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My tiny 4CV

Tripyrenees

Tripyrenees

Enthusiast
Messages
391
Location
Luscan, France
I have just finished my biggest project ever, getting a 1955 Traction Avant back on the road after 45 years sitting in a barn. I was so lucky that my neighbour asked me if I could help moving the car out of his cousins barn as they were selling the house - in the end I did it myself and turned up outside his house (farm) to ask him where he wanted it. He said take it to the scrappy or I could have it for free. So 12 months later I drive it to him to show my winters work - very happy indeed although a lot of hours and a lot of money spent but still the actual car was a gift.

So onto my latest little project (in comparison) and due to the fact my Son can no longer do the 4L trophy, we found this little 4CV just up the road, literally, only 1.5 km from my door. Took the trailer and collected it yesterday. Very happy as I have been looking for a "cheap but nice" 4CV for a few years now.

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I have drained the old petrol - what a stink. Too off the rocker cover and cranked the engine and found one of the valves stuck.

So off with the head (it was a bugger as one of the water pump studs snapped and the head bolts on this engine are even worse than the 4L 850 - i.e. no room for the socket)

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The problem was a seized Camshaft follower which after a little heat and a tug came out - cleaned up and lubricated and now works fine.

So ordered the gasket set and also a new water pump as the old one has only about 1cm of input flange so difficult to seal the radiator hose.

That should arrive tomorrow so I will get the engine rebuilt, new oil, new water and new petrol and I will give it a go.

Can't wait.

It was nice to have a suitcase full of spares too under the bonnet, lot os chrome stuff too in a LIDL back and he even gave me a new silencer for my 4GTL - plus..... we bought his Mini 1000 for our Son :)

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"cheap but nice" 4cv's are almost impossible to find. You must have nice neighbours. Does your model have a crank handle?
 
Thanks for the support - I do love these cars. I have the head in bits at the moment and cleaning out the sludgy coolant around the piston sleeves. Hoping to get him fired up early next week. The only body work is the base of the doors and that has not yet come through the paint (and a small hole in the spare wheel base). So I am pretty happy with this find.

Had all 4 bolts snap on me when I separated the inlet and outlet manifolds - so all afternoon was spent drilling and tapping out the holes. One question for those that know - the little flap inside the exhaust manifold (that I assume works on the heat operated spring) is it necessary and can I just put it in the shut position as although I have loosened it, it is never going to be free swinging :(

Yes it has a crank handle which is really useful in checking out the engine and for the tappets ;o)

Here is my Traction before and after.

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Still have the bodywork to do but that will be next year. Engine is totally rebuilt as new (as it was blocked on all 4 cylinders) and I have converted it to 12 volts.
 
Tripyrenees said:
Thanks for the support - I do love these cars. I have the head in bits at the moment and cleaning out the sludgy coolant around the piston sleeves. Hoping to get him fired up early next week. The only body work is the base of the doors and that has not yet come through the paint (and a small hole in the spare wheel base). So I am pretty happy with this find.

Had all 4 bolts snap on me when I separated the inlet and outlet manifolds - so all afternoon was spent drilling and tapping out the holes. One question for those that know - the little flap inside the exhaust manifold (that I assume works on the heat operated spring) is it necessary and can I just put it in the shut position as although I have loosened it, it is never going to be free swinging :(

Yes it has a crank handle which is really useful in checking out the engine and for the tappets ;o)

Here is my Traction before and after.

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Still have the bodywork to do but that will be next year. Engine is totally rebuilt as new (as it was blocked on all 4 cylinders) and I have converted it to 12 volts.
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You should be be able to free the flap and new springs are availabe from the French suppliers.
 
Right, started on the head. Stripped it down and the valves look good. Glad I ordered a new water pump as this one is totally eaten away so no way I could get a water pipe on it.

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Dismantled the manifold and all 4 bolts sheared off inside the exhaust manifold - so an afternoon of drilling and tapping got it back to where I wanted to be.

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Stole a meat tray out of the kitchen and soaked the head in petrol over night (I also sand blasted it so getting all the sand particles out too)

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Put in a load of Citric Acid in the engine block to try and clean out the crud and it seems to have worked well with water flowing out the drain plug quite nicely now (it was totally blocked before) and now I will rinse it out with some sodium bicarbonate and do the same on the radiator.

So now I am just waiting for the gasket kit and new water pump to arrive and I will get it put back together and see if it all works. I am just doing enough to get it through the Controle Technique and have a bit of fun in it over the summer - I will then strip out the engine and gearbox this autumn for a complete refurb.
 
I'm sure your wife is going to be ecstatic when she finds out about the meat tray. I'm surprised that the guy at the Control Technique hasn't started sending you Xmas cards=you're such a regular customer!

Thanks for the tip about Citric Acid. I cleaned out mine with Diesel and a toothbrush. It took forever!!
 
These documents were in the car from the 2nd owner of the car. The last owner is sending me his restoration photos from 15 years ago. I am still amazed how much history a car has but then again it is 60 years old and a lot can happen in that time.

HPI Check 1972.jpg Immatriculation 1972.jpg Maintenance Centre Page.jpg Maintenance Outer Page.jpg Tax Disc 1972.jpg
 
I always find it interesting when one has a good deal of the history of a vehicle with purchase.
 
