chdwck2

I'm cleaning up what I believe to be an early 70s AO8. I have a couple of issues.

1. This has wingnuts (with substantial wings) on the front and rear wheels. I have a clearance issue at the rear wheel where the wingnut hits the rear derailler when I try to tighten it. The derailler is a shimano tourney which I'm guessing isn't standard for this bike. I had planned on just replacing the one wingnut with a flange nut but I took a trip to the hardware store and could not find anything that worked. If I had to guess I would say that it's a 3/8 nut with an off the wall thread or a M9 (which I've never seen before).

2. There is a little bit of play in the pedal crank/axle. What is the best solution to this? Is there a way to re-pack the bearings to eliminate this?

I'm sorry if I'm off on my terminology. I'm relatively new to the biking world.

Iowegian

Welcome to Bike Forums! You've picked a challenging first project since that bike uses some obsolete threading standards and sizes, partly because it's old, mostly because it's French.

I'm pretty certain the axle will be a 9mm x 1mm. You can probably find replacement nuts at a decent bike shop.

The pedal looseness you describe is most likely caused by a loose or damaged cotter pin. The axle/bearing assembly that in the frame is called the bottom bracket. Your bike has an older system where the crank arms are attached to the bottom bracket spindle by cotter pins. If the bottom bracket is loose, you should feel play in both side's crank arms. If only one side is loose, then the problem is in the cotter pin on that side.

Check out sheldonbrown.com for much more information about your bike and how to fix it.

Grand Bois

I'd replace the derailer with one that fits with the wingnut before I'd replace a wingnut with a hardware store nut. Wingnuts are very cool and they signify that your Peugeot is an older model. The Tourney derailer is nothing special.

miamijim

Refer to posts #2 and #3 for good advice!!

chdwck2

Thanks for the responses.

Iowegian: It's definitely not a cotter pin issue. It's a bottom bracket issue.

Dirtdrop: Alright, I'll check into different derailer. Any suggestions or should I just look for a simplex prestige (I believe that's the stock derailer)?

Looks like I'm gonna have to do some research.

Iowegian

check here for bottom bracket help. Remember your bike is probably French-threaded so both sides of the bottom bracket are right-hand threaded (and 35mm x 1mm which is an odd-ball thread size).

And like Dirtdrop said, definately keep the wingnuts, especially since they fit your axle threading Lower grade Simplex derailleurs don't last and the high end ones are pricey. I'd get an old Suntour derailleur or even a Shimano one if needed.

trhouse

I often replace the original red label derailleurs with these.

https://www.velo-orange.com/sisxde.html

The are very similar but made with more metal.

chdwck2

Iowegian - Thanks for the link. That's a big help.

trhouse - I think I might go with that, thanks. Although I'll probably check ebay first to see what they have.