Found some other pics too, from when I repaired the front wing in the summer (see 'Will Joolz's car pass an MOT' thread). It would have been so easy to simply weld the bracket back on as many people do on ratty cars, with the weld visible, but it probably would have cracked off again, and I'm doing my best to fight the car's desire to descend into rattyness.

Pictures speak a thousand words.

joolz,
are you sure that isn't reverse gear, especially as it's got straight cut teeth?

If you haven't binned it yet, any chance of buying the remains and collecting them at Salbris...

ken

Yes(as you know), the straight cut pinions are for reverse gear. But iirc, the reverse pinion moves forwards and backwards to engage first and second, the second gear pinion is directly behind reverse. And what ever the broken thing is it's something to do with the second gear syncro mechanism.

I certainly haven't binned it, I'm a compulsive hoarder of the worst kind. I'm keeping the bellhousing, input shaft, driveshaft flanges, and maybe the selector lever, for fitting to a GSA 'box. The rest would be available if you need it, otherwise it'll be tucked away in a corner for when I can find a use for it, not that I can envisage what that might be.

I wanted to run some 145 tyres on the front of my car to see how it improved grip, assuming of course it did improve it. Although they will fit on standard 4" rims, over sized tyres on narrow rims don't feel nice to drive, they move about too much. I found some peugeot wheels on Leboncoin, the same as Russ's, they were only just over 400 miles away so I went to get them in a hired luton van... No really I did.



Ok I was helping someone to move house and offered to drive the van back, picking up the wheels on the way. Set of 5, 40euros, win!

I brought them back to the UK and got them powder coated, £144, ouch! That was to do 4 of them. I'm not paying £36 to paint a wheel that'll live in the boot!

I found a pair of 145 michelins on ebay for £100, plenty of tread left but turns out they're getting on a bit. Bought some valves, also on ebay, and thought I'd have a go at fitting them myself, wondered if I should get a valve fitting tool but decided I could make one if need be, I had a spare nut from a bolt in valve as they're a really weird thread.

First thing the valves just drop in... and drop out again... WTF I thought they were all the same size. Turns out not, Land rovers, commercials, and apparently old Peugeots use a bigger valve, with a 15.7mm hole in the rim rather than the common 11.5mm. Every day's a school day, order some bigger valves, again from ebay, luckily they're only a pound each.

I've changed a few tyres before, usually by breaking the bead under the 4-post lift and then crowbarring the tyres off in a manner that's pretty abusive to both tyre bead and wheel rim, usually with added swearing. This time I bought some tyre soap, ebay again, £12 for 5kg, I'd not tried it before. I smeared some on the valves and managed to push them in by hand, that was a pleasant surprise, we're of to a good start.

Next to try the tyres, soap all around the bead, place the wheel on the floor, place the tyre over the top and lean on it, POP! first bead on, bloody hell, that was easy. Hook the second bead on, a bit of standing on it and POP! it's on, result. Not a tyre lever in site, no damage to the tyre, or scrapes in the new paint. The soap's brilliant stuff, I should have got some years ago.

Final step, the rim stripes, also from ebay. They're a bit of a job to get right, the trick is to spray some water on the rim first so that they don't stick immediately and can be floated about until they're in the right place. Then wipe over them with a soft cloth to squeeze the water out. There was something a bit commercial looking(van like) about the wheels before I put the stripes on, could be the high profile tyres, but the stripes have just about saved them.



Wheel nuts, guess where from, ebay again I'm afraid, £12 for 16, not sure what I'll do with with the spare 4.

Annoyingly now they're on I don't think they look as good as I had imagined they would. They look like a sort of metallic slate grey colour, they're meant to be graphite, I don't remember the colour sample I saw being that blue. I've also already got an idea in my head for a different set of wheels.

I also borrowed a wheel from a Peugeot 404 cabriolet the other day to see how it fitted, I think the 165 tyre was a little bit to big, but the center is so similar to an ami slot that I'm sure it must be the same pressing, unless someone geekier than me can see differently. These are also 4 1/2" wide with the extra on the inside, so some clearance problems.

I don't think it looks too bad at all, I've also got 4 spare wheelnuts from when I bought mine. I like to keep a spare set of wheelnuts in a 2cv in case one of the wheels ever comes off. On a car with four stud hubs you just take one nut from each other wheel and bobs your uncle, but in a 2cv you can't really do that.

Try some of the low profile tyres I used, 155/60/15 iirc. They're much smaller when stood next to a 145 mich, but will set the tyres off a treat.

Jools there is nothing stopping you from moving the lock collars so the bolts are at the top just as long as those Phat Rimz dont rub the exhaust.

and dark rims with body colour pinstripe....GRRR your in my head man that was todays job if i hadnt been delayed sorting out mis matched arm bearings( rack Polish- arms French)

brakes and shocks on today and then body meets one of Kens finest for the first time.

I do think the lower profile tyres look better, but I need the longer gearing. I'll probably go to 145 smart tyres if I change to a longer ratio GSA 'box.

The last pic is the 165 tyre, the 145s don't give the same issues with the exhaust and track rod adjuster. The rims though do just kiss the ball housing, on both types of rim as the dimensions are the same. I could just wind the lock stop out a bit, but there are also a couple of other issues.
Firstly the extra 1/2" in the rim is all on the inside, so the tyre footprint has moved inwards 1/4", not the end of the world but something to think about.
Secondly the new rim is not the same shape around the mounting face as a standard one and doesn't quite sit as nicely as it should. Instead it rests on the little step at the edge of the machined face, the pics should explain.

This is the back of the wheel where it contacts the hub.


And this, for anyone not familiar with 2cv hubs, is the step that's causing the issue.


When the wheel and hub are bolted up, the machined surface doesn't touch the hub, there's a gap of probably less than 1 mm, probably wouldn't cause a problem, but it's not perfect.

I have a simple solution to fix all three issues, I meant to get on with it today but the F1 season's started which completely wastes my weekends.

OK, the solution to the issues mentioned above, wheel spacers. Now I know other people might have drawn them on a CAD program, and then emailed it to somewhere that could CNC them, but that's not how I roll. I've got the time and to me this is easier.

They were cut from a sheet of 6mm ali, the holes were originally drilled 11.5mm and then filed to make sure they were a perfect fit, and then for the final truing up they were mounted on a spare hub in the lathe.









The wheel nuts now only go on 8 turns, obviously I'm hoping this is enough, but educated comments would be welcome.