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Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

Hello and welcome to another edition of Hadlock's stream of consciousness engine debugging

spankmeister posted:

No offense but you've been waffling on about tuning that carb for months. Get after it.

This was good advice and pushed me to order the carb rebuild kit

So it's reasonably warm out and the car is parked in a sunny spot and went to check things out. Started with the air cleaner, since I'd never taken that part apart. The air cleaner:

This end up:

This end down:


I guess rather than a weak paper filter, this... metal with holes drilled in it, many times? The seal appears to be cork tape that may have seen better days. Everything is sort of glazed with prehistoric oil vapors and is probably functional for blocking large stuff. Instruction manual says to rinse this with petrol periodically? I guess I have some jerry cans of gas left over from hurricane season? Seems awfully dangerous but I'm curious how much stuff would rinse out, maybe improve flow?

The intake side. I don't think this part actually does anything besides pull cooler air from the edge of the engine compartment, but I might be completely wrong. There are no secondary intake holes it looks like it just ... I dunno blocks air flow I guess?



Not sure if that weld is factory or r repair. The other side is a bracker that holds the air filter to the top of the engine. I don't have a shot of that but appears to be well affixed with some rubber washer vibration dampener things. This whole assembly mounts to the top of the valve cover.



This is ... oil fumes/vapors coming off the valve cover assembly, in the foreground it feeds into the carb intake. The engine is not cold cold but has been sitting for probably 4 hours and had been idling for ~2 minutes when I took this? Vapors were reduced after idling longer. Apparently this is not uncommon but can also be used for diagnostic? presumably as these vapors cool in the carb, they're glazing everything inside, probably not great.

Ok here is the actual carb. It is quite shiny! That circled part labeled 'S' is where "SOLEX" ought to be written





Labeled 1 below, and that blank rectangle labeled 2 ought to have some stamping on it ~6 characters. Of note, yelow/brown oily stain, I'm guessing that is gas residue from a failed gasket? It doesn't appear to be coming from the fuel line.



Seems to say P3H and below that 10-2019, to the right labeled 2 is that flat casting area where the stamping should go but it blank

As far as I understand the lore, this car was running pretty rough and went in for partial restoration sometime before 2020 so a replacement carb stamped Oct 2019 might make sense. Based on these photos I believe the original should have been an OEM Solex 34 PBIC as was discussed up thread: https://www.ebay.com/itm/165803341432?hash=item269aa63678. Kind of tempted to order this carb rather than have what I can only guess is a chinese copy and the solex one is stamped all over with MADE IN FRANCE :france: My wild rear end guess is that they make replacement carbs for the 2CV so I guess they also did a smaller run for the DS and this is one of those.

Some neighbor was walking by and of course chatted me up and distracted me. Actually now that I'm looking at these photos looks like there's a bunch of small crud in the air intake pan. Given how bad the glazed cork seals there's probably all sorts of crud in the carb. I've seen other photos of where people replaced this whole assembly with a GM style circular air filter assembly and now I'm starting to understand why. I guess time to order the kit (from italy!) and prepare to clean it. Time to buy that owners club membership and figure out how people deal with the original air filter.

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Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

Ok carb rebuild kit en route along with the hood ornament (merry Christmas to me) and some other bits and bobs like rear license plate light bulb and the speedometer/instrument cluster backlight, instrument cluster... Gasket? Sure why not. Also a new fuel hose since that's the only part of the fuel system that hasn't been replaced recently (found more parts records from the restoration/tune up immediately before I got it)

Re-reading everyone's advice it's making a bit more sense, I think I'll try adjusting the carb in the short term and then plan on taking it apart for a full clean and rebuild later this month. Also ordered an oil analysis kit from... Blackstone? Blackbeard? To figure out if there's any antifreeze or fuel in the oil and how much. Looks like the push rods and lifters were replaced but I don't think the head has been off since new as far as I know.

