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JBNParticipant
@mls 767 wrote:
I have noticed in various articles on “How To Buy a 2cv” one of the most frequent comments regarding tyres is that the sidewalls crack.
Both of the spares that I have are cracked/disintegrating on their sidewalls. But, interestingly enough, only the outside sidewalls are affected, the inner one is fine.
This would seem to suggest that they are subject to some form of weathering – uv perhaps? Before responding that this is due to the savage Australian sun, both tyres spent their working life in France.
I wonder if it is worth turning them from time to time?Rubber ages with time and exposure to UV. If your tyre sidewalls are cracking, I suggest they need replacing. I have never noticed this myself as I buy new tyres and thrash the car and buy new tyres again.
I bought 4 new Michelin X 125X15 from Longstone Tyres in the UK to replace the well worn tyres that were new 10 years ago on my Charleston. On Daffy Duck, I use Nankangs and am due to replace them as they are getting below the legal limit.
The last thing I need is a tyre to go when I am hooning around (the normal way one drives a 2CV). Its the only thing between you and disaster. Take advantage of the high dollar to Euro/Pound and get a new set that should last for quite a while.
John
JBNParticipantI have just lost another reply into cyberspace.
If anyone wants to continue this conversation privately, please send an email to jbneervoort@yahoo.com.au. I really can’t be bothered with this site anymore. It is a shame that they stopped the old Aussifrogs Club Australia site.
Goodbye all – I’ll see you on the road.
John
JBNParticipantI have Red Line Synthetic MT-90 which is a SAE 75W90 API GL-4 Gear oil. A lot of 2CV owners in WA use it and swear by it. This is what it also says:
Most gear oils, ATFs and motor oils are too slippery for proper synchro engagement – which causes gear clash when shifting. Most GL-5 gear oils contain reactive sulfur which can chemically wear synchros and shorten synchro life by 50% compared to Red Line MT90. MT-90 has a coefficient of friction which is perfect for rapid synchro engagement and allows high speed upshifting and downshifting. MT90 is recommended for all manual transmissions and front-wheel drive manual transaxles which recommend motor oils, or GL-1, GL-3 or GL-4 gear oils. Petroleum multigrade motor oils and transmission fluids contain polymers which shear down rapidly under the action of gear teeth and rapidly lose viscosity, significantly reducing their lubricating ability. The extreme stability of this product allows use for extended periods.
It is not cheap at about $50 for .946 liters (ie one gearbox fill), but on their website they were talking about very high milages between changes.
John
JBNParticipantOK. This is just from memory. It is very straight forward.
- Remove black plastic dash
- you need a 1/4″ drive socket around the 5mm size, preferably with a screwdriver type driver. I think there are 14 screws and the nuts can easily be lost.
- the bright metal strip above the ventilation flap has all the screw threads attached to it. I suggest you DON’T completely remove the nuts.
- get some masking tape and stick that immediately above the top of the rubber and down the sides of the rubber for about 1″.
- prise open the metal strip and the rubber flap underneath
- squease a bead of black automotive silicone between the rubber and the body (this is why you put the masking tape there to stop excess silicone from getting onto the body above the rubber). Try not to get it on the screw threads.
- push the metal strip and rubber against the body, wiping off excess silicone as it gets squeased out. I have a roll of toilet paper handy for this.
- working inside the car, start to tighten all the nuts. Work quickly before the silicone dries.
- remove any remaining excess silicone.
- remove the masking tape
This seals the rubber flap. On a new one, you would use double sided automotive tape. This is not so successful on old (dirty) rubber flap in situ.
The other source of leaks are the windscreen wiper posts that come through the two holes in the body. For this you need new rubber grommets to seal between the metal caps and the body. You may have to make your own to get the correct size.
Finally, drill a hole (about 8mm bit) on the front floor just back from the sloping bit, on both the left and right side. Once you remove the floor mat, you will see indented channels that meet in a cross (or a T). Position the hole where they join. This will act as a drain hole as 2CVs always leak, including via the door seals when you wash them.
Finally, I would consider some sort of plastic “roof” over your unit to be really on the safe side.
John
JBNParticipant@John P 245 wrote:
Great stuff! Hope to be enjoying the same fun by this time next year. I’m champing at the bit to start the 2CV but need to finish the safari first, hopefully by the end of the year. I’m not sure how secure I’m going to feel bowling down a freeway beside a b-double – even side intrusion bars wouldn’t make much difference. I suppose the thinking will be take the byways not the highways and enjoy the journey.
It takes a bit of time before you can drive a 2CV. These are the steps:
- Get used to driving it, particularly the way it goes around corners. On a motorbike, the rider and the bike lean into the corner. In a 2CV the car leans out and the driver leans in. Takes a bit of getting used to. Also practice increasing the revs in a slow 2nd gear corner by using the left foot accelerator (ie clutch). Unconventional, irreverant but so is the 2CV.
