Clementine's Garage
Clementine the Cat
 
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Yellow R4
 
Réparateur d'automobiles

Finally took the courage...

Hmm totally agree with your sentiment. It's all a bit relentless just want to go for a drive in the sunshine with my girl :(
 
End will come guys!

Just be patient now at the end...later will be less "things to do" when you start to drive your car.
 
Hello friends, during this time I am particularly busy with work and holidays (I went to a renault meeting in munich and spent some days camping in bayern ).
Works on my lovely green car are proceeding slowly: the engine is running fine and I managed to have a test drive around the house: still a lot of electric faults to work out, above all the tanker level on the dashboard is no reading at all.
I put on all the gaskets on the doors and I managed to let the rear bonnet close by fabricating anothe door stop, cause it seems that the new bonnet has something strange and do not close as precisely as the old one.
Now I am reassembling the seats: a long timw passed since I dismantled them and very unwisely I did no photos...
Now I find a 3 mm rod that seems to must run on the upper edge of the front seat... but it seems strange, harmful and useless.
Has anybody here already restored a front bench seat?
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Hi Azzazello glad you are back on track . Not restored a front bench seat but I'm pretty certain the wire stiffener will be there in order to provide a secure fixing point or to keep the shape correct
 
Around the bottom edges a similar system is used with hog rings fastening the covers on . The hog rings are clamped around the steel wire
 
Around the bottom edges a similar system is used with hog rings fastening the covers on . The hog rings are clamped around the steel wire
Yes, there are two pieces of zigzag steel wire at the bottom too.
In the other seats I restored I used plastic fasteners instead of the metal "hog rings". .. planning to do the same here.
 
The front seat is finally in its normal (or supposed) shape)


And during the weekend I worked on the door panels




The rear seat is fairly assembled, I just need to put pieces togethere and have them on the car again.

The electrical problems seem to be solved (a new flasher ralay is on the way), I just can't figure out why the alternator fault light stays on... need to fit in place the dashboard agajn, and shelves too.
 
"the alternator fault light stays on". Mine does but the alternator has yet to let me down. Strange.
 
"the alternator fault light stays on". Mine does but the alternator has yet to let me down. Strange.

The car was originally equipped with dinamo and external regulator. When I bought her the alternator was already fitted and the regulator bypassed. But the light never lighted on. Now I fitted again same alternator (but not regulator since it wasn't linked to anything) and the light stays on, even if the alternator works fine (more than 14 volts to the battery with the engine turning).
Don't know what happened, but I changed all lights on the dashboard: maybe the old one was burnt and this was the cause it never turned on before?
 
I should investigate mine further but as long as she keeps working, which she does, I'll put it off. I've never taken an alternator apart before.
 
I've just been servicing a Renault Estafette and dealt with an alternator fault on the van. In the course of adjusting the windscreen washers I noticed a wire on the regulator had become detached. I put the wire back on the regulator and everything as right as ninepence. If the light is on it's on for a good reason; I'd check it out if it were my car!
 
We could all be confusing ourselves here
First early 76 to 82 cars had seperate regulators for alternators these cars had no warning lamp and a voltmeter on dash instead
Later 83 on cars have an built in regulator type alternator and a warning lamp on dash these have two pin socket back of alternator
If you retro fit alternator to a pre 75 car it is tricky to get wiring correct as far as warning lamp concerned whichever type you fit ☺
Someone cleverer than me can explain that bit
 
On my '75 I have an alternator (yes I know it should have a dynamo), and a remote mechanical regulator, and it seems impossible for the charge warning light to work. Even trying to connect it at internal voltage regulator connections would not make it work. It seems that, if the control box doesn't have a warning light terminal there is no way to do this.
 
Thank you Angel
Nice to have my recollection confirmed as it was a good 25 + years ago when I last attempted many of the problems faced by people on forum
Doubt very much the solutions I am finding to more modern Renaults will be in demand 25 years from now ☺
 
Hi guys, some time is passed and a lot of issues were fixed, a couple of weeks ago the green lady joined me for a meeting around a couple of hundred kms far from home..




On the way back home my alternator broke down and my lights went off!
So I was forced to ask my father to carry me another battery and drive ahead of me with another car cause the last 30 kms were done without lights...
Now a new regulator is on the road, but in the meanwhile I'd love to fit the original dynamo...
 
Such a good choice of colour! That green is so striking!

I once drove behind a car like you did, because my lights failed. I even passed 2 police cars on the side of the road, but they didn't notice me. Too busy eating doughnuts, I think:)
 
Yesterday I had a bit of work on the car. In the past few days I have cleaned and painted both dynamo and regulator; dynamo brushes seemed in good order since haynes manual says to change them under 11mm while they're still at 19mm (new ones measure 22mm), but I changed the bearing (it was blocked, a bit of greased seemed to have it working again quite smoothly, but it was a very easy swap and the bearing is cheap).
I unwrapped the tape that was hiding the wire linked together when the alternator was fixed, and I was prepared to cut and fit new terminals, but what a surprise!

They're still there, an unexpectedly clean work for the standard I am used to. Just place them in the right point and bot them.
The belt for the alternator (680mm) resulted too long, so I went for a 660mm I had lying around; the car started (after a first delay since i forgot to put the distributor cap on again) and it seems to work well... 12,9v on the battery, 6v on the dynamo at low rev growing with the engine work. Even the dash light now it's working as it should, being light at minimum and shutting off giving fuel to the engine.

Any further test suggested to check if dynamo and regulator are working fine, before I take the adventure of a long trip?
The regulator is my worst worrying, cause it seems pretty delicate and it was sitting on a scrapped car for so many years... If it falls down, how do you suggest to do? any modern suggested substitute I can fit in the original housing?

Now I have to take off the dynamo again cause I remembered (fortunately in time) that I forgot to put back a key on the shaft (the original misses, I think it felt out when I extracted gently the bearing with an hammer) and block the pulley with his nut...
 
Azazello your car is looking great - such a good colour - great attention to detail. Teething problems are a niggle but so great to solve them
 
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