Finally had a chance to flip through the book of letters that came with the car. I keep forgetting that the Mennonite religious council was involved as well. He needed to get special permission to not just fly straight home first after his service was up, and there's letters from the council elders giving explicit permission for this trip etc (I guess in the eyes of the church they're not adults yet, so they're technically under the care of the church)

They lay out their projected costs (trying to sell their parents and church elders on this crack pot idea) including breaking down the cost of gas in Africa ($0.75/gal) and Europe ($0.60/gal). I ran that through the inflation calculator and did a double take. That's $7.73 and $6.19/gal in 2022 prices, respectively*. Keep in mind the rest of the world is still digging themselves out of the rubble a dozen years after WW2. The letter sent immediately before this marvels at how good they are at fixing things at a machinists shop, to reinforce the idea that they're mechanically competent. Finally there's the trip home from buying the car which sort of mirrors my own long trip south after taking possession of it a mere 64 years later

I will try and transcribe some of it as I have time. The point of view coming directly from a rural kid in Oregon about to buy his first car, in the Congo, for this grand trip - stars in his eyes - is a bit of a page turner I'll admit.

*Also his estimate for the price of a local Congolese VW Beetle being $630, which comes out to be about $6495, which is... About what they're worth today

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

The odometer appears to be pretty reliable still. Looking at my notes about 15% into my trip from DC to my house I was at 94,846km, took a photo Monday 95,976km -- 1130km, or 702 miles. Mostly recording this here for my own records.

My wife's work ramped up she's driving into the office the last week and a half. I've been daily driving my daughter to school in the Citroen the last ~8 days in a row. That's about 5.3 hours on the engine just in the last two weeks. Not a crazy amount but for a possibly original 70 year old engine that's not nothing.

Carb rebuild kit, hood ornament and some other goodies arrive tomorrow. Will probably pull it apart Friday night to give me maximum time to get it back together and working again.

Arrived early to daycare pickup the other day, played around with the fuel volume screw, leaned it up quite a bit and the exhaust gas smell dropped off about 70%, feel like on my butt dyno I gained at least 2% more power, struggle busses a lot less in 2nd at 20kmh than it did before

Made a new observation as well. Car has adjustable spark. Looks like on the Austin 7 and Model A etc this is on the steering wheel. On the Citroen this is on the dash.

Anticlockwise all the way, barely starts, idles like a dream. Clockwise all the way starts great, idles like garbage, no power on the road. Never occurred to me until I was watching an Austin 7 video that it should be set somewhere in the middle. I'm not clear

A) how this should be adjusted from the factory for normal city driving
B) if the timing adjustment is even set correctly on the distributor. Notes from the restoration show some parts of the distributor were replaced so no idea if that's set at all correctly

Will need to consult the Citroen forums to find out, I guess. I've been starting fully clockwise and driving fully anti clockwise, been experimenting with somewhere in the middle

Weather here has been in the mid 50s with overnight lows on the 42s 43s. Car cranks right up every morning and only needs about 15-30 seconds of babysitting to make sure it continues to idle and warm up. I know that's not cold by rust belt standards but it's cold for me and this engine is probably nearly 70 years old so I'll take what I can get.

There's no heater core in the cabin, but the tube that directs air from the back of the radiator keeps the car a comfortable 68-75° pretty much in all weather. No need to bundle the kiddo up in a jacket. I usually just drive in a t-shirt and pants.

Edit: belt started squeaking Monday morning in the cold. Need to follow up on that, probably order new alternator (generator?) belt

Hadlock fucked around with this message at 05:58 on Dec 14, 2022

Sagebrush
Feb 26, 2012

I've got no idea for a Traction Avant specifically, but if you have a manual spark advancer, it's generally something you are supposed to adjust as needed for the situation, just like a manual choke. Set it to retard the spark when starting to prevent backfires, then advance it once the engine is running. Advance it even more when you're cruising in top gear.

