casm

Replaced all three fuel pump / accumulator mounts. Everything is back in and the car is driving much better - it pulls noticeably more strongly through the rev range, and has lost a flat spot that previously came in around 3000rpm. Now that that's working properly, I need to sort out the timing - it's close, but not quite 100% correct. Speedo cable is also sitting here waiting to go in. If it's not 10,000 degrees out again tomorrow I may take care of both of those.

Got a second opinion on the distributor. Turns out, it's working fine. The issues that I was reading as timing-related were down to the fuel accumulator. Replaced that today, but sheared one of the fuel pump mounts in the process. Unfortunately, it's the one at the rear, which means that the fuel lines are rubbing on the rear trailing arm pivot. Did a long-bolt fix to make it driveable, but found that the bolt that I used is backing out. Going to order replacement mounts in the next day or two and toss them in; not really going to drive the car until those are done since I'd rather not rub the lines open and have them leak fuel all over the exhaust. Need to pull the radiator at some point in the next week or two and send it out for hot-tanking. The car's doing fine even in 90degF weather, but long inclines at speed have it getting above normal temperature. No overheating, but I suspect that the radiator is in need of a better cleaning than I've managed with white vinegar and commercial radiator flushes.

Starter's in. Took almost 4 hours due to seized bolts and limited room to work in, but it's done. Car now starts like it never has before when cold, but hot starts are still an issue. This one is down to the distributor, but that'll be taken care of later this week. The old starter is completely toast - running 12VDC to it directly via jumper cables results in nothing. At least I can rule out the starter to battery cable as suspect (and it looks as though it was replaced in the last 2-3 years). The other ones, though, will be replaced.

Good point - after 34 years, the mains cables could be corroded internally and I'd never see it. The terminal ends look fine, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the rest of them is OK. I'll add it to the list of things to investigate while I'm in there doing the starter later today. Have to break out the meter anyway to figure out where the problem affecting the A/C fan is (it's been suggested to check the resistor behind the left headlamps), so I'll spend some quality time with the big fat cables while I'm in there.

Looks like tomorrow is starter replacement day - my wife went out to drive the car this morning, and got nothing but a click. It's always been a breeze to get going first thing in the morning until now, but gets progressively-harder to start as the starter gets more and more heat-soaked during the day, so it looks like it's just had it. The replacement's been sitting here for close to a month, but time and weather have meant that replacement had to hold off until there was an opening. Distributor's going out for rebuild next week. Similar symptoms to the starter: great when cold, but timing goes to hell when starting warm (though it mostly clears up after running for a couple of minutes). Had it apart a few months ago to replace the vacuum advance and did what I could at the time, but it's just in need of proper attention. Not sure if the wiring harness I built for the new stereo is quite right or not - it occasionally drops power to the head unit, but never at a time I can pinpoint as common. I have my suspicions about the alternator (or, more specifically, the voltage regulator); it dates from 2004. Will resolder the power side of the harness this weekend and see what happens. No clue what's going on with the vacuum drive for the HVAC air direction. The vacuum canister and hoses behind the dash appear to be OK, but still only output air on defrost. Really need to replace the speedo cable; running down my phone's battery while using it as an ersatz speedometer replacement is getting old. Turn signal switch ate death for right turns; expecting a replacement with the distributor. In other words, it's a rear-drive Peugeot

Which is exactly the route I ended up taking Can't remember the last CD that I bought, let alone played, so I went with the Kenwood KMM-BT518HD. My big requirements were hands-free phone, app control, and HD Radio (which I'm a huge fan of). This one ticked all of the boxes and was under $100 with excellent reviews, so I bit the bullet. It just arrived today and the speakers still need to be replaced, so it'll be a bit before it'll be heard in all of its glory, but it's going to be a massive improvement over the 10-year-old Sony deck that's in there now. For the most part, the car is behaving well. Current issues are a weak starter (have the replacement; waiting out the weather), and a distributor that doesn't like to time properly when the engine's hot. Oh, and the speedo cable needs replacement. Also looking into LED headlamp replacements, which I think I may have found workable (and DOT-approved) ones for. Other than that, it's turned out to be a surprisingly solid car. Currently putting about 300 miles per week on it and it just keeps going.

New front struts (KYB 364002) went in last week and have made a world of difference to the front end. Now that I can more properly feel the state of the ball joints and tie rod ends, they're being slated for replacement soon-ish. Found a decent replacement gear knob at Wal-Mart (find it here). It's pretty close to stock, but is taller / longer. Not a big deal in practice, though if the car is in reverse with the handbrake on the two will interfere with each other. Had to drill the gear lever to get it to fasten down properly, but it was absolutely worth the two broken drill bits it took to get it on there. Fan belt is holding. Need to change out the coolant this weekend; half of it is currently bottled water as the station I refilled the radiator at didn't have a tap anywhere, so had to stick in some stuff from the cold cabinet. At least it didn't add any crud to the cooling system, but it does mean that it's only about 25% antifreeze right now. Thinking of upgrading the radio now that one of the speakers has died. Not going to do any crazy competition stuff, just a decent $200-ish upgrade to something with Bluetooth and some better speakers.

