Ardea Camioncino - Unbelievably Cute !

[Parisien]

Absolutely brilliant, such dedication, skill and hard work to meet your deadline, credit to all involved, well done!

P

[John Larkin]

Hi Simon, well done indeed!  Very impressive dedication and hard work.

John

[simonandjuliet]

Thanks for your comments - it's been a long road

Final details finished today and Dog came over and did a final polish, so ready for the show !

A photo from the 1970's and then a second as I found her in 2014 (bought 2016) then final one today

[Spider2]

What a truly magnificent transformation. I see the number plate from the 1970's shows a 75 plate. Who said Parisians don't have style!

[fay66]

Beautiful Simon!
Brian
8227

[simonandjuliet]

Thank you for your comments and the cars did look great at the show. I took the boys for a (long) day trip yesterday

The show is very impressive with a huge selection of cars - a disproportionate number of Lancias this year - and as you'd expect some very rare French machinery and dinky mobylettes that the French have always loved

The Lancia stand was excellent with cars from Theta to (new) Kappa and the Aprilia did not look out of place amongst some very nicely prepared and presented cars. There was a group of "polishers" always on hand to keep them all gleaming 

The Ardea and Appia were dwarfed in the centre of a very well presented "commercial" stand

Apparently there were 80-100,000 visitors this year

A couple of photos ....

[donw]

Do you have a photo of the Theta?

[williamcorke]

Fantastic, and what an achievement.

[simonandjuliet]

Back to reality - and to get the camioncino registered for use

Not much is written about Ardeas so I will show a few photos and comments about working on these delightful little cars

First, you need small hands !

One of the anticipated jobs when I bought the car was to sort out the wiring.  A lot had been disconnected, presumably due to problems. A bit like the Aprilia berlina, the wiring has become brittle, so I will end up rewiring most of it.

Connecting up the new wiring to the dynamo was impossible for me, just not enough room either from above or below, so I had to take the radiator out to access the connections on the regulator. However it meant that I could flush the rad and change the (dodgy) hoses and clips and tidy up a couple of other things

The Ardea is bizarre in that the water pump is driven off the back of the dynamo (see photos) and both are hidden under the exhaust manifold, so it's tight - but anyway, hoses and clips replaced and no leaks

I had hoped to reconnect the new wires to the old circuits, but it's all very tight around the fusebox so I decided to take the petrol tank out for better access. An easy job so long as the tank is empty, but since the valve is leaking , it did that for me on its own !

Ardeas don't have fuel pumps, it's gravity feed from the tank with a fancy open/reserve/closed valve at the bottom of the tank which sits at the back of the engine bay (!!!) - not sure that would pass homologation today

There is lots of silt, so I can clean all of this up and rebuild the valve as well as the other tasks. It is all about job-creation ....

[Mikenoangelo]

"Ardeas don't have fuel pumps, it's gravity feed from the tank with a fancy open/reserve/closed valve at the bottom of the tank which sits at the back of the engine bay (!!!) - not sure that would pass homologation today "

Simon I have the same tap on the Augusta, in fact mine is an Ardea tap. It works fine as far as leaking is concerned - doesn't - but although it turns off properly via the cable/pull knob on the dash, it is hard to make the push action on the cable work well to turn the tap on so, as I turn the tap off whenever I park, I always check that it has  re-opened properly by a quick peak under the bonnet next time I start. There is an intermediate position for reserve but I never used that.

I'm not keen on the scuttle tank either but it is part of the successful Lancia plot to use every cubic cm of space in the car for a purpose.

Mike Clark

[nistri]

Hi Simon,
I agree that the fuel tap on the Ardea is cumbersome and usually ineffective. To date I have yet to see one working fine. The simplest solution is to leave the system in the open configuration all the time and to fit a simple valve tap downstream to cut off the petrol flow when parking overnight (or longer). Remanufactured seals for the main fuel tap are known to last a short time only.
Taking out the water pump carries the serious risk of snapping the long bolt fixing it to the engine block. if this happens, the only feasible solution is to take the engine out to remove the broken stump. This is one major reason to renew the coolant often (max 24 months!) with a top quality brand so that the anticorrosion additives are fully effective.

Best, Andrea

[simonandjuliet]

Thanks for your comments and I did refill the radiator with Glycol Blue, so let's see !

As promised a few close ups behind the scenes. I decided that I do need a complete re-wire so took out the dash as well. Not too difficult because non of the nuts/bolts were seized - even the steering wheel popped off without a fight

Checking the wiring diagram and notes, there are 2 horn buttons - daytime and night-time ! Can't wait to see what the difference is ....

As you can see from the first photo , the wires needed to be changed. The wires have suffered the same degratation as my Aprilias, the rubber insulation has hardened and if they are moved then it breaks up and risks short-circuits. I suspect that most cars using this type of wire should be rewired now - rewiring does have the additional advantage of allowing extra wire for indicators etc to be added

Removing the dash has also allowed be to free off the lever for the fresh air vent

[simonandjuliet]

A small detail showing the simplicity of the Ardea petrol gauge

The petrol tank is just in front of the dash so a piece of string attaches the float directly to the gauge !

Mine wasn't working because the string was broken, so I unsoldered the base of the float chamber , attached a new piece of string and when it all goes back together , I can connect it to the gauge

[nistri]

Hi Simon, the float string should be resistant to modern fuel, something not to be taken for granted. Moreover, it might be tricky to correctly calibrate the gauge after repair. Andrea

[simonandjuliet]

Thanks for your comments Andrea - I did a test on several strings beforehand and yes I think that calibration will be fun, I need to think up some kind of adjustable link

Been playing a bit today. First up was stripping the petrol valve which was , like everything else, full of silt and the rubber seals were all perished. So, no wonder it wouldn't seal

The Ardea Club in Italy has the rubbers (and some other nice bits and pieces) but they never respond to my messages even when written in Italian, which is a bit frustrating so I am trying to source the correct sizes myself. Plus I have written to Cavalitto who is usually very responsive

I am also pursuing a non-original option because as mentioned above, it is difficult to get these valves working properly

The front loom is all but finished , just the indicators to finish, so the petrol tank has gone back in

Tonight won't be late (everyone has CV19 !!) so hopefully do a bit more tomorrow

HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone and here's to a healthy 2023 so we can tinker away contentedly