Winter Blues

 

Winter Blues.

 

January 2021 has started quite depressingly. The weather has not been kind and the lock down from Covid virus has not helped. I didn’t write anything in January although getting on with bits and bobs with the van has been heavy going being so cold and wet that I have not been able to get out and do much however I did receive a delivery of parts from Louis for the van via Rick Pembro who has done two gearboxes for me. A standard one as a reserve for my other 2CV’s and a hybrid one for the van with 15% lower ratios to improve the off road qualities and pull along the extra weight of the van. In the delivery were a pair of front swing arms and ball joints all reinforced for off road work and a box of bits like a reinforced battery box in and surround stainless steel. Looks like it is the strongest part of the van.

This current project is moving the handbrake mechanism from the left of the central gear lever to right of the gear lever. Citroen in their wisdom only ever had the mechanism on the left of the car always making it a struggle to reach. I was hoping just to bolt the chassis mounted lever to the right side but had to stick with the original mounting position where there were purpose built mounting brackets. When you have nothing fitted inside the engine compartment there is a load of space and when you are doing something different frequently things get it the way because you have not been able to see it. I had a clever idea to use two pivot points, one on each side of the bulkhead to equalize the leverages for the handbrake but when I looked the master cylinder would be in the way if it was fitted but now I have constructed a set of levers that should operate the handbrake with the lever in the cab just left of the steering column mirroring what a left hand drive 2CV would have.  Now to try to describe the lever mechanism. The main lever, that’s the one mounted on the chassis and operates the cables that pull the mini hand brake pads onto the discs. This lever is pulled on by flat steel plates that have a 90 degree bracket between the two that includes two pivot points. 

This was the third version I made up.

One horizontal and one vertical. The inner plate links up about half way along a flat plate bar that pivots just right of the battery and near the inner wing. It extends to where the handbrake mechanism protrudes through the bulkhead where another short plate links the plates to the handbrake lever. The hand brake lever has been rotated 90 degrees to get it at the right position by mounting it on 4 small brackets so that it can be bolted the underside of the parcel shelf. You might ask why do all of this? Well the donor cab had the parcel shelf cut to remove the ratchet mechanism for a kit car so that was repaired but I would have to refit a new mechanism.

My wife is quite petite and the handbrake operation on a normal 2CV  is quite a stretch so I did a cable operated set up in the Burton that just about works but I thought that something better could be achieved that would be effective. This system I have devised has about 1.6 times the leverage that is applied to the brake arm in the engine compartment. I can’t wait to see how effective it is.