Clementine's Garage
Clementine the Cat
 
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Yellow R4
 
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Perhaps I've found the car for me?

Found the cause. One of the crappy crimped ring connectors on the wire between the coil and distributor had come adrift. I fitted new ring connectors plus shrink tubes then dropped the M4 nut into the bowels of the engine bay, and it took 30min to find another. Engine now running.
 
I recently got fed up with the rotating gear knob so carefully drilled it and inserted a self tapping screw. It came loose so this afternoon I drilled it again and inserted a pop rivet. I'm getting used to unbolting the gear lever extension. I T-Cuted the roof today and it's quite shiny. When it rains tomorrow as predicted, I'll squelch out there and watch the beads of water on my shiny car ;-)

I discovered, Paul, one of the 'feet' of the rear seat is snapped off. What is it with people?

Renée has her first sticker. I know R4 people aren't into stickers unlike 2CVers but I'm going to be different. I have ordered from a sign company a pair of 'Renée' stickers for the car too.
 
How about Simoniz Original Wax with added Carnuba . I should mention that this car has had so much T-Cut and waxes of all sorts, she slips through the air like only a 72mph car can do.
 
Paul Narramore said:
How about Simoniz Original Wax with added Carnuba . I should mention that this car has had so much T-Cut and waxes of all sorts, she slips through the air like only a 72mph car can do.
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Great! (I was just concerned that you might not have sealed it wth anything after the T-cut, as some people don't realise that it's necessary).
 
Whilst she's had a couple of waxings, I shall keep this up as her original shine may eventually return. This isn't just that I like shiney things, which I do, but the fragile paintwork, peppered with rust spots and patches may last a bit longer before the inevitable respray on the horizon. Next jobs? One support bracket beneath the rear bench seat is broken and needs welding. Chance to use my newly acquired MIG welder. Front nearside wing has a rusty hole along the top edge and an even bigger amount of rust lower down behind the 'love handles'. New wings are cheap but fibreglass is cheaper. The wheels are truly awful and need sand blasting and repainting. So find a garage happy to remove the tyres and a blaster happy to do the wheels. The front discs are ropey and are cheap enough to replace. I should make these a priority over cosmetic stuff.

A friend saw an identical red R4GTL on Herne Bay seafront on Sunday. I wonder if that was Vincent Modica's?
 
Hmm oh dear I think your new beloved is Tea Total- Quelle Horreur:o

On the plus side I fitted electronic ignition and was amazed at the results!
 
when I bought the car at the end of May, I found the oil was as black as the ace of spades. The inside of the oil filler cap had black butter around it. Therefore I decided to give the car an oil and filter change, so as to flush the engine through. The handbook strongly advises against flushing oil. Well after 250 miles I felt enough was enough, so carried out another oil/filter change plus fresh oil in the transmission. Both were jet black so I don't know when the car was last services.

It all went well, probably because when I first did the oil change, I'd cleaned up the drain plug and Coppaslipped it. I always put any threads onto the circular wire brush to clean up the threads as this saves me aggrevation in the long run.

I discovered the cooling fan was held on just with a pair of rusty clips at the top after repainting the fan, I used trusted cable ties instead.

Today it was time to adjust the valve clearances. The tappets had been noisy since I bought the car. Mr Haynes says don't use pliers but without a 3mm or 4mm open ended spanner...............I used pliers. It took what seemed like ages and all of the clearances were on the lose side. I then found that the inside of the rocker box was well and truly crusty of with burned on filth and it took a couple of hours in the parts cleaner and using a blunt stick, steel wool and endless patience, I got the insides clean. I cleaned up the outer surface, primed it and painted it a fetching shade of silver. When it dried, I refitted the rocker box, back to front (Jeez!). The gasket needed glueing on as it had also fallen down. Try again and the rocker box was in place.....plus numerous scratches too.

The throttle cable on my engine passes through a sprung loaded tensioner, the plastic portion of which had a crack. A dose of Araldite made no difference to the fragile little device. Anyway I assembled it with a new E-clip and it promptly snapped! A phone call through to Mr Reno and a modified version, which may even fit, should be winging it's way to me tomorrow.

My parts cleaner uses ex-RAF kerosene which stinks to high heaven when it gets on my skin and overalls ;-)
 
Paul Narramore said:
when I bought the car at the end of May, I found the oil was as black as the ace of spades. The inside of the oil filler cap had black butter around it. Therefore I decided to give the car an oil and filter change, so as to flush the engine through. The handbook strongly advises against flushing oil. Well after 250 miles I felt enough was enough, so carried out another oil/filter change plus fresh oil in the transmission. Both were jet black so I don't know when the car was last services.

It all went well, probably because when I first did the oil change, I'd cleaned up the drain plug and Coppaslipped it. I always put any threads onto the circular wire brush to clean up the threads as this saves me aggrevation in the long run.

I discovered the cooling fan was held on just with a pair of rusty clips at the top after repainting the fan, I used trusted cable ties instead.

Today it was time to adjust the valve clearances. The tappets had been noisy since I bought the car. Mr Haynes says don't use pliers but without a 3mm or 4mm open ended spanner...............I used pliers. It took what seemed like ages and all of the clearances were on the lose side. I then found that the inside of the rocker box was well and truly crusty of with burned on filth and it took a couple of hours in the parts cleaner and using a blunt stick, steel wool and endless patience, I got the insides clean. I cleaned up the outer surface, primed it and painted it a fetching shade of silver. When it dried, I refitted the rocker box, back to front (Jeez!). The gasket needed glueing on as it had also fallen down. Try again and the rocker box was in place.....plus numerous scratches too.

