-By Eric Fantin-
Another Citroen repair came in recently, a little bit out the ordinary in the Citroën Club, a 1967 Citroen H van.
A quick background on the vehicle first. The H van, or actually name HY in Europe, was a a commercial line of vehicles manufactured by Citroën from 1947 to 1981. It featured front wheel drive with production totals in 500,000 range. It came as a van and a pickup in variety of wheel bases and also sported many specialty coach built versions for specific commercial application.
The H van was as much part of the French automobile landscape as much as the Citroën 2cv and DS were. It was omnipresent in so many applications: police and fire, food trucks, farm trucks and all possible commercial applications. My grandfather used to own a fleet of them for his metal fabrication company.
This particular vehicle came to us as a non-running vehicle owned by a beverage company who used for promotional events, although it had been painted and outfitted inside with various (heavy) cabinets and such, it was in poor mechanical condition. The goal was to make run and possibly drive to assess the mechanical needs of this relatively unique vehicle.
First order of business was to remove the floor to access the components. The H van being a Citroën is front wheel drive as mentioned previously. Transmission is in the middle and the motor is cantilevered up front. For anybody familiar with another famous Citroën, the Traction Avant, it uses the same drivetrain but pivoted around. Instead of transmission first and engine second, it is now the reverse, anyone lost yet?
Second order of business was to clean, oil, and grease any pivot points as it was nearly impossible to actuate the clutch pedal and gear lever (and anything else for that matter). Once that done, we proceeded to check ignition, reset the timing (way off), perform a minor fuel clean up, put brake fluid in the reservoir and a quick bleed.
The van fired up pretty quickly then, always very satisfying to bring a mechanical entity back to life. We proceeded to drive it around the block and that is a far as we went. The brakes were shot and fluid was leaking from the front wheel cylinders. The clutch was badly totally worn out and slipping. We also found a lot of suspect wiring! The repairs needed were extensive!!
On the plus side, the motor was healthy and the gear box seemed ok. Looking further we found several haphazard attempts to fix the various ailments by a previous shop that had created more problems than anything. We reported our finding and cost to repair. Ultimately the company, owners of the van, decided not to do the work and use it as a static display.
It felt kind of sad to let it go, it would have been nice to get it up and running to fulfill its purpose, but we had fun making it run and driving around the block with it. A great experience!
Eric Fantin can be reached at straigh8@gmail.com
