Augusta progress

[Kari]

The large hole indeed holds a rubber puffer which leans to the chrome grille. The T-shaped bracket normally supports the levers which operate the slats via the push rods as commanded by the thermostat. A word of caution: the Lancia badge is very brittle, the thin brass nuts should be tigthened very carefully as not to break the porcelain

Regards  Karl

[Mikenoangelo]

Sunshine and smiles all round - we had a test run and it is a different car without major vibrations, smooth and very willing at least up to 60mph. It also seems to pull much better than before. The only explanation I can think of is that the valve timing may have been a little out as I have really changed nothing else that could affect performance. It does have very good compression. There remains a slight vibration at about 3000 rpm which must be crankshaft related but it goes through that quickly and is otherwise very nice.

The gearbox is far less noisy in first and second and the front suspension works as it should with no clonks and with proper shockabsorbing. The clutch was always functionally good despite the dodgy spring and it still is, with no noticeable increase in pedal pressure.

I haven't quite got the exhaust rattle free so another session on the floor is indicated.   I fitted my copper sandwhich heat exchanger on the manifold with no gasket but with Heldite heat resistant pipe sealant - like the old Green Hermatite if you recall that. Time will tell whether it can stand the condition, or even do any good!

Thanks Karl for that confirmation of my guess. I'll make a buffer from a piece of polyurethane then I can refit the chromed surround. I found some extra screws whose job is to hold the lower part of the shutters to the surround. However these were not in use presumably because the previous owner prefered to be able to remove the surround leaving the shutters in place - which must also explain why the bolts behind the badge were missing.

Mike

[Raahauge]

Well done.

[nevillesponge]

Just wanted to say what an excellent series of articles you've produced...  I'm just a few weeks into Belna ownership and have much to do. I'll be checking-in regularly as I'm not as technically competent as you guys and I'm hoping to learn lots! 
Regards to all, David

[Mikenoangelo]

David thanks for your kind remark!

I thought I was getting to the end of sorting problems but yesterday after a 40 mile run and having just come down the Cote de Lofthouse (as trhe bicycle racers call it) the back brakes over heated. After a bit of crawling under the car I found that the bolt though the front eye of the N/S rear spring has disappeared. letting the spring and the axle slip back enough to tighten the handbrake and apply both brakes, make them hot but not to noticeably slow the car. The corresponding bolt on the off side was OK but the retaining tag washer had not been folded onto the hexagon so no doubt that was the reason for the escapee.

More crawling today and I took the spring off to sort it out. The thread on the chassis bracket into which the bolt fits was quite rusty but cleaned up with a tap and I can make a new bolt in EN24T which. although not perhaps as hard as the original bolt is extremely strong, being certified for the rotor shaft of a helicopter. However I will have to replace the Metalastic rubber bush at the front of the spring and attend to the bearings on the rear shackles which are still of the original roller bearing type but which can be replaced by a fabricated nylon version as Morris Parry decscribed in the Augusta Newsletter. I think I'll just replace the bolt for now and carry on motoring until the salt season when I will do all the bushes.

An annoying aspect of the job is that the bolts for the reas shackles have been fitted from the outside of the frame so that the top bolt cannot be removed without first taking off the mudguard. I'm sure they should be fitted the other way round and am reluctant to cut the top bolt to get it out as they are a super Lancia desgin and in perfect nick.. grrr!

Does anyone know a source for the Metalastic bush? It is 14mm bore, 30mm O/D and 45mm long on the outer, 48.5 on the inner steel parts?  Many suppliers list them for specific car applications but don't give dimensions.

Mike



Mike

[DavidLaver]

Not sure specifically, but the name that keeps popping up on the forum for such things is:

https://www.robush.com/

[Mikenoangelo]

Thanks David - they had one which was close enough in size and I should have two here in a couple of days. £6.78 each.

Mike

[Mikenoangelo]

More crawling today to remove both springs. With care and with both wheels on blocks and an axle stand under the nose of the diff it is easy to undo the spring "U" bolts, the lower shackle pins at the back and the front spring bolts and take off the springs leaving the axle in place with no need to undo brake connections and shockabsorbers.

It turns out that under the head of the escapee bolt there should be a spacer which is clamped by the bolt and traps the inner sleeve of the metalastic bush, having serrations to increase the "bite". This too was missing along with the bolt so that is something else to make. The replacement bushes are 14.5 mm bore rather than 14, so new bolts will be needed for both sides of the car. I now have to remove the thick coating of grease applied by the previous owner, a great conservationist, to the springs and other bits under the car, much of it has re-applied itself to me and the garage floor.

