You're clever man Sean. Not many people would know that

So not for my covers then



That or the double spring as a replacement.
Though it's a '78 AK, it has a 602 engine, disc brakes, lighter flywheel etc...

I've just gone and squished the larger springs by hand, both very stiff but the two on the head with the second springs, were noticeably softer than the other ones. I assume that is correct then?
As long as the overall strength remains the same then, there's nothing wrong with having two on one side, four on the other?
Hopefully I'll crank it up at the weekend, then I can check the dynamic timing (I'm a bit paranoid about pinking now, after all the stories on these forums! )

Then back to the kit-kat wrapper...
Lots of people seem to prefer the bodywork side of it, and avoid the mechanics if at all possible, whereas I find the mechanics great fun, but get fed up of bits of metal not sticking where they should.
Maybe the painting will be better...or maybe I'm just young and impatient...

Anyway, thanks! It's great having forums like these.

My o/s intake valve.
All the others are fine, the rest of this one is fine but for the patch of pitting shown below (Difficult to photograph)





It seems like rather a lot to grind, just with grinding paste and a stick etc. and I'm reluctant to do too much, because presumably it grinds the valve seat down as well. Reading the description ecas provides, I don't really want to replace valve seats myself OR pay someone else to do it OR buy new heads.

Should I replace that valve? Can one just replace individual valves, or is it best to do the whole lot?

Sorry to bother you all again

<sigh> Nothing is simple is it?
I bought a new valve from ECAS at the national (Which I thoroughly enjoyed by the way! Thanks all ) but when I tried fitting it, it wouldn't seal. I phoned up and asked about it, and they were very helpful (What did you expect?), and suggested the valve guide might have slipped forwards. Measuring against the other head, confirmed this was indeed the case. I've started college now, and they have lots of engineering tools, so hopefully if I ask politely I can get that sorted out.

In the mean time I've been doing some more bodywork.



Most of the rear end is either welded or tacked in place now. About an hour of welding should have that done. It's like some Chinese puzzle getting the bumper and all associated gubbins fitted in the right order. Of course I could have just brought a replacement part, and made life much simpler, quicker and easier - but where's the fun in that?

And this picture is to celebrate firstly a mobylette passing it's MOT despite 3 pages of advisories, and secondly picking up an original Citroen style tow bar on ebay for £11.


^ Max towing weight: 25Kg braked

I don't want to sound patronising, but with quality work like that at your age, you've got a good future ahead of you. I'm looking forward to seeing the van at camps soon!

I have feeling that figure of 25kg is the 'maximum nose weight' exerted by the trailer onto the towbar.
The maximum permitted weight of the trailer itself will depend on whether it's braked or unbraked and the figures will be more like 400kg and 270kg...

ken

The arbitrary figure of 25kg was decided upon given the location of the towbar in that picture - on the back of a mobylette! Though it could probably handle very slightly more, I felt it was unfair on my all ready worn clutch shoes

Though that does lead me to another puzzle, on the plate on the bulkhead it says P.T.C. 1115kg, and P.T.R. 1615Kg. As far as I know, P.T.C. stands for 'Poids Total Complet' and P.T.R. 'Poids Total Roulant'. And all other sources i have found say 400kg is the max weight, so where does the extra 100kg come from? Driver/passenger??

Those weights:

PTC stands for poids total maximal autorisee en charge, ie fully laden weight ("charge" is a load). The vehicle itself weighs 640 kg, the driver is a notional 75 kg and the load is 400 kg, which gives you the PTC of 1115 kg.

PTR is as you say the poids total roulant, and I think it's the PTC plus the maximum weight of a trailer.

I have a drivers handbook for the 250/400 dated July 1977, which gives all the figures for load and towing weights (the latter is 270 kg if the trailer is unbraked, and 500 kg if braked). It also tells you the maximum slope (12 degrees) you should try starting up on at maximum PTR....

It doesn't give the PTR, though it illustrates a blank builders plate that would show it. I think the idea of having a plated PTR is that it enables the gendarmes to send the van and its loaded trailer to the nearest weighbridge to see if it's overloaded, rather than weighing the van and the trailer separately.

Thank you for that, it's cleared up a lot of confusion. 640kg seems a much more reasonable weight for a 2cv! And that's quite a respectable laden / towing weight for such a tiny van. Though I'm not sure I would necessarily want to try driving it fully loaded


Next bit - them inside wheel arch boxy doofers (See pictures) What do people think I should do about them? They have all ready been patched up at some stage, not very beautifully. They are also very bent and buckled, and while seeming mostly intact, hitting with a screwdriver would suggest otherwise.

I think it boils down to either carrying on patching up rust holes, and just accept that it won't look very pretty, or actually getting some whole new sections made up






It's going to be a working van, so (As you might have gathered!) I'm not aiming for tip top beautiful shiny condition. On the other hand since I've gone this far, I don't know whether once it's done I'd regret not having sorted out these properly... Then again, it would be an awful lot of work, and I want to get this finished at some stage. Then again it probably would last longer than if I carried on patching it up. Then again it would probably cost lots to get them made up, or to get the tools to make them myself. And I don't want to make unnecessary work for myself.
And so on...

Any advice or opinions would be appreciated!