fourword - Renault Car Club of Australia Inc.

FOURWORD
NEWSLETTER OF THE RENAULT 4CV REGISTER OF AUSTRALIA
(INCORPORATING ALL REAR ENGINED RENAULT)
ISSUE NO 102
SEPTEMBER, 2014
ANOTHER CAVANAGH FAMILY Wedding
The Cavanagh family celebrated yet another wedding
on March 29, 2014. This time, it was son James' turn to
tie the knot, marrying his absolutely delightful fiance
Amy Zarb.
Long time members would remember James at most of
the early Musters as a little boy wanting to grow up and
drive his own 4CV to a Muster. James has, by the way,
driven to some Musters, but in his Renault 10 rather
than a 4CV. His 4CV, called Norm, is a long long long
term project, still sitting on its side in my garage.
About 12 months ago, James and Amy set out to
organise some wedding cars for the forthcoming
wedding. They went to an address of a chap who had
some early Citroens. James, being James, spotted a 4CV poking out from under a tarp in the corner of
the yard. James asked if he could hire it for the wedding. The chap simply replied, "Why don't you buy it
off me?" After some serious reasoning with Amy, James had the 4CV on a trailer heading home to
Sunbury with Amy surprisingly still interested in marriage.
The 1953 4CV (now named Emma) has some
rather serious issues. The previous owner had
never driven it, and it has not been on the
road since 1975. After James and I spent
several weekends tweaking, fiddling and fitting
missing parts, we got Emma reliable enough
to do the church run okay.
The wedding went ahead as planned on a
beautiful sunny day with Emma the black 4CV
looking superb, with its white wedding ribbons
and in company with a black Citroen Big 6
wedding car. A Big congratulations to James
and Amy and a big welcome to the family and
the world of 4CV's to Amy. Amy has even shown some interest in coming to the next Muster in Forbes.
Cheers to a happy and bright future to both of you.
Steve Cavanagh
A Very Photogenic 4cv
At right is a nice photo sent
to us by John Waterhouse.
He decided to enhance this
photo (that has appeared
on Aussiefrogs), and thinks
the version he sent us is
rather better. He’s lightened
it and fixed the colour
balance a bit. John thinks
the car is 1952-4, in the
French Alps perhaps. He
thinks it might be an original
photograph from that time
too. “It is a very artistic
composition, the red coat
providing wonderful colour
contrast” he says – and we
agree with him!
2
PROGRESS REPORT ~ Ian kingsland
Progress report ~ tony beeks
3
Co ordinator’s COMMENT
Time for another Fourword already, they seem to roll around very quickly. I am writing this one from
Clermont in Queensland on another trip with our caravan. We have been away for just on four weeks
and have another three to go. Our plan is to be home on Friday September 5. We have never been to
this part of Queensland before and have visited places such as Longreach, Mt Isa, Charleville and
Charters Towers. We called and saw members Peter and Evelyn Harris in Warwick (they were to leave
for the UK, France and Italy for five weeks the day after we left them, hope they had a great trip) early in
our trip and on our way back home will call and see a few more members in and around Brisbane.
Sydney held its All French Car Day at Silverwater Park on Sunday July 13. I attended with my 4CV along
with a few other Register members. The weather was kind to us and there was a good showing of
Renaults.
Then on the next day, Bastille Day, Sydney French Car owners were invited to participate in the
Centenary of the first Airmail flight from Melbourne to Sydney which was originally flown by Frenchman
Maurice Guillaux. He flew a ‘French Bleriot XI’ aircraft, a plane of this type has been preserved in Musee
des Arts et Metiers in Paris. This may interest those who attended Caraboucles in 2012, as we visited
this Museum. There were three Renaults, my 750, Alastair Browne’s R16 from RCCA in Sydney and
Ernst Luthi’s Alpine A110, also from RCCA in Sydney, plus a couple of Peugeots and Citroens. We
picked up the guests of honour and delivered them to the reception which was held at the Sydney
Powerhouse Museum. It was good to be involved in something of which we knew nothing about
previously. As usual there were interesting comments about the old French cars.
The plans for the Forbes Muster are well in hand by Rex and Heather Veal, still a few things to sort out
before the end of the year when we will have full details and payment calculator in the next issue. As a
reminder to everyone if you are intending to come along please make your bookings as soon as possible
and let them know you are with the Renault 4CV Register. This is important as they are holding rooms
for our club. Accommodation details in this issue.