PainterofCrap
Oct 17, 2002

hey bebe



The below is copied verbatim from post at a Model A forum on the AACA website (https://forums.aaca.org/topic/189100-spark-advance/)
(italics mine):


Posted March 4, 2012

"If the car is timed right, when the engine is warm, it should idle with the spark lever all the way to the top or just below (i.e. fully retarded). Driving around town and at slow speeds probably 1/2 way down. All the way down should be for "pedal to the metal" driving! Basically, the faster then engine runs, the more spark advance you need. However, every car has had its timing set differently so you can't necessarily go by this. Basically, you need to drive the car and play with the timing and you'll find out the "spots" of advance where your car runs best under different circumstances. You may also want to play around with re-setting the timing if you do not feel you are getting the most out of your spark advance. A good rule of thumb is you should be able to smoothly increase the acceleration of the engine just by pulling down the spark lever (without increasing the gas at the same time). Hard to explain in words, but if you play with it enough, you'll figure it out!"

The only thing I would add is that at full advance, under hard acceleration, you should hear no pinging (valve tap - sounds like castanets). If you do, you will have to retard the timing at the distributor until it stops under those conditions.

On older cars, I would set it to spec, then advance the distributor timing until the valves start to tap, and then back it off a little. My first car - a '71 Toyota Corona MkII with the 8-RC engine - never ran right at spec, it had to be advanced 7-10-degrees.

Also: when starting: if it's giving difficulty catching at a retarded setting, the spark should be advanced & then pulled back once it starts.

PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Dec 14, 2022

trilobite terror
Oct 20, 2007
BUT MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON THE FORUMS!

PainterofCrap posted:

(i.e. fully retarded).

:same:

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

PainterofCrap posted:

The below is copied verbatim from post at a Model A forum on the AACA website (https://forums.aaca.org/topic/189100-spark-advance/)
(italics mine):

(i.e. fully retarded)

So I did some more digging and found this, apparently sourced from the 1953 TA owner's manual



The arrow points clockwise. So I've been starting fully advanced, and running full retard :downs: The web page where I picked this up, the author seems to agree with the manual.

To be fair, the instructions written on masking tape said to do the opposite of what tha manual says. So I'll have to give that a go here in about an hour. This might also explain why the engine just loses all power as I approach redline. I had wondered if maybe I had valve float at the mighty 2800rpm redline but might just be that my spark was massively hosed up. double or triple edit, i forget: apparently the TA uses 8 degrees of advance from start, looks like some people have scribed in advance markings of 8, 10 and 12 onto their flywheel and the knob on the dash might(?) allow advance as far as 14 degrees



I have been experimenting with starting the engine and agree with the above about putting your foot in it at start, that seems to work a lot better*. Truly daily driving this car the last two weeks, especially down the same stretch of road, has given me the opportunity to do some comparisons. I swear I read the manual cover to cover before I drove it.

Other points of order; the one thing I have been doing correctly is starting the engine without pushing in on the clutch pedal. The car starts audibly easier without the clutch pushed in. I suspect this is a holdover from the design allowing for manual (human) crank-start by a single person. Other thing is, I finally looked up what the hell a balloon fish was and how it related to Citroen - apparently it was drawn/painted by artist Andre Francois as a metaphor for the citroen hydropneumatic suspension introduced on the final TA as an option and also immediately thereafter the DS and ID, and featured prominently in a Citroen art exhibition at (I think) the Louvre.

*I had been following this mis-remembered advice for a different carb with apparently no choke



The clock diagram in the bottom left corner is, I think supposed to be a wheel attached to a suspension arm, and the half full light bulb is the magic part of the hydropneumatic suspension "green ball" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydropneumatic_suspension

Hadlock fucked around with this message at 21:49 on Dec 14, 2022

BalloonFish
Jun 30, 2013



Fun Shoe

Hadlock posted:

So I did some more digging and found this, apparently sourced from the 1953 TA owner's manual



I have been experimenting with starting the engine and agree with the above about putting your foot in it at start, that seems to work a lot better*. Truly daily driving this car the last two weeks, especially down the same stretch of road, has given me the opportunity to do some comparisons. I swear I read the manual cover to cover before I drove it.

I have to say that none of the TAs or early DSs/IDs I've driven have ever needed any use of the manual ignition control - they've always just been left at full advance and started and run absolutely fine. But fuel, tuning, the condition of the distributor/condenser, the state of the carburettor and the driving conditions will all change that. My understanding was always that even in the 1930s the manual ignition control was a bit of an archaic throwback (let alone in the 1950s on the D-Series cars!) that was retained mostly to ensure the most 'useful' spark when starting using the handle with a half-dead six-volt battery.

