Renault Fuego Project

M

minigordini

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Tadpole
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Nov 17, 2005
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Location
Sydney
I have taken ownership of the Fuego and will begin the tidy up. The paintwork is a little tired but should buff up respectably and the interior is pretty decent with a couple tears in the drivers seat and a crack in the dash. Mechanically it seems very sound and a good servicing should bring it up to scratch.

I think this thread could end up being another budget reno of a Renault. I'm sorry, you can stop throwing the tomatoes.
Feugo1.jpg
Fuego2.jpg
Fuego3.jpg
 
Some months ago I bought a red Fuego. It had been for sale for a while and being offered at reducing prices. I didn’t really want it or need it, but I sent a link to my wife (who was brought up in a Renault family) and she replied with, “Can we get it”.
I asked why? She replied saying that from age 12 she had wanted one, but had gotten a 12 and a Virage at that time. I drove to Lismore with her to pick it up on a trailer.

The story was it had been owned by the dealer in Lismore from new, and was the first Fuego sold in Australia. It had been reasonably looked after, although I have spent about $2500 on it since with many hours of labour. The car has been repainted in 2 pack at some stage so is not faded like most red Fuegos. Still need to sort the air conditioning and replace a cracked steering flector before registration.

My wife’s 50th birthday is at the end of this month so I need to get myself into gear and finish it for that event.

I have come to quite like the Fuego. It is not bad to work on, has a nice shape and a useful load area, and there are so few left on the road. My wife’s plan is to use it as her daily. Certainly more stylish than the Volvo XC90 she drives currently.
 
I have fond memories of my two Fuegos. In particular their gravel road performance - very tail happy so huge fun playing wanna be rally driver :)

Power steering transforms them - I had one with and one without and they absolutely need it. Also allows some lower profile wider tyres that they also respond well too.

Want a fuel injected 2.2 engine for it ?
 
This is an 84 on the cusp of change so has the look and additions of the 85 but lacks the power steering.
Pros
- one less thing to go wrong
- I'll build some muscles
Cons
- It's bloody heavy haha

It runs currently so I'd rather not test fate and swap engines. I do like looking at it but my wife might object to it becoming a garden gnome.
 
Power steering a bit of a faff to retrofit too... Pump runs off a pulley on the back of the cam, so distributor is relocated to aux shaft drive under the inlet manifold. If you find a donor car, id suggest its totally worth the effort!
 
Hmm...Not so sure it is worth the effort Haakon.
I had no end of grief from leaking PS racks, so I gave up and just switched to non PS.
I still kept the dizzy (of sorts) at the back of the head though.
Jo
 
jo proffi said:
Hmm...Not so sure it is worth the effort Haakon.
I had no end of grief from leaking PS racks, so I gave up and just switched to non PS.
I still kept the dizzy (of sorts) at the back of the head though.
Jo
Click to expand...
My power steering was issue free, but they are very old now so one could assume a rack rebuild would be likely...
 
alan moore said:
Some months ago I bought a red Fuego. It had been for sale for a while and being offered at reducing prices. I didn’t really want it or need it, but I sent a link to my wife (who was brought up in a Renault family) and she replied with, “Can we get it”.
I asked why? She replied saying that from age 12 she had wanted one, but had gotten a 12 and a Virage at that time. I drove to Lismore with her to pick it up on a trailer.

The story was it had been owned by the dealer in Lismore from new, and was the first Fuego sold in Australia. It had been reasonably looked after, although I have spent about $2500 on it since with many hours of labour. The car has been repainted in 2 pack at some stage so is not faded like most red Fuegos. Still need to sort the air conditioning and replace a cracked steering flector before registration.

My wife’s 50th birthday is at the end of this month so I need to get myself into gear and finish it for that event.

I have come to quite like the Fuego. It is not bad to work on, has a nice shape and a useful load area, and there are so few left on the road. My wife’s plan is to use it as her daily. Certainly more stylish than the Volvo XC90 she drives currently.
Click to expand...
I've got photos of that car from when I was last up there. Maybe 15 years ago. It was perfect then. Glad it found a good home.
 
Haakon said:
My power steering was issue free, but they are very old now so one could assume a rack rebuild would be likely...
Click to expand...
My rack was rebuilt about three times before I gave up.
As it was my daily driver each rebuild required removing and refitting a non PS rack and steering column.
Whilst I got rather quick at changing them around the novelty wore off, and the disappointment of seeing another puddle of fluid was immense.
If you know the knack.. ie what tools to use, it is an easy job, but the proces of learning this was excruciating.
If in ignorance you remove the rack mount clamp that is bolted to the cross member, the rack height becomes altered and bump steer becomes a major issue until you reset the rack height...not a job for the impatient!!

Jo
 
jo proffi said:
My rack was rebuilt about three times before I gave up.
As it was my daily driver each rebuild required removing and refitting a non PS rack and steering column.
Whilst I got rather quick at changing them around the novelty wore off, and the disappointment of seeing another puddle of fluid was immense.
If you know the knack.. ie what tools to use, it is an easy job, but the proces of learning this was excruciating.
If in ignorance you remove the rack mount clamp that is bolted to the cross member, the rack height becomes altered and bump steer becomes a major issue until you reset the rack height...not a job for the impatient!!