I have had an email from Nicky Speight (email: [email protected] ; Mob: 0422 153 100) who has
a 4CV for sale. A nice looking car with new paintwork and upholstery but has been sitting for a few years
and would just need some tuning and the brakes need a check. The car is located in the Taree area,
NSW. Anyone interested please contact Nicky directly.
I also received another email regarding the 3rd Annual Geelong Motoring Festival, November 28 - 30
this year. There will be classic sprints along the waterfront and displays of classic cars. Perhaps our
Victorian members would be interested or anyone who may be around there later in the year. Certainly
sounds like a good event, I wouldn’t mind going sometime but not this year after the trips away we have
had already!! A shame you can’t get to everything. If interested check out their website:
www.geelongrevival.com.au/the-events/sprint-trials/
That’s about it from me for this time. Hope you are getting a chance to get out and about in your cars.
Frank Wicks
National Coordinator
COMMITTEE 2013/2015
National Co-ordinator
Editor
Co-Editor
Treasurer
State Co-ordinators
Queensland
New South Wales
South Australia
Victoria
Western Australia
Tasmania
ACT
Frank Wicks
Rex Olson
Rob Toogood
Bob Gray
(02) 4324 2640
0411 221 499
0419 110 627
(07) 3821 1826
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Bruce Slade
David Smith
Colin Redmond
Steve Cavanagh
Peter Olsen
Peter Davson-Galle
Les Warren
(07) 3844 4231
(02) 4377 1152
(08) 8289 7417
(03) 9974 0192
(08) 9277 7407
(03) 6396 6118
(02) 6382 2170
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
4
HAYNES Car museum England
Look what we found recently in the Haynes International Car Museum in Somerset, England – a 1959
4CV and a 1967 Caravelle. It’s a huge museum with over 400 cars on display.
Rob Toogood
BOB BILLIARD’s RARE R8g
Only around 28 R1134 cars were brought into OZ by Renault Australia. Mine is still an original stamped
body. The engine was 1100CC and developed 95 BHP @ 6500 RPM, very high HP rating in 1965. Top
speed of 103MPH
Amédée Gordini first started with Renault in the late 50’s and his first Renault was the Dauphine Gordini.
Renault would not let him do much to the older “ventoux” engine and therefore they had only some minor
head modifications and a camshaft modification and a larger carby. The R8 was the first real
performance engine modifications that Gordini was allowed complete control of the complete unit. The
“Sierra” series engine lent for high performance with the 5 bearing crankshaft and more substantial crank
and rods, the engine being about square 70mm bore and 72mm stroke. The engine had larger oil
galleries, camshaft bearings, high compression pistons, sporty camshaft, cross flow head, twin 40mm
Solex side draught carbies, extractors and oil cooler. The suspension was lower, dual rear shocks and
servo assisted 4 wheel disc brakes. The interior was much the same as the R8 major but there was a
sporty dash with instruments as well as warning lights, a large tacho to 8000 RPM and no red line and a
large speedo. Other minor items were passenger panic grab handle, map light power output, two speed
heater. Outside of the car has larger headlights, a Gordini badge and air horns as standard. The rims are
12mm wider than the standard R8 rims. Price in 1965 was £1315 including sales tax. Not cheap at all at
nearly twice the price of the standard 40BHP R8.
The only non-standard item in my car is the engine as it is the upgraded Renault Alpine 1296cc model
with twin 40mm Webbers increasing the performance having 129bhp and making the car much easier to
drive around the town without having to rev to 3000RPM to get going as in the 1100cc version. Still
doesn’t do much below 3500RPM, but revs very quickly to 6500RPM. They will rev beyond 8000RPM,
but don’t last very long. There is a road test from 1965 at: http://goggodart.com/r8gart1.html
5
Finally, a problem with the 4CV engine ~ Part 3a
Further troubleshooting
This is the third and neither planned nor desired part of the description of the engine work that formed
the Waterhouse Christmas Project over the 2013-4 festive season. As described here, the work “leaked”
into January 2014 when continued overheating was experienced.
The first part of the article described symptoms, dismantling and diagnosis. The second part describes
the reassembly of the partly dismantled engine, the work done with the engine left in place in the car.
This third part describes subsequent overheating, the diagnosis of the cause and subsequent resolution
of the problem. A golden rule with troubleshooting of this type of problem is to change only one thing at a
time! I have kept to that rule.
