My 404C resto begins!

Cheers guys.

Today I pressed the new bearings onto the motor shaft with a vise and then the pinion gear after it was inserted into and through the grease seal in the underside of the motor mounting plate. Checked the length of the original brushes: 6 mm and 9 mm....too short, so I looked in my spare parts stock and found two new or nearly new ones, both 12 mm long. Then the motor was tested and it was SO smooth!



Next task: the hydraulic part of the pump, which sits below the electrical part.
 
FWIW I was faced with finding new brushes for my wife's aged Bernina sewing machine.

Bernina agents did have them at a ridiculous price. ($aus 30 a pair !!

I searched ebay and found a a brush which was "close enough" A few minutes sanding and cutting to length and reshaping the end to fit the to comm resulted in perfect replacement.

Total cost $5 Aus for 10 pairs.

Worth bearing in mind for difficult to find brushes.
 
Good plan. These are almost identical to Lucas alternator brushes but I managed to rustle up some originals. They should be good for 60,000 km at least!
 
60,000KLM or rain showers? Whichever comes last.
 
Today I reassembled the hydraulic part of the AEG/KF PLF5A fuel lift pump.

Bad surprise: despite the excellent condition of the electrical part of the original pump that equipped my car, the same could not be said of the hydraulic part. The idler pinion inside the pump chamber was seized to its shaft! The last time I ran the engine was about 2005 so the seizure occurred after that....I presume after I disassembled the car in 2016. Also, the lower plate that covers the pump chamber has a regulation valve that is supposed to be removed and checked during a rebuild like this and it too was seized! Anyway, all was not lost...

...because I have a spare lift pump from a car I used to own in 1981-1985 and its hydraulic portion was perfect. All it needed was a thorough cleaning.


Cleaning nearly done and the last bits about to go back together....


And it's together. I did another dry run test with it all assembled and it sounded good. I should try a pump test, I suppose, though I have no reason to think it won't pump.
 
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Second time doing the driver's door panel. The window winder was not happy staying in place and that was down to the padding under the vinyl being too thick next to the embellisher. I also had to remount the lower part of the vinyl in order to slightly recontour the lower edge to better fit. And finally, the screws under the armrest were mounted.



I got new lifters and timing chain tensioner from Alveas in France, and two sets of NGK BP7ES from Rock Auto.

 
Nice work Mike. Why did you choose BP7ES plugs? I run BP5ES from memory
 
Zsolt Parragh in Hungary kindly sent me this tiny commutator for the AEG-KF fuel lift pump of the 404C - for free! Zsolt also has a 404C and his needed a new commutator, so he had a small batch made up. Very generous of him.



 
Mounted lap belts


High temperature paint on the brake shoes. The rear linings will be changed once I am sure the rear cylinders don't leak.


Removed brush holder from three phase SEV-Motorola alternator - dirty inside + dirty slip ring


Brush holder before cleaning


Cleaned slip ring


Putting the cleaned brush holder back in.
 
Rear brakes were assembled today. The main benefit was getting the handbrake operational (yes!) and of course all the hydraulics connected. Adjusting the handbrake mechanism under the car was a royal pain in the arse though.
A good step forward.


RR-brake.jpg
 
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Getting close, mate.
 
Front cylinders assembled:


Autopsy on the old oil pump - trashed inside. The new one is perfect but of a slightly different form. I will have to use a later type oil strainer with it. Luckily I have one, but I would rather use a new one if I can find one.
 
Brakes mounted.

It seems I may have lost or at least misplaced the brass connections between the front brake hoses and the forward brake cylinder. The hose can be screwed straight in but that's not correct. I'll find two of them somewhere.
Driver side front brake spring detail.jpg

RF wheel on.jpg

RF brake detail.jpg
 
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