I have just completed a pretty full restoration of my 504. One of the first injection motors in the country, and marked 'injection' not 'TI'. Was purchased new by my family in March 1972 and has stayed with us for 48 years. Has been restored to original condition and drives as well now as it did in the 70's. Much loved and great to have it back on the road after a few years in a barn.
1972 504 injection restoration
- Thread starter chrisw
- Start date
1972, I was on a downslope on the Ballarat freeway at 90 mph in my 1971 2 litre, intern from the hospital in his new injection passed me at speed, showing over 110 on the speedo (how did we get away with it) except a road construction crew had dumped a deep pile of gravel over the road. The injection hit it and went out of control, skidded, crossed the median strip, all the opposing line of the freeway and up a bank. Both awesome and impressive, anything else would have rolled. He was ok but the injection front wheels weren't pointing where they should be but he drove back to Ballarat ok. His engine was later replaced for a noisy camshaft, a fault in some that came out that year. Ian Ansing from Renault was great like that, no repair, new motor.
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2000
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Camshaft and rocker gear problems were common in the 1800. For some reason the 1800 had stronger valve springs, 2 litre went back to original 404 spec and no further problems.
It's got the air vent in the rear quarter which was late in the year and more or less coincided with the twin lamps. I do recall being horrified by the first American headlamp model around late 1972. My 504 was delivered October 1972 with trapezoids but it was old stock. The family bought another in 1973 with the rear quarter air vent, twin headlights and Australian seats.
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I can't remember the month of mine but it had the trapezoidal headlamps and the rear vent.I do recall once putting away 180 miles in 2 hours.....somewhere in Australia. It also had a gear lever sizzle between 78 and 80 mph. Solution......81 mph. Those were the days.
If you ever have problems with hot starting in the future you can fit a relay with a wire from the distributor that sends current direct from the battery +ve to the coil +ve . My 73 cab has never had a starting problem since i did this 10 years ago
Very nice - some more photos of the process would be good to see!
Another thing to do is insert a dash switch that disables the electro valve on the intake manifold. When hot the cars are meant to be started with the gas pedal pushed down, as that valve fires with all starter engagements, hot or cold. But it's only needed when cold.
The first 2 504 injections i had in the early 70/s had no problems with hot starting so i guess it is a problem that develops with age. Your 404 coupe may have no problems as everything will be as new
The coil mounting on the early 504's allowed them to get too much heat from the block and was changed. My Bosch coil blew its top in traffic.
Mine rattles at 62-70. Solution: 60 or 75!
That's a great solution. We have been running a massive coil on ours since 1985 and have a couple of other tweaks that solved the notorious hot starting problem.
Replaced all the sound deadening, stripped to bare metal on floor plan and re-sprayed with primer and white, new carpets, new door cards, front seats done but rear still a little work in progress. Engine was done a couple of years ago and is essentially original but with rebuilt injection pump diaphragms, new headlights and tail lights, new bushes throughout, new 505 rear shocks, gear box linkages rebuilt, lots of body work and (thanks to Ian Robbo...) new (old) windscreen wiper motor.