update on my GL

[andrethx]

it's been a couple of weeks since i last posted in this thread...i've actually had a bit of time to work on my car, but not enough time to write about it, i'm sure you all know what i'm talking about. anyhow, here's an update:

fuel lines

here's a shot of my engine, you can see the fuel lines running from the fuel distributor (under the air cleaner boot) to the fuel injectors. these lines were actually in pretty good shape...the soft lines under my car, however, were pretty bad. many of them were clogged, which is fix-able -- rabin suggested soaking them in seafoam and rinsing with carb cleaner -- however, some of them were badly scuffed on the outside, which made me want to replace the lot of them. my car is 26 years old and while it has been in a mild climate, it hasn't been particularly well-cared-for so i figure it is about time for this particular bit of maintenance.

i did some checking around, and it appears that the original supply of soft OE fuel lines was exhausted a long time ago. as best i can tell, everyone is using good-quality used ones or fabricating their own. i couldn't find any information anywhere on fuel line fabrication, so i decided to research this project myself...i figure it is something that we are all going to have to deal with at some point, so best to just get it over with.

this problem is not unique to peugeot owners -- the owners of other classic european cars have been dealing with this problem for some time...the porsche owners and ferrari owners seem to be out front on this particular bit of restoration tech. i joined several owners' forums for the specific purpose of researching what others had done. because my car's XN6 engine uses the same bosch CIS fuel injection system as many porsches and ferraris from the same period, there was a lot of commonality of parts and techniques that i was able to glean from these sites.

anyhow, from the factory our cars use polyamide plastic tubing, so that's what i wanted to use for my new fuel lines. a lot of the FI hose that you see for sale online and in auto parts stores is essentially this type of tubing, but with a thick layer of rubbery plastic on the outside....this tubing is a lot thicker and looks different, so i wasn't really interested in using it; thus i wasn't really disappointed to find that it is not commonly available in the sizes i need for my car. you can also find this tubing available with stainless steel braided covers, sized for use with either conventional fittings or so-called AN fittings; this is a look that some people really like, but it's not for me.

the main problem that i ran into was that the exact sizes of tubing used in the OE hose are not available....and while it's possible to get very close to the original sizes (close enough for proper performance), the fittings are sized to the tubing such that a change in the tubing size might very well necessitate a different fitting...but maybe not, depending on the fitting and the hoses in question. for someone like me learning all of this as he went along, it's like a rubik's cube, where one change can throw other things off.

i finally found a supplier who is local to me, who was willing to work with me to get everything figured out; there are several different sizes of tubing that my car uses, and then there are the various fittings that have to be sized accordingly, so it took a bit of effort to get it sorted out. so i now have all of the information and parts i need to fabricate a replacement set of fuel lines for my xn6....i'll post the data in the coming weeks as i fabricate these lines so anyone else can do it without the hassle i went through. the supplier i went through is a distributor, so there were minimum purchase quantities; the whole lot was fairly expensive and i have enough to do several cars! i may package my excess up as kits and sell them if anyone else is interested.

btw, after i got the components from my supplier, i found a quantity of NOS bulk fuel line on ebay.de (germany) -- this is the stuff peugeot sold for making up replacement fuel lines (the ones between the fuel distributor and the injectors, among others). i got a good deal on it, i ordered it mainly to compare it to my new stuff. it was spot on! which is encouraging.

electrical work

i also spent a bit more time working on my car's wiring, in anticipation of putting the interior back into the car. as i mentioned before, i wanted to install the crossovers for my rear deck speakers -- these speakers are 4" coaxial ADS speakers with a separate crossover unit. i did a bit of measuring and figured out that i could mount them to the underside of the rear deck, just above the fuel tank so that they would not be visible when the trunk trim panels were installed (i'm OCD like that ). i dropped some stainless bolts down through the rear deck, here:

then i bolted the crossovers underneath; i used nylon washers underneath the SS nuts for a bit of extra isolation:

and here's what it looks like with the crossover covers on...note the dynamat on the underside of the rear deck, more of that to apply in the trunk:

i popped the speaker in, minus the grill; i added a bit of green felt for insulation, you can see it better in the next pic:

and put the fuel tank back in for a test-fit. it fits, with fractions of an inch to spare! there's no fuel tank vent pipe on the driver's side, so there's plenty of clearance on that side:

still have quite a bit of wiring left to do, that's a subject for a future post.

andré

[Bean]

Great progress Andre! And yes - I know exactly what you're talking about with not having enough time to document...

NVH of this 505 should be outstanding. Can't wait to see how both your and Arun's car turn out.

Rabin

[andrethx]

so it was finally time to replace my dashboard with the good (uncracked) one i got from brian holm. i had already taken out the console as part of the dynamat application/carpet replacement, so i was saved that step. i have a 1986 car, which in the US is a series 2....if you have a pre-86 car, things will look different for you.

first, i wrapped a flathead screwdriver with painter's tape to use as a non-marring tool:

and i used it to remove the steering wheel emblem:

underneath was a nut, i removed it and removed the steering wheel. this was the first time i can remember that i used my 21mm deepwell socket! to remove the dash, you have to remove the instrument cluster...it is possible to do this without removing the steering wheel, but extremely difficult. remember to mark the position of your steering wheel before you remove it! when you remove the instrument cluster, you have to route the wires & speedo cable out of the dash assembly (so that you can pull the dash out). you also have to remove the glove box (it is attached by screws at the bottom) and disconnect the wires, etc. in that area -- the lights to the map pocket & the glove box, the wires for the glove box switch, the temperature sensor, etc.

also, you have to remove the panel under the steering column; it's held on by a bunch of screws. there is also the rheostat to control the instrument lights which has to be disconnected. on my car, some one (a mechanic or PO) had used plastic ties to attach a bit of rubber hose underneath the steering column...maybe the panel was rattling?

next, you have to remove the center dashboard panel. there are two screws, one at the bottom under the ashtray and one at the top under a trim piece (pry it out). here they are:

once you remove these screws, you can pull the panel out:

with the center panel pulled out, you can remove the wiring connectors and the vacuum tubes to the climate control panel. these tubes and the panel they connect to are color-coded, so it's hard to go wrong:

i didn't photograph every stage of this dashboard removal process, but there are five main screws that hold the dashboard in place...three on top and two underneath. on the top, there is a center screw (T27) at the top-center, of the dashboard, between the vents for the windscreen defrost...this is covered by a piece of trim. also up top, there are two nuts (10mm with captive washers) underneath the top dash speaker grills. underneath, the dash is held by two nuts (also 10mm with captive washers) that attach the dash to a couple of flanges that come out of the kickpanels. there are two 10mm flange nuts under the steering column, as well. here's a pic of the old dash out of the car:

and here's a pic of the car without the dash:

andré

[norcal505]

Dedication right there. I hope that some day I could gather up the nerve to do the same on mine. Le Dashmat is peu.

[andrethx]

thanks, sina. what can i say, it has to be done. a lot of what i do with my car is cleaning -- i'd estimate it's about 85% of the work that i'm doing.

anyhow, when i got the dash off, i saw that the area behind it was filthy. i wiped everything down, but the insulation around the air conditioning ducts was filthy. one or more of my cars POs was a smoker, and you can tell...if you look at the last picture in my previous post, you can see the residue on the white insulation sleeves surrounding the ducts. if your eyes are not that sharp, here's a closeup of the insulation sleeve material from my car:

my wife has a very bad case of asthma...that's a big reason why i'm replacing so many things in my car and cleaning it so much. i decided to remove the insulation sleeves and make replacements out of a similar material. the ducts are easy to remove -- they're essentially a friction fit -- and the sleeves are held on by 26-year-old, dried-out masking tape. so i removed the ducts, took the old sleeves off them and cleaned them up:

i got some material similar to the original insulation material, except that it has a metalized mylar coating:

using the original sleeves as a pattern, i had my wife sew me a new pair of sleeves. she just got an old sewing machine (a pfaff 360, for any of you sewing machine aficionados out there ) and i helped her clean it up & adjust it, so she owed me one.

i put the sleeves on the ducts and secured them with duct tape. this is the first time in my life that i have actually used duct tape on ducts...

the newly-insulated ducts went back in the car, no problem.

andré

[andrethx]

i also decided that it was time to replace the shift lever... on the 4-speed auto models in particular, the plastic shift handles have a tendency to fall apart...i learned how to replace the shift lever handle from christophe leverdier's excellent site. BTW, BVA stands for boite vitesse automatique or automatic gearbox (as opposed to BVM). here's the original cracked shift lever:

to remove the shift lever, you first have to remove the plug on the right side, opposite the shift button. this plug has little retaining clips inside that hold it in its hole, so you have to insert something thin and stiff to depress the clips so the plug will pop out. then you can remove the internal spring and the shift button. i used a cut-up old credit card:

and with a little effort, i got the plug out and disassembled the top of the lever. there is a single philips head screw at the bottom, undo that and the lever comes off, along with the metal rod that serves as the shift detent:

now, the next few pictures are not for the faint of heart ...the whole shifter area of the console was nasty with years of spilled soft drinks and coffee. in order to throughly clean everything, i had to disassemble the shift console/shift indicator mechanism, even though this assembly was not meant to come apart! i don't recommend this to those of you watching at home:

the cleaning has begun...

andré

[ohms]

You're a good man. And thorough.

