A few weeks ago when the weather started showing signs of warming up I took a look out into the jungle that had suddenly sprung up where the back garden used to be and decided that the coming weekend would have to include some sort of gardening involving major pruning, weeding and such.  As with all great plans, fate (if you believe in such a thing) quickly threw a spanner into the works, in the form of a non-starting 2cv.

Once upon a time I was proud of the fact that the 2cv always started at first turn of the key, at worst the second, but gradually this easy starting changed to such an extent that you needed to have “the knack” to be able to start the thing, until one morning it just wasn’t having it any more.

Time to order new parts then.  Coil, plugs, plug leads or timing are the usual suspects so knowing that I had “infallible” electronic ignition and had already changed the plugs, I narrowed it down to leads or coil.  Because I can’t actually remember how old either are, and Just to be on the safe side, I ordered both and they arrived in time for the “gardening” weekend.   It would have taken all of about 30 mins to change them (I needed to fit new brackets for the coil too, or else it would have taken a maximum of 10 mins!), and in fact total working time was about that, but I got side-tracked when I noticed the number of weeds in the drive and started pulling them up in between working and fetching tools from the garage.

I can’t believe the amount of weeds that can grow in one drive!!

So the 2cv now has a nice new shiny coil (probably the cleanest part of the car!) and is back to starting first time - result!  As far as car issues go, I now just need to sort the gearbox problem with the Blackjack….but thats another story….

I did finally get some tidying done in the back garden too - about 5 bag fulls of weeds and prunings,  and it was finally looking a little more respectable.  All in all quite a productive weekend after all!

You think this still looks overgrown?  You should have seen it before I started!  The lawn still needs mowing, and yes, the green bit in front of the lawn should look like a pond - looks like I need to weed that too!

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