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Primary
Timing Chain Work, continued
May 20, 2009
Cleaning
is not over yet, I still have to clean the engine and gearbox, of course,
before starting the timing chain work, which was the initial goal of
this long operation, remember ;-)
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After
cleaning the front unit, I do some detail work by cleaning and
greasing the gearbox command lever
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I
remove the starter to do a better cleaning and to inspect it
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Then
I close the engine before using a lot of degreaser
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And
it begins to look clean
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More
than ten hours to get this result
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It
begins to look nice, I like it like that
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A
true artistic picture, with the sun ;-)
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Now everything
is clean and I have all the required parts (I hope), I call my mechanic
and his "assistant", they are among the very rare ones to
work on this kind of engine in the Montreal area. We are fortunate to
have them ant I met them thanks to the VEA club.
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Let's
go . They start by removing the secondary chains
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The
goal is to disengage the secondary shaft...
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to remove the primary chain, which cannot be opened
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Installing
the new chain is quite fast. This is an IWIS chain, thanks to
Laurent for delivering it to me
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The
tensioner and limiter are also replaced. The oil pump shaft
still has to be replaced
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Then
everything has to be put back together. A camshaft setting is
required because they are not any more at their exact good position
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After
tensioning the secondary chains, specific gages and tools are
required to do a fine tuning
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Camshaft
markings are here to confirm each position but they are rough
positions only...
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gages are the only ones to tell the truth
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So here
am I with a timing assembly supposed to be ready for a lot of happy
kilometers. Cool!!
Having
two mechanics with me, that's an opportunity to replace the clutch disc
and pusher. I didn't order the pressure plate because this is a heavy
item and shipping fees would be tremendous. But guess what? I had to
order this item, of course ;-)
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Even
before removing the gearbox from the engine, Dominique had a
quick look and told me that the disc doesn't look nice. After
removal, its bad shape is confirmed
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The
pressure plate is burnt and marked
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On
this picture, especially on the right, we can see a damaged
circular zone, in the middle of the usable surface
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The
flywheel also suffered
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Some
cleaning has to be done on the gearbox. I'm tired to clean ;-)
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The
pusher will be replaced by the "new" type that is
maintained by two different "staples" instead of the
single and original one here
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While
waiting for the pressure plate, I prepare to close the timing
cover. Here the water pump inside gasket
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On
the outside, I install the first part of the ceramic gasket
between the cover and turbine
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This
is now time to close
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Here
is a progress, but I should have reached this step a long time
ago!
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The
engine is clean, both shaft gaskets have been replaced, the
lower bearing will also be replaced
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The
gearbox is almost clean, I could not do better, my new degreaser
product is I think less powerful than the one I used previously
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It was
time to do something for the clutch and it was the good time to have
that bad surprise, even if it's of course very frustrating. The only
problem is that I start to be close to the two events I wanted to take
part with this car, on June 7 and 20. I think this is already too late
for June 7, but I hope to be ready for the annual Citroen "Rendezvous"
in Saratoga Springs on June 20.
Claude
and Dominique left with my two SM's flywheel, to have them surfaced.
On my side, I try to find a pressure plate as fast as I can. When these
parts will be ready, we'll put the gearbox back on the engine.
When putting
the timing cover back on the engine, I had another bad surprise: the
water pump turbine is damaged! In fact this is my mistake, I damaged
it when I drilled and taped the pump cover. I obviously went too deep.
One more part to order, but I'm happy I see that now.
While waiting
for these parts, I of course have things to do.
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The
front grill is back from paint
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The
result is nice, but the body shop had to redo its work...
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because the first "try" was awful, there were sanding
marks and some unpainted areas
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When
I removed the engine I noticed that both heater tubes coming
through the body were in bad shape
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So
I remove the console left trim to have access to them
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Here
are the tubes and hoses, on the top, and the new parts on the
bottom. New tubes are made of stainless steel
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I
had a hard time with the clamps because the new hoses are a
little bit bigger
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It
looks better now inside the engine compartment, and no more
rust will come here I hope
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Then
I "play" with the back seat to have access and remove
the rear trim panels...
