Project Belle'

[Commerciale]

These were delivered this morning.

Attachment 101849Attachment 101850

They are interesting because they are pliable and not rigid like the original product. I have contacted the seller to ask it he knows what material/polymer was used to fabricate them. Hopefully they will stand up to the Australian sun.

I found them on the following website, which is a bit like Aussiefrogs. It appears to be administered by one individual.

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https://www.zerotrois.ch/

It contains some interesting information about 203 and 403s. (It does convert to English.)

Cheers

Dano

Hi Dan

The plastic bits look good but you have one problem. The gear lever surround is probably for LHD and the numbers will be around the wrong way. This could confuse both the gearbox and operator!!

[Dano]

No one could steal it then. They'd be totally stuffed. That is, if they get past the turn the key, push the power button in, pull out the S button for the choke and then the D button for the pull start. Pretty sure they'd have given up by the time they tried to fathom out the back to front up-side-down gear change configuration.

[Andrew Watkins]

You should be safe enough - apparently one of the better theft-proofing devices these days is a manual gearbox. The average teenage bogan can't cope with one, let alone a Peugeot column shift.

Number of car hijackings recently in which the gentlemen involved dumped keys and car once they realised it was a manual

Young folk these days! Not what we were

Andrew

[GRAHAM WALLIS]

They can't even handle the more conventional late 404 shift. A friend of mines was stolen, found around the corner from his home with a burnt out clutch!

[Dano]

Broke my own mantra, about not touching the 203 before the 404 is finished yesterday. Ah, but I have good cause as a friend is driving to Melbourne and offered to take the diff housing and centre to be overhauled down there.


So, up went Belle’s rear end and out came the rear axle. In the process, I managed to drop thick black oil on the floor. God knows how many times I have pulled out rear ends and had rags and drip trays at the ready, but I somehow still manage to drop oil on the floor.


When did Peugeot start stamping/embossing the year of manufacture on the axle tubes? There is none on the tubes from either this car or the donor wreck I stripped. The diff housing has H54 on it. Does that make it a 54 diff?



As state before, I have managed to source all new bearings, seals, worm wheel, pinion and the fibrous washers between the gears.
Should be nice and smooth when done.

Found another oddity as well. The left rear had the later 203/403 brake drum configuration (wider) and the right side still has the standard thinner type. Would have made for interesting braking in the wet?




As this is the first time I have had her up this high, it gave me a good chance to have a look around the body at/for rust. There is small amounts around one jacking point and along between the jacking points. Nothing major though. In the main, the floor looks good around the back floor area etc. The structural sills have had some remedial work done before and it looks a bit iffy. Will definitely be removing the patchwork to see what lies underneath.

Now back to work on the 404.

Cheers

Dano

[GRAHAM WALLIS]

The brake drums/linings are the same width, the later ones had a square shape making them look wider.
Yes, H54 would be 54 model.

[Dano]

Thanks Graham on both counts. I was always under the impression, that what I referred to as the narrower drums, were indeed that. I guess you can teach an old dog a trick or in my case something new.