1966 404 Coupé Injection Restoration

6 minute(s) of a 255 minute read

A year later and before installing the engine, something had been bugging me.  The fuel return line I had installed a year ago was too short and ended under the clamp you see on the left side of the photo.  So I had installed a rubber injection-rated fuel line with clamp and clamped the whole mess under the holder.  But it seems not rigorous and liable to cause leaks or some other problem over time.  So yesterday I bought another 16 feet of 5/16 inch Cunifer line and made that line over again.  Now it reaches to right under the fuel decanter filter, which is what it's supposed to do, with no hose clamp under a clamp that would be nearly impossible to access with the engine installed.  Much better!  I still don't know which is the fuel supply line and the return line, but if it's not the one I've connected to I can easily switch them.  The rubber fuel line you see on one Cunifer line is going to be cut again for an inline fuel filter.

I also started tidying up the blower units and hope to be able to get the best one working and cleaned up.

1-4-2021

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.

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.

1-8-2021

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!

1-9-2021

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.

1-15-2021

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.....

1-17-2021

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.