Roaming round Bavaria, we suffered our first puncture ("flat") in the 403 (the culprit was a fence-wire staple). I changed the wheel without much trouble, and off we went.
Punctures are rare today; tyres must be much tougher or roads much cleaner. But in former times it was not so. In the days of my youth, every boy could mend a puncture in his bike at the roadside. He'd have a little tin of repair kit in his saddle-bag and a pair of tyre levers (or teaspoons pinched from the cutlery drawer when Mum wasn't looking).
When they and their vehicles grew larger that was no longer possible. Now you changed the wheel yourself, put it into the nearest garage (used to be 2/6), picked it up and put it back yourself. Not only that, but we used to Change the Wheels Round to Equalise Wear (there were two schools of thought about that: one pointed out that they'd all wear out togther and then you'd have to buy a full set). And even now, a mysterious "pull" in the steering can often be cured by swapping the fronts over. So of course the puncture held no terrors for me, I got the kit out and set to work. Now our senior members are calling to mind how it (typically) was.
You got the trim off (simple then), if you had any, and with sinking heart confronted the wheel nuts. These would have been pulled up tight by a gorilla on steroids
, and brute force aplenty was the only answer now. Obviously the fewer of these to be shifted, the better. For most types I remember, four per wheel was the norm, now it's gone up to five and I wouldn't be surprised if they are running around with six. But surely, geometrically, three in an equilateral triangle should be enough. If not, why not ?
I suppose (having no more engineering expertise than the average layman) that the torque exerted by the studs on braking and acceleration might be sufficient to break the spokes or shear the metal of the wheel disk, so many studs would share out the load. But Peugeot were not convinced: they were of my opinion. They kept a three-stud system, and spread the load on the wheel disk like this:
Each nut had a captive washer of an oval plan, and shaped underneath, so that it would fit snugly against the fold in the sheet metal of the wheel through which the stud protruded. The mating brake drum was (I think) moulded so that it supported the fold area of wheel from the inside. Brilliant ? - Simple ? - Yes !
So you only had three nuts to struggle with (which, removed, you kept in the trim "dish"), wind up the side pillar jack, off with the wheel (on an unbraked wheel, the brake drum would often come off with the wheel, as it was only secured by the wheel studs), and on with the spare. Easy. Well, not quite. We all know the typical scenario. It's cold, it's raining, the water's dripping down your collar, you're up to your fetlocks in long wet grass, and the wet spare's playing peek-a-boo with the studs.
But have no fear, Peugeot is here. To get at the spark plugs, set deep in the hemispherical head, they gave you a long box spanner. But the tommy-bar was about ten inches (far too !) long. And on one end was formed a little cup which seemed to have no purpose. But now you looked at a wheel stud, and all became clear.
For the tip of the stud, beyond the threads, had been turned down into the form of a small grease-nipple (remember them ?). You seized the wheel: its fun was over. Through a hole you passed the tommy bar, the cup went on the end of a stud, you heaved the bar up , it pulled wheel and stud up together, the wheel slid smoothly down the bar on to the stud, and "Bob's yer Uncle".
Not exactly rocket science ? True - but
none of the six cars we've had since (three French, one British, one Japanese pretending to be British and one German pretending to be Spanish) has taken the trouble to do this.
Cheers to you all,
Danny42C.
These little things are sent to try us