Mike

[Kari]

To me, it seems to be an unusual occurence to lose a bolt as there is load on it. Maybe I did anticipate something like this, and did wire locking those bolts aviation style.
On my car I had to replace those silent blocks as they have settled and have become brittle. I bougth silent blocks of the same diameter but slighly longer than required. I then shortened the outher bush and the rubber to the required lenght and went to hand file the serations. I did work but is obviously time consuming.

Regards  Karl

[Mikenoangelo]

The mystery of the missing bolt. Having tried fitting the bolt and spacer from the offside in place of the missing items from the nearside spring bracket I find that the thread into which the bolt goes is worn, as is the hole into which the  serrated spacer/bush fits. Clearly the now absent bolt had been loose for some time. More fettling needed and a call to Tracy tools for a Helicoil kit to sort out the thread which will be fun as it must been done underneath the jacked up car. The hole for the spacer is oval by 0.5 mm so needs reaming. Then a new bolt and spacer to make.

 How many time per day do I need to crawl under the car to equate to the recommended 10,000 paces exercise?

Mike

[Mikenoangelo]

Took some time today to work out how to ream the chassis bracket for the bolt at the front of the spring to remove the ovality, while keeping the bolt in alignment with the tapped hole in the frame. I finally made an adjustable bracket with four very strong Neodymium magnets to hold it  to the underside of the floor. This worked well as the bracket can be adjusted with the reamer in place so that the nose of the reamer lines up exactly with the tapped hole. It is a pain working with these strong magnets as they grab everything in sight including any swarf or filings and will if you let them loose fly away to the nearest bit of steel, smash into it and shatter but they were ideal for this job. This is why the base of the bracket is aluminium.

The hole in the bracket should be 19mm but I had to take it out to 19.8mm to clear the ovality and will now need to make a new serrated bush to fit. I found I can cut the serrations on this bush and on the inner sleeve of the metalastic bush  with a slitting saw mounted in the milling machine with the milling head tilted to 45 degrees.

One question though - clearly the serrated bush is intended to be pressed into the recess in the bracket by the main bolt to nip the inner sleeve of the metalastic bush to make the rubber do all the flexing but how much clearance (determined by the length of the bush) should be allowed to get the right degree of nip? The bush has two flats which engage with the bracket to stop it from turning and a tag washer locks the head of the bolt.


Mike

[Raahauge]

I had similar trouble on one side, the bolt was still there but had been moving so everything was worn.
Managed to recover it by a new bolt with slightly oversize thread, made a new washer and filed the serrations like Kari to fit the bush which I was able to dress up.
I concluded that no "nip" was required, that there should/could be clearance under the the flats but that the flats should be a really tight fit in the slot in which they sit.
Mike 

[Mikenoangelo]

I had misunderstood  the operation of the serrations because the springs had been fitted to the wrong sides of the car which made me think that the serrations were intended to bite on the centre sleeve of the bush at one side and on the chassis bracket on the other end rather than engage their teeth. I realised what was going on and had a chat with Mike Raahauge. Having worked that out I decided that I could use a slitting saw to cut both sides of the Vee at the same time, setting the milling head  over to 45 degrees and with the work on a dividing head.  Of course this gave me 45 degree slopes and  90 degree included angle which will create more end force than the original 60 degree but I felt that the greater accuracy and the time saved made that acceptable. In any case anyone except Lancia would just clamp the bracket together and nip the bush!

It was very easy to do once set up and the result was very accurate and the serrations fit exactly together in my test pieces and to the original bush. Cutting the serrations takes about 15 minutes per component with no filing. The depth of the 45 degree teeth is 1mm.

The Helicoiling of the bolt holes in the frame bracket worked very well but did involve making guide bushes for the Helicoil drill and then for the tap. The one sound bolt now fits the thread well and feels very secure.

I now have to make new bushes for the bolts and new bolts.

Mike

[Raahauge]

Very good, a much better fit than I achieved.
I have other news which should not really be on a thread titled "Augusta progress".
I just made a new fabric coupling out of some conveyor belting (10mm thick and I have lots if anyone wants some) and went out to test it.
Vibration free, excellent but whilst out I lost some oil pressure and the engine was rough.
Dismantled to find this. (and another less serious issue)

[simonandjuliet]

Ouch .....