1975 2000 HF Coupe

[lancialulu]

Probably a bit late now but the better fix is with bronze bushes and a grease nipple

[GerardJPC]

[GerardJPC]

New bushes in (thanks to Dietmar at Historic Racing in Hamburg for sending these so quickly), new grease in, and steering idler arm put back together -




 

[lancianut666]

Hi Gerard
Did you do the idler repairs? or did you supervise Mark...Car looks great. I love the description of the fuel injected car's engines as looking like the insides of a washing machine dumped under the bonnet.
Clarkey

[GerardJPC]

If I tried to supervise any mechanic, comedy would ensue.   I've known Mark for several years and he is by a long way the best car mechanic I have ever met.  So far, no old car can defeat him, despite all of their evil attempts to do so.  He has tamed recaciltrant BL cars, Land Rovers, assorted Italiana, and even motorbikes.  As for me, I barely know which end of a screwdriver you are supposed to hold!  I was in court while all that spannering was happening.  Horses for courses!

[GerardJPC]

Mark is very much opposed to bodging, and whenever I buy an old car he spends time undoing the bodges put in by previous owners, but I persuaded him to do a decent bodge fix on the wheel arch until I get done it done properly, so at least the car is fit to be seen in public. 

On bodging in general, my late father was a production engineer in the car industry, and a practical man who could fix things such as cars and houses, and he said that while a botch is bad, a working bodge can sometimes be OK in some circumstances.  He had many tales of how the worn out tooling of BL production lines in the 1970s led to all sort of factory work arounds to get cars to the dealers - to be fixed on some other balance sheet.   

Mark tends to deplore the way that my Fiat 124 (currently away being welded) has been kept going by bodges by blokes in sheds for many, many years, but ... it is still alive, when almost all other third series RHD Coupes have died.  My Appia when it arrived was a strange combo of bodge and neglect, but mostly neglect.  My Beta is almost bodge-free - it's just old, but it has low miles and is in many ways quite original.  The HF shows little sign of any bodge work in the past, but has done over 100,000 miles so naturally has some tired bits.   

[lancianut666]

You are lucky to find someone like Mark as my experience of mechanics is they can only work on modern cars as some don't know how to set up the points on cars like ours not their fault. Motor factors are the same my local one promised me a rummage through their NOS of contact points but the next time I went in they had been skipped.
Clarkey

[GerardJPC]

Mark can do modern cars but he prefers to work on old ones.  He has specialist knowledge of classic Minis and of TVRs (He has a TVR), but  he is in my view a very good all round mechanic who understands how 60s and 70s cars work and what they may need.  When he does not know about something he takes the trouble to find out about it.  He is very good at fault-finding and has the patience and skill to find and fix stubborn faults.  His main interest is in working with carburation and ignition settings.   He says that if anyone is looking for work on carbs or ignition on their Lancias he'd be interested in helping.  He is a bit too busy to take on much new general work other than that.   He is based in Worcestershire but travels.

[bobhenry999]

Talking of bodges, back in 1984 I was on my way to a good friends wedding in my 2000 Coupe and the throttle cable snapped. Fortunately the friend who was traveling with me hadn’t yet wrapped his present to the lucky couple and had a roll of sellotape with him which we used to repair the cable.
It got me the 120 mile journey home and was still functioning perfectly there weeks later when I eventually replaced it !

Bob

[GerardJPC]

Ah ha!  Trottle cables.  More below...


Several steps forward, and one step backwards.


Yesterday I drove the car for the first time since a short test drive before I bought it.   The engine and gearing combo are really interesting, and the car has lovely handling.

The car is generally driving well but still has a softish brake pedal.   New rear discs and pads and some work on the rear calipers are on the list.

A change of oil and filter did not reveal any worrying signs of metal in the oil.  The car also has fresh brake fluid and is getting fresh coolant.

The mounting for the handbrake lever had sheered off its baseplate - a previous weld having failed.  The original fracture to the mounting may have been caused by overload deriving from a dodgy cable.  The mounting has now been welded back on to the plate, but a new cable will be fitted when I get one.

This morning the throttle spring or linkage failed or jammed, which made me unpopular with my neighbours as I started the car at about 7am.  The pedal collapsed to the floor and the engine roared wildly before I quickly switched it off.  I had been about to go off quietly,
let the car warm up in a secluded spot down the road, and then go looking for the wiper blade that flew off the car into a hedge whilst I drove back from the fuel station last night.  Lancias, eh?

EDIT:  the throttle cable has snapped off by the eyelet that connects it at the pedal end.  The aviating wiper blade was found in a lane close to home.

Pictures from a brief visit to a local pub and a nocturnal trip to get some ethanol free petrol.  The car now has period style numberplates.

[GerardJPC]

Ambience -

[GerardJPC]

New throttle cable located on eBay Italia - yay internet!

[Jai Sharma]

You are probably already aware and or it may have been covered but if you need to replace the handbrake cable then if it is the same as a Fulvia (insider the disc/hub) you will need to use the hub tool previously discussed to remove the rear hubs. It would make sense to do any work to the rear callipers then as they have to come off anyway to get to the handbrake mechanism

[lancianut666]

Wise words

[GerardJPC]

Thanks!  The Consortium is kindly sending the hub tool, so hopefully the brake work can be done next week.  Mark the mobile mechanic is here today but doing Appia and Beta stuff.

Here are some photos of the car reflecting on its bad behaviour in waking up the neighbours.   Also a shot showing that the front seats have stood up well since they were re-covered in 1989, but now show one small split on the driver's side.