The 1957 "The Dope" Dauphine

Let me pull them out and measure them up and see if they look like they will work for you. 👍🏻

anderzander cheers for measuring up, i took the plunge and ordered some v8 ones you first said about. If they are too small i will drop you a message and try those one cheers (y)




Right a fair bit has happened this week with parts and such and a whole lot of F**ks have been thrown about. So initially it was meant to be a straight drop in fit engine and box conversion, done by many and easy as pie......

Picked up my newer 4 speed gearbox with the matching universal joints a few days ago, i was also gifted a complete but seized up 956cc engine, great as i can use lots off it for the engine i need to build up including the head, water pump and fuel pump from it. The plan was to build the rear crossmemeber up with the gearbox and all attached parts and slap it back in the car, clearing some space for my engine build shenanigans. First hitch, the original driveshafts are 10 spline and the newer gearbox has 20 spline outputs and UJ's. So i asked around and see what i can do, i was told i could fire in some r8 shafts and all would be good. Did another trip this morning and picked up a crank, an 1108cc bottom end a few odds and sods and a pair of r8 half shaft. Get home think here we go. No go! The r8 shafts are 20mm longer than the dauphine shafts. Now i want to cry. It turns out the later dauphine had a 20 spline shaft in the length i need but finding them is going to be a pain, i am now hunting high and low for the correct parts, the other option is to make some 20/10 UJ's using the 4 i have kicking around so that the 20 spline output cant mate to my 10 spline original shafts. Its never an easy straight swap is it lol

with the engagement on the splines i think the ones i have would require a cut and shut job rather than material just being removed off the end, so a possibility i guess?

I may of found some shorter shafts, waiting to hear back from a few people to see what is kicking around. Definitely found one based on the measurements.

Not easily, the yokes/universal joints are made in a splined pair, so 20 splines in and 20 splines out. My originals were 10 in 10 out. there isnt a 20 in and 10 out unless i have some made.

Are the UJ’s the same other than the spline count ? Could you split and mix them?

Have you measured the overall length of both shafts including the joint? the ten spline joint looks longer....

I made a start on pulling the head off the spare 956cc engine and making sure it was ok for use on the 1108cc block once i build that up. I removed the rocker cover to be greeted with a pretty clean head and engine, looks good so far. Head came off with ease but on inspection one of the valves that was in the open position hadn't returned to the closed position. I bounced all the other valves and the moved nice and freely so i just whipped the the spring off, gently tapped the valve out and gave it a clean up in the drill. It popped back in nicely and moves freely again. Next was the water pump......... looks like it was stopped many years ago with antifreeze still in it, this had solidified and seized the pump solid, so i whipped it apart. Lots of yellow solidified crud but nothing too major and i have started to clean everything up there. Hopefully the pump itself is salvageable but everything else is looking good. I will give it all a good hot jet wash tomorrow and put it aside ready for assembly later on (y)

"I love this type of mishmash building using spare parts from everywhere."

Its fun watching you mix and match this stuff too...didnt know it was really possible, but it makes sense!

nice job!

jP