Rear brakes on my Citroen 2CV - a simple job ESCALATES!

A series in which a simple French car makes me look utterly inept. In this episode, I get irate as everything contrives to prevent me doing a simple brake job

[@srfrg9707]

"Unlike all other car..." Welcome to Citroën!

[@torbenmller7465]

Hi and thanks for the video I have been building cars myself for 40 years and when I encounter the problem of brake pipes that are stuck and want to break I do the following 1) loosen pipes as you also did 2) Then remove the bolts from the cylinder and pull it out from the anchor plate 3) then I unscrew the cylinder without breaking the pipe 4) same procedure when assembling the rear lens so no problem

[@afreeman1980]

You unscrew the cylinder from the pipe nut. You hold the nut stationary with the spanner and turning the cylinder after you have undone it from the backplate.

[@tomdeville5292]

Hi. If you open the 2 10mm screws at the back of cylinder first, you can turn the whole cylinder down by holding the back with the 8mm tool, nothing will break.

[@corrieb74]

Ahhhhh! Thanks Tom! That seems obvious now, yes.

[@anthonyparkinson1263]

Burton has a tool to help install the curly brake line. There is a video on how to use it.

[@corrieb74]

@@anthonyparkinson1263 Good old Burton. I'll check that out. Now that I know the trick to not breaking it in the first place, I hope to never need one

[@tomf3150]

There : kzbin.info/www/bejne/hZWaeoatg82pr9U

[@paulm1704]

Nice vids of the 2cv. Greetings from the Netherlands

[@duxes6544]

Well done on finishing it, this is my least favourite job at work! A tip if you ever have to do it again, use a long thin bar to wiggle/push the stud through. I’ve enjoyed your videos, keep up the good work!

[@corrieb74]

Thanks for the encouragement! Can you imagine working on the production line and doing that job. Man!

[@harryjoosten3]

When I had to do this job, I took the two bolds that hold the brake cylinder out, pulled the cylinder towards me, held the nut tight with a pair of pliers, and turned the cylinder afround. Nothing broke! Put everything in reverse order back.

[@corrieb74]

Thanks Harry. I wish I’d had the foresight, imagination or experience to have done that!

[@JamesBrown-ux9ds]

Just saw a film about pakistani mechanics and their brake repairs. Your brake cylinder and brake line would have been perfectly okay for them i guess. They would propably just have been pushing the pistons out, using some emery cloth cleaning the cylinders inside - and then reinstalling new pistons with new gaskets - voila! And I bought me a standard 'Rohrsteckschluessel' 42mm decades ago (more or less ordinary steel; I still have it), made it red hot and forged it over the old nut - tata! (And a great saving, too.)

[@CaptainDangeax]

Keeping the car original and genuine is nice. sometimes, replacing a stupid tube impossible to fit with a aero quality flexible (like on motorbikes) may be a good choice

[@corrieb74]

I toyed with the idea. I would have still had to work out how to mate it with the tiny pipes and non-standard rubber-type connection, so in the end, either option would have been a PITA

[@EelingStudios]

I wonder if... with a lathe a converter nipple from Citroen to the standard flares we're all used to could be employed along with a flexi pipe to save the coil and all that faff? Just a thought that could be stupid...?

[@benjaminjacques2810]

La 2cv est un plaisir en mécanique, c'est un état d'esprit 😉

[@paulsteenhoff9357]

I have dealt with the same problem till an old mecanicien told me not to turn the 8 mm nipple but to losen the cilinder and turn the cilinder. And that works super! Nothing wont brake!

[@corrieb74]

Ha ha! Yes, you're not the first one to make that observation. I wish I'd had the intelligence to work that out for myself in the moment :)

[@LeeOades]

My goodness... So much pain!

[@maxhaggberg8713]

There is a need of some serious anger management when you're dealing with these cars sometimes 🤣. Can't live without one though. // AMI 8 owner

[@fcukmegently]

Is there any reason why you couldn't modify the tricky bolt through hole job...i.e. drill out the hole to a bigger size that'll still retain head of bolt?

[@corrieb74]

Maybe. If I was doing this regularly, I'd definitely find some kind of hack

[@josephvargas6166]

the most simple to get out every nut is heating with a blow -torch very heat

[@zokxso1627]

if u mean the nut that holds the brake pipe into the cylinder you might boil up the brake fluid

[@JamesBrown-ux9ds]

By the way, you travel France quite often?

[@corrieb74]

I'm moving there permanently in January

[@anthonyparkinson1263]

I just did the same job - challenging to say the least! Where the curly ends go into the slots on the outer arm mine are not sitting in the 2 slots. Did you have to bend yours a little to get them to stay in the slots?

[@corrieb74]

Yes they're flexible tabs, spot welded on one side and openable on the other. There should be a rubber sleeve that the tab holds in place to stop the brake line rubbing. Sometimes the tabs can get a little rusted to the arm, but a screwdriver worked fine for me

[@user-ll5rs7sq1n]

🎉❤😊