[Jamie]

Hi Alan,

Welcome to the forum.

I don’t know if you know, but there’s a chap called Stan Platts in the club who is the ‘CX Guru’.

He offers ‘technical support’ to us CX owners.

You can call him on: 01274 683848

He also has an email: stan.hazel.platts@btinternet.com

He would be the best person to speak to about this.

Great to hear of another CX owner, especially with one of the earlier cars.

It sounds like your car is one of the very early ones!

I have a ’78 (manufactured ’77) CX 2400 Pallas.

Best of luck getting it sorted. I’m sure that Stan will be able to help.

Regards,

Jamie

[Jamie]

Hi Elvedin,

I just spotted this for sale in Cheltenham:

https://www.gumtree.com/p/citroen/citroen-cx-pallas-inj-auto/1415573352

Was this the specification you were looking for?

**Re-reading it and looking at the pictures, it looks like a C-Matic (not an auto).

Supposedly it runs and drives but it’s obviously a project. . .

Best Regards,

Jamie

[Jamie]

Hi Elvedin

Welcome to the CX forums!

You’ve set yourself a challenge with the specification that you are looking for!

According to HowManyLeft there look to be 6 cars of that spec still registered in the UK:

https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/vehicle/citroen_cx_pallas_inj_auto

There may be cars that have not been taxed since January 1998 and have not had a change of owner since 2012 that might not show up on those stats so there might be more.

As not all club members use these forums, your best bet might be to put an advert in the Citroënian ‘Mutual Aid’ section talking about what you are looking for.

Also, reach out to George Antoniou (CX Registrar) as he might know of cars that are looking for homes.

In terms of garages and workshops to look after a CX, I’m probably not the best person to ask I’m still relatively new to CX ownership and I also tend to do my own restoration/servicing work.

There are a list of companies who advertise in the Citroënian and these might be a good place to start with.

Hopefully someone with more experience than me will comment on this thread and make some recommendations.

But again, welcome to the forum and I look forward to speaking to you!

Best Regards,

Jamie

[Jamie]

Hi Dave!

Great to hear from a fellow 70s CX owner too!

I’ve described mine as a 1978 above and but it was registered in the January of 1978 so must have been manufactured towards the end of 1977.

I’m hoping to get some pictures of my car this weekend, so I’ll post them up and maybe we can compare. I’m assuming that mine is all standard, but I’m still learning.

For example; My dad’s car (September 1978 registered CX 2000 Super) had a slightly different centre console design to mine. His had the ‘air-freshener’ style ashtray ‘perched’ on the top of his centre console where my radio is (facing straight upwards!!). I’m fairly sure that dad’s radio was mounted in the centre console facing into the cabin. I’m guessing that the design changed between late ’77 and mid ’78 (or maybe it was something to do with trim levels?).

I’m hoping to be there for the CX Swap Meet as I could do with a few bits and pieces and it would be great to meet a few CX folks!

I’ll have to drop you a line somehow and arrange to meet if we’re both going to be there.

I hope they allow non-Citroëns in, as the CX is my only Citroën!

I’ve tried asking the better half if I can buy an old Xantia to go in but I got ‘the look’ 😉

Jamie

[Jamie]

Thanks Ed!

I was going to reach out to you as I’d seen you active on the forum!

We definitely need to get more conversations going on about the CX!

I think I’ve spotted you on the French Car Forums and Retro Rides – very nice!!

Currently my car is sat at the back of a barn so I’ll drag it out, clean it and get some better pictures, hopefully at the weekend. All I have at the moment are pictures of bits of it!

When I got the car it hadn’t been started for a number of years so it was a case of going through everything from scratch. The fuel was very old and stale so the first thing to do was to drain that all out. It certainly didn’t smell very good! The fuel lines were in very poor condition so I replaced everything in the engine bay with fresh hose. I had to cut the rubber pipes back quite a bit at the rear too but due to a towbar being fitted I’ve not managed to get the tank out yet to replace the last bits of old hose.

Someone in the past had fitted an electric fuel pump up near the carb but had left the mechanical unit in place so the electrical unit was ‘pulling’ the fuel up through it. I’m assuming that the mechanical pump has failed, but I’ve not tested it. The electrical (solenoid) pump was also ‘seized’ so tried cleaning it out with some carb cleaner. After a few attempts I managed to get that working but the plan is to replace the mechanical pump (if it has failed) and to relegate the electrical one to the junk box. I took the carb apart (very carefully) and aside from some minor ‘varnishing’ inside it looked pretty good.

The car had last been on the road in 2016, and it looks like someone had replaced most of the ignition system. The points, rotor arm and dizzy cap needed minor attention with some Emery cloth and they were ready to go. The coil, plugs and HT leads all looked fairly recent.

I did need to clean up a number of earths before I tried to start it. The lights all got a lot brighter after I’d done that!

I pulled the belts off and checked the water pump, alternator and hydraulic pump. The alternator rotated about 90 degrees before jamming solid!! Needless to say, I stripped it off of the car and that’s now on my workbench! I did actually manage to get it spinning freely but it’s all very badly corroded inside so, even if it does work, I don’t think I can trust it. I’ve put it to one side for the time being as all of the fasteners are seized solid so I’ll keep ‘dousing’ it in penetrant and see if it comes apart when I’ve got some more time to look at it.

I put some fogging oil down the bores whilst I had the plugs out and rotated the engine manually. It seemed free enough.

I replaced the belts, manually primed the carb, took a deep breath and turned the key . . .

. . . nothing, no click, no dimming of the lights, nothing . . .

A quick check with the meter and there was no power reaching the starter solenoid.

I delved into my Haynes Manual and then delved into the ‘birds nest’ of cabling near the battery. Lo and behold one of the bullet/banana cables was disconnected.

Back to the driver’s seat . . .

First turn of the crank and she fired up perfectly!

I let her warm up and turned my attention to the hydraulics. Everything looked okay, after a few minutes there was no movement in the suspension. Likewise a ‘wiggle’ of the steering revealed a lack of power assistance.

The LHM level was fine and, as far as I could see, nothing was leaking.

I tried manually priming the pump with the old ‘funnel in the top of the hose’ trick and it was ‘drinking it down’ okay but after about 500ml I didn’t want to risk overfilling it.

I’ve got one more test to do and then I think I might need to reach out to Stan. Having tested my pump I now suspect that my regulator may be ‘goosed’. The pump is pumping but I think the regulator is sending everything back to the tank.

That’s about where I am at the moment. I’d like to have done more but ‘life gets in the way’ as they say!

I’m contemplating heading up to the National Rally on the Sunday to attend the CX Parts Swap meet.

Are any of you guys heading up there?

Jamie

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