RE-APPEARANCE OF OVERHEATING
The initial drive after reassembly was
encouraging. The car ran well, with no oil
smoke and the loss of a persistent light rattle,
now attributed to that broken gudgeon pin bush.
The photo below shows the beginnings of
overheating (again!). Driven for no more than 810 km, the gauge rose steadily to this position
and appeared to stabilise.
Not quite
comfortable but it seemed OK, although higher
than I’d ever seen as a cruising temperature.
For comparison, here is a 1967 photo of the instrument cluster (then an incorrect grey 1955 unit) taken
whilst driving across the Hay Plains in NSW. They seem never-ending at 50 mph (80 kph) anyway. The
gauge and sender unit are the ones still in the car in 2013, 46 years later. The temperature gauge shows
a significantly lower temperature, and we were driving perhaps 500 km per day. This trip also used the
then-new radiator that has just been replaced.
Back to 2013! As soon as a longer drive than 8-10 km was attempted, the needle rose further and the
car was found to have lost coolant when checked after returning home. No boiling was heard (we live at
the top of a hill, which is a good test) but my infra-red temperature gun suggested that the header tank
fluid temperature was 1070C. The Peugeot coolant presumably boils around this temperature (and my
car has an unpressurised system). One explanation is that the radiator core is slightly blocked, despite
being near-new, and that a full flow from the water pump was building up a head sufficient for coolant to
rise up the filling pipe to drain from the overflow pipe. There was a good blast of hot air from the fan (and
I double-checked that the fan was the right way around!).
Next run, rather shorter, was to test
temperatures in different parts of the cooling
system.
There were only a few degrees
difference between the two radiator hoses, 82
degrees on the top (inlet) hose and 79 degrees
on the bottom (outlet) hose, so the radiator
seemed not to be cooling effectively for some
reason.
The temperatures were fairly even
along the cylinder head on the spark plug side,
on the outside of the upper hose and on the
header tank, all suggesting reasonable coolant
flow inside the cylinder head. In addition, I would
judge that a low coolant flow rate would tend to
increase the coolant temperature difference from
radiator inlet to outlet.
I hadn’t yet fitted the shrouding that provides the heating air to the front of the car, so refitted that
system, with no effect at all on cooling.
So, where to start from here? This rebuild was carried out with a lot of care and attention to detail.
Much thinking was needed. The obvious aspects could be summarised:
6
1. The car heated to working temperature within a few minutes, despite the lack of a thermostat (absent
on most 4CVs). This seemed slightly too high a warm-up rate.
2. The temperature rose reasonably steadily and just continued rising to boiling point, even driven
gently in mild temperatures (about 250C, a typical early Perth summer morning temperature).
To reiterate, the work carried out was:
1. The engine work, including a reconditioned head with a new water tube and new head gasket
2. A new 2-bank radiator core to replace an old, partly clogged and leaking 2-bank core unit
3. A rebuilt water pump (by me, a new kit into the old housing, including polishing up the bronze seal
face)
4. All the shields in the world in place around engine and radiator and the full side trays, including an
extra one across the top of the radiator
5. Appropriately tight fan belt
6. All the fan shrouding, with the heater flaps open
7. Slightly advanced timing, not retarded
8. Blue Peugeot coolant.
Further testing revealed:
1. No loss of coolant overnight.
2. No coolant in oil.
3. Absolutely no bubbling in coolant when running – the head gasket seemed to be sealing perfectly.
4. Timing rechecked and OK.
5. Manifold side checked and OK. Tight and new gaskets.
6. It heats up quite quickly – in the garage it reached 650 within 5 minutes of starting and running on
fast idle. Virtually no change in coolant temperature across the radiator, that is from top hose to
bottom hose. Perhaps some tubes blocked and some giving sufficient flow but not sufficient cooling
area? I have measured these with a temperature gun, so I can measure spot temperatures in various
places easily. The head temperature at the end and along the plug side was about the same as
coolant temperature on top hose, same in header tank and almost the same in the lower hose.
7. After shutting down, it rose to 700+C in the header tank as you’d expect and the temperature gauge
was about in middle of range, i.e. everything points to the gauge and sender unit being OK.
I couldn’t think of anything else to test by remote sensing! Nor was the car driveable. After some thought,
the only remaining problems seemed to be one or more of:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Radiator slightly blocked by early trial before engine rebuild
Radiator inadequate in capacity
Water pump flow inadequate
Sandwich plate between water pump and cylinder head fitted the wrong way.