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while trying to not damage this very nice leather
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The
goal is to replace the speakers, which are old enough I think.
The radio unit will be also replaced shortly
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I
found modern speakers that fit. They are smaller but a lot better
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Then
I put everything back together and it's the occasion to do a
leather treatment, that's why it's so shiny, it will dry-out
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We
can see the speakers behind the grills, but it requires a close
look
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Another
goal was to have all bumpers repolished, so I remove them
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Everything
is in good shape, all bolts and nuts are removed without breakage,
I appreciate
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This
is very nice inside the front bumper sections
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Some
metal work will be needed before polishing...
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especially here on the front right section
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Everything
is ready to go to the polisher. Expected delivery is in 3 to
4 weeks, I hope it won't be longer, it would be a real problem
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I
found rust when I removed the rear bumpers
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So
I use a rust treatment product and then I apply 2 coats of rust
paint
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That's
not nice at all but it should stop rust progress for a while
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June
1, 2009
The parts
I was waiting for arrived quite quickly, with special thanks to the
French SM Club. I'm far but I'll have to finally find a way to meet
these people who help us to maintain and restore our cars. Thanks again
for your support.
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I
start with the water pump turbine
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I
install the ceramic seal...
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and I can put it back in place on the housing that was just
waiting for it
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Then
I close with a used cover I bought
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I
close a part of the cooling system, it's easier to do it now
than when the engine is back in the car
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While
waiting for my preferred mechanics, I work on some details,
here a protecting rubber I replaced
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Here
I replace the gas cable, that had a damaged portion
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I
put back some protecting steel sheets
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This
gas inlet hose was extremely hard and need to be replaced
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The
fitting broke when I removed it, so I use the one I had zinc
platted for my other SM, I still have another one in stock
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There
is also the LHM tank filler neck, that is always very hard
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So
hard that it brakes into pieces during removal
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Here
is a brand new part with which the cap can pop in and out easily
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Then
Claude and Dominique come back home to end the clutch work.
They start by putting the newly rectified flywheel back into
place
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Then
this is up to the clutch disk and pressure plate, the well knows
pressure plate I should have ordered a lot sooner ;-)
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Here
the new "pusher" installed
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And
the gearbox eventually joins the engine
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I
have two helpers this day, so let's put the drivetrain back
into the car immediately
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This
is done quickly. Here is an important step forward!
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Going
on with "it's the occasion to do so", I work on the
transmission boots that are damaged
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A
special extracting device is required but a press can also do
the trick. The one I can use at work, here, is too short to
put the tri-axles back after the boot replacement...
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so I chose to buy my own press! The return on investment will
be very low but that way I can do the work myself
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Here
the removal of a tri-axle
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Here
the opposite operation, I press on the whole transmission, I
don't like that but the effort is low (2 tons max indicated
by the press)
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Then
I put the transmissions back onto the car
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200
grams of grease on each side, this is easy, that's exactly half
of a cartridge
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Here
it is. I don't mention all the details, like a few Ligarex clamps
that I had to redo because I made them the wrong side ;-)
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I
hope the grease will not leak like the last time I worked on
the transmissions
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Same
thing on the other side
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The
handbrake calipers after disassembling, cleaning and reassembling,
with new pads because the previous ones were not evenly used
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Putting
back the calipers is easy but the cable is especially difficult
to install without the dedicated tool
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To
adjust the space between each pad and the disk, 0.1 mm spacers
are needed. I don't have that so I use a sheet of paper, cut
to the required size, its thickness is 0.12 mm
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And
finally I start to close the cooling circuit
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To
put this cooling tube I had to remove one of the handbrake calipers
I just reinstalled. Of course I had to do another adjustment
after ;-)
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At this
point, I still hope the car will be ready for the next meeting in Saratoga,
but it will be close.
