corrosion (in this case the aluminium body wears away). The consequences of a loose fitting spraying fuel into a hot engine bay can be, needless to say, catastrophic.

Fire damaged 1966 DS19 © Car and Classic

I found an old Citroën modification notice that the insert for the fuel pipe on the carburettor could come out of the body, the fix was to lock it place with a length of locking wire and a hose clip, the objective was the hose clip clamped the fuel pipe to the insert and the locking wire stopped the insert from falling out. A new section of 8mm (5/16") fuel hose was fitted as well.

After removing the carburettor top recently to give it a clean, I was surprised how easily the brass fuel pipe insert came out of the aluminium body. I decided a more secure and permanent solution was required. Locking wire may stop the fitting from dropping out but on a heavily corroded carburettor body fuel could still spray out.

I decided to replace the brass insert with an 1/8" BSPT brass tail hose fitting which was purchased from Tom Parker Ltd for the princely sum of £2.04

Original brass pipe fitting which was very loose

The original brass hose fitting is 8mm diameter and the drilling size for 1/8" BSPT is 8.4mm so being the aluminium body is quite soft and probably slightly corroded away the tap will cut very well without having to drill the hole out. Removal of the carburettor top is not necessary but as it is quite easy to remove I would recommend this for two reasons, tapping the hole is much easier with the carburettor body in the soft jaws of a bench vice and you can clean any swarf away more effectively.

The internal fuel filter gauze was removed first along with the float and needle valve as not to cause any damage whilst tapping, any swarf was blown out with compressed air. The new fitting was screwed in with PTFE tape for good measure.

New 1/8 BSPT tail fitting © Tom Parker Ltd

1/8 BSPT tap

New pipe tail fitted to carburettor body

It is now a simple matter of rebuilding and refitted with a new external fuel filter.

Carburettor built up and back on the car with new fuel hose and clip