So, there was really no realistic alternative but to pull the radiator out again, get it checked (top tank off!)
and discuss its capacity with the expensive supplier. I also pulled the water pump off again and doublechecked the sandwich plate (found to have been correctly
installed) and the impeller clearance with respect to the
sandwich plate (at the minimum, so correct). So the pump
looked OK but did it pump properly?
Everything pointed to the radiator being the problem at
this stage. Various friends agreed! However, first I
wanted to know for sure that the water pump was
producing a good flow. So the next action, suggested by
Ray Watson (“Geckoeng”) in Perth was to make up a test
rig and check the water pump discharge in situ. That was
a GOOD idea, as I had been wracking my brains about
how to measure the coolant flow before spending more
money on the radiator core. My test rig design is
illustrated below. I planned to have about the same depth
of water in the tank as the height of the radiator, so that
the pumping head was about the same as for a freeflowing radiator.
7
A few measurements of flow for different engine rpm gave the following draft.
It is clear that the
water pump is
functioning well.
Electric coolant
pumps for 3-litre
engines deliver
80 litres/minute.
At this stage, the
only remaining
component that
could contribute to overheating was the new radiator. Back to the
supplier…. After discussions with Colin Redmond, a second core
with three rows of tubes was purchased.
In parallel, this was time for some more test rig work to test a
thermostat housing built locally and to attempt the calibration of
the temperature gauge.
The thermostat worked a treat and brought the car to operating
temperature (with the test tank of course, not a radiator) within 5
minutes at about 1,800 rpm. Bob Senn, here in Perth, has made
one of these thermostat housings for a UK-built car that came
from New Zealand and now lives in Darwin. It seems to work
perfectly.
The other lesson from the thermostat test was to use something
other than PVC for the next test rig. PVC softens and sags at
engine coolant temperatures! “Black poly” pipe (HDPE) would
probably do the job well.
The temperature gauge calibration was checked by
photographing the gauge at measured temperatures, using a
temperature gun on the sensor (now fitted to the end of the
cylinder head instead of in the radiator header tank) and
measuring the temperature of the water returning to the
storage tank. The result is illustrated below and shows that
the gauge and sender are pretty good, especially considering
that they are about 60 years old.
So, nothing had been left to chance. Now to wait for the
second new radiator core! A three-tube core is a bit less than
50 mm thick so that was ordered. The Natrad receipt’s
description is “Core used 342 mm high by 345 mm wide, 3 row, CT 12FPI.” ‘CT’ is the core type and ‘12
FPI’, Australia being metric since about 1970, means 12 fins per inch.
Good results! The temperature is not only lower, roughly where it should be and was for the “Hay
Plains” photograph, but the temperature also rises and falls with the driving conditions. When I came off
the freeway, the temperature dropped. One of the characteristics
of a marginal cooling system in these cars is that each time the
engine gets hotter, for example climbing a hill, nothing seems to
bring it down from the new higher temperature until eventually it
boils. I did a hot weather test at perhaps 360C and found it came
close to boiling with water in the system. However, as soon as it
was driven again at a cooler 300C the temperature stayed well
within the “blue” band illustrated below. There might be trouble at
400C!
~TO BE CONTINUED~
John Waterhouse
8
Some Australian Renault history
Thanks to Roger
Copp for sending us
the information below
that he found on the
AussieFrogs website.
The spiritual home of
the original Renault
Australia
at
153
George St Redfern in
NSW
has
been
redeveloped
into
luxury
apartments.
George St was the
home of Renault
Australia administration, training and spare parts from 1959 until the move of Renault Australia
administration to West Heidelberg in Victoria in 1966, after which it was retained for spare parts, service
and training for NSW. It was replaced by the purpose built Roseberry service facility in 1973.
My Response to the Post: I did not know that, interesting Renault History, what I do know is that the
1954 Renault 4cv I purchased on 14th February, 1966 (date of introduction of decimal currency) and my
present 1958 4cv were assembled in a factory in Belmore, which is still there as Pickles motor auctions.
When in Paris some years ago, I got some pics of the Factory, and when ACC did a piece on my 4cv a
couple of years ago, they asked me to drive to Belmore and took some snaps outside the factory.
Thought you might be interested in this trivia, and Renault History.