- Once you have some confidence, start to drive beyond 80kph up to the maximum speed. With some practice and confidence, most travel thereafter will be foot flat down regardless of the gear.
- NEVER TOUCH THE BRAKE (unless its a real emergency). Use the momentum of the car coupled with a chess players appreciation of all the vehicles on the road plus use of the steering wheel to make forward progress. It is amazing how the car can move through traffic (remember: the other drivers are trying to stay awake, whilst you are very much alive operating a deuche).
- Once confidence levels are high, start to increase your cars touring ability by learning to slip stream other larger vehicles. This can increase your cars speed by up to 15kph during head wind conditions. Pick on caravans, vans and trucks first up.
- Graduate to slip streaming articulated trucks. Remember, you can outbrake them regardless of what happens. Whatever they hit will be demolished enough so the bits won’t hurt you as you hit them.
- The final stage is slip streaming B Doubles with the Road Train the ultimate. Both of these vehicles travel fast, and hitching a lift is the hard bit. Best to get them as they are picking up speed and then stick with them. Hard to hitch a lift on a road train when it overtakes as you don’t know how many dogs (trailers) it has (2,3,4,5?). The way to do it is to be turning right as the second last dog passes you at the same time the last dog is moving left across your front. If lucky, you’ll pick up the lift. Hardly any acceleration is required, even going up hills. It is hard to keep the concentration levels up beyond an hour, but you are guaranteed never to fall asleep at the wheel.
It is a philosophical question whether one is mad prior to owning a 2CV or whether the madness is a consequence of owning a 2CV. The point is that a state of madness is neccessary to enjoy a 2CV. Don’t worry about accidents. When most other drivers see you wobbling around the road, they stay away from you. Everyone notices a 2CV so you never get hit because they didn’t see you. If you are involved in a bad accident, at least your death will be quick and clean.
We all die in the end. Only the chosen few go by a deaux chevaux chariot to the heavens.
John
Daffy DuckJBNParticipant@petitepoupée 246 wrote:
I presume we have all seen this somewhat painful-to-watch footage?
There you go, you should have bought a Mondeo. Too bad you saw the video AFTER you bought the car.
John
JBNParticipant@John P 239 wrote:
Geoff, I hope you meant that you have both obtained the roadworthy check and registered the car in SA. This is because last year I bought from a chap in Adelaide a 74 2cv which had originally been registered in Victoria but had been unregistered for some long time. He found the mountain of compliance issues laid on him by the authorities there (side intrusion bars, headrests etc etc) too high to climb to register in SA. Perhaps because your car had current Vic. registration you have been spared all that grief and are well into fun motoring.
I have had the same problem here in NSW. Car had been registered until 2000. Then became unregistered. The engineer wanted side intrusion bars. Realised that they are a complete waste in the rear doors as the only thing that supports them is the sliding hinge. Then he suggests removing the frame in the rear for the upper mount of lap/sash seat belts, removing seatbelts and rear seats and plugging all holes and then have the car re classified as a “coupe”, still insisting on side intrusion bars on the front. He also suggested the front side intrusion bars could be mounted over the door card, so that after rego, they could be removed!
Thankfully the 2CV is a French car and French are lateral thinkers and so am I. Fortunately NSW started off as a convict colony and it appears some have survived.
A 2CV in an accident has one very important thing going for it. It is light and it knows it. It doesn’t stand and fight and hold its ground. It is quite happy to be brushed aside. Try this at home. Get an empty cardboard box and kick it. Observe what happens. Now fill the same box with some books at repeat the experiment. See, you can speak French when you have to.
John
JBNParticipantThere are two anomalies with this “Charleston”. It doesn’t have the single spoke steering wheel and it doesn’t have the larger “Club” type speedo. The last photo (12) shows a plate with 2CV Special on it, rather than 2CV Charleston. It also doesn’t have front over riders on the bumper.
Attention to detail is always very important when you change a 2CV Special to a 2CV Charleston. There seems to be a business that imports 2CVs from the UK. They have always got good paintwork, galvanised chassis and new hood and upholstery. A while ago there was a black and white Dolly, which to my knowledge was a very unique colour combo for a Dolly. Not that any of this really matters as Dolly and Charleston were only paint styles and 2CVs were built for anarchists anyway. I am one of the worst offenders.
John
JBNParticipantThe normal pressure for 125/15 tyres is 20psi front and 26psi rear. I tend to use 20 front and 22 rear which reduces the understeer a bit.
I would NOT increase the front pressures by more than 2psi. I did that once and nearly lost the car on a bend between Ballarat and Bendigo as it had corrugations in the bitumen and the front of the car started “chattering” with the front end heading to the outside of the corner.