The throttle cable on my engine passes through a sprung loaded tensioner, the plastic portion of which had a crack. A dose of Araldite made no difference to the fragile little device. Anyway I assembled it with a new E-clip and it promptly snapped! A phone call through to Mr Reno and a modified version, which may even fit, should be winging it's way to me tomorrow.

My parts cleaner uses ex-RAF kerosene which stinks to high heaven when it gets on my skin and overalls ;-)
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Paul I'm interested in your throttle connection. Can you post a pic of this detail?
 
Jonathan, On Mr Reno's recommendation I found a throttle cable adjuster, as found on motorcycle throttle/clutch cables, and used this. The standard sprung loaded device as found on my 1986 GTL, is/was fairly fragile and being under tension all of the time was always likely to fail, it seems to be a common problem. It seems to be there to take up any shock of aggressive use of the throttle. Curious that as I've not come across that on any vehicle before. Someone will now say they are common on Renaults. Also at the accelerator end of the cable is a hook, which may be metal or plastic. Without the sprung loaded device, if mine is plastic that's another protective device. When it stops raining, I'll go out an examine it more.

What picture do you want? Springer or modification?

(Later) I've just been out to look at the accelerator pedal end of the throttle cable and indeed mine has a strange plastic end to it, a perfect weak link in the cable. Why did they do that? When I get back from Belgium I shall look into making one in brass or something similar. That just won't do at all!
 
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:drunk::drunk:Hi Paul N the throttle at the pedal end has a 90deg plastic connection. Rather than the British bulldog steel underpants cast blob. But it works great. You should also have a little bolted on 'crossbar' which stops the pedal riding up too high. ( it's between the hinge point and the plastic bit we just talked about) The other end has the Spring thing and mine is original and intact. I'm just curious as there is a groove around the black plastic shaft and i wonder if it should have a circlip on it as it emerges on the carb side of the restraining point? No pics as I'm still in olde Amterdamme :drunk:
 
"I wonder if it should have a circlip?" No, not a circlip but what I've discovered is a e-clip and yours must have one as it is this that keeps that tensioner together. Yours must have one, however the plastic is exceeding thin at this point and should it snap whilst driving, would be a nuisance. My motorcycle cable adjuster works just fine and using a pair of repair washers, works a treat.

Yes I had a look at the accelerator pedal end of the cable and it has the right angled plastic whatsit as you described. To me this is yet another weak link so I shall turn up a brass replacement when I get back from Bruges next week. Peace of mind, and all that.
 
Well I have just returned home after a couple of days in one of my favourite cities, Bruges in Belgium. I leaned that Renée had only been to France once in her thirty years so my trip was to correct that omission. After an intermidable three hour delay at Dover docks on Monday morning, the P&O ferry finally got underway. I drove up to Sluis, a few hundred metres from the Belgium/Dutch border - have I mentioned before my liking for stickers? My 2CV had lots - before returning to Bruges to my budget hotel (65euros a night). Another liking I have is for Belgian beers and Trappist ones in particular, and Bruges has plenty of excellent bars to down a few.

It rained all day on Tuesday so I expected to find rainwater under the front mat, and I wasn't disappointed. The water is very rusty in colour so I'm guessing it comes from the air vent area. Although the return journey today wasn't much fun in the heavy rain, she didn't miss a beat as I cruised along at between 60 and 65 without effort. On the A20 from Dover, in the sunshine, she managed 70 and on one downhill stretch a heady 77mph. The limiting factor with her is my pain threshold although taking my hear aids out helps too. And she managed to get from home in Kent to Sluis and back to Dover on one tankful of petrol too. So I am now going to look into curing the leaks and fitting sound deadening.

PS I saw two 2CVs (in Calais) but no Renault 4s during my trip.
 
Great weekend you have.....

I can see that your R4 is in nice condition. 60-65-70mph (100-105-110kmh) is good driving speed for it.....
After that it seems that wind is doing more damage to comfortable ride than everything else. It starts to womble under wind blows. At least in mine.

And consumption is at good level. 6 liters for 100kmh (39mpg)is nice result for "speed" drive :D

You need to go more down south if you want to see R4 on road as "live" car
 
Well Petak, we are off to see the Fall in New England (USA) in a few weeks but plan to visit next year's Thenay meeting. I fancy another couple of days in Luxembourg too (stickers and all that) however the £-Euro exchange rate is now very poor for us with it almost reaching a £ a euro.
 
Further on Mr.Auto. Firstly the service items, front discs and pads for my Renault 4GTL all arrived OK, no problem there. Secondly I ordered front brake discs and pads for our BMW118d. They arrived and I put them to one side until warmer weather and I could find time to fit them. By March I decided that I would book the car into a local garage to have them fitted, opened the heavy box only to find one solitary brake disc. Contacted Mr.Auto and another box, twice as heavy, arrived within a few days. Returned new parts to the said garage this morning only to be told that the discs are fractionally too big and the pads look nothing like BMW pads. Phoned up Mr.Auto this time, or should I say Monsieur Auto as I phoned France, and they are now deciding about returning the parts and refunding me. And my relationship with Mr.Auto was going so well.
 
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