My Response again: Forgot to mention, my present 4cv came from York Motors in Sydney, in William
Street
From Simon: The Belmore factory was originally constructed by Ira L & AC Berk in 1948, Berk House,
the administrative offices, were located on William St. In June 1958 Renault France appointed Harden &
Johnston the NSW distribution rights, then Renault had their fourth or fifth (depending on how you count
them) Australian launch when Renault (Australia) commenced operations at Redfern. Renault felt they
could go to the next level on a national basis with more co-ordinated servicing, training and parts
availability. However, under managing director Pierre Le Godec, Renault sales decreased until Jacques
Thoridnet took over as managing director and negotiated the acquisition of Continental and General in
1966. Renault sales doubled in 1967. Pierre Le Godec was moved to Canada in 1965 to oversee the
construction of a Renault assembly plant.
Roger Copp
A 4cv tractor?
Frank Wicks kindly drew our
attention to a for sale ad in
Aussifrogs about this homemade garden tractor that was
built using Renault 750 parts.
It currently has an 850
Dauphine
engine
but
apparently the block is
cracked. It was advertised as
also having a number of
spares.
It shows just how versatile
and useful the 4CV motor
(and later versions of it) has
been over the years.
9
Rare Find on the internet
1948/1949 Renault 760cc 4CV for sale.
This very rare 4CV was manufactured between September 1948 and March 1949 and first registered in
the U.K. on 8th October 1984. It was partly restored by a Renault garage in the early 1980s but the
garage went bankrupt and the project was not finished. The current owner bought the car at auction and
embarked on continuing the restoration buying some new items for it and having the speedometer
overhauled. As sometimes happens, they couldn’t keep up with the time demands and the wellintentioned project fell by the wayside. This car is left hand drive, the engine is the original 759cc (760)
and it is free and turns smoothly with the starting handle. The car was located near Towcester,
Nothamptonshire, England. The owner was asking for offers over £5,000.
Note the original shape instrument cluster
Note the three spoke steering wheel and the early light switch stalk.
Letters to the editor
We received an excellent suggestion that Fourword should include a “Letters to the Editor” section for
readers to make comments, air their ideas, provide suggestions etc. Our first letter (email) is below.
For what it's worth, I think that the magazine is coming along nicely. One suggestion I have is a "letters
to the editor" section for flow-on substantive comment on articles. Cheers!
Peter Davson-Galle
10
A VERY SAD FACE
This edition we have included a number
of 4CV wrecks – not that we like to see
them in this state, but wrecks are a part
of car life and death. The car here has
certainly suffered terminal damage.
Thanks also to Steve Cavanagh for
pointing out that the wreck shown in the
last edition was not a 4CV but actually a
Peugeot 203 (also a very good car for
its day). Incidentally, we love readers to
send any interesting Renault pictures to
us, and of course, we love to receive
any stories or articles from members.
RENAULTS IN PHANTOM COMICS
Thanks to Rex Olsen for passing the cuttings below
(sent to him by “Peugeot Pete”). The Dauphine and
the 4CV appeared in Phantom comic no. 1689.
11
4CV Upgrades – Part 1
Over recent months I have made a number of upgrades to my 4CV to make
it easier and more pleasant to drive. These upgrades were the fitting of
some instruments to the dash, fitting relays to the lights and horn, an electric
cooling fan to help control engine temperature on slow running hot days and
the fitting of a 6 Volt Alternator. Some years ago I also fitted an electric fuel
pump. The following stories should help explain it all.
1. Instruments.
Going back 18 months to two years ago on a country trip to an event, my
engine ended up with big end bearing failure when the oil pump gauze filter
became clogged with a jelly like substance (that’s another story) as I missed
seeing the oil pressure light come on. I decided then that I needed some
gauges, or at least an oil pressure gauge. From various sources I obtained a
capillary tube type oil pressure gauge (6 volt electric ones are like trying to
buy rocking horse doo doo), an ammeter and a coolant temperature gauge. I
then heard from John Waterhouse in Perth that he had located a supplier of 2 inch diameter, 6 volt 0 to
5000RPM tachometers. John ordered several, one being for me. Courtesy of Bob Gray I acquired
another dash panel and after de-rusting it, I cut four holes in it on the driver’s side to accommodate these
gauges. I then had it painted and swapped it for my original dash and completed the installation and
wiring of them all. Being directly in front of me they are very visible and hopefully I will not have the same
engine failure as before. The tachometer was obtained from a company called Westach in California
USA and was reasonably priced (I forget the exact price but it wasn’t expensive). Their website is
http://www.westach.com/ I have also installed a 0 to 8 volt voltmeter in separate aluminium housing
under the right side of the dash and have warning lamps for RH and LH flasher, and a switch and
warning lamp for the electric cooling fan.