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June
23, 2009
There is
still a lot of work to do, dozens of hours in facts for the following
steps. My parents were in Montreal for a few days so my dad helped my,
thanks.
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I
cannot put the steering rack back into place without replacing
the damaged right boot
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So
I try to replace it by sliding it from the right side without
opening the rack
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It's
feasible, but with quite an effort
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Note
that I kept the original boot in place, in case I damage the
new one during its installation
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It
went quite well so eventually I can cut the old boot
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The
rack is back into its original position, which I traced quite
precisely
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I
switch to the installation of a new radio, which has the required
low profile suitable for the center console. this is a Grundig
CL 105 TR, thanks to Alain for this
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The
antenna control switch is a little bit in the way but the radio
suits rather well
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Then
I go back to the engine compartment
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The
pressure sensor and its repainted plate
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The
water tank has been repainted also
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Here
the inlet manifold, with injectors and wiring harness
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The
ignition wiring harness is back
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Connection
of the centrifuge regulator
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Some
cleaning is needed on the accessories plate
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I
removed the pump and pressure regulator to do a better cleaning
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Here
the plate back on the car
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The
regulator is back with a tube from my other SM as link to the
pump because the original tube was damaged
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The
radiator and condenser are back
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Here
is the plate for the air filters
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Connection
of the air conditioning circuit, with a new cartridge (again)
because one of its outlets was damaged and probably explained
why the circuit was leaking
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Connection
of the air conditioning compressor. I will be able, later, to
try again filling the circuit
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Connection
of the LHM inlet onto the pump, with a new suction hose
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Installation
of the air boxes
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Installation
of the front fenders
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A
new fuel filter, it's equivalent to the original one, from Bosch
(as the original)
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Connection
of the coils... we'll be able to try starting the engine
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I
put some oil, coolant and I try to start... but the engine doesn't
say anything
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After
a few checks, we discover that the ignition distributor is not
set correctly. After two settings, we succeed and the engine
starts!
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Here
is the car at its normal height... almost everything is ok,
only one coolant leak
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After
a tiny road test in front of my house, we go on reassembling
the car, hoping to do more tests
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After
the hood, one big thing, the front grill
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Here
is the grill installed |
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It
begins to look like a SM...
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and with the plate it's even better
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I'm
alone for the rest of the work, the bumper and lower grill are
going to cause me a lot of problems
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I
always have problems to put the lower grill back onto the car
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This
time she's clean but causes me even more problems than usual,
the bumper is perhaps not installed exactly like it should
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After
a few hours, I quit and I calm down by switching to the rear
side
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Newly
polished bumpers...
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look especially nice! |
The conclusion
of this chapter is that the car has not been ready for Saratoga. What
a shame ;-) I went to this Citroën meeting with a Jaguar! I could
not finish reassembling the car on time but anyway, I missed time to
road test the car, I obviously could not go for a 750 km drive without
doing some serious road tests. I didn't want to rush everything either,
so it will be for the next time, this car will be in Saratoga next year
to celebrate the 40st anniversary of the SM.
But the
good news is that everything went pretty well when the car started.
This first good impression has still to be confirmed with some road
tests.
