octo0072000
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no plates might be a good idea before road usegood job just dont hold the traffic up you need the engine from a AMI super to give it some go
- Thread starter Gas mark 5
- Start date
no plates might be a good idea before road usegood job just dont hold the traffic up you need the engine from a AMI super to give it some go
Gas mark 5
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Fitted some plates for you 
It's going to be a little upsetting driving it around in this state after all the hard work that has gone into the metalwork, but as long as I can keep the rust at bay for a few years then I think it is the best option. Now booked in for an MOT on Tuesday, I think the windscreen washer pump is the very last item left to fix...!
If you don't hear from me on Tuesday, I'll either be driving around the country with a stupid grin on my face or frantically spannering in time for a re-test.
It's going to be a little upsetting driving it around in this state after all the hard work that has gone into the metalwork, but as long as I can keep the rust at bay for a few years then I think it is the best option. Now booked in for an MOT on Tuesday, I think the windscreen washer pump is the very last item left to fix...!
If you don't hear from me on Tuesday, I'll either be driving around the country with a stupid grin on my face or frantically spannering in time for a re-test.
Hi,
I just read this and what a brilliant re-build thread. I had a 2cv for 14 years and they are really great little cars. Mechanically they don't get any simpler, and as I found out they actually get nicked :-( that was the end of my 2cv ownership.
Have fun driving it, especially over rough ground or snow :-)
I just read this and what a brilliant re-build thread. I had a 2cv for 14 years and they are really great little cars. Mechanically they don't get any simpler, and as I found out they actually get nicked :-( that was the end of my 2cv ownership.
Have fun driving it, especially over rough ground or snow :-)
Gas mark 5
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- 225
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- Leeds / Harwell, UK
I'm sorry to hear that!
I was rather counting on the strange handbrake confusing any would-be thiefs, but clearly that is no longer the case. Perhaps some motorcycle disc locks on the inboard front brakes would be a good idea...
Octo - I have actually looked at some of the different engines that could go in there, I think GSA engines are quite common. BMW motorcycle engines also just about fit. There's also quite a lot of information regarding turbo charging the originals or visa engines. Anyway, I'm 19 and a student, so there is no way I would be able to afford insurance on anything like that for quite a while!
Besides, I'm certainly appreciating the original design at the moment, it is so easy to work on. And they're not that slow - 2CV cars can sit happily at 70mph on a motorway, if you give them long enough to get there. Admittedly my van weighs considerably more, and has the areodynamics of a brick...
I was rather counting on the strange handbrake confusing any would-be thiefs, but clearly that is no longer the case. Perhaps some motorcycle disc locks on the inboard front brakes would be a good idea...
Octo - I have actually looked at some of the different engines that could go in there, I think GSA engines are quite common. BMW motorcycle engines also just about fit. There's also quite a lot of information regarding turbo charging the originals or visa engines. Anyway, I'm 19 and a student, so there is no way I would be able to afford insurance on anything like that for quite a while!
Besides, I'm certainly appreciating the original design at the moment, it is so easy to work on. And they're not that slow - 2CV cars can sit happily at 70mph on a motorway, if you give them long enough to get there. Admittedly my van weighs considerably more, and has the areodynamics of a brick...
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- Birmingham
Yes, had one overtake me on the M1 many years ago. I was driving a 3.5L V8 Range Rover at the time!, sticking to 55mph as it was most economical, going down a hill the 2CV went for the overtake which went well until we started going up the other side when I stayed at 55 and he started to fall back
Gas mark 5
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- Leeds / Harwell, UK
MOT today, a fail, but not too bad on the whole. The track rod end / steering joint (or whatever it's called) cover had a tear in it, I knew it was a little iffy but didn't realise that it was an instant fail - so lazyness on my part for not reading the entire MOT regulations. 
Also play in the kingpins. Neither of us quite knew how much was acceptable, and they were right on the limit of the one mention the MOT guidelines gave for kingpins. However, I have the kit and one kingpin set all ready, so I said I might as well change them.
Comparable to 'normal' cars on the brake test though, which I was quite pleased with. And CO readings of 0.36% without me even fiddling with the idle CO for the test!
So everything else spot on, a few bits should be arriving from ecas tomorrow, booked in for a retest on Friday, but as those were the only issues I can't imagine there'll be any trouble there. Then for its first drive I'll be doing 200 miles to Canterbury the day after!
Also play in the kingpins. Neither of us quite knew how much was acceptable, and they were right on the limit of the one mention the MOT guidelines gave for kingpins. However, I have the kit and one kingpin set all ready, so I said I might as well change them.
Comparable to 'normal' cars on the brake test though, which I was quite pleased with. And CO readings of 0.36% without me even fiddling with the idle CO for the test!
