The JDCA E-Type register had an unofficial new year breakfast run yesterday up to Dural, and a good opportunity to take the Jag out for a drive. It was quite a hot day (around 34c), but the coolcat fan kept the temperature at or below 90 degrees, even in traffic or going up Galston Gorge on the way back. As this was an unofficial...
A while ago the E-Type speedo bezel and glass that protects the speedometer had fallen off. I had tried to replace it in-situ, but the bezel fell off the next time I drove the car. I later learned the correct way to do this and it is not very hard. The panel under the dash that protects all the wires is easily...
I came to start the DS the other day, and it started fine, but would not idle properly. Once the revs dropped below 1200 or so the engine died. The car had been running fine before so it was quite perplexing. I had some advice from the forum to try a few things, one was to check the float in the carburettor...
The 280CE came back to the warehouse to replace the idler arm bushings. The simple description of the idler arm is that it is the part that attaches to the steering linkage from the passengers side to balance the pittman arm which connects the steering box on the drivers side. Bad bushings in the idler arm mean that the steering system is not...
I had to be in Canberra today, so I swung by the 2014 ACT Terribly British Day. It was quite a nice little car show with a decent mix of British cars. I was glad to go as the Sydney show was rained out this year and I had not taken the 450SLC on a good road trip for a while. Some of...
Previously I had started re-looking at the faceplate of the Retrosound Model 2 I have installed in the DS. The biggest issue is fitment of the secondary knobs. In my first attempt, I had tried to file away small holes in the side of the cubby housing for them to fit, but I found that they jammed easily and interfered with the...
Last year I installed a Retrosound Model 2 radio in my Citroen DS. Overall, I was happy with the result, but there were one or two small things that were not working as I expected. This was mostly down to so little space for the unit in the DS, as it is hard to get the radio face and knobs to fit inside...
On Sunday, I attended the Devil in Disguise drive with the Citroen Club. So the story goes the drive is named in memorial for a member of the club who is sadly deceased who was apparently a mild mannered man, until he got behind the wheel of his DS, when the Devil in Disguise came out! On this trip, the Devil was the...
The Citroen DS has a rubber hose that connects the air cleaner assembly with the top of the carburettor. This DS air cleaner hose had become so hard and perished that it tore when I tried to remove the air cleaner to take off the spheres. The condition of the hose is fairly evident from the picture. The new one was much more pliant. ...
The latest Shannons Auction is on Monday, so I went to preview the offering. As usual, Shannons have a nice mix of cars for sale, and the ones that caught my eye were: Lot 4: 1951 AUSTIN A90 ATLANTIC 2 DOOR COUPE This is not a car I know much about, but it has oodles of character and a price guide of $18,000-$24,000. ...
The Mercedes Club organized a late spring evening ‘topless’ drive up the Old Pacific Highway to the Central coast. I had forgotten what a nice drive the Old Pacific Highway is, certainly nicer than the F3/M1. I took the 250SE, and it was the oldest car there, the best representation being from the R107, in particular the 380. I also discovered...
I recently attended a JDCA drive to Bulli organized by the Grand Tourers Register (i.e. XJS, New XK). The drive started in Southern Sydney and took the grand pacific drive through the royal national park. Unfortunately the event organizers Jag (a lovely XJS convertible) developed an issue and had to pull out of the event, but overall it was a very nice...
There is a blog I look at from time to time called “Aussie old parked cars” where the author takes pictures of interesting cars he/she sees in daily use around Sydney. In particular, most of the photos are around North Sydney and Neutral bay, an area I am quite familiar with. One entry that stuck out to me was a W108 300SE, a...
When I got it, the DS had threadbare blue carpets. The previous owner also had a blue DS, so I suspect at some point he upgraded the carpets in that car and the blue ones were in better condition than the carpets in the red car. In addition it had marine carpet on the box sills which for a DS Comfort should...
Today was one of the regular tech days organised by the Citroen Club. I always enjoy the tech days, even if I am not doing much to my car – you can see the other cars, talk to the other members and sometimes learn how to do things by watching what other people do. One of the tricks I learned today was simple...
Previously, I had removed all my suspension spheres to check their pressure. Their pressure was checked at the Citroen Club tech day, and found to be acceptable. Given I had the system de-pressurized, I also wanted to change the DS accumulator sphere. The accumulator acts as a store of system pressure. This means that the pump does not...
Central to the Citroen DS hydraulic system is a set of ‘spheres’ that hold hydraulic pressure. The spheres have an internal diaphragm so they can contain gas on one side and hydraulic fluid on the other. One is used for each wheel to provide the suspension, as the gas forms the ‘spring’ and the amount of fluid in the sphere controls the ride...
The 280CE came over to the garage to continue the items on the major service, namely: New Spark plugs Transmission fluid and filter Rear end fluid change Brake fluid flush We used NGK spark plugs as they offer non-resistor plugs that are easy to find. The original spec for these cars called for non-resistor spark plugs, which are much harder to find now....
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