At last my gasket set and new water pump have arrived. I can now start to rebuild the head and see if this engine actually works.

Fun weekend ahead.

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This was one weekend when I really wish it wasn't a bank holiday weekend. Everything seemed to break or I need something to finish a job. But then I suppose it makes you work things out and in the end I managed to repair my inlet manifold stud issue and get that all bolted back on to the head. Although in the process snapped the plastic linkage so had to glue that back together (thought it was metal).
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Got the head bolted down and adjusted the tappets, this car is so easy to work on, I can just sit on a stool and turn the crank arm fettling as I go
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But I did manage to snap the fan belt as it got caught under the camshaft pulley, hence I really needed a shop to be open. But I will have to wait for coolant for now.

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But I got the little bugger going - I had to change out the condenser (so lucky this guy gave me a stack of spares) to get a nice bright spark. I had to also remake the auto choke coper pipe as the original had snapped. Then change the fuel pump (1 of 3 to choose from - 3 distributors and 2 carbs). I sucked through the petrol, yuk...15 year old residue does not taste nice. I did pump about a litre into a bucket and made sure it was clean before attaching to the carb.

Turn on the ignition and started her - about 5 or 6 turns and the fuel was in the carb and she fired up..... hurrah. The joint between the exhaust and manifold needs to be looked at, very noisy there. And of cause the cooling system need to be put back in place, so I only ran it for a few minutes.

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I checked the compressions of each cylinder and 4, 3, 2 were between 7.5 and 8.2 but poor old number 1 was only 3.5. Will check them again after it has run for a while but looks like this will beed to taken out and new segments installed. But should be OK to get me to the Control Technique centre for the CT and so to allow me to register the car in my name.

So not a bad weekend after all.

PS - can anyone tell me what the little hole under the radiator filler cap is for?

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Good progress I would say considering the little snags that needed to be overcome. Well done.
 
Well I drove her for the first time today - just up the road and back.

Wow, it was slow, I mean not correct. Something is definitely not right - I would expect if 3 cylinders were good and 1 half as good, it should run OK, but I struggled to move off in 1st. This was just a quick trial as it has not moved in 15 years. Engine sound OK and revs well, with no stuttering. It smokes a lot and I am thinking the fuel is properly still pretty crappy even though I drained the tank and washed through with new - it probably is mixed with the crud. Also the carb has not been touched so plenty of things could be dirty and bad.

I think I will take out the engine and gearbox and get the car ready for the new fit out (after visiting Dave W
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and picking up a Dauphine Gordini and hight ratio gearbox )

Brakes worked well though
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but these are going to be replaced with 9" dauphine drums too.
 
I am quite lucky the car came with some spare parts, so I stripped down the spare Carburettor which is a Solex 22 ICBT. This was a bit messy inside so no doubt the one in the car is even worse.

Here is the auto choke

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Top of the float chamber and the bottom was just as gloopy

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And the outside is a little grubby

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But after an hour of cleaning I swapped it out with the original carb and started her up. Set the mixture screw and fiddled with the timing a little and then took her out. A million times better than last night and it drove fine. Still spluttering a little with not a lot of acceleration but I am putting this down to only 3 cylinders actually working. There is a lot less smoke too, yesterday it was horrible, today only when I rev hard and I am assuming that is just piston 1 leaking oil.

So a good day
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Tripyrenees said:
PS - can anyone tell me what the little hole under the radiator filler cap is for?

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Congratulations for your efforts!

This hole is the place for a rubber bung, so that when you open the engine lid it stops on the radiator cap, saving your nice paint job from scratches!
 
So I had a bit of a noise when braking, I was not happy with the clunking movement when I came to a sudden stop (basically when I tested the brakes). So instead of rushing to get to the MOT centre I will wait and get all the rubbers, joints and drive train sorted out. Then at least I will be safe driving to the test centre.

So with a little help with documentation from RCCC I went for the removal of the complete rear drive train with engine

i first took out all the tinware which really allows you to get to everything on this little car - a total difference to the citroens that I am used to working on and also the 4L. The tinware will get cleaned, blasted and powder coated.

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I unbolted all that was needed and supported the engine at the back with my trolley jack. I then put the engine hoist with a strap around the rear bumper mounts.

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Lifted up the back of the car, leaving the drive train sitting on the ground...... how easy was that
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Put in some axle stands so I could remove the engine hoist

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And pulled out the engine, gearbox and rear axle as one with the help of my trolly jack

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Now starts the clean up and checking everything..... and of course the painting
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But at least I have found one culprit for the clunking sound. One of the engine mounts had sheared (unglued)

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Both engine mounts were sheared off at the top plate so no wonder I felt a clunk.

I just took out the petrol tank - oh my!! it has a 1 inch lining of coal inside. I have spent 2 hours getting it out with pressure washing, stones inside and shaking it to death (I am knackered). I think I have got most of it out - lucky it is an aluminium tank as with that crud it would have rusted through in no time.

But it does explain the low power and spluttering of the engine now I know it was sucking up raw coal and not refined petroleum
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This was the draw pipe to the fuel pump - I can't believe I sucked the fuel up to prime the pump..... no wonder it needed priming... yuck.

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I will need a new petrol gauge sensor - I though I could save it but it is too corroded and the little cork surrendered and crumbled.

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And this is inside the tank before cleaning it - half a bucket of solid crud came out.

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