Jo
Click to expand...

Probably a good candidate for a Clio2 electric column conversion these days...

The power steer cars also run a different caster setting i think, which also aids handling.
 
With a R25 block and a decent weber carburettor you would have a very nice car.
Not a lot of effort to do this .
Had a few and they were fantastic cars .
Punters have no idea how good they are!

Was a business in Melbourne years back called Fuego Motors, Prahran.. wonder what happened?
Saw a lot of Fuego cars there.
 
I have a R21 (2.2 litre) block with a Fuego power steer head fitted if anyone is interested. Surplus to my needs as I have no Fuegos left. Had a number over the years. Also have plenty of spares that need to go. PM me if interested.
 
What do you get when you take a Renault nut, give him a new toy and make it rain non-stop? A wet Aussiefrogger.

So my first plan of attack was to take off the wheels and check the brakes and suspension to see how much work I had ahead of me to get this thing back on the road.

First to come off were the front wheels
passengmnt.jpg
passoutdriveboot.jpg


All boots look servicable for now but the ball joints are sloppy so they'll need changed. The engine mounts are sagged so they'll need replaced too. The caliper cylinders seem ok just gummed up slides on the drivers side so I am feeling quite lucky so far.

Next to the rear

Good news is that the yoke seems tight and suspension bushes are ok for now. Just need to tidy up those leaky cylinders on both sides. Probably a resleeve on the cards but that can wait.

yoke.jpg
yummyleakybrakes.jpg


The last thing I was pleased to find was the first muffler has a hole developing and the rear muffler is completely rotted.

frontmuffler.jpg


Apart from all these little jobs I'll also be doing a full service with a change of belts.

The list of to-dos is growing but so far not overwhelming. So a positive start I feel.

Wish me luck!
 
I didn’t find that the engine mounts are so common to buy nowadays. I did find two new old stock ones at French Car Care in Brisbane. Ended up going through a lot of their boxes of old stock and bought quite a bit, switches, gaskets, seals, water pump, headlight, gearshift bushes etc.

I didn’t find a front engine mount, so ended up making my own stronger unit that shouldn’t break so regularly. My rear brake cylinders only had one piston working out of four, and so I replaced them. Could have rebuilt them, but they were inexpensive at about $20 each.
 
If you replace the side engine mount (pictured) with a new one, eyeball the new one next to the old one and make sure the metal S shaped bracket has identical dimensions to the old one.
There was a batch of incorrectly shaped mounts on the market and they were so wrong that they were absolutely useless!!
It is a decent investment in time to change that mount and to find out mid way through that the new mount is unusable is quite depressing.
Jo
 
minigordini said:
I have taken ownership of the Fuego and will begin the tidy up. The paintwork is a little tired but should buff up respectably and the interior is pretty decent with a couple tears in the drivers seat and a crack in the dash. Mechanically it seems very sound and a good servicing should bring it up to scratch.

I think this thread could end up being another budget reno of a Renault. I'm sorry, you can stop throwing the tomatoes.View attachment 131247View attachment 131248View attachment 131249
Click to expand...
Is that your Phase 2 R25... ?
 
While you are checking out the engine mounts have a look at the one at the front of the engine. They shear very quickly and there have been suggestions on Aussiefrogs about how to make your own rather than trying to find a new one. I was looking for parts for my son's Fuego on ebay UK recently and there was a new original one for sale. I have replaced it so often that I am getting one made up of a different design at a local suspension workshop. Check the gearbox mount as well because recently I found that although the mount was fine the bolts attaching it to the gearbox had come loose an one bolt was missing entirely. Enjoy working on your Fuego!
 
fregate said:
While you are checking out the engine mounts have a look at the one at the front of the engine. They shear very quickly and there have been suggestions on Aussiefrogs about how to make your own rather than trying to find a new one. I was looking for parts for my son's Fuego on ebay UK recently and there was a new original one for sale. I have replaced it so often that I am getting one made up of a different design at a local suspension workshop. Check the gearbox mount as well because recently I found that although the mount was fine the bolts attaching it to the gearbox had come loose an one bolt was missing entirely. Enjoy working on your Fuego!
Click to expand...
In the past I gave noltech/nolathane or whatever they call themselves a stack of mounts and had them make up some new ones using urethane.
The front one was bullet proof, but the side one with the S shaped high tensile steel mount sheered eventually.
I suspect it has something to do with the safety of the occupants, allowing the drive train to submarine under the floor in the case of an accident.
Ignoring that little detail, (and what damage the steering column would inflict) a mate made up a completely new mount that loaded the rubber part in a completely vertical direction. It works a treat.
Having just one side of the gearbox supported also contributes to the failure of the mounts, so if you are eagle eyed, and don't mind modifying your exhaust, an R18 with the ng3 box has a bolt on/no mods required side gearbox mount that can sure the whole drive train up.
In fact, having a urethane front mount and the r18 side mount pretty much made that aforementioned side mount redundant. I never bothered sorting it with the gearbox and front mount sorted.
NVH took a dive though.
Having an injected 2.2, I could just sit there smoking up the tyres with the handbrake on, no tramping, or rotation of the engine ( no carby bolt poking through the bonnet either !!:rolllaugh:

Jo
 

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