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July
18, 2009
Continuation
and end of the "primary timing chain work", which eventually
went a lot farther than the timing chain, you probably noticed ;-)
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Installation
of the seals for the glass covers
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Then
the covers themselves, not easy to install
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I
installed new front spheres, original screwed type ones, I brought
them back from the Saratoga Springs meeting
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Exhaust
trims now look bad since the bumpers have been repolished, so
I'm going to polish them myself and see what I can get
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I
start with a 3M polishing pad on a air-powered tool
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It's
already good, it does a great part of the work in a few minutes
only
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Still
some polishing pad marks to reduce. I install two soft cloth
disks and I buy a polishing stick
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This
step is a lot longer, but the result is very nice
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Both
trims are ready. They are not perfect, some remaining scratches
are visible, but that's very nice
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It
does not look bad anymore compared to the bumper
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Then
I fine tune the accessory shaft centering
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On
the front side I'm able to get a perfect adjustment, but on
the rear side I can't get a good centering, I still have a centering
defect of a few tenth of a millimeter
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The
steering wheel has never been perfectly adjusted but when I
put the steering back into the car I made this problem even
worse, so I have to reposition the steering column to be able
to adjust correctly
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Here
is the result, when the steering column is positioned correctly,
the wheel can be adjusted perfectly, finally
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Here
is the engine compartment after all the work done
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I'm
globally happy with the result, it's nice, clean and it works
pretty well
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Here
is the car after a little test drive. The day after I went to
work with it, a 50 km drive without problems
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So this
is the end of a few months of efforts and bas surprises, but this is
also a happy ending. I'll now be more confident in this car because
I think I significantly improved its reliability. The cherry on the
sunday is that she's clean (almost) everywhere, I like that. I was close
to quit a few times, I spent all my patience and a good part of my wallet,
but now I can drive it ;-) |
September
21, 2009
We had
a quite bad weather this summer, but I've been able to drive the SM
on a regular basis, going to classic car meetings organized by my club
or others. But there is always something to do on this kind of cars,
so here is a summary of my latest interventions.
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I
got a problem once when I started the engine: it started but
revs went quite high immediately, I was worried. Hopefully,
I quickly discovered that one of the air box had moved out of
its position and causes an air leak...
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so I installed some clamps. It fixed the problem, which probably
explained also that revs were going down a bit too slow when
changing gear
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Then
I'm looking why the right headlight unit is too low ant touches
the front grill, so I remove the closing steel sheet, on top
of the radiator...
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and when I look to the parts catalog drawings, I discover that
two supporting pieces are missing for the link between both
headlight units. I didn't even remember that these parts were
supposed to be there
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So,
once again, I use some parts from my other SM
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It's
a lot better this way, both headlight units aligned at the right
height. I then was able to adjust all headlights
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I
go on with the distributor. I didn't install it at the right
position when I put it back recently. It's in the way of the
air filter hoses...
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so I remove it and move it from one or two teeth on the secondary
shaft. It's now at the right position
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Before
adjusting the distributor again, I work on installing two electronic
ignition modules "Cartier", with the associated coils
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Here
are the original coils, which are going to disappear
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External
resistors and their wires are damaged, so I'm happy to replace
them, it will improve again the reliability of the car
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I
start by removing the existing coils and I prepare the wiring
harness for the electronic modules
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I
use an existing hole on the left fender to hold the two modules
and connect a ground wire
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The
wiring is quite messy...
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I'll organize everything later it works as expected
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I'm
not sure of the location of the modules, It's perhaps too hot
there, to be confirmed
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For quite
a long time now, I want to install a "123Ignition" electronic
ignition system on this SM, but it's not available for the moment. Some
problems seem to have caused the supplier to stop selling it, even if
all the user I know are very happy with it. While waiting for his ignition
system, I chose a simple but also efficient solution, which is to insert
an electronic module between the original distributor and each coil.
This electronic module gives a "cleaner" signal, so the ignition
is more precise and stable. This is not a complete electronic ignition
system like the "123Ignition", just a transistorized one.
I read
about the Cartier module on multiple forums, mainly Ciron-Collection.
This module is installed on various Renault cars from the late 80's
and early 90's ("Super 5" and "Express" for example).
The economical solution is to find this kind of module in a scrap yard,
but they are not so easy to find, especially with their connector and
wiring. Anyway, I wanted new parts to be sure they work correctly and
I'm quite far from french scrap yards. For those who are interested,
here are the Renault part numbers and price for each item:
- Ignition
assistance module or "Cartier module": reference 7700742129,
price about 80 Euros (tax excluded)
- Wiring harness with connector: reference 7701068573, price about 45
Euros (tax excluded)
- Ignition coil: reference 7700742132, price about 55 Euros (tax excluded)
Installation
is simple and it works right away. I didn't drive the car a lot since
I did this installation, but I already noticed that the engine seems
to run more smoothly.
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