2. Lights and Relays.
As most of you would know the 6 volt electrical system has a few
drawbacks (i.e. they are p..ss weak) over the more modern 12 volt
systems. One of the drawbacks is that you do not need much in the way of
a poor connection before you have a problem resulting in very dull
headlights and poor starting. After scaring myself on a night country trip
late last year I thought it was about time to do something about it. I also did
not want to convert to 12 volts.
I bought some 6 Volt 20 amp relays and fitted relays to high and
low beams and also to the horns with new appropriate sized
wiring. The difference it made to the lights was amazing; at this
point I had fitted 30/35 watt QH globes. The horn now also works
at full volume every time the button is pushed. The results were
that good I decided to fit a relay to the tail lights. When about to
do this I became curious to see what voltage they had first (I
should have done this as well when I did the headlights). The
Battery had 6.30 Volts available and the voltage measured at the
taillight globe contact was only 4.27volts. After fitting the relay
that rose to 6.17 volts and the taillights are also nice and bright. I
also purchased two 2 inch diameter reflectors (the type you
normally see on the back of trailers etc.) but these have 5 LED
lights in them. They are designed to run at 12 volts but are too
bright; at 6 volts they are just right. I made a couple of brackets
and mounted them under the rear bumper and I reckon they look
pretty good.
Relays, globes and reflectors and much more can be obtained
from Anthony Pearson of Vintage and Classic Globes. Phone 08
8278 4393, mobile 0401123316. Email [email protected] or www.classicandvintagebulbs.com
12
3. Cooling Fan.
At times in the Summer on very hot days it is difficult to keep the engine temperature from rising too
high, especially if in a parade with very little airflow. I had a heavy duty core fitted to the radiator but
some days that also struggles. John Waterhouse was having the same problem and through the internet
found a supplier of 6 volt engine cooling fans, again in the States. John ordered two, one being for me.
They were 12 inch diameter, 6 volt negative earth
pusher type fans with 90 degree mounting feet.
On arrival I pulled out one of my spare radiators
and made up a couple of mounting brackets that
mount on the three studs on either side that
usually accommodate the radiator surrounds.
After making the brackets I then removed the
radiator side cardboards and tinware and slid the
fan with brackets in behind the radiator and bolted
it in place, then refitted the tinware and cardboard
panels. After wiring it up using another relay in
the engine bay and a switch and warning light
under the dash you wouldn’t know it was there
except for the whirring noise when it is turned on. The fan was obtained from Gary Wilson of Scotts
Cooling Fans, their website is http://www.scottscoolingfans.com/ and was around $200 including
delivery.
4. Alternator.
Frank Wicks was having similar problem to most of us with lights etc from the 6 volt electrical system and
the fact that most 4CV generators only pump out a maximum of 24 amps means that if you use headlight
globes much bigger than 35 watts you will end up with a flat battery if you drive for any long period at
night. He found a supplier of 6 Volt alternators in the US on EBay and bought one. After talking to Frank I
decided to follow suit and get one as well.
The ones we got were 6 Volt, 60amp, Negative earth, single wire alternators fitted with half inch wide
pulley. The supplier was Howard Enterprises from Kansas USA. Email Bill Howard at
[email protected] . Cost including delivery at the exchange rate in early May was $AU 192.32. They
can also supply a universal fitting mounting kit for $US 37.50 plus about $US17.50 postage. If you are
using standard 4CV or Dauphine manifolds then the universal kit can be used, however if you are using
Dauphine Gordini, Floride or Autobleu extractors the Alternator must be lowered to clear the manifolds.
My car is fitted with the Autobleu extractors so I made up my own mounting, see drawing and photos.