Think about what the auto advance systems on a normal car's distributor do - you have the centrifugal weights which advance the timing as engine speed rises, and the vacuum advance which advances it further as engine load increases. So you generally want to keep the advance as retarded as possible that's consistent with smooth running and good power delivery, and then advance it a little at higher speeds, and be prepared to wind it further advanced if the engine stumbles when you accelerate hard. But as I said, I've never had to touch the manual ignition control on a TA. But I've never owned one so can't speak definitively on that.

At a later date you may want to consider one of the electronic ignition kits from 123 Ignition - they do TA/D-Series/H-Van distributors with pre-programmed timing curves that can be selected for different usage profiles. Their kits have a very good reputation in the 2CV world.

Hadlock posted:

Other points of order; the one thing I have been doing correctly is starting the engine without pushing in on the clutch pedal. The car starts audibly easier without the clutch pushed in. I suspect this is a holdover from the design allowing for manual (human) crank-start by a single person.

That's quite normal on a lot of pre-war/early post-war cars, especially ones with six-volt electrics. When the clutch pedal is down the counter-pressure working against the spring plate of the clutch and the force of the release mechanism is taken by the clutch release thrust bearing which transfers it along the crank, placing a longitudinal load on the main and con-rod bearings, which causes significantly more drag on the engine as it turns over. Of course in the good old days it was up to the judgement of the driver as to whether the load from the clutch was greater than the load of thick gear oil sat in the transmission on a cold morning.

Hadlock posted:

Other thing is, I finally looked up what the hell a balloon fish was and how it related to Citroen - apparently it was drawn/painted by artist Andre Francois as a metaphor for the citroen hydropneumatic suspension introduced on the final TA as an option and also immediately thereafter the DS and ID, and featured prominently in a Citroen art exhibition at (I think) the Louvre.


Tag urself...it's me!

Little did I know when I chose that username for a now-defunct classic Citroen forum is about 2005 that I'd be using it on SA nearly 20 years later...

"The elasticity of air and the flexibility of water are brought together for your comfort in Citroen hydropneumatic suspension."

That caption is the script for the original DS advert from the late 1950s, complete with an avant-garde postmodernist plinky-plonk musical score:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp5TbrYMc3k

Hadlock posted:

The clock diagram in the bottom left corner is, I think supposed to be a wheel attached to a suspension arm, and the half full light bulb is the magic part of the hydropneumatic suspension "green ball"

Correct:



Citroen used that schematic basically for the entire production run of their hydropneumatic cars - the brochure and handbook for my 1996 Xantia has something almost exactly the same, even though by then the system had been infected with Peugeot-itis and used Macpherson struts rather than leading arms.

BalloonFish fucked around with this message at 00:08 on Dec 15, 2022

Raluek
Nov 3, 2006

WUT.

BalloonFish posted:

Think about what the auto advance systems on a normal car's distributor do - you have the centrifugal weights which advance the timing as engine speed rises, and the vacuum advance which advances it further as engine load increases. So you generally want to keep the advance as retarded as possible that's consistent with smooth running and good power delivery, and then advance it a little at higher speeds, and be prepared to wind it further advanced if the engine stumbles when you accelerate hard.

one minor correction - vacuum advance advances the timing further under light load. as engine load increases, e.g. when transitioning from cruising to passing or going up a hill, the timing is pulled back to prevent preignition. it's for fuel economy, not power.

BalloonFish
Jun 30, 2013



Fun Shoe

Raluek posted:

one minor correction - vacuum advance advances the timing further under light load. as engine load increases, e.g. when transitioning from cruising to passing or going up a hill, the timing is pulled back to prevent preignition. it's for fuel economy, not power.

