A JRS project thread - 1968 Citroën ID19

Was hoping to get the headlamp wiring done this weekend, but rain has thrown many spanners into the works. Going to see about clearing enough room in the garage to get the nose in - the garage is a few poxy inches too short to get the whole car in, and even with those inches I wouldn't have the room to work. Ideally it needs to be about 4ft longer!

Also looking at replacing some of the wiring from the alternator while I'm in that frame of mind, because I keep looking at how old it looks and thinking how much of a ballache it'd be if it let go while the car was out-and-about.
 
This was right after I made the previous post, when I realised I hadn't actually ran the car since the other night and probably ought to take it out to warm through. Started unexpectedly well.


Note the ratty state of the dashboard - soon as I start pulling it apart to get at things like the wiper switch wiring I'll get it all cleaned up and any painting attended to!
 
Last edited:
No photos yet but wired the new headlight loom in this morning. Soldered H4 male connectors onto the Cibie-specific bulb holders, and a H4 female (bulb holder) connection on the car loom from the switch. Then plugged everything into the new loom. No more dim, flickering headlights.

Hashtag 'winning' :)
 
Anti-climax :(

I'll hook y'all up in the week. I was a bit busy juggling a soldering iron, flux, solder, wires, components and a cat that wanted attention.

In the meantime, lights wot work:

Link as large-ish photo, will fix in a bit.

Marvellous concept :) Will be even better when I've got vaguely decent bulbs in there, just need to find something that properly works alongside the QI lamps (the swiveling inboard ones).
 
Last edited:
Took the car out for fuel earlier. Briefly lost the fuel gauge, which was concerning. Lost the cabin fans and indicators with it, which was rather more concerning. Fortunately it fixed itself, which leads me to suspect that I've got an intermittent short or a bad earth in dashboard country. Though it left the temperature gauge working, along with the warning light for high beam when I tested the headlights.

Gotta love old cars with hacked-up electrics! :confused::rolleyes::D

I've got to go behind the dash anyway to sort out the wiring from the wiper switch, so I'll roll the job up in one. And I'll snap some photos of my headlight wiring job while I'm at it.
 
Got to love things like that. My BMW while nowhere near as old as the ID19 lost indicators and wipers and the fuel gauge etc. A swift punch on the steering column revived it all and its been fine for the past 2 years :p
 
Quick update.

The car is running quite well. I haven't gotten around to the rewiring job yet, mainly because of being busy elsewhere and the weather not exactly helping me out. Soon as I get a break and a couple of dry days I'll get after everything. Going to make up some loom sections off the car to stab into place, seems like it'd be easier that way than making everything in situ.
 
Ah, old cars...

So, one for the "stupid problem to come up" column - the front passenger door shut itself solid the other day and refused all entreaties via the exterior and interior door handles to consider opening again. Now, I have form for sorting these sorts of issues out. From the old Project Bentley thread:

I missed my calling in life....I could'a been a thief.

So, Gary and I were attempting to sort out the bootlid lock today. It locks just fine on the remote, but unlocks basically when it feels like it. Which is pretty much never. Mindful of what we had to do to the drivers door lock, we figured that adjusting the rods would do the trick. I then found a loose plastic bracket up in there as well, so tried some tape on the ends to build it up and keep it where it needed to be. Then it wouldn't unlock, either on the remote or the key.

****.

Not a problem, I'll just get the tools out....most of which are in the boot of the car.

****.

Right, new plan. With a torch, a completely inappropriately sized screwdriver, a scrap vernier calliper (only thing I could find to wedge in the gap I created) and some swearing....
  • took the moulding off that holds the number plate lights on and surrounds the boot handle.
  • took the handle itself off
  • stuck the calliper into one of the holes behind where the moulding was and pushed down on the lever arm inside the lock-and-handle mechanism
  • shoved the key in the lock barrel and turned it to the unlock position
  • prayed
  • pushed down even harder on the calliper
  • and yanked my hand from the key to the plate where the handle would be and hauled up on it
Result? One open bootlid.

You either got it or you ain't got it. And me? I got it in spades ;):):p:D

Once again armed with an entirely inappropriate tool - a screwdriver with the blade wrapped in kitchen paper so I wouldn't mark the bodywork - I opened the rear door on that side which gave me a narrow gap to work in. Back to the car, left hand operating the door handle button, right hand pushing the screwdriver down on the pinion wheel in the door shutline. Slowly got it to rotate, then pop! One open door. Cue one sigh of relief that I'd managed to do the job without damaging the paint or having to dismantle anything, followed by taking the opportunity to go around all four doors to clean and re-grease the pinion wheels...
 
So, here's the gap that I had to work with for getting the front passenger door open:

GTyF0Dm.jpg

And yes, that window rubber is shot to hell. It's name is also on ze list...

Here we find my fat frame bending to a very odd angle to photograph the cavity behind the nearside headlamp, and my added H4 connector:

XaSFVnb.jpg

Relays tucked out of the way of anything that could hurt them*:

yKa8CPH.jpg


* - about that. So, after we fitted a similar loom section to the Landy everything was fine. Until pa was driving the old girl one day, and lost the headlights. Turned out that one of the relays got snagged by part of the steering and got minced. Oops :o

***edit***

I'll fix any photo embed oddness when I'm back on a desktop computer. Imgur mobile sucks all the ass...

***edit 2***

They may or may not be better now.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom