1966 404 Coupé Injection Restoration

[Mike T 0]

Today I did some work on the SOFICA blower unit. I have two. One had a noisy motor with lots of end play on the shaft, but much better brushes than the other one, which was quiet and had very little shaft play. So I swapped brush holders, which meant a little bit of soldering. Came out very well.

 

Then I extended the wires so the two speed switch that I have relocated from the blower unit to the dashboard can be fed, and found a good blocking plate for the switch hole.

 

The thing I should have got before now is a set of new rubber mounting washers for the motor, which is bolted through the front of the SOFICA housing. So, before putting the motor into the housing and putting it into the car I will see if I can get a new set of those.

[Mike T 0]

Here's a shot of the brushes.  Top is the one from the "good motor" - pretty much worn out.  The bottom one is from the "noisy" motor - decent.  I put the decent ones into the "good "motor.

[Bean 0]

Curious if you could solder a replacement carbon brush to that used up one as a spare?  Is the commutator in good shape?

Rabin

 

 

[Mike T 0]

Both commutators are good.  For now I won't worry about it as the brushes in the motor should be good for 2000 hours.

[Mike T 0]

The next step was to find rubber mounts for the blower fan motor. The originals were gone and scrap anyway. I thought I'd have to make some but Duncan Auto Parts has a chest of grommets that are surprisingly useful and they had three that fit. The originals were split in half when new and inserted from either side. I decided to see if I could squeeze these new ones through in one piece. Yes is the answer.

 

So I did.

 

I had to make special provision for the wire extenders for the switch because they run near the blower now that they have to exit the housing instead of just going to the switch on the bottom of the housing. So I taped them down with aluminium duct tape to keep them away from the impeller and had a lot of fun getting the nuts threaded but in the end it's all good!

[Mike T 0]

Got the SOFICA unit installed with the remote switch wired up nicely.  It's worth mentioning that despite being a metric car, the brake pipe unions are 3/8 inch and not 10 mm.  A 10 mm wrench will not get them tight enough.  Couple of shots from the side, now that the car's off jack stands and on its own wheels again.

[SRDT 0]

Brake boosters, brake rotors and clutches diameters are often imperial sizes. You can also find 7/16"-20 (UNF) seat belt bolts for some reason.

[Goce 0]

Seat belt bolts are always 7/16"-20 (UNF). Also brake lines are often imperial 1/8, 1/4, 1/2". Also peugeot often uses seals and bearings in imperial sizes.

[Bean 0]

Had to chuckle at the 2 car garage set up.  

Car looks gorgeous Mike!

Rabin

[Mike T 0]

The original brake pipe unions had 10 mm heads but imperial UNF threads!  The replacements were 3/8" because they were locally sourced (remember I made my own brake lines).

7/16" seat belt bolts, eh?  Pretty damned small head 

[SRDT 0]

7/16" isn't the head, it's the tread.

On my 309 the heads are neither metric nor the standard imperial size and some are low profile, add thread lock on top of that and you can have lots of fun changing a seat belt.

[Mike T 0]

I know, it was a joke, therefore I added a 

[Goce 0]

From my experience the head on seat belt bolts is between 16mm and 17mm the threads are almost always 7/16 20 thread, i've installed few thousand of them during my year in van hool buses, even the smallest seat belt for the passenger in a bus used the same bolts with factory loctite apply, a 16mm socket and torqued them to 60 Nm 

[Mike T 0]

The Jaeger panel for the sports instrument panel - made by Le Club 404 - arrived today and I installed the instruments provisionally at the lunch break. The instruments other than the oil pressure gauge are used and need to be cleaned and tested. I may also look for a better voltmeter and possibly an 8 Gordini tachometer after all, as the Renault 8S tachometer has a different style of chrome trim. Still it's a good start.....

[Mike T 0]

Horns from the 404 of this era are possible to disassemble, de-rust, clean up inside, adjust and reuse!

Both of them were not working beforehand but I cleaned the points inside and got them both working again!

These both live behind the front grille.

[Bean 0]

The gauge cluster looks fantastic - looks "the business" as they say.    

Curious - I have no idea what the horns even sound like.  Are they small car "European" sounding or are they more like modern cars now?

Rabin

[Mike T 0]

The two round ones are Aigu and Grave - quite loud, American-ish.  The third one is a mini-trumpet and I have to replace it.

[Mike T 0]

The town horns assembled and working.  The grave (flat) is kind of hoarse, which I think will be charming, and the aigu (sharp) is very musical.  As you can see by the wires, they blow together.  One case was made in December 1965 and the other in January 1966.  The car was built in April 1966 and sent to Canada after May 1966.

I need to buy a highway horn now because the original was beyond saving.

[Mike T 0]

Today was a slack one in the garage: mount the two town horns behind the grille - access was difficult though - and modify the gearbox support tool to get more lift.  The former was a success and the latter mixed, as the tool I made is flexing quite a bit.  May have to use a floor jack when installing the engine, we will see.....