:doh:

Quite a big correction, there. You're absolutely right of course

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

Parts came in, some bulbs, 5 piece oil filter kit, carb rebuild kit, and the hood ornament :circlefap:



Wireless mouse USB dongle for scale

Looks like it just attaches using two M3 bolts along... probably some standard metric parabolic curve. The face is really skinny when viewed from the front, and this is obviously a reproduction when viewed up close, but the fact that it exists and I have one now is pretty neat. As others pointed out, I can just take it off later if I don't like it. After I install it I'll know more as I can look into 3D printing a novelty skull with glowing red eyes or whatever

Leaning out the carb and, especially advancing the timing has had a huge impact on drivability. There still seems to be a leak on the forward side of it carb at one of the gaskets so probably worth rebuilding. Especially since I already bought the kit.

LobsterboyX
Jun 27, 2003
I want to eat my chicken.
Advance, retard.?

PainterOfCrap invited me - I'm just here to echo what he posted from the model a forums, seems like youve got a handle of it, but maybe this will help.

The rule of thumb I used when I still had the manual advance distributor and the archaic updraft carb was this:

To start the car I would have to adjust to full retarded

crank the car and literally just flip the choke in and out

the car would start and sound like a galloping horse, the usual sound effect you hear in movies and TV when they show a very old car, sometimes it would even pop and diesel when it was in this condition.

I'd typically just throw it in full advance and just drive on that in all conditions. I didn't keep this setup for too long, it was a pain in the rear end and made horrible power

you'd do this to prevent damaging the starter, which in stock form, the bendix springs were very prone to breaking. at some point henry developed a bulletproof bendix that was used in the ford farm implements that eventually found their way in to the hot rodders lexicon.

another hilarious benefit to this was that occasionally you could get a "free start" - if the car was warm, you could turn the ignition on and quickly slam the advance lever down, this would break the points and fire the coil and the car would pop itself to life. I was only able to do this a handful of times before I got my self advancing distributor, but the old timers claim they know their car so well that they will start their car like this "all summer long"

not really in the same wheelhouse as this, but putting a more modern (1940s) setup on a late 20s car really helped things - an aftermarket centrifugal advance dual point distributor, high compression head (6.75:1 :lol:) and a downdraft stromberg 2 barrel carb makes them extremely drivable.

one thing to note that may help is that when installing this upgrade part, you set the timing at an audacious 15-20 degrees of advance, which tells me that that lever really did have a huge amount of travel.

therobit
Aug 19, 2008

I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time
This is one of the coolest threads posted in a long time. Sweet car dude.

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

Hadlock posted:

If you were hypothetically going to drive a 70 year old car coast to coast along the gulf coast route with no known problems and a fresh set of tires, seals and grease what spare parts would you pack, thinking a warm week in late January or mid February

Thinking [...]

Looking increasingly like we are headed back to California, which would necessitate transporting the car back.... somehow. Seriously considering picking a warm week this spring, and driving it cross-country to LA and then up highway 1 (most of which is 45mph) to the bay area. Looking like I can do a pretty flat route from Raleigh-Atlanta-New Orleans-Austin-???-Los Angeles-Oakland. The only two challenges would be the slow, inevitable climb to ~5000 ft from sea level leaving Austin (450 ft) crossing the continental divide (necessitating at least 2 carb retunes, no big deal) and then climbing over the mountains in to LA would be a challenge, probably best achieved during off-peak hours. Would be heavily using google maps' "no highways or tolls" feature like I did on the ~400 mile trip from DC to NC.

https://www.flattestroute.com/Raleigh-to-Oakland-CA-via-Austin



I think that comes out to ~3400 miles which is about 7 days of driving at 11 hours per day or 8 days at 9 hours per day. 9 hours is sort of the upper limit for driving every day, even at 45mph I guess.

Spares list

New battery
Headlight bulbs
2x of belt (there's only one)
Extra inner tubes
Extra zerks (grease nipples)
Grease gun/grease
Fuel stabilizer for when can't find ethanol gas
Spark plugs
Oil
Coolant
Radiator hoses
Hose clamps
Distributor cap
Dist. Rotor
Coil
Set of points and condenser,
AAA membership
Anker powercore USB charger
fire extinguisher
full set of metric hand tools

Car has a full size, brand new spare

I think on that list, the only parts I don't already have, or can't pick up at a roadside gas station are the radiator hoses and distributor assembly

builds character
Jan 16, 2008

Keep at it.
Freeways across texas are fast too. So maybe an issue there.

