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Traction coolant flush

I seem to have a habit of buying Citroens that have ditch water in their cooling system. I spent quite a bit of time flushing out the system of the DS21, and now I need to do the same for the traction.

The Traction currently has a habit of marking its territory after every drive with a nice dirty stain where the coolant has spat out the overflow. I normally have to top the radiator up each drive or so, which is something I want to have looked at when the car goes in for rego. Therefore, before that happens, […]

August 15th, 2015 | Tags: , | Category: Citroen | 3 comments

2nd Prize in a beauty contest

My Light 15 was awarded 2nd prize in the pre-1956 Citroen category at the 2015 French Car Day. I hadn’t planned to enter the car, but did since there were only a couple of Tractions there. 1st prize went to a nice Big 15. Without a lot of effort I should be able to do better as I was obviously marked down for things like my missing front carpet. Concours is not really my thing, so while I want to make improvements to the car for my own enjoyment, I will not be wrapping it in cotton wool.

As usual […]

July 12th, 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , | Category: Citroen, Shows | One comment

Traction oil service – how simple

The Traction Avant is the easiest car I own to do a basic service. There is no oil filter, so the oil is simply drained and topped up. The transmission is right up front, and not obscured by the ducting of the DS, so it can be done while sitting in front of the car. The downside of course is that since there is no oil filter, you need to do it more often, and there are a lot of grease points to consider.

I wasn’t sure when the last service had been performed on the Traction, so I wanted […]

April 18th, 2015 | Tags: , | Category: Citroen | One comment

Traction will select a gear… Sometimes.

I had the traction towed home a week ago as I was unable to select a gear despite the clutch being fully depressed. I didn’t think anything was seriously wrong, as I had been driving fine around that time. After doing some research on the Traction Yahoo Group, and looking carefully at the linkages, I was able to determine that they sometimes bind when I am moving from the 1/R side to the 2/3 side or vice versa. You can eventually free it, but every now and again it sticks. I don’t think I have fully fixed the problem yet, […]

March 30th, 2015 | Tags: , | Category: Citroen | Leave a comment

Traction won’t select a gear

Today I was planning to change the oil in the engine and gearbox of the Traction. I took it for a drive to heat up the oil so it would drain out nicely. It was a lovely evening and I was enjoying the drive, then all of a sudden, the Traction won’t select a gear. Despite pushing the clutch to the floor, I was unable to engage any gear.

The car was running nicely, so I don’t think the fragile Traction gearbox has given up. My assumption is that the problem is to do with the gear linkages or […]

March 23rd, 2015 | Tags: , , | Category: Citroen | One comment

Minor repairs to the Traction

This evening I spent some time looking over the traction. One of the things noted in the condition report was that the number plate lamp was inoperative. After eliminating it was not the blown fuse, I took the light apart, and the problem was that it was just dirty. A good clean and the lamp was working again.

I also polished the front grille with some Autosol. I wasn’t able to make that much improvement as much of the grille has lost the chrome coating and is down to the base metal, but i was able to clean it […]

March 16th, 2015 | Tags: , | Category: Citroen | Leave a comment

Traction Avant – Further evaluation

This evening I went over to the garage to look at the Traction in more detail. Overall I am still very happy with the purchase. A couple of things that I noticed:

There was a frayed wire in the boot for the number plate light. I used electrical tape to ensure that it does not touch the metal. Not sure if this is the cause, but one of the two fuses in the car was blown, so I replaced that with a 20A, which was what was in there. Net result was no ascertainable difference. Number plate light still didn’t […]

March 9th, 2015 | Tags: | Category: Citroen | 2 comments

New Addition: 1954 Citroen Light 15

Today I went and picked up the latest addition to the garage, a 1954 Citroen Light 15. Being a Light 15, this car is a Traction Avant and was built in Slough, UK.

I don’t have a lot of history for the car, but it has been registered in NSW since 1984 and recently had $18,000 of mechanical work done by European Autocare in Penrith (a well known Citroen Specialist). The previous owner has spent quite a bit of money on this car and it shows.

There are still a few things that need putting right, but for the […]

March 7th, 2015 | Tags: | Category: Citroen | Leave a comment
 
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