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Re: G'day From Australia!

Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2018 8:39 am
by motorgnome
So here is my newly painted dash..
IMG_20181130_182447 (1331 x 998).jpg
You can see from this shot, that it was all looking a bit tired..also, note the crack in the housing for the displays..RH corner near the RH display.
That is another story!
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Re: G'day From Australia!

Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2018 4:07 am
by motorgnome
Another little job "whilst I was there"... The heater fan blower was squeaky...I pulled it out, but couldn't work out how to get it apart..so I didn't!

First this way..soaking in just enough oil to soak the bush
IMG_20181204_105709 (1331 x 998).jpg
then the other way around.. A bit of an overkill I suppose, but I reckon the bronze bush will be well oiled now!!

Re: G'day From Australia!

Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2018 6:57 am
by White Exec
You soaked the whole motor in oil?? Maybe I misunderstand.
An oil-soaked motor could ignite with a bit of sparking from the brushes!

Everthing else looking good - a lot of work.
Perhaps someone got angry with that dash; maybe it was creaking, as they do.

Re: G'day From Australia!

Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2018 8:54 pm
by motorgnome
Hey Chris!..
No, I didn't soak the whole electric motor..I just put enough oil in the dish to cover & soak the bronze bushing, but not enough to reach the electrical bits. ..So the rest of the motor stayed dry..just the two bushes either end.

Re: G'day From Australia!

Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2018 9:52 pm
by White Exec
You got to the important bits!
I'd never thought to do that (a controlled soak); had battled to strip a similar Toyota motor/fan unit a few years ago, where getting the motor casing off was a real struggle.

Re: G'day From Australia!

Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 7:10 am
by motorgnome
Woo Hoo!
The XM is registered & back on the road after 20 yeras! I drove it on the road (properly) for the first time today. There is still so much to finish off & new things to look at (Hydractive not working properly, interior fan blower working when it wants to), but it was a nice reward to be able to drive it, after so much time, money & "learning".

Thank you so much to everyone, past & present, who have contributed to this forum, as your inputs, over the years have made up an encyclopedia of information about the XM, that is unbeatable anywhere.

A couple of photos from today...It's back in the worksop now, as I am still to finish lots of things on it.
IMG_20181229_135316_01 (600 x 399).jpg
IMG_20181229_135330_01 (768 x 453) (600 x 354).jpg
A far cry from this..in August ...
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Re: G'day From Australia!

Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 1:50 pm
by citroenxm
MTXM wrote:
Sun Sep 30, 2018 6:31 pm
With regards, Matthew T. PS. The engine is a 12v Paul not a 24v.
Yes I'm fully aware of that mathew. I was suprised to see the gold improved rocker gear on a 12v engine I didn't think the 12v suffered like the 24v engines did..

Re: G'day From Australia!

Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 9:17 am
by motorgnome
Ticking boxes today..Moving forward slowly.

First job was to get the AC running, (38 degrees today..disgusting weather) The previous compressor had no suck..for want of a better term..Clamping off the suction hose whilst in operation, it couldn't achieve a vacuum, so good old Ebay came up with a chinese copy of a Sanden compressor from America. It looked the goods...had the right number of grooves on the pulley, but one pair of its mounting legs weren't there..still, I figured I could rotate the whole thing & make it work, & the price was right..$300 AU landed.. (150ish your money). Interestingly, the build date on the comprerssor was march 2002, so it was not fast moving stock!

As it turned out, it wasn't quite the same but I made it work. The compressor clutch, whilst having the same number of grooves in the pulley, had the wrong offset, so it didn't line up with the other pulleys. I was able to swap my old compressor clutch over, complete & that sorted that. Those two missing mounting legs that I talked about, were a pain & I did have to rotate the compressor to utilise the other mounting legs to get it to bolt up, the Suction hose (the big one) was now closer to the firewall (bulkhead) but there was plenty of give in the hose to make it fit. rotating the compressor mountings made the electric clutch wires too short, so I had to fix that, and I changed the connector on the ends as they were brittle & partly broken.

Sucked it down, held vacuum over night, so I gassed it up & it's working lovely. I had previously replaced all the hoses (I have the facility to make my own), the receiver dryer & flushed all the rest of it out. The interior blower was hit & miss, sometimes working, sometimes not, but traced that down to a terminal in a big multi pin plug near the blower motor, that had pushed out the back of the connector & was only just touching..I wonder how long it had been like that!

Lovely to have AC on days like today!

The Chinese compressor, via USA
IMG_20181228_205735 (600 x 450).jpg


The missing mounting legs
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Re: G'day From Australia!

Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 9:24 am
by citroenxm
Jason I could have sent you 3 R12 compressors from citroens. I've a few here.. R12 is illegal in the UK but I up dated my old v6 to r134a setup which I kept when I got rid of the car. I shall be fitting the r134a to my 24v when I do the strip down.
In the meantime glad you got the ac sorted. Essential item. Did you use a proper ac gas?

Re: G'day From Australia!

Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 9:32 am
by motorgnome
Next job was to sort out my random warnings for brake lights out. You all know about the bad connections/crook earths , so I quickly sorted that out out with a new earth wire soldered onto the earth plate on the back of the light socket holder, screwed to a newly made earth point near each tail light. All good now.

I wanted to "see" when the hydractive was working , as my first drive yesterday was not as good as I hoped..well it wasn't at first, then it was..hence why I wanted to see what was going on. So I went to the local spare parts place (motor factor?) & got a 12v led in a holder..like you'd have on a car alarm. I drilled a hole in the RH face level vent, they are easy to remove & I have a spare one if I ever want to restore it to original.

Guess what?? It all seems to work as it should! It is very interesting watching the suspension change with various inputs..Jeez, that accelerator pedal sensor is sensitive..prod that at anything other than Grandma driving & it goes to hard...Clever
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