Mustache Ride
Sep 11, 2001



Yes, 290 west of Austin is 1 lane 65mph (limit, most people do 85-90) for a good while. That route then hits I10 which lol I would not drive an exotic french classic on I10 at all and it's wanting you to do that from there until LA. Not sure that's a safe route.

Also, how many miles does a tank of gas get you? There are stretches of that road with no gas stations for 50+ miles.

KYOON GRIFFEY JR
Apr 12, 2010



Runner-up, TRP Sack Race 2021/22
While I believe in the TA overall, and its ability to make it cross-country, I think that you're likely to not want to do 8 hours a day in it and that's a recipe for pain and suffering. There's also a reasonable chance that it will break at some point either necessitating time for you to repair it or for a shop to look at it. So I'd allocate at minimum two full weeks and I'd have a following car, too (which you didn't mention in your post). I still think you should do it, it would be a hell of an adventure.

Other posters have posted good locality based stuff to consider. I'd also consider trying to approximate a route based on known locations of people who work on TAs.

Cyrano4747
Sep 25, 2006

Yes, I know I'm old, get off my fucking lawn so I can yell at these clouds.

Have you driven cross-country before? I've done it a few times, and it really, REALLY highlights every tiny thing you dislike or find uncomfortable about your car. For example, having good seats and good ergos is non-negotiable. I also highly recommend having someone with you. It's doable solo, but having a second person to trade off with or even just talk to helps a LOT. I imagine it would also make repairs easier in your case. Also I assume you're a fellow old fart like me? The last time I hosed around with cross-country driving I was in my early 30s, and my take then was "holy gently caress this was easier in my 20s." No loving way my 40-something rear end is doing that any more.

I'd really, really recommend just hiring a hauler to get it where it needs to get.

therobit
Aug 19, 2008

I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time
I’d vote for hiring an enclosed trailer hauler to do it. The motor is probably not made to handle modern freeway speeds and I bet that drive would be noisy as hell to boot.

Raluek
Nov 3, 2006

WUT.
driving across continents is like this car's whole thing though

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

As mentioned in my post, zero plans on driving this thing on the interstate, taking 45-55mph county/state roads, sorry if "no highways or tolls" was not clear. That was how I did the 420 mile trip from DC. Stayed far, far away from I-95, had no issues

I've done, not really counting, at least 5 2000+ mile trips, but yes it's been a while. Citroen was pretty comfortable doing 400 miles in a day earlier this year, which is (very roughly) the plan

Hadlock fucked around with this message at 05:02 on Jan 16, 2023

StormDrain
May 22, 2003

Thirteen Letter

Raluek posted:

driving across continents is like this car's whole thing though

Hell yeah! Like I get it America ain't great but idk I feel like I'd still rather drive across 2023 USA than 1950 Africa. The pace would for sure have to be slow, it'd be like a long hike rather than a typical cross country drive. You can't go from travel center to travel center. Gotta go from like town to town based on some sort of metric of friendliness.

therobit
Aug 19, 2008

I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time

Hadlock posted:

As mentioned in my post, zero plans on driving this thing on the interstate, taking 45-55mph county/state roads, sorry if "no highways or tolls" was not clear. That was how I did the 420 mile trip from DC. Stayed far, far away from I-95, had no issues

I've done, not really counting, at least 5 2000+ mile trips, but yes it's been a while. Citroen was pretty comfortable doing 400 miles in a day earlier this year, which is (very roughly) the plan

Well in that case yeah like enjoy the backroads if that’s your thing. It probably will break down along the way so bring some spare points and various other high likelihood of stranding you parts.

armorer
Aug 6, 2012

I like metal.
I, for one, look forward to reading the adventure updates as they happen.

