Here she is, our 1971 Citroën GS as we found it in Riverside.
So we took her home
Here is another one, but it does not even have an engine. We take it
anyway.
At least it is a bit cleaner now. But there is still much work to do.
A few families of various animals had made the engine compartment into their
home. So there was lots of dung and decomposed remains of animals under the
hood. What was worse was the fact that the guests had been eating the wiring.
I cleaned the engine compartment and repaired the wiring.
The fuel tank was full of rust, so I had it cleaned out. I also replaced the fuel hoses.
The valves seemed bad. So I took the cylinder heads out and had the valves
re-ground. Then I put everything back together. Here is the left-hand
side cylinder head.
Here the right-hand side one.
I like this dashboard so much.
See the new suspension spheres?
Oww... where did I leave the engine?
Oh. There it is. Without cylinder heads. Decapitated twice.
Now this little pin gives me nightmares. What you see here is the end of one
of the camshafts. This little pin keeps the drive wheel of the camshaft in
place. If it breaks, the valves will damage too, and I will spend a lot
of time and money to fix it again. What adds to my paranoia is the fact
that it was actually broken. This may explain why the engine was not running
well. And why I have to spend so much time fixing it.
In this diagram, the same pin is number 27. Have you ever wondered why
these two camshafts are so different? At first, I had expected the camlobes
to have similar mutual angles on both shafts. After all, the relative
valve timing is the same for both sides. It took me a while to figure
out why.
This diagram shows the same pin, but without number.
Anyway. I have no choice. So I put the drive wheel on the shaft, and
make sure I tighten the bolt securely.
The engine again. Waiting to receive its heads back.
The good news: the engine is back to where it belongs.
Tha bad news: it still does not work.
The front rack back from the powder coater. Aw, that looks spiffy!
Ah, it works! Oh, no, it does not.
But now it really works!
Next problem: where in this country can you buy an exhaust pipe for this
car? The answer:
Home Depot. Of course! Some assembly required though.
Here are the old pipe and the new pipe.