If you are new to 2CVs, keep things very much by the book until you are comfortable with driving the car under all conditions. They do not drive like other cars and thus a lot of things that are logical in normal cars are not so true for a 2CV.
I have a cheap hand pump and a dial type tyre guage and regularly check the pressures. On the one hand they are sensitive to tyre pressures (hard driving on bitumen), but on a dirt road they can be extremely forgiving even if you have a flat tyre (front or rear). Flat rear tyres are barely noticeable except on corners.
Daffy Duck
JBNParticipantWhat sad news you bring Viking. Lauri with the wicked sense of humour. A great Raider and international personality in the 2CV Raiding community.
John
Daffy DuckJBNParticipant@petitepoupée 191 wrote:
WOW! There’s a bit of technology involved here, as I see from this link.
http://www.ngk.com/sparkplug411.asp?kw=Wasted+Spark+Ignition&mfid=1
Thanks John – I’ll let you have a break from all the questions for now….In that NGK article on wasted spark ignition, they mentioned that one spark plug was positive and the other was negative. Sorry I forgot to tell you that. Where it does become useful is that the spark plug on one side wears the centre post whereas the one on the other side wears the bent bit. Some people that want to get maximum use out of their plugs, swap them from one side to the other to even up the wear. Like I said previously, I just chuck them and replace them at 5000kms as I can’t be bothered cleaning them. They hardly look worn. With a new plug you also get a new sealing washer. I have found after a thousand or so kms that the engine can can run a bit rougher and that usually means I just have to tighten the spark plugs. I am loath to tighten them too much.
By foregoing two cups of coffee every 5000kms, the spark plugs cost me nothing.
By the way petitepoupee, what on Earth are you doing in your 2CV (avatar)? I thought they were too small for that.
John
JBNParticipant@petitepoupée 189 wrote:
A favourite aphorism of mine is … “a fool can ask more questions than a wise man can answer.” So here comes (yet) another question… with the 123 ignition installed – ours has this already – do the plugs still do the firing-on-both-strokes trick?:confused:
Yes. All the 123 ignition does is replace the points box (behind the fan) with a solid state electronic version. The original points is a mechanical way to trigger the signal to the coil to produce the spark, dependant upon the contact points relationship to the lobe on the camshaft. The 123 ignition does this all electronically, plus it calculates centrifugal advance electronically rather than the original method of using weights. The EVO 123 has an additional option of utilising vacuum from the inlet manifold to give vacuum advance as well, a feature never present in the original points.
Either way, the dumb coil purely increases the voltage to produce a hefty spark upon receipt of a low voltage signal from the points/123. Since there is no distributor to distribute this spark to a particular spark plug, it gives it to both. Only one cylinder will be able to utilise the spark, being on the compression stroke. The spark still fires in the other cylinder but its mixture has already been burnt, so the spark is wasted. This system is referred to a “wasted spark” system. The only improvement would be the replacement of the original coil with a “Harley” coil, which produces a fatter spark and appears to suffer less from overheating and breaking down.
As an aside, the CX25IE used twin coils. The first coil was fired when the sensor on the flywheel triggered it, only one of the cylinders was able to use the spark. The computer then calculated when the flywheel was opposite to the sensor (ie 180 degrees) and in turn fired the second coil, again only one cylinder could use the spark. Each coil serviced two cylinders of the four cylinder engine.
John
JBNParticipant@petitepoupée 187 wrote:
John, thanks for the heads-up on the globe base – and although this hasn’t anything to do with headlights, I’ll ask anyway: does anyone know of an available platinum spark plug for the later (or any) 2CV’s ? If so, what make and model plug? So far as brands go, I have a lot of faith in NGK, but will be interested to hear of anything else.
Regards, Geoff.We’re now just two weeks away from pick-up-duck day. Can’t wait !:D
I don’t know of any platinum plug for a 2CV, but if you go to the NGK website and check for platinum versions of their normal B6HS plug you may have luck.
Personally, I am happy with the NGK B6HS plug. It is readily available. Every 5,000kms I replace the engine oil and filter, gearbox oil and spark plugs. Everything considered, that is fairly cheap, keeps the engine in top running condition and extends the engine/gearbox life.
In fact, with the NGK plugs, I don’t even check the gaps anymore. I have found them to be so consistently accurate and they come with a tube of cardboard to prevent any inadvertant closing of the points in transit. Chucking the plugs every 5K means I don’t have to clean them. Remeber, the plugs have actually worn as if they had done 10k because they are fired twice as often with the wasted spark ignition.
John
JBNParticipantI managed to buy halogen globes in Australia. The trick is to take the headlight into the shop (Repco, etc) and check that the base fits. There are some that look identical but don’t fit.
John
Daffy DuckJBNParticipantI just read about Jeffs passing on AussieFrogs today. Very sad. Thats the second Raider we have lost from Raid 2008.
John
Daffy Duck -
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