Mustache Ride
Sep 11, 2001



Oh so if you're just getting the overall route from that thing, then yeah absolutely dude. Sounds like a blast

mobby_6kl
Aug 9, 2009

by Fluffdaddy
Hell yeah that sounds like a cool adventure if you're up for it! I'd definitely count on it taking way more time and poo poo breaking but doing this in the US is still easy mode, even in a weird French car.

KYOON GRIFFEY JR
Apr 12, 2010



Runner-up, TRP Sack Race 2021/22
Power to ya but I don’t even really like pushing any more than 400 miles a day in a more modern car. I am soft.

StormDrain
May 22, 2003

Thirteen Letter

KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:

Power to ya but I don’t even really like pushing any more than 400 miles a day in a more modern car. I am soft.

I think that's a fair amount for someone I assume is about my age. Especially as a solo driver. Not so bad if you're a team though, depending on whom you're driving with.

PainterofCrap
Oct 17, 2002

hey bebe



Hadlock posted:

As mentioned in my post, zero plans on driving this thing on the interstate, taking 45-55mph county/state roads, sorry if "no highways or tolls" was not clear. That was how I did the 420 mile trip from DC. Stayed far, far away from I-95, had no issues

I've done, not really counting, at least 5 2000+ mile trips, but yes it's been a while. Citroen was pretty comfortable doing 400 miles in a day earlier this year, which is (very roughly) the plan

Have you ever read Blue Highways by William Least-Heat Moon?

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

I have not, I'll have to check it out

When I was 18 and graduated, me and a buddy still in high school drove from Dallas to New Orleans with ~$86 in my pocket (at about $1/gallon, seemed like a theoretical 86 gallons of gas was more than enough for what should be a 35 gallon trip) in his nearly-new, gas-sipping, honda civic that had cruise control (a luxury at the time). Google maps says it's 7.5 hrs via interstate highways. Well we spent too much money on food in new orleans and ran out of gas money on the way back. I looked at how much fuel was left in the tank, did the math and decided if we drove 45mph on back roads, we would crack 40mpg (it's mostly flat in that part of the world) and would make it home ok with like 2 gallons to spare. We saw a LOT of weird poo poo on the back roads of lousiana and texas. Great time. Drove through a bunch of towns that were sort of the remains of an old saw mill or train depot that had long gone out of business, but the people and businesses were still there. state hwy 1 and 71 run almost parallel to interstate 49, but instead of a mind numbing drive, every 3-5 miles you're driving through a tiny community of 20-100 people.

My math was way off though, we ran out of fuel in ...Greenwood, LA? Just west of Shreveport almost at the Texas border. Our friend's mom wired us $100 via western union (minus $20 in fees) to get us home since neither of us had the courage to call our own parents. Almost certain we were navigating via a Rand McNally Road Atlas as well. I seem to recall those highways were in black but maybe my memory is bad or they changed the color scheme in the 90s.

That unnecessary scene at the end of Cars where they wax poetic about interstates killing small towns to the benefit of speeding up travel always plucked a heart string for me

edit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LFYtpLrAZw

Hadlock fucked around with this message at 04:48 on Jan 17, 2023

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

Pulling into the hilariously small front driveway this morning.



Got the car out early this morning to ferry my wife back from the mechanics shop. First time driving it since before Christmas. Maybe the longest interval between driving since I got it.

Was waiting for a break in traffic to pull into the main road I let the car roll back a tiny bit and heard a faint creaking from the rear suspension (area). At first I thought maybe it was dragging rear brakes. I kind of jumped up and down in my seat and was able to reproduce the noise faintly. I was thinking it was a dragging emergency brake (rear wheels have the e-brake on this car, it's front wheel drive) but thinking about it some more might need greasing or a new bushing

I would pull it apart today but need to ferry her back to the shop in a few hours. Tomorrow it's supposed to be in the upper 60s. I guess I can finally grease all these nipples.

ought ten
Feb 6, 2004

PainterofCrap posted:

Have you ever read Blue Highways by William Least-Heat Moon?

Seconding. It's been at least a decade but that's a great book.

