A JRS project thread - 1968 Citroën ID19

[JRS]

File this one under 'weird moments of clarity'.

I must have looked at the ignition coil a thousand times. And noted the presence of a ballast resistor a thousand times. Yet it's only the last couple of days that I've wondered 'why does it have a ballast resistor?'...

Turns out that the factory-installed coils before 1970 didn't have one. This is a '68 reg, '69 model year car. It's also a Lucas 'Super' coil in there right now, which has a lower primary circuit resistance than stock (1.5 ohms versus 3). Presumably whoever got the car running before we bought it had that coil and ballast, and threw it on.

I've disconnected the ballast resistor and that's immediately made a positive difference (engine fires off easier, seems to have dialled out a slight miss that we had). But I'm going to replace the coil, partly to get one of the correct spec in and partly because the one in the car has the mark of Lucas, The Prince of Darkness™ on it

 

[JRS]

Oh, additionally...

Work in progress



(If the pic is wildly oversized I'll sort it when I'm back on my PC rather than mobile, Imgur app sucks )

Proper inertia reel belts going in, with a sort of tan-beige webbing to complement the upholstery. Which if nothing else will mean whoever's driving can actually lean forward to get the parking brake off without unbuckling

 

[Housey]

What an absolute heap... of brilliant

 

[wesimmo]

I do love a good project like this, even when the car is as far from my thing as it's possible to be, it's great to see people doing these things.

 

[JRS]

What an absolute heap... of brilliant

I do love a good project like this, even when the car is as far from my thing as it's possible to be, it's great to see people doing these things.

Cheers guys. Now, if one of y'all on here could just stop me from buying this as a stablemate for her then my bank account would be much obliged

 

[wesimmo]

Cheers guys. Now, if one of y'all on here could just stop me from buying this as a stablemate for her then my bank account would be much obliged

Now, that's a different prospect if you turn it into a promotional work vehicle.

 

[peterwalkley]

7 grand for a 2CV van old enough to collect a pension

 

[DXP55]

If you are in the habit of carrying a tray of eggs over a ploughed field then yes buy it - It was the perfect tool for the job.

 

[JRS]

Bullet dodged.

With one thing and another plus Covid, the car hasn't been out. We've started it every week to pump up the suspension, keep engine fluids moving, etc. But last week I started her up, waited for the suspension to come up...and waited...and waited...

Ooooohhhh ****

Thoughts immediately leap to worst case scenario so went looking for a pool of suspiciously green fluid underneath. Nothing. Eventually she decided up come up, but pushing the brake pedal made the pressure warning light on the dash illuminate. Not good. Especially since anything in hydraulics country costs faintly serious money. Decided to focus attention on the accumulator sphere and pressure regulator, since the pump did appear to be working and the suspension spheres were holding the car up once they had fluid.

The accumulator sphere is of course utterly impossible to get at with bothersome things like the alternator in the way But there's a bleed screw on the pressure regulator above it, and I could cobble together a tool to get at it without removing anything. Let the car sink back down for a few days, then went to work. Careful bleeding of the pressure regulator appears to have sorted it, thankfully.

 

[JRS]

Long time no update!

I've been working on the wiper motor wiring. And then finding more things wrong. I ended up hauling the wiper motor out and taking it to a local auto electrical specialist, who rebuilt it for me. The chap was genuinely amazed that it hadn't burned the car to the ground in the past - I suspect it might have if the wires hadn't burned up first!

I made myself a new loom to go from switch to motor, and then a puzzle. There are five wires at the switch - four go to the terminals on the motor, the fifth is for the washer pump. The four motor wires are black (power, and park AFAIK), white (undetermined), blue (slow run) and red (fast run). The owners workshop manual has a fitting order on the wiring diagram that apparently bears no resemblance to reality, and the last guy here replaced all the wires at the motor end with blue ones

But, never one to back down from a wiring challenge I persevered. Having figured out the order, and having spent several hours stripping, soldering, heat-shrinking ad infinitum, I have lightly scorched hands but wipers that work At the same time I added a new fusebox with switched power from the ignition key.

