Mike T 0 Posted January 4 Author Report Share Posted January 4 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike T 0 Posted January 4 Author Report Share Posted January 4 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bean 0 Posted January 4 Report Share Posted January 4 Curious if you could solder a replacement carbon brush to that used up one as a spare? Is the commutator in good shape? Rabin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike T 0 Posted January 4 Author Report Share Posted January 4 Both commutators are good. For now I won't worry about it as the brushes in the motor should be good for 2000 hours. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike T 0 Posted January 9 Author Report Share Posted January 9 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! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike T 0 Posted January 10 Author Report Share Posted January 10 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SRDT 0 Posted Sunday at 10:51 AM Report Share Posted Sunday at 10:51 AM 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Goce 0 Posted Sunday at 12:13 PM Report Share Posted Sunday at 12:13 PM 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bean 0 Posted Sunday at 02:52 PM Report Share Posted Sunday at 02:52 PM Had to chuckle at the 2 car garage set up. Car looks gorgeous Mike! Rabin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike T 0 Posted Tuesday at 05:59 AM Author Report Share Posted Tuesday at 05:59 AM 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 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SRDT 0 Posted Tuesday at 08:06 PM Report Share Posted Tuesday at 08:06 PM 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike T 0 Posted Tuesday at 08:38 PM Author Report Share Posted Tuesday at 08:38 PM I know, it was a joke, therefore I added a Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Goce 0 Posted Wednesday at 11:09 AM Report Share Posted Wednesday at 11:09 AM 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 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike T 0 Posted 5 hours ago Author Report Share Posted 5 hours ago 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..... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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