Fan belt ate death today about 20 miles from home. A bucket brigade involving my father-in-law, wife, and two Volkswagens resulted in getting tools from home and a replacement belt from the local Autozone to where I'd left the car at the side of the road. Quickly replaced the belt on the shoulder, made it three miles to the nearest gas station without overheating for a top-off of the radiator, and got home without incident. Doing the LED upgrade to the external lights was worth it: I'd left it parked with the hazards on for about 90 minutes. That probably wouldn't have been enough to drain the battery if the incandescent bulbs were still in there, but it was nice to know when we got back to it that the chances of the battery being flat due to that were pretty much nil. Better visibility of the hazards was also a plus. Definitely going to convert to electric fans. I realise that this is a case where having also lost drive to the alternator would really only have resulted in more load on the battery if they were in there, but that's something that can be minimised with a manual on / off switch. Given that a snapped belt will cause the mechanical fan to not turn, being able to at least limp for a few miles with some degree of cooling seems like a reasonable tradeoff.

Hey André - no worries on the gasket; totally understood. Going to try to make F&I this year, but we'll see what happens. Three weeks on from the last report, here's where things are sitting now: Starter needs replacement. It's had an occasional dead spot since we got the car which is becoming more and more pronounced. With any luck I'll get that pulled tomorrow and the new one ordered. Ignition coil is suspect. Can't prove anything yet, but I think it may be getting weak when warm. Need to do some more testing to confirm. Had a giant fight with the tachymetric relay; I won, but not before AAA had to tow the car home. Ordered a replacement and more details of that saga can be found here, but the end result is that Airtex / Wells-Gardner part number 1R1862 as used in early-'80s Volvo 242 turbos is a direct replacement for the original Bosch unit. Replacement front struts (cartridges only; KYB part number 364002) arrived and will hopefully go in next week. Speedo cable needs to be ordered. Not enjoying using my phone's GPS for this function, but the accuracy compared to the stock speedo is nice. Ball joints, swaybar bushings, and tie-rod ends are starting to appear on the horizon. Converting to electric cooling fans is probably also going to happen before the summer. Need to decide between a single large unit or twin smaller ones; can see upsides & downsides to both approaches. Considering full replacement of the A/C system after the fans are done. Maybe. As usual, it's maintaining its 'it's getting there' status. A little cranky at times, perhaps, but not unexpected given that it's 34 years old and I keep removing things from it that have clearly been there since it was new.

Having just been through a fight with the tachymetric relay in our 1983 505 with the XN6 motor and Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection, I figured that I'd post some of my experiences in case they're of any help to someone else in the same boat. This post is long, so if all you need are replacement part numbers skip to the end of this post. For anyone unfamiliar with the tachymetric relay, it controls power to the fuel pump and its failure will leave your car utterly stranded. This happened to me last week and resulted in a call-AAA-for-a-tow-home moment. There are three key circumstances under which the relay operates: When the ignition key is first turned to the 'on' position, it provides a one-second burst of power to the fuel pump. This is basically a priming cycle to make sure that fuel has reached the injector nozzles. During cranking and after starting the engine, it provides a constant source of power to the fuel pump in order to maintain fuel delivery to the cylinders. If the engine speed drops below about 400rpm (i.e., the engine stalls or is switched off), it cuts power to the fuel pump so that fuel isn't continuing to be sent to the injectors. This is accomplished by checking the negative pulse from the ignition coil. A little background: some time ago, our car was having intermittent start / no start / run / no run issues. These were traced down to the tachymetric relay; after pulling it and opening it up, bad solder joins and damaged components were found on the PCB. Those were repaired and replaced (details can be found here), but the car started randomly showing similar symptoms again. Unfortunately, until it decided to just flat-out not start one afternoon in a parking lot, I'd never been able to reproduce the problem at a time when I could catch it and try to figure out what the issue was this time. As it turned out, my repairs had held - but the coil in the relay had finally given out and was no longer closing its contacts when 12V was applied to it. This was confirmed first by removing the relay from its case, connecting it to the harness, then watching what the relay coil did when the key was turned from off to on. Normally, the coil armature should be seen to move with a click as it made contact followed by hearing hear the fuel pump kick in; none of these things were happening. Manually moving the armature to the contact caused the pump to turn on, however, so this gave a starting point for investigation. With the relay out and connected to a bench supply, 12V was put directly to the coil. No movement at all. It was done. Replacing the coil was a definite possibility (provided one of the correct dimensions could be found, which would likely involve cannibalising one from another relay), but given the history of problems with that relay I decided to just replace it and keep this one for eventual rebuild. This is where the fun began. The tachymetric relay as used by Peugeot was a Bosch unit, part number 9250624280. This is out of production, and has been for some time. It's rare that they crop up and when they do they're expensive - one source wanted $725 for the relay! Apparently being installed in Porsches of the same era justifies this price to that particular seller, but it was way out of the question for me. Fortunately, there's no shortage of other cars from the time that also had K-Jetronic injection. Some research led to figuring out that the 1983 Volvo 242 with the 2.1-litre turbo engine uses a compatible relay. The one that I got (from rockauto.com) came in a green case rather than black and had the Volvo logo moulded into it, but it's clearly a Bosch-made part. After having it in place for a couple of days and approximately 100 miles I can't tell the difference between it and the Bosch-branded unit that was in there originally. Pin assignments are exactly the same between the two, the connector is completely plug-and-play, and aside from some minor componentry and layout differences on the PCBs it appears to be virtually identical in terms of construction. The Peugeot relay doesn't cross-reference directly with the Volvo unit (that I've found), but the Volvo unit does seem to be a direct replacement. The Volvo relay is an Airtex / Wells-Gardner 1R1862 and was $56.79 at the time of writing. Others that may also work (but which I haven't tried, so cannot confirm): Üro Parts 3523639 ($14.89); Beck / Arnley 2030066 ($27.79).