[N9TE]

You know, I just re-read over this entire thread. André, you're doing some good work. I always look at it as "moving time backwards". With many of the systems you've touched, your goal is to bring them back to 1986 (or whatever was year one). You've done that in many cases! So when you're driving your car and it's not driving as nice as your 'new' car, think of how many systems are in your car working together making your driving experience what it is. Then think of all the things André has done and you haven't. And he's nowhere near done. But, as more and more systems move into the done column, the car as a whole moves 'back in time'.

Good luck in getting to 1986!

[bryancohnracing]

Andre', you are not only brave but this thread has become a "how too" for those that follow. Good work!

I must say that the shift lever sticking out of the floor is begging for a skull shift knob.

Dash removal is not for the faint of heart, yet you went after it like a pro who'd done it often.

Your reward will be a good as new 505. How cool will that be?

[andrethx]

thanks for the encouragement, guys, it really does help. i was going to write that i'm not really trying to get back to year one with my car, i'm just cleaning everything that's dirty (i.e., everything) and replacing everything that's worn out or broken...of course, now that i read what i've just written, i realize that it is the definition of getting back to year one! i would like to do some neat mods to my car, but it seems foolish when it's so dirty and worn down, my goal is really to get to "stage zero" as rabin would say.

more updates to come in the near future. in the meantime, here's the cleaned and re-assembled shifter bezel assembly:

the plastic was so dirty, i had to scrub it in the sink with a gentle detergent. this dried out the hard plastic a bit, leaving a whitish cast...i've been treating it with the 1z einszett cockpit premium and it's getting better, but it will take a while to get it looking really nice. the plastic shift indicator "window" took a lot of work, i used a headlight polishing kit to remove all of the gunk. took about an hour, i did this while watching the olympics on tv (women's beach volleyball FTW ).

andré

[Bean]

Mothers "Back to Black" has worked nice for weathered black plastic for me, as well as Aero 303... I'd use 303 first: http://www.autopia.org/forum/product-reviews/4346-303-aero-space-protectant-review.html

Serious dedication to your "stage 0" their Andre!

Rabin

[andrethx]

thanks for the advice rabin, i have some aero 303, will give it a try.

so i put the new shift lever in -- with the shifter bezel rehab done, i was able to proceed since the bezel is installed with the shift knob on the automatic.

re-assembling the shift lever is a bit tricky...you insert the rod from below, then you push it up and pop in the shifter button. then you install the big spring and the plug assembly. the plug assembly consists of the plug itself, plus a smaller spring that fits inside the plug that is held in by a washer. the washer spreads out the little retaining clips on the inside of the plug, and the little spring keeps the washer in place. the big spring sits against the plug assembly inside the shift lever handle, and provides the springing action on the shifter button.

the net effect of all of this is that, when you push the shifter button, the rod goes up and its perpendicular arms disengage from the stepped shift guide. you shift to your chosen gear, then release the button, lowering the arms into the new spot in the stepped shift guide.

here's a comparison between the old shift lever and the new one:

more to come

andré

[andrethx]

a quick update -- as regular readers of this thread may recall, i decided to have my alloy wheels powdercoated after i had my new tires mounted, so i've been working my way around the car, one wheel at a time. i have an extra allow wheel that i got from peugeottogo (thanks, jeff!) that i used to facilitate the process. i'm now done with the four wheels, each one has been powdercoated and had the wheel re-mounted and balanced, and each wheel has a tire pressure monitor sensor installed (that's what the orange valve stem dust cap signifies). the fifth wheel will become my spare, since my car came without one.

my tires are directional, but i will be getting a non-directional michelin for the spare. just for fun, i'm thinking about having the spare wheel powdercoated in a different color. any suggestions?

also, i replaced the brake pedal pad with a NOS piece i got from the UK. a friend from the facebook group is getting me a spare piece for this, as well as a new accelerator pedal pad. this pad replacement took about 60 seconds:

the old:

and the new:

more to come.

andré

[Peugeottogo]

Love those powder coated wheels André!

How about powder coating the spare the body color?

