Oops that was meant to be a PM

Will probably make your steering heavier and wear out the bearings more quickly.

Can you please stop using the term 'pug'? It's so chavvy and sounds ridiculous. The spacers only need to be about 3mm thick so I doubt they alone would have any perceptible effect on the bearings or steering.

pug wheels:

LOL.

Regarding the post about wheel spacers, which Sam has now removed just to confused anyone that didn't see it. My Peugeot wheels are 1/2" wider than a standard 2cv wheel, with the extra being on the inside, so fitting a 1/4" wheel spacer brings the center of the wheel back to where it should be. This will give the wheel bearings and steering an easier time than had I just fitted the wheels on their own, although I'm pretty sure 1/4" either way won't make much difference.

For Harley's benefit I found the other set of bushes so checked the measurements. The length which I said was 41mm is only 40mm, and the outer diameter looks a little smaller than 45mm, maybe 44.5mm, but I'm only measuring it with a ruler.

The pieces of tube are 50mm outer dia, and 28mm long. They are mild steel, they're only bright as that's what the guy had to hand.

So, the adventures of an international chancer. What's the maximum recommended load for a 2cv? An engine and three gearboxes should be OK, 160-180kg? no more than 2 large adults.



What about if I then hang half a motorbike from the tow bar, and then pile the other half and several boxes of spares on top of the gearboxes.



Probably getting close to 300kg by now, pushing my luck a bit in a 2cv with standard suspension. Only my suspension isn't standard, it's been lowered in a bodged up chav style by cutting the springs in half and welding the tie-rods. http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv22 ... C11143.jpg
So how much suspension travel is left, jump up and down on the sills and see how much it moves... it doesn't It's not on the bump stops, I know, I cut most of them off. So I can only assume the springs are bottomed out, oh.
So I wound the suspension up a little bit, just so it didn't look so overloaded, and at 6pm set off for 750 miles of wincing over every pot hole and speed bump, half expecting the tie-rods to go bang at any minute.

Well after 3 or 4 hours we had the driveshaft gaiter incident, and then by the early hours of the morning, approaching Calais, I was convinced it wasn't going to last much longer. While stopped making one of many checks under the bonnet I also noticed that the bike and it's rack, which had been wobbling back and forth for most of the way, was now leant away from the car by about 5 degs. A bit of brute force had it vertical again, some grease quietened the driveshaft and we were on our way again.

Apart from almost missing the ferry while sitting in the carpark because the car clock was wrong, the crossing was uneventful, and once on the A20 from dover the driveshaft was surprisingly quiet, and I got to London around 9am. After a days recuperation (a 4x4 day with a mates L@nd R*v*r), more grease, and the bike rack straightened again I carried on.
The route out of london included a road with a lot of speed bumps, so my mind was on the suspension and monitoring the noise from the driveshaft. I had got to the M4 before I noticed that the bike was now leant away from the car at nearly 30 degs, oh crap. Pulling over at the first services I straightened the rack again, and noticed that by now there were some pretty worrying cracks appearing in the mounting plate, some how I needed to stop the bike wobbling. The rear seat belts and some boot laces came to the rescue.



I stopped in Newbury, re-greased the joint, and heavily influenced by my enthusiastic grandad made a substitute gaiter from a plastic bag.



Slightly to my surprised it stayed in place all the way home with only a couple of odd smells from under the bonnet. So far I've not been inclined to look at it, but I'd best try and sort it tomorrow, once I can find some space to unload the other crap into.

Nice job! Certainly some inspirational stuff there! I reckon it's bottoming out on the threaded tube that the can slides on, I had to cut them right down on my car and it still does it when I pick up fat birds. Driveshaft gaiter from a plastic bag though, now that I do like. Are you moving back to the UK?

top man Grandad!