Lancia Motor Club

Does anyone have a tap & die that would fit the thread at the top of the damper shaft 101034 & the spring compressor tool that I could borrow.

The thread on my compressor tool is not very good 7 wont screw on to the new pillar damper so rebuild has stalled.

This is one of the non-standard Lambda threads, but pretty near 1/4 BSP IIRC.

Consortium should have this covered, I will contact  you.

We have a tap, but not a die. Again, writing from memory.

Sorry, 1/8 BSP,  my brain was not in gear.

The "as drawn" thread is  10mm x 28, this is a little bigger than 1/8 BSP at 9.73 mm.  About 10 thou different.

That's the size the female thread in your suspension tool should be.

But of course the small difference has tempted people into endless bodges over the years, both on tool and damper rod.

Consortium has new nuts, and one would hope any new parts are to the original drawings. I am sure the New Vintage Parts damper rods would be.

We have had a special tap made, but I think it is loaned to a supplier currently making new suspension compressors. I am going there and can recover it to lend you.

You can clean up the damper rod thread by "stretching" a die in the dieholder. Not very nice, but you would get the requisite 28tpi, at the risk of still being undersized: dangerous practice really, and bad for the die. Or use a thread file to clean up, having carefully checked your dimensions.

Hi Don,

Are the new dampers New Vintage parts items?  Their thread is correct to original specification.  The 'gas strut' dampers Storicar uses are M10x1 and thus will not fit the original tool. I had to make a conversion piece to work on one of those...
Very dangerous I find as the tool goes on for about three turns, and some might be tempted to find that sufficient.  I did'nt dare!

Thanks for the replies, my engineer has spent an hour with the tool & a new (New vintage Parts) damper rod & some very fine grinding paste. The tool now fits snugly will do the same with the second rod. 

The threads are very fine & exquisitely machine cut much sharper than the ones on the old rod.

Hopefully will get the first side finished tomorrow assuming no more difficulties arise.

Interesting what Koen says about the threads as we all know he is talking about a 2.5 tpi thread pitch difference, or about 10% of total, quite a lot.
It would be OK in operation with a 10 x 1 top nut, but if used with a standard spring compressor tool I would be keeping even further away from the centre of action than normal!

its a mystery why Lancia used a mix of metric diameter & whiworth thread, something the UK Tap & Die company had never heard of and could not believe!

A good solid fit of tool to damper is crucial.

Must say the New Vintage Parts are works of art easy to see why the price is what it is.

Standardisation was not universal then, just as well we are not Bugatti enthusiasts.

The old tale is that the factory took tooling from USA, which accounts for imperial thread pitches, but whether that is really true I have no idea. Clearly metric steel stock would have been more easily and cheaply available..

I always understood that Lancia used BSW as it was designed from first principles rather than being an arbitrary dimension like metric.

@ Tony: It puzzled me too!  First I thought the tool was no good, and fetched another, but the same.  Then I measured up the thread with a gauge and found it to be M10x1.  Luckily I had the correct Tap so could quickly make a conversion piece...

Off course the top nuts where also M10x1 on that car.  Not my thing the gas dampers, as they will NOT provide the 'oil spill' lubrification as in the original setup, which I find a hughe shortcoming.

I worked on both options and must say the NVP pillars are really beautifull and very precise.  With those available i can't understand why someone would want to change over to a non original setup, the hydraulic dampers being one of the engineering marvels in a Lambda!

Now doing the Driver's side,101012 was well & truly stuck in the frame moved about 1mm with tap down not wanting to use force wizard Dave made a tool to extract it upwards attach photos.

It will be available to anyone else who has trouble.

will post other photos
   
 

Tool

 Tool in use