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Bomjour!! Introduction, my first Peugeot, 1981 505 TD


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Hello everyone. 
I am so very excited to be days away from bringing home my first French car: 1 owner, locally purchased, 1981 505 Turbo diesel with 87k miles. 
I randomly came across this example in Asheville, NC, and it was originally purchased here when the dealership still existed. It comes with all the original paperwork and it appears everything works properly and I could not be more excited. 

I know the 505 in general is pretty hard to come by, and I wondered if anyone had resources as to how many were actually imported into the US?

I look forward to learning so much more and hope to be able to contribute to the forum in the future, as well. 

image5304.jpg

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Congrats and welcome to the forum!

Car looks to be in fantastic shape - Is it auto or manual?

I love the early 505’s with the quad lights, inset grill, simple interior and the super comfy seats.

Keep us posted on progress!

Rabin

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4 minutes ago, Bean said:

Congrats and welcome to the forum!

Car looks to be in fantastic shape - Is it auto or manual?

I love the early 505’s with the quad lights, inset grill, simple interior and the super comfy seats.

Keep us posted on progress!

Rabin

Thanks!

I'm so thrilled to come across such a great example. 

I'll surely post lots of pics next week when it's here with me. 

The ONLY downside is that it's an autotragic,  but,  should it ever fail I'll be sure to convert it. 

 

In the meantime I'm already keeping an eye out for manual donors/parts.

 

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Welcome! About 125,000 were exported to the USA, or roughly 10% of all 505 production.

About 4,500 were sold in Canada. The sales here were extremely poor due to Chrysler selling them 1983-1987 and the abandonment of the traditional Peugeot dealers by Peugeot Canada around the time of its introduction.....

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16 hours ago, Mike T said:

Welcome! About 125,000 were exported to the USA, or roughly 10% of all 505 production.

About 4,500 were sold in Canada. The sales here were extremely poor due to Chrysler selling them 1983-1987 and the abandonment of the traditional Peugeot dealers by Peugeot Canada around the time of its introduction.....

Oh wow, that is WAY more than I expected or had heard. 
Unfortunately I think many here were lost to the "cash for clunkers". 
This is only the second one I have seen in probably 20 years. 

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On 6/29/2022 at 5:01 PM, Jayden M said:

Welcome to the forum.

Asheville is not too far from me. Happy to see another living 505 in the state.

It was originally from the dealership right here in Asheville, too!

I am leaving now to go pick it up. 

Super excited!!

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The only thing that is lacking that I thought was there is that there is no AC at all. Totally not a deal-breaker for me but it REALLY would have been nice. 

Inoperative elements:
Speedometer
Sunroof
Cruise Control
Power Steering
Windscreen wiper control (works on wash)

I noticed that the turn signals stop working after a couple flashes, which I would assume is just an old flasher relay. 
I haven't tried leaving the hazards on yet to see if that causes them to stop, too. 

Is it normal for both indicator lights to flash (as if hazards are on) during regular indicator operation? 
Turn signals are working properly (had a friend following me) but wasn't expecting both to light up on the instrument cluster. 

There's a little rattle in the front suspension. I fully anticipated the likely event that I would need to replace some suspension bushings as it sat for a very long time. 
I'll have to get under it and see where it's coming from. 

Regardless of these minor issues, I am ecstatic over this car and look forward to diving deeper into it! 
 

20220705_125049.jpg

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My brother is in Charlottesville VA - He’s got a couple 505 V6 5sp cars.  

I’ve ridden through Asheville years ago, but absolutely stunning country.

Totally normal for both to indicate - best response I got was “If you don’t know which way you yourself have signalled you have bigger issues”

Rabin

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You’ll find a thorough going through of all the grounding tree locations, all grounds, all electrical connectors, and fusing the electric fan circuit will work wonders for the car’s electrical system.

Peugeot used unsealed electric plug connections, and exposed grounds which reek havoc with functionality over time.  
 

Too bad about the AC, but it might be worthwhile to do a vintage air or similar aftermarket system.  The XD2s did have AC so sourcing the AC components to mount the AC compressor should be easy-ish to find.

Rabin

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On 7/5/2022 at 2:24 PM, Bean said:

My brother is in Charlottesville VA - He’s got a couple 505 V6 5sp cars

V6 5sp, those are incredibly rare arent they? Are they running & driving?

 

On 7/5/2022 at 1:52 PM, LBC28730 said:

There's a little rattle in the front suspension

My first bushings to go out on all of my 505's were the front sway bar bushings - making rattle noises in every corner. Eventually my sway bar came disconnected while driving.

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On 7/5/2022 at 2:24 PM, Bean said:

My brother is in Charlottesville VA - He’s got a couple 505 V6 5sp cars.  

I’ve ridden through Asheville years ago, but absolutely stunning country.

Totally normal for both to indicate - best response I got was “If you don’t know which way you yourself have signalled you have bigger issues”

Rabin

Haha fair enough! That thought did cross my mind. 

On 7/5/2022 at 2:30 PM, Bean said:

You’ll find a thorough going through of all the grounding tree locations, all grounds, all electrical connectors, and fusing the electric fan circuit will work wonders for the car’s electrical system.

Peugeot used unsealed electric plug connections, and exposed grounds which reek havoc with functionality over time.  
 

Too bad about the AC, but it might be worthwhile to do a vintage air or similar aftermarket system.  The XD2s did have AC so sourcing the AC components to mount the AC compressor should be easy-ish to find.