I'm in total agreement with the XN6 and BA7/5 combo being so very nice when it's all set up properly, and prefer it to the ZDJL. Nothing against the ZDJL, which in a number of ways is the superior engine on paper... But the XN6 just works so nicely. There are a couple of 2.5TD 505s with 5-speed 'boxes that I saw when I lived in SoCal, but they were conversions. Ditto the 504s with 2.3 TDs and 5-speeds; this pretty much explains why I know that I'd be on my own for figuring that one out. Regarding the Dangel: no news right now. The friends of the family who own it are still thinking of selling their place in France, and it's not going to be available until they do. I'm fine with working on their timeline for this; they're incredibly good folks and I'm happy to work at their pace on it. If anything does crop up, though, I'll definitely be posting about it In other news, the 505 had two things break today: The speedo cable died in one of the most amusing ways I've ever seen one fail before. For the first few miles that I drove around in +/- 38degF weather this morning, it was pegged below zero on the speedo. Then, in a random fit of pique, it swung up to about the 75mph mark while I was doing somewhere around 25, twitched a bit, then flopped back to zero and was clearly just dead. Drove 80 miles in the car today and it never moved again; both the odometer and trip meter stayed static. New speedo cable time. On the way home this afternoon, the backwash from a tanker truck coming the opposite direction blew the wind deflector straight off of the sunroof. It shattered into a number of pieces that made a really interesting sound as they tumbled off of the roof; pulling over to the side of the road to inspect the end result, the rubber chafing strip slid down the passenger side front window like a snake. I kept it as a memento, which seemed appropriate. Other than that, the car's doing fairly well. It's not totally dialled-in yet, and looking at the (known-but-so-far-ignored) vacuum leaks around the HVAC controls as well as the state of the intake system as relates to the airflow meter would probably be a good idea, but it's getting there. As far as I know, this is the only Peugeot being driven on a regular basis in Central Oklahoma. If someone else out there can prove me wrong, I'd love to hear from you!

Hey Rabin Seeing as how it's been a month since I last checked my own thread, I can't really fault you for not seeing this sooner Hopefully I'll get some more photos in the next few days. Free time and weather keep being the usual obstacles, but there is progress: Replaced the brake master cylinder for the second time. The unit that replaced the one that was on the car when we got it (which had decided to start leaking a few months later) also decided that it should leak as well. Ugh. Replaced the brake booster for the second time. Not sure if the combination of two leaking brake master cylinders in a row killed it or if it was just a shoddy rebuild (which I had been suspicious of before the leaks started happening), but, again, ugh. At least it was under warranty. Replaced the clutch master cylinder. This was its first time to be replaced, but I think it committed sympathy suicide after seeing what happened to the brake master cylinder and brake booster. At least the clutch slave cylinder (replaced a few months ago) is holding up. Now that the hydraulics are sorted out, brakes and shifting are much improved. Next up will probably be a conversion to electric fans and replacing the front struts, but it's gradually coming together. The brake lights were also converted to some decently-bright LED bulbs. Still need to do the tail lights, reversing lights, licence plate, and sidemarkers, but the priority was on improving the brake lights' visibility. Goce, I think I now understand what you mean about the Michelin Defenders a bit better. In the wet they're decent, but on snow they're not particularly great. Granted, I wasn't using chains, but the Michelins (I forget which ones they are) on the VW do much better. On the plus side, they did scare the crap out of a BMW driver tailgating me through a roundabout in the snow - the back stepped out fairly wide, I caught it, left the roundabout going straight, and watched in the rear-view mirror as the guy backed off as fast as he could while looking very nervous about what had just happened in front of him. I'm trying to decide what to do with this car in the longer-term - it's turning into a really good driver, but a turbodiesel wagon is sounding more and more appealing. A 505 with the XD3T and a 5-speed would be ideal, but finding one that's already been converted (what I can reasonably do in the driveway is somewhat limited) probably isn't going to happen. I'd be fine with a 504, provided it had the XD2T and a 5-speed... But, again, best of luck on that. All things being equal, I'll probably just end up going for whatever crops up on the right day.