[Bean]

I have to be the stalwart and suggest that the spare get done the same colour and tire as what's on the car now. Reason being is that if you do that it really is a spare wheel that can be used in tire rotation (albeit on one side only), but also allows you a quick replacement in case one wheel is damaged.

Directional tires can be mounted in the reverse direction with no real worries except maybe water evacuation - but even then it's not noticeable. My Volvo was pulling to the left even with a fresh alignment so they swapped the front tires left to right and it fixed the pulling issue. I then did a 3000 km trip through the mountains and we had some pretty heavy rainfall on some of the legs. I was cautious of course - but it had no trouble what so ever.

Rabin

[norcal505]

Yeah.

I'm jelly.

-S

[andrethx]

as discussed in the transmission oil thread, i got the recommended lubricant for my LSD; note the country of manufacture ( ):

got it from a place that specializes in NISMO stuff, in west covina (east on the 10 freeway, about 2/3 of the way out to ukit's in el monte).

currently, i'm researching how to replace the dried, crumbling foam seals on my AC ducts...some of the professional car restoration guys use neoprene (i.e., wetsuit material). mcmaster sells thin sheets of neoprene, not very expensive so i'm thinking i'll try this.

andré

[andrethx]

I have to be the stalwart and suggest that the spare get done the same colour and tire as what's on the car now. Reason being is that if you do that it really is a spare wheel that can be used in tire rotation (albeit on one side only), but also allows you a quick replacement in case one wheel is damaged.

this is all very sensible advice -- however -- since my wife got her new truck (a ford explorer sports trac, rabin already knows about it) and she doesn't drive to work (mass transit), i have a "spare car" that i can use indefinitely if there's ever a problem with my peugeot. and this is after my son starts driving in a few years and takes the jetta (my current daily driver). basically i have too many cars right now so i'm not worried about one of them being out of action temporarily.

@jeff -- body color is not a bad idea, but i don't know how i'd ever match it. realistically, it'll be next year before i get my car painted and anyway, i'm going to have the wheel powdercoated. so i'm currently considering yellow (for "safety") or black. but definitely not silver as buzz killington ( ) suggests...

andré

[Bean]

Buzz killington? I said stalwart - completely different!

If you want a colour I suggest green. You already have ketchup and mustard so now you need relish for your burger / hotdog theme you have going on.

Rabin

[andrethx]

after consulting with rabin (i *do* take his advice sometime! ), i bought set a set of four piston & liner assemblies off of ebay...described by the vendor as "vintage 'AE' quality made in Great Britian, Standard-Size 88mm High-Compression 8.35:1 Domed Piston & Liner Assembly with wrist pin and rings for Just One Cylinder Bore (almost like 'New Engine in a Box')." nb -- the description is for one item, he had four and i bought all of them. cost US$200 + $25 shipping, seems like a good deal. i am nowhere near rebuilding my engine, but this was too good to pass up so i got it.

the thinking is, this will give me a bit of a higher compression ratio...coupled with some machine work to the head, my car should be noticeably peppier. from everything i've read about the xn6 engine, the main issue is the low CR...

my car is pretty high mileage, so a rebuilt engine is just a matter of time, maybe a year or two from now. once i'm driving it on a daily basis, i can't imagine i'll be putting a lot of miles on it since i have 3 (!) cars right now...

andré

[andrethx]

new accelerator pedal pad:

the old:

the new:

andré

[norcal505]

^ oh my god oh my god.

That is probably (well one of the 3 things) I always forget about.

All of mine are torn, and I seem to recall a time when my dad would reinstall them with ducktape (facepalm)

Where did you get it (them) from, if you don't mind?

Sina

[andrethx]

sina - pm sent.

andré

[andrethx]

spent some time working on my 505 this morning. first, i did a test fit of the morette knock-offs i got from ikenna:

one of the lamp assemblies broke in transit, so i replaced it with a regular sealed beam unit while i decide if i'm going to use these or my euro headlights. if i decide to leave these on the car, i'll replace all of the lamp assemblies with e-codes.

next, i reinstalled the coil assembly. new coil, new ignition control module and i had the coil bracket powdercoated silver. new stainless screws and flange nuts on order:

lastly, i did some examination of some of my wiring. where does one start? i found a corroded, disconnected set of wires that lead to the front thermostatic fan:

also in the "that'll have to be fixed" category is the front grounding trees. the pic below is the driver's side tree, the white in the circled area is corrosion:

andré

[norcal505]

You are definitely the only one on our continent to have those.

I say keep em' over the euros - those you'd usually see at any North American Peugeot car show