[Jeremy Ashton]

I have a tow bar complete with ball on our D Speciale which will never be used. PM me for info…

[Jeremy Ashton]

Very useful, thanks. I suspect the mounts because of age and the oscillation in the drive train on gentle acceleration/deceleration.

Replacements look expensive but refurb would take a while and occupy a lift.

…. Or drive even more gently.

[Jeremy Ashton]

Pressure switched Facet between the mechanical pump and the carb. I guess if we are hit from behind then both are immolated by our tankful of E5; front shunt and this would move the pump towards the carb, so no issue. Harder than that and no electrics or we’d be in no position to care.

Inertia switches – certainly if pumps are close to the tank and permanent. We had one in an Alfa GTV and big potholes would sometimes trigger it.

[Jeremy Ashton]

Facet pump on the inner wing – switched live but gets a ground supply from the oil pressure switch. Pumps until the engine starts and stops when the oil pressure light goes out. NR valves never worked…

[Jeremy Ashton]

That handle misalignment threw me for a while after reassembling the gearbox and front body parts. Nothing was bent or in the wrong place and there’s only one way to fix the box plus the clue of the angled guide in the front cross-member, so I accepted another DS quirk- like the access to #4 plug through a bung in the scuttle. Explains the unequal length drive shafts….

[Jeremy Ashton]

I have decided that I will at some point fit new front doors rather than skinning as apart from a dent in the LH (Wee Woman reversing Zoe!) most rust is on top inner parts.

Interested to understand where the best doors come from.

[Jeremy Ashton]

Thanks. The accumulator sphere was renewed in late 2021 together with the pump. Necessitated removing sphere and regulator body from above as there is no chance of getting it from below. Rear spheres are good as evidenced by the travel when I stand on the towing ball. So I will live with it “pour amuser les petites.”

[Jeremy Ashton]

Well I think that I will leave the rear level adjuster alone. Too much faff. It only takes about 15 secs to get to takeoff height and I’m usually still looking for the end of the seatbelt.

Anyway when some see it they say “is that the car which goes up and down?” Cue demo 🙂

[Jeremy Ashton]

Only a surface grinder but the rear radius arm taper roller bearings don’t seem to show brinelling – I will not know until I loosen them and set the bearing preload – btw the nuts are 38mm 1 1/12” not 30mm. Taking off the anti-roll bar – just loosen the clamps and slide them away to the middle as they don’t need to be removed having marked and removed the height adjuster link and the headlight levelling link first.

[Jeremy Ashton]

Paul, yes on the inner wing by the battery; handy for the fuel line, oil pressure wire and the harness. I was about to take off the wing to mount the pump and I noticed a pair of holes with correct spacing and ideal location so I used them.

I did wonder about having the pump so high as Facet recommend fitting close to the level of the tank but a quick test (on top of the battery!) proved that priming through the mechanical pump would not be an issue.

Added benefit: should I lose oil pressure and the indicator bulb has blown I might hear the pump whirring over the noise of tappets, body rattle, 4th gear whine and eventually big ends giving up………….

[Jeremy Ashton]

On ours the ball and the cup pinned into the radius arm were fine, though I replaced the balls anyway. The issue was that ridges were worn in the radiused end of the ram pushrod where it sits on the ball. A few minutes with a dremel removed the ridging(a bit like the brinelling on the suspension bearings) and all was smooth again.

[Jeremy Ashton]

Worth a go; we re-sleeve brake master cylinders at Pewsey Precision and make fancy bits for people. The clue’s in the name 🙂

[Jeremy Ashton]

Hi Paul,
Fronts done a while ago and I have a spare complete old ram and new seals. Can’t remember if I refurbed the rears when replacing boots and balls/cups; perhaps I did as there was some old LHM in the old boots. Just looked up refurbishing of the correctors and it seems that the sliding piston wears so the job is to make an o/s piston and bore and hone the body plus fitting new rubber end caps.

If anyone has a worn item to spare for study and repair then I would be interested as a trial to doing others.

[Jeremy Ashton]

Nice new rubber gaiter but I should have painted the fork!

[Jeremy Ashton]

For comparison I nipped out and took this. This is the adjuster on our DS. New clutch ~ 700 miles ago.
Last week I wound the adjuster in a turn to take up a bit of slack which was interesting as I expected bedding in to tighten things.

BTW the original clutch was a Valeo marked 75 which was the year the car was made. Made me wonder if this was the original or a coincidental same aged replacement. Probably the latter considering the transmission and drive wear.

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