Rabin

Makes sense. I am looking to purchase a 3 volume factory service manual next weekend so that should really get me going. 
I'm not finding a lot of detailed information online and many of the links for information are dead. 

Oddly enough, the original owner had rigged a switch to the left of the steering column that turns the fan on, but only on high, regardless of the main speed lever position. 

I was wrong, it DOES have AC! I am just unfamiliar with the controls. 
I'm going to look closer for the ports, they were not immediately obvious when I looked yesterday. 
Once I get that tracked down I can pull a vacuum on it and go from there. 

Once I actually looked closer at the engine bay the compressor is visible and still connected. 
PO suggested it just needed to be charged but I thought that maybe they were mistaken. 

 

49 minutes ago, Jayden M said:

V6 5sp, those are incredibly rare arent they? Are they running & driving?

 

My first bushings to go out on all of my 505's were the front sway bar bushings - making rattle noises in every corner. Eventually my sway bar came disconnected while driving.

Ah yes that could very well be it and a fairly simple fix. 

I'll know soon, once I get underneath there. 

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Ironically enough, I found a brand new set of tie rods in the trunk!

Safe bet that could be part of it! 

 

I really want to dive into the electrical stuff but have no diagrams so I suppose I'll hold off until I bite the bullet and pay the $250usd for the manuals...

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On 7/8/2022 at 8:59 PM, Bean said:

There’s some online manuals available for download - unless you want the actual paper copies?

Rabin

Hey bud!
I've downloaded a lot of files but all of them seem to be copies of the same files, most of them applicable only to the gasoline engines and none I've found that have good wiring diagrams. 

I'd love to have both, but so far I feel like I am not having great success finding files that are viable for my model. 

Can you recommend anything?

I am absolutely having some grounding issues, judging by how some of the electricals are acting, but I am completely unfamiliar with this platform and how to access the critical areas, so I have been proceeding very cautiously as to not damage anything. 

I DID dive in to the passenger front door to diagnose the window motor and was pleasantly surprised as to how easy and straightforward that was, even without instruction. 

Things like removing the instrument cluster have given me pause, though, as instructions seem to be to "just yank it out". 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Excited to get this 3 volume set!

 

Just in time I guess,  as it seems I've developed a pretty good leak at the distributor block on the I/ P. 🤔

 

If anyone has a Bosch VE laying around I can tinker with I'd be happy to take it off your hands,  for a fee of course!

20220719_043030.jpg

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There’s something about having proper paper manuals to work from - great score!

I’ve started working on my 86 505 Turbo 5sp sedan the last few weeks myself - got the proper filter head fitted into it after fighting leaks for weeks only to find the IP governor assembly is stuck so it starts and stays WOT!

I sourced some new seals for the IP top cover, accel shaft, and a diaphragm for the fuel pin just in case - hoping to tackle it soon.

IP’s are internally very similar to the IP of the VW IDI injection pumps.  I have spare pump resealed and built with AAZ goodies many years ago, but saving that for my wagon if I ever get to it.

I’m slowly building my diesel experience, and if you need help with bleeding the fuel system or the filter head - I know these well now!

Rabin

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  • 2 months later...

I have yet to address my blower fan resistor issue, and have continued to use the POs setup of manual fan control, when needed. 
It works fine on "Hi", even though I have found they used speaker wire for the line to the manual switch. 

Regardless of that, I certainly have more critical issues to address. 
Mainly:
- Instrument cluster lighting only works after car has been running for ~15-20 minutes (assume this is a grounding issue)
- Factory head unit (radio) WAS working, but now only works intermittently, which I also assume is a grounding issue. 

- Fuel gauge ONLY stopped working earlier today but would come back to normal if I turned the headunit on and off ( lolol, I know, it has to be grounds)
- All blinkers (directional, Hazard) stopped working (have replacement flasher module, looks the same but plug prongs will need to be modified)
-  have replaced the vacuum pump with an electric one which works fantastic, when it works. Still need to determine a dedicated Ignition "ON" circuit. FSM shows auxiliary power block behind the glove box but now that I have the lower dash exposed I will likely be able to find something closer to the drivers side. 
I HAVE considered having it always hot as, if the check valves are working properly, it should be fine. For convenience I may keep it always hot, for now. 
Posting link to the youtube of my underdash video, looks overall really good, one wire that was out of place that I will figure out. 

-power steering works, properly, but is leaking, somewhere. I haven't determined where, yet, and I have left the PS belt off, for now. 

- Inner tie rod on one side needs replacing. The car actually came with a set of complete inner and outers, just waiting to order alignment panels to do it myself, since no one wants to touch it, when I live. 
- Cruise control inoperable. 
- Wipers have stopped working. How it happened felt like a relay or ground, haven't had the time to address it yet. 

- Speedometer/odometer inoperable. Odometer reset seems very "jammed" so I would assume the assembly inside it damaged. I have yet to pull the cluster out as I was concerned it may create other drivability issues. 

Lower priority:
- AC operational
- Moonroof operation (I think I have this sorted but need to address the drains and seal of the panel)
 

20220922_020415.jpg

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That angle makes them look much more out of spec than it really is. 
I was able to get this flasher for <4usd and it was in stock. 
I was able to only mildly bend the prongs in and then up again to be square, and it works fantastic. 

Through Advance auto the info is:

Novita

Hazard Warning Flasher

Thermal Flasher

Part No. 550

20220922_030114.jpg

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