 

[Yaayuh!]

Nice work @JRS

If you need parts or advice, give these lot a call: https://www.chevronics.co.uk

Dated a girl many moons ago who had a 2CV, it’s a family business of servicing and restoring old French cars

 

[JRS]

@Yaayuh! - yeah, the Chevronics people have been very helpful with stuff. Also got to shout out Darrin at Citroen Classics who helped me sanity check this wiper wiring over email

 

[JRS]

The headlights are now on the new fusebox. And I wired a beeper to the indicator relay, because pa's hearing isn't all that with some frequencies and he couldn't hear the thing ticking even after I replaced it with the loudest electromechanical relay I could find.

I'll throw some photos onto the thread during the week, though I'll have to add a warning for those who find untidy wiring to be a trigger

 

[peterwalkley]

I'll throw some photos onto the thread during the week, though I'll have to add a warning for those who find untidy original wiring to be a trigger

Fixed that for you

 

[JRS]

Fixed that for you

A perfectly fair point, very well made.

 

[HEADRAT]

I love these cars! I always wanted one when I was a kid.

THIS!

 

[JRS]

I'll put photos up once I'm home and no longer on mobile (because Imgur mobile is a war crime). But the dashboard is nailed back on, all the wires are connected where they need to be and everything is functioning

 

[JRS]

Hmm. Probably should get around to updating this!



Dusty and grimy from the miles I've put on her. And, because old car, this revealed one or two minor weaknesses. A stumble just off idle when matting it (felt almost like the accelerator pump in the carburettor was shot, but we'd already replaced it when we rebuilt the carb), and plugs that were carbon fouling I'd played with the setup on the carburettor, trying to lean it out some but no dice. Which left the ignition. I mentioned earlier in the thread that, while I'm more than fine sticking with most old car tech, electronic ignition is a real must-have.

So we now have it.

A full distributor from 123 Ignition, made for this application so it has an ignition advance curve in there all ready to go. I've fitted a timing scale hanging off the water pump studs (the factory didn't fit them until into the '70s, they expected you to take the car to a garage if anything went sideways in ignition country...), pratted about finding TDC to make a 0° mark, and then - having waited until the weather was rockingly hot, because I'm clever like that - fitted the new dizzy following the instructions to the letter. Fired it up, and...I wasn't all that happy with it. Didn't feel like it was running all that smoothly, felt a bit reluctant to rev up, just didn't sound quite there. So - and here's how you know what a shining intellect I am - I went back out the next day when it was even hotter and re-did the fitting of it. Again, followed instructions to the letter. Verified my timing marks. Did everything just as before.

Whatever I did wrong, or missed, or got misaligned first time around is definitely sorted She is running as smooth as buttah, with no off-idle stumble when getting on it.

#winning

 

[JRS]

The stumble came back

But, some more tuning/jet replacing got me part of the way there

Just not all of the way

New carb time

No pics, because it was a swine of a job and I already needed all 8 hands from the imaginary intelligent octopus that I desperately wanted to help me. I managed most of it by myself but, sans octopus, settled for my mother sitting in the cabin holding the accelerator pedal where I needed it while I contorted myself 'twixt bonnet and wing blindly feeling out where the two screws that attach throttle linkage to carb go.

And when that didn't work, I stabbed the one in that I could get to and came back the next morning armed with one of these. They're incredibly useful for holding onto a small screw while you turn it in a couple of threads to get something started. Warmed the car up, then went for an exploratory drive up and down the A38 (Clay Mills to Toyota Island and back). Sat at ~100km/h indicated, which kept pace with traffic in the left lane. Then on the way back I tried WOT.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

Not 100% yet, probably because the plugs need cleaning up again/replacing entirely. But she's definitely got a lot of the pick-up back that she used to have.

 

[Housey]

Hmmm, now I am wondering. I think I chatted to you a few weeks back, I note you live in Burton and I was a petrol station filling up (can't recall what car) and was nosing around a very similar car. Brief "very nice" at the owner.