Reply To: New member – Looking for help on restoring a Big 15
Chris
Hi Mark
Welcome to the club. Good luck with this. Whereabouts are you?
Without knowing how much Traction-lore you picked up from your dad, when Larry refers to a proper front drum puller, he means the special Citroen tool. Not a generic 3- legged puller. This is what it looks like in action with a tyre lever stopping the drum rotating. Big spanner on the hexagon nears the camera. When it goes, it goes with a bang!
I would expect all 4 wheel cylinders to be rusted up and need replacing. I would recommend looking at all the brake pipes and at least replacing the flexible lines at this point.
Whilst the brakes may be stuck for forward rotation you might be able to get them to move by turning the wheels backwards.
If you put Redex down the bores, which s a good idea. Don’t use too much – half a tea spoon is enough – and keep the plugs out when you try to spin the engine.
What actually is the symptom of the jammed starter / gearbox? Or what were the original symptoms?
Taking the starter motor off is pretty simple – it is just held on by one bolt. Then there’s a bit of jiggling and persuasion needed to get it to come out. If things free up with the starter motor removed, do not be tempted to bump start the car. Never do this. Use the starting handle.
When you have things going round, you will need to drain and replace all the fluids. Flush the rad / engine. And take a good look at the rubber bits – brake hoses, water hoses and fuel lines. Best to replace the lot. Grease all the grease points. And take a good look at the tyres. They will be past their use by date.
To get it to run you’ll need to make sure you have fresh fuel, points and lugs properly gapped and the timing more or less right – and some charge in the battery.
If it doesn’t fire up there are several threads on here that cover troubleshooting that sort of thing.
You’ll be getting to know Chris Treagust – TOC Spares.
Chris