So everything else spot on, a few bits should be arriving from ecas tomorrow, booked in for a retest on Friday, but as those were the only issues I can't imagine there'll be any trouble there. Then for its first drive I'll be doing 200 miles to Canterbury the day after!
Last edited:
marlinspike
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I don't go much for Citroens, but that looks great. Well done. I like the van better than the hatch version.
Sean
Another 602 fan
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MOT today, a fail,
see reply in 2cvgb - thats not a proper "fail"
oh and your a bit on the lean side with the idle jet, now its passed turn it out by about 2 turns Aircooled engines like a richer mixture.
Sean
Another 602 fan
- Messages
- 1,460
Which then stretches the Eye in the now un obtainable suspension arm rendering it useless
Knock the pin out with the proper drift or take the arm to somebody with a good press
The pin needs to be a good interference fit in the arm or it creeps out the top of the swivel housing ruining the CV joint. Unlike many larger commercials that use Kingpin swivels there is no key or set screw to retain it.
a loose pin wears the eye in an hour glass shape and the wear can be felt and is mistaken for wear in the bushings.
A stretched eye can be shrunk by grinding a groove and a couple of really hot beads laid down, but prevention really is the best option.
Jim Davey
R H Davey Welding Supplies Ltd
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Oddly enough a randomer walked into the shop yesterday and asked me to warm up and press out 2 kingpins from his 2CV suspension arms. They were in there bloody tight and I was hanging from the lever arm with 4 ft of steel pipe on our mechanical rack n pinion press to get the pins moving, they took some shifting.
Gas mark 5
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Well the kingpins are both now replaced, the proper drift set makes swapping them pretty easy, plus an excellent guide by 2CViking on the international 2cv friends forum. A couple of good whacks with a 4lb lump hammer got them moving without any heat. Next time I might need to run a couple of weld beads around the eyes to close them up, but for now they seem okay, and if I keep them greased regularly hopefully they should last a long time.
The O/S kingpin didn't put up much of a fight, after I realised I needed a much bigger 1/2" drive to undo the axle nut on the hub.
However with an enormous breaker bar, they gave and the rest held no surprises.
The N/S did hold a surprise though, the welch plug;
As I understand it, the welch plug needs to make a tight seal around the top of the hub, to force the grease between the swingarm and the hub, and prevent the ingress of dirt. Whereas washers are generally fairly well known for having holes in the middle?
It was also stuck in place with a load of horrible blobby weld that took an age to get rid off. Anyway, eventually it was off, and the condition of the rest wasn't too bad, and the kingpin kit makes it so easy to replace them (Huge thanks to 2CViking for his invaluable tutorial!). There was actually quite a noticable difference in play between the old and new kingpins, so quite good to have got them done I suppose.
With that I took it back to the MOT centre, a pass with a clean sheet now
Having driven, ohh, very nearly a whole mile without issues I decided Canterbury shouldn't pose any problems. For want of something to do, I filled up the washer fluid, then the pump leaked all over my lap so I emptied it again. With those preparations done, I set off for Canterbury the next morning.
For the first hour or so, everything went perfectly. I had been getting quite worried about the leg room, but once you've managed to shoehorn yourself into the cab, it really isn't that bad, and I didn't find myself getting uncomfortable. Speed also was surprising, I thought it would be hugely slower than dad's car, but it kept up with the traffic. Indeed, I spent most of the time on dual carriageways doing about 60 on the first choke. I haven't filled it up yet, but the working out the fuel consumption will be interesting.
Anyway, it was all going too well to last, entering Basingstoke it started hiccuping and missing, then gave out completely in the middle of a roundabout. There being a police car behind me, I discreetly opened the door, stuck my leg out and scooted it off the roundabout, and the policeman pretended not to see me. Fortunately there was a set of traffic lights immediately off the roundabout, so for no reason other than I had a spare coil sitting on the passenger seat I swapped them over in the time the light was red. Hey presto! Driving again. 
This kept up for another 30 minutes, when it started happening again. Swapped the coils back over again, problem fixed.
I ended up driving back like this, swapping the coils ever 20 minutes or so. It seemed odd to have two dud ones, but they were both of unknown condition, and simply waiting for the length of time it took me to swap them made no difference, whereas actually swapping them completely cured it for a few minutes...
This continued all the way to the outskirts of Canterbury, when I had to do an emergency stop as some woman blithely pushed her pram across the road right in front of me without looking.
From then on my brakes started emitting this truly horrendous screaming ever time I touched them, but I wasn't about to admit defeat so close to home. With a lot of planning ahead and slow approaches to roundabouts I made it the last few miles to our house and had a well earned cup of tea.
Rather than eat this week, I decided to give my student loan to Roy, and a nice shiny box of bits arrived for me the next day.
The screeching turned out to be the brake pad having come adrift of its metal backing somehow, fortunately it hasn't damaged the disc, and I've renewed them all in case it was a dodgy batch of pads.
