The Day of Reckoning..

For some time now, the CX has been languishing without working brakes. It has demonstrated its displeasure by repeatedly dumping ALL the LHM it can get its hands on. But no more, dear reader, no more!

I managed to source a replacement solid pipe from Germany, bought it and had a wee sit down after paying for it. North of £70 had to be committed to get said pipe bought and shipped. I’ve had whole cars for less.

Is it a 70’s synth? am I Jean Michel Jarre?

Nah, Its a brakepipe, innit?

Just the small matter of transporting it 70 miles to the CX and fitting it..

The 205 was duly loaded with all the available tools, plus my brother and I, and we tootled off to the unit where the CX was stored. We both have time off work this week to get tore into the myriad projects that abound – chief amongst which was the CX.

Once arrived, we set to wrestling the old bracket off the failed hard line.

A 17mm is needed to loosen the Flexi – this was very tight, so needed the extendaspanner (TM) approach

The bracket is held onto the hard line by a 24mm nut, and the brake flexi line passes through the nut into an inner thread in the hard line.

24mm nut on the outer, and the thread for the brake flexi in the centre.

The 24mm was on Bloody tight, so we utilised a breaker bar to get it shifted.

That’ll learn it!

The bracket and washer came away with a few taps.

We cleaned up the parts with a wire wheel and gave them a coat of rust killer.

 

Aww the bits

Glooped up to avoid rot

Then it was time to start building up the replacement line.

Old and new

Bracket lined up and ready for 24mm to be fitted.

Old and new Flexi lines

24mm nut and new Flexi fitted

That all done and tightened up, it was time to fit it to the car.

 

We borrowed the Da’s new toy..

 

Oh Hello, Mr Impact Wrench..

That made short work of the wheelbolts.

 

We got the pipe lined up, and all the bolts fitted, then reconnected the flexi to the brake line at the top of the strut.

Fitted!

Everything was tight, and the bleed nipple slackened off ok – time to hit the pedal!

Bugger, LHM was spraying out the caliper end where the hard line mates to the caliper.

No bother, time to tighten up the bolt.

 

KERTWAAANG! the bastard has snapped. The air was blue, the ratchet was but a moment from being hurled through the windscreen. I was not amused.

My brother and Father stepped in, and I went off to a corner to mutter and curse. Time to figure out how to sort this.

The portion that was in the caliper turned out easily by hand- it had not hit the bottom, or cross threaded – We don’t know why it failed.

Thankfully the caliper and hard line were ok – it was just the bolt that was needing replaced.

First port of call was to call some local spares shops-none of them carried anything that would replace the snapped bolt.

Next up, time to try the dealer – Citroen seem to have no parts for anything that is over 10yrs old, although the Parts chap was helpful when I dropped in later on.

205 showing those pesky Citroens how it is done!

A call to Pirtek (a hydraulics fitting company) suggested they may have something that would do for the purposes of stopping the LHM leaking, and allowing the brakes to be used to move the car about the unit.

An 80min round trip later, and I had a replacement bolt. It was much shorter, but was crucially long enough to fit through the hard line and into the caliper.

(Temporary) Salvation!

And fitted.

Bolt fitted, we bled the brakes with no issue. A good save! and it buys me time to find the bolt I need.

Next up was an oil service – it had not been done in my ownership, and was likely overdue:

The oil that came out was like tar.

Yup, that needs changing!

Lovely

As often seems to be the way with the CX, the oil filter was far from simple to get at..

The oil filter from underneath

Thankfully the removal tool sat over it ok, and the old (VERY OLD!) filter spun off with no great issue.

One of these is the new one..

The new filter had the seal oiled and was installed, and tightened from the top.

New filter in position, as shown from the top

Lastly, the sump plug was reinstalled, and new oil was added.

This looks a touch better!

With all that done, it was time to get her started and out for a test drive round the unit.

The LHM was checked and topped up, and I took her out for a drive- seemed to go well, with the front brakes performing well.

Both my Father and Brother had a shot too -I think the Da struggled to comprehend what was happening with the brakes and diravi steering, although he’s keen to take a few more runs in it to “get used to it”:)

We then went to put it in the unit and were greeted by a horrible grumble, and the sight of steam..

 

It looks as if it has decided to repay us by leaking from the waterpump!

 

Splish splash, with coolant running down the belt.

We put it in the unit, tidied up and went home.

Before we really lost the plot!