Steering wheel retention nut

[Non MemberParticipant]

As many of us will have found, previous Traction owners  could be a creative bunch.

My 1954 Familiale arrived with its steering wheel retention nut missing. (The  large one in the middle that is attached to the steering column not the three that hold the wheel)
A creative previous owner had spot welded an oversized nut in place.
The club shop doesn’t stock it, so does anybody know the dimensions so I Can track one down

thanks in advance

Alistair Hale

[BernieParticipant]

Alistair,

It is never that simple ….

According to the Spares Catalogue, there are two possibilities –

Pt no 88264, 22 diameter thread  x 1.5 mm pitch

Pt no 604016, 20 dia. x 1.5 pitch but with 2 tapped holes, 4 dia x .75 pitch.

Unfortunately the book does not state when they were fitted and/or when they changed.  But, as yours is a late car, I would guess it wll be the second (20mm) option but that is a pure guess.

If you can measure the thread on the column, with a 2mm difference, it should be fairly obvious to determine which you require.

B…..

[Non MemberParticipant]

Hi Bernie

The ring for bolting the Steering wheel to was just about the rustiest bit of the whole car and had suffered some serious hammer damage so I’m guessing it wasn’t the original. Thats probably how the first nut died.
I measured the steering column and it’s 20 mm so ordered a 20 / 1.5 nut from Accu on the internet for £1.29

hopefully that’ll work

Many Thanks

Alistair

 

[Peter FeredayParticipant]

Bizarrely my French parts catalogue lists the first one Bernie mentions,  88264, as being fitted up Dec 1941 and then again from Sept 1950.

The other, 604016, is listed  from Dec 1941 until Sept 50.

So should be the first one for your car Alistair

 

Peter

[BernieParticipant]

Gents,

Bizare indeed.  It had not occured to me that the Fench and English catalogues might not carry the same information so, for speed, I had simply consulted my saved pdf of the UK catalogue, downloaded from the TOC archive.

After seeing Peter’s information I checked the hard copy of the French book and it does appear that only this version has such essential (in my opinion) information re. part number changes for several items I checked.

Yer lurnz summat evry day.    Thanks for alerting me to this, Peter.

B……

[Peter FeredayParticipant]

I hadn’t realised there was an issue either. I bought my Facsimile French Parts Catalogue because it covers the 11D engine in  my 55 11B, as well as all the other differences the French models have. I see the English Catalogue copy in the archive is dated 1950 anyway, so there were changes to British models after that which won’t be covered I presume – dash, big boot etc. Maybe there is a strong argument for having a 34-57 French Catalogue in the archives too, anyone suffering from lockdownitis going to volunteer??

 

Peter

[Non MemberParticipant]

My shiney new nut arrived this morning less than a day after ordering it.

I tried to fit it but at first the nut wouldn’t catch the thread. On close examination it was obvious that the steering column had been hammered hard on the end a number of times and was slightly out of shape. I used a small triangular file to open out the thread and gently filed the outside threads where any bulging was likely, eventually and with a lot of mussle the nut  went on and tightened fully. It’s extremely tight, but thats a good thing , yes?

[BernieParticipant]

That sounds like a positive result.

B….

[David FaulknerParticipant]

Alistair I seem to remember from some distant past that older ‘metric’ threads had a slightly different profile to standardised modern ones which may explain why your ‘new’ nut feels tighter on the older shaft, or it may be that both are are the extremes of the standard ‘tolerances’. ‘Stamped’ threads seem to vary more than ‘machined’ ones but there is a good guide to what variation is allowed online https://tinyurl.com/yc48saw2

Given that Citroen used M7 and M9 nuts and bolts on cars which few others seem to, don’t be surprised if the steering column is not standard 🙂

[Author]

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