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

Whoops gave it the beans and throttle linkage not working. Started idling fast and then throttle stopped responding. Managed to get it into my neighborhood and then idle crawled it to the house. Gonna have to figure out what's going on there we have guests coming over Saturday and it's street parked. Open to ideas. Thinking it's an adjustment, at worst a cotter pin. Linkage to the carb moving cleanly. Thinking it's on the pedal side.

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

I think the creak was a partially engaged parking brake. I jumped up and down on the rear bumper and was unable to reproduce the issue. Fully disengaging the parking brake seems to fix the issue

Been playing with the choke, feels like if I pull out the choke a tiny bit I get a lot more power out of it, almost drives like a normal car

Wife has the car key in her trunk so I can't test it but I was testing how the car starts to bog if you're giving it the beans and then push the pedal to the metal the car keeps going but stops accelerating. Lifting off the gas 3-5% you feel the power come back. I was also playing with this lifting the gas pedal beyond the spring return to see what happened. I think this might have been the problem.

The carb has a... Right angle throttle thrust adapter/worm gear (:airquote: thing?) and my guess is I exceeded the design travel and it got jammed. This is resolved by manually working the throttle linkage. Probably.



Also ran across... This? I don't like linking Facebook stuff but I can't find it on YouTube. I don't have any context for it but I've never seen a Traction Avant themed drag racer before

https://fb.watch/iaJ_zQL6DP/ Looks like it comes from https://turbo.fr : https://www.turbo.fr/emission-turbo/dragsters-plein-les-yeux-et-les-oreilles-reportage-turbo-du-28/08/2022-187007







Note the laser cut double chevron Citroen logo in the rear wing supports

Interior dashboard does not appear to be stock

Hadlock fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Jan 20, 2023

Cyrano4747
Sep 25, 2006

Yes, I know I'm old, get off my fucking lawn so I can yell at these clouds.

the out of context subtitles are pretty great

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

Looks like in one of the screen caps there is a website, which looks... exactly how you'd imagine the owner of this car's website to look like

https://msdr21.skyrock.com/

Couple of youtubes there. In this video there's a decent slo motion launch starting at the 2:16 mark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIB72eczuuo

Edit: here's an actual(?) cv11 drag car, probably. Same guy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdAEFLoRA-g

Hadlock fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Jan 20, 2023

Cyrano4747
Sep 25, 2006

Yes, I know I'm old, get off my fucking lawn so I can yell at these clouds.

Hadlock posted:

Looks like in one of the screen caps there is a website, which looks... exactly how you'd imagine the owner of this car's website to look like

https://msdr21.skyrock.com/


Wow you weren’t kidding.

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

Found the problem. Looks like a three piece overly complex adapter. Just need to somehow unscrew the dark part from the flat adapter plate, then tighten the nut holding the adapter plate and screw it all back together. Problem is the screws have (probably) thread lock on them, and they're mounted... Non-concentrically on a moderately delicate rotating assembly, and the screws apparently to be soft flat head aluminum. Gonna zip tie it together to get it into the garage and Sunday is looking like carb rebuild day to get everything pulled apart properly and rebuilt

PainterofCrap
Oct 17, 2002

hey bebe



You can and should lube the parking brake cable at all friction/rub points. Use excess from your nippleganza lubin'

To remove those two screws on the carb throttle plate: if you do not have a blade screwdriver that fits snugly all the way to the base of the screw slot, get one. Then unscrew them with deliberate diligence, purpose, and care.

If possible, keep them for the next guy and replace them with hex cap screws. This will guarantee that you will nevr, ever, have to mess with it again.

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bennyfactor
Nov 21, 2008

PainterofCrap posted:

You can and should lube the parking brake cable at all friction/rub points. Use excess from your nippleganza lubin'

To remove those two screws on the carb throttle plate: if you do not have a blade screwdriver that fits snugly all the way to the base of the screw slot, get one. Then unscrew them with deliberate diligence, purpose, and care.

If possible, keep them for the next guy and replace them with hex cap screws. This will guarantee that you will nevr, ever, have to mess with it again.

"Hollow-ground" screwdriver, to be specific. That is what will fit in the screw slot all the way. Regular/cheap flat screwdriver will chowder it up no matter how well it initially appear to fit.

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