PAG 24, page 2
News from…No 96
David Stephenson, East Yorkshire
91,800 miles on the clock – which must mean that No 96 has covered almost 6000 miles since being built.
Last year we had rather more family commitments - so fewer miles, however we are catching up and just waiting for some finer weather.
One or two modifications have been made to improve performance and road holding.
The first major one was to fit an anti-roll bar to the front end. This is a standard 2CV unit and has modified end plates for the suspension arms with tapped holes to take the mountings for the anti-roll bar. The roll bar can be fitted either above or below the suspension arms. I fitted mine below as it wouldn’t fit above unless the gearbox and engine were removed. The car now rides more like a sport scar with very little roll on cornering.
Another modification was to fit a Boyer Branson box to perk up the ignition system. Quite simple to fit and it worked first time. However the best thing is being able to set the static timing accurately which improves starting.
Two further modifications made about the same time were extra side lights mounted on the mudguards to try to fend off the modern tin tops in the dark and I fitted new stainless steel barrel nuts to the track rods – this gave an immediate feeling of safety and is money well spent…remember David’s tale from France – old ones can break!!
During the winter I made new longer manifolds for the carburetors. These were made up from the standard 2CV inlet manifold cut and welded many times. This is not difficult but very time consuming. The Honda carburetors will now sit horizontally as intended by the manufacturers.
This means 2 things – the float height is now standard at 15.5 mm from the body of the carburetor to the bottom of the float with the carburetor inverted. The standard setting for the idling screw is 2 turns down. The mixture was very weak on these settings so I altered the float setting to 14.5 mm, this was better but there was a ‘flat spot’ after ¼ throttle.
I then consulted Phil Gregory who advised modifying the needles, thinning them down to richen the mixture.
To modify the carburetor needles you need a fine labeling pen – to mark the needles and to mark out a gauge