New coil fitted, along with points, condenser and so on.
Anyway, it is more or less done for now, and huge fun to drive. Thank you everybody for all your help, I'm not sure I would have got here without all the help I've had from here, 2cvgb, international 2cv friends and the mobylette forum. I hope in return you've found it an interesting read, and don't worry, of course it's not finished, there's plenty more to come! :P
Thanks everyone
-George
The O/S kingpin didn't put up much of a fight, after I realised I needed a much bigger 1/2" drive to undo the axle nut on the hub.
However with an enormous breaker bar, they gave and the rest held no surprises.
The N/S did hold a surprise though, the welch plug;
As I understand it, the welch plug needs to make a tight seal around the top of the hub, to force the grease between the swingarm and the hub, and prevent the ingress of dirt. Whereas washers are generally fairly well known for having holes in the middle?
It was also stuck in place with a load of horrible blobby weld that took an age to get rid off. Anyway, eventually it was off, and the condition of the rest wasn't too bad, and the kingpin kit makes it so easy to replace them (Huge thanks to 2CViking for his invaluable tutorial!). There was actually quite a noticable difference in play between the old and new kingpins, so quite good to have got them done I suppose.
With that I took it back to the MOT centre, a pass with a clean sheet now
Having driven, ohh, very nearly a whole mile without issues I decided Canterbury shouldn't pose any problems. For want of something to do, I filled up the washer fluid, then the pump leaked all over my lap so I emptied it again.
With those preparations done, I set off for Canterbury the next morning.For the first hour or so, everything went perfectly. I had been getting quite worried about the leg room, but once you've managed to shoehorn yourself into the cab, it really isn't that bad, and I didn't find myself getting uncomfortable. Speed also was surprising, I thought it would be hugely slower than dad's car, but it kept up with the traffic. Indeed, I spent most of the time on dual carriageways doing about 60 on the first choke. I haven't filled it up yet, but the working out the fuel consumption will be interesting.
Anyway, it was all going too well to last, entering Basingstoke it started hiccuping and missing, then gave out completely in the middle of a roundabout. There being a police car behind me, I discreetly opened the door, stuck my leg out and scooted it off the roundabout, and the policeman pretended not to see me.
Fortunately there was a set of traffic lights immediately off the roundabout, so for no reason other than I had a spare coil sitting on the passenger seat I swapped them over in the time the light was red. Hey presto! Driving again. This kept up for another 30 minutes, when it started happening again. Swapped the coils back over again, problem fixed.
I ended up driving back like this, swapping the coils ever 20 minutes or so. It seemed odd to have two dud ones, but they were both of unknown condition, and simply waiting for the length of time it took me to swap them made no difference, whereas actually swapping them completely cured it for a few minutes...
This continued all the way to the outskirts of Canterbury, when I had to do an emergency stop as some woman blithely pushed her pram across the road right in front of me without looking.
From then on my brakes started emitting this truly horrendous screaming ever time I touched them, but I wasn't about to admit defeat so close to home. With a lot of planning ahead and slow approaches to roundabouts I made it the last few miles to our house and had a well earned cup of tea.Rather than eat this week, I decided to give my student loan to Roy, and a nice shiny box of bits arrived for me the next day.
The screeching turned out to be the brake pad having come adrift of its metal backing somehow, fortunately it hasn't damaged the disc, and I've renewed them all in case it was a dodgy batch of pads.
New coil fitted, along with points, condenser and so on.
Anyway, it is more or less done for now, and huge fun to drive. Thank you everybody for all your help, I'm not sure I would have got here without all the help I've had from here, 2cvgb, international 2cv friends and the mobylette forum. I hope in return you've found it an interesting read, and don't worry, of course it's not finished, there's plenty more to come! :P
Thanks everyone
-George
There is a 2cv van for restoration in the HJPugh auction in Ledbury tomorrow.
Purely inspired bu your antics, I am sorely tempted but I must resist because divorce is expensive. Though I might buy it as aproject for my son to learn restoration.
You sir are still an Absolute Star.
Purely inspired bu your antics, I am sorely tempted but I must resist because divorce is expensive. Though I might buy it as aproject for my son to learn restoration.
You sir are still an Absolute Star.
KemppiFrog
Member
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- 4,263
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- Aquitaine
Speaking of 2CVs, whatever happened to the Africar...?
Edit: Aha...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africar
http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2013/05/interview-tony-howarth.cfm
Seems 'the man' (and his car) lives down by the Gironde, I guess not far from KemppiFrog and... the other forum member who lives on an island down there? I forget, sorry
Just saw this. Gemozac is not far and I have some friends there. I will ask if they know him. Quite like a chat about the car.
KF
And: GM5, great effort and well told. Thinking of journalism?