This mount drops the Alternator about 62mm and gives over 15mm of clearance to my manifold and very
slightly more for the Dauph G type. It is also necessary to make a new belt adjusting strap. Mine pivots
from the engine mounting bolt and I am using the original generator belt. Being a single wire Alternator
you throw away the original generator and regulator wiring and all you need do is connect a suitable
13
heavy gauge wire from the main battery cable on the starter motor to the alternator and another of the
same gauge from the starter to the heavy wire that had been on the regulator that supply’s battery power
to your fuse box (either in the boot or under the dash, depending on what model you have. You can also
remove the old regulator as it is no longer needed; the alternator has its own inbuilt regulator. Now with
the 60 amp alternator fitted it is possible to fit higher wattage globes so it was off to see Anthony
Pearson again to get a pair of 60/65 watt quartz halogen globes. These have made the headlights as
good as most 12 volt equipped modern cars. They are that good that if mine are on high beam then I
have people flashing me to dip my lights.
5. Electric Fuel Pump.
Another problem I had was with my fuel pump. If left for a few days, before attempting to start the motor I
had to pump fuel up to the carburettor using the priming lever on the pump or risk flattening the battery
trying to crank it up. I overhauled the pump several times (kits are now difficult to find) and also changed
pumps several times. In the end I got sick of it and got a 6 volt low pressure electric pump and fitted it
with a filter behind the radiator. The original pump I dismantled and removed everything inside of it and
filled it with Silicone sealer (to stop oil leaks) then drilled through the middle of it and put a pipe straight
through so from the outside it still looks standard. Sometime later when doing some work I decided to
check what pressure was being delivered to the carburettor and almost died when I found it was over 5
PSI. I then bought a pressure regulator and during discussion with the supplier he suggested winding the
adjustable regulator all the way back to the stop and then advance it one notch. This gives a half a PSI
pressure and he assured me my engine would never starve at that setting. So far he has been right as I
have driven it as hard as I can and it has never shown signs of fuel starvation. I always enjoy driving my
4CV and with these upgrades it is now a pleasure to drive, especially at night.
PART 2 NEXT EDITION
Col Redmond
FORBES MUSTER ACCOMMODATION INFORMATION
Rex and Veal, our Muster Coordinators for 2015, have booked the Plainsman Motel as our HQ for the
weekend Friday April 3 to Monday April 6.
Plainsman Motel
22 Sherriff Street, Forbes NSW 2871
Ph: 02 6852 2466
www.plainsmanmotel.com.au
Rooms approximately $128 per night,
but may be an increase before 2015.
Caravan Parks in Forbes
Apex Riverside Tourist Park
88 Reymond St., Forbes NSW 2871
Ph: 1800 303 43 or 02 6851 1929
www.apexriversidepark.com.au
Cabins and Motel Units available here
from $110 - $165 per night
Big 4 Forbes Holiday Park
141-145 Flint St., Forbes NSW 2871
Ph: 1800 641 207 or 02 6852 1055
www.big4forbesholidaypark.com.au
Cabins from $70 - $145 per night
BLAST FROM THE PAST ~ 2013 Muster in JUNEE
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Andrew holden’s restoration
At right is a photo showing the colour of Andrew Holden's
car. It is a Nissan Micra colour, London Rose (see Nissan
below). It should look pretty good when he has it together
and it has its chrome work on it. The fenders etc are only
hanging on it at the moment, All the seats etc are at the
trimmer’s, they are going to be a grey with white piping,
with the door trims grey as well and the hood lining an off
white.
Although its not
an original colour,
we’re all looking
forward greatly to
seeing the finished
vehicle (we’re sure
that it will look a lot
better than the
Nissan Micra)!!
YOU NEVER KNOW WHO YOU’LL RUN INTO!
In June this year, my wife, Barbara, and I
were wandering around Ireland and stopped
to look at some pottery in a little shop in the
village at Bunratty Castle. Barb started
talking to a couple of people in the shop and
they happened to say that they were
travelling together as part of a car club. “Oh
yes, what car club?” she enquired. GUESS
WHAT? – Yep, the UK Renault Classic Car
Club with their Chairman, Geoff Creighton.
Of course we all got talking and they listed
what model Renaults they owned (4CVs
were well represented!) and informed us
that they knew a number of our members.
Well, of course we took their photo for
Fourword and here it is.
Rob Toogood
Scale Model of the month
There are quite a number of Renault
4CV scale models around (and other
Renaults as well), however this is the
only one we have come across of the
“Commercial” variant. It’s a rather
crude looking model, but very
interesting nevertheless. We don’t
have any information about the
manufacturer, age or origin of this
scale model, and would like to hear
from anyone who either has one of
these or knows something about it.
Do any of our readers collect scale
models of Renaults?
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All articles, letters and other items for Fourword can be emailed to: [email protected]
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