B10*2283

[williamcorke]

Having thought some more about the brake snail question, I am planning to split the nuts. It will be a relatively simple job to drill some replacements for pins and this way I should be able to preserve the easily breakable bolt on the back of the snail-shaped cam itself. Will report back.

[Dikappa]

I had exactly the same problem.  In the end I drilled out the damaged bolt from the 'snail' , and welded in the shaft+thread cut to size from a suitable fine threaded M8 bolt out of the junk box.  If you do get the pins out you best keep the nuts allocated to their 'snail' as otherwise they won't fir together...

[williamcorke]

New Year Aga cooking. B10 wheels...

[Parisien]

That looks good enough to eat Will, somewhat bizarrely my body/paint guy has chosen to work on my wheels in recent times rather than put paint on the B12

P

[williamcorke]

Thanks Frank.

I'm nervous of these rolled-rim wheels as the rims rust from the inside and can fail as a result. Any holes in the rolled section of the rims is a sure sign that they have corroded from the inside out and so are dangerously weakened. Before perforation is obvious, they can rattle as flakes of rust rattle around within the rim... an audible warning sign.

I have 8 correct wheels for the B10 (had nine but gave one to Jonathan Angell for his car as a spare) but even so I am struggling to find 4 (ideally 5) that have no sounds of loose flakes. Several of the worst ones have perforated rims.

Does anyone have any advice on how the weakened wheels could be restored, or are they scrap?

[williamcorke]

Questions about rear lever arm dampers - see photos below.

1. what is the little tab seen at the bottom right of the first photo? The parts book isn't informative. It looks as if it might be an adjuster mechanism. I'm hoping one of you will know.

2. there is the following stamped onto the top of the right rear (offside in the UK) damper pictured here:  L 2430. To what does the 'L' refer. Presumably not 'left' as that would be 'S' in Italy...

[chriswgawne]

These beautiful Lancia made dampers for early pre-De Dion Aurelias are fully adjustable for bump and rebound.
You should find they are stamped D(destra)  and S (sinistra) and they were all numbered. I have found that they have a tendency to leak a little around the output shaft as the seal is a felt one which ends up holding grit etc which in turn scores the shaft. All I have ever done is clean up the shaft and the felt seal and then use the 'witches brew' mixture of oil/brake fluid recommended in the Aurelia manual.
Chris

[chriswgawne]

William,
I think you are quite right to be nervous of hollow rim wheels which exhibit any signs of corrosion including flakes rattling inside the rim. I have never repaired perforated rims as the steel has always seemed too thin to weld properly. If in doubt please don't use them.
I used the centres from wheels which I considered to be unsafe to have 15" rims ( Rover and Flavia) welded to them for racing (to give a wider choice of tyre).
Good hollow rim wheels are a bit like hens teeth these days.
Chris 

[the.cern]

I am watching this one with interest!!! I have yet to address the wheel issue, but thank you Chris for the tip re Rover and Flavia rims!!!

[williamcorke]

These beautiful Lancia made dampers for early pre-De Dion Aurelias are fully adjustable for bump and rebound.

Thank you Chris for both your responses.

Follow-up questions about rear dampers:
- how are the bump/rebound adjusted?
- where are the D/S stamps found (I've not been able to see them, though there is a 'B' stamp on top on the other side to the stamping number and 'L' I mentioned before)?
- I read through the workshop manual but failed to find the 'witches brew' reference and have bought some Penrite damper oil http://www.penriteoil.com.au/products/shocker-oil-1 for them to ingest. Is that a bad idea?

Best,
William

[chriswgawne]

To get FIA papers on my racing 3rd series B20, I had to fit original Lancia lever arms like those in William's photos. These dampers are mounted to the body of the car and are each connected to the swinging arms by two Suspension rods/levers which themselves have Silent blocs fitted.
I found the lever arm dampers to be quite soft but perfect for road work ( although I had stiffer front and rear springs which considerably affected the ride on rough roads) but I eventually returned to using a Lancia modification to use  adjustable telescopics at the rear which gave better damping for circuit work.
Every Aurelia I have ever had which was using original Lancia lever arms dampers was found to have badly worn Silent Blocs and in a couple of cases the Suspension rods/levers were found to be bent through being adjusted incorrectly thus limiting the travel of the rear suspension.
The recommended oil for these dampers according to Paul Mayo's excellent manual was 70% Mobiloil Arctic or Shell/Essolube 20W and 30% Mobiloil Shock absorber light or Donax A1 or AMM LR.
I have disposed of 3 pairs of these lever arms dampers and each one was stamped either S or D exactly as the remaining pair in the attached  photo which  I have put aside for my 1st Series B20 ( which is currently fitted with a different make  of lever arm damper  which work well and don't leak).
Chris

[stanley sweet]

I'm not sure exactly what is meant by 'rolled rim' but it sounds like a hollow metal tube around the rim. Could a good set of wheels be waxoiled in this cavity through a small hole and plugged somehow?

[Niels Jonassen]

The rolled rims are known to corrode from, the inside. However, I have found that the rolled edge did not corrode. The corrosion was along a line further down the rim, in line with the hole for the tube valve. I suspect that water gets in at the hole and then seeps along the rim. After having two wheels split I did like Chris and had new rims welded on to the wheel. In order to keep the original tyre dimension of 400mm I chose wheels from a Citroën B11 - in Britain called Light Fifteen. They have a slightly deeper section than the original rims, so the edge of the wheel has to be bent slightly in. It is a tricky operation as you will obviously want the wheel to run true. But it can be done successfully. You will of course loose originality, but till to day only one person has spotted the change. Most important is to have wheels you can trust. 

[williamcorke]

Thanks again Chris,

I have replaced the silent blocs in the rods/levers, but have been wondering about how to set them up. I couldn't find anything in PMayo's manual about this. The splined input shaft to the damper seems to have about 120 degrees of rotation (from full compression to full droop), so setting the top arm on the splines in the right position must be critical.

And this is probably a stupid or ignorant question, but if the damper rod/lever doesn't act as a droop limit to the rear suspension, then what does?

On the question of adjustment, I've been poring on Tav. 54 and am wondering if the adjustment you referred to earlier is performed by removing the big covers at each end of the damper body, to get at the bolts behind. If this is the case, how can you tell which is bump and which rebound, and what direction to you turn them to stiffen or loosen (clockwise to increase damping, anti-c' to decrease?)?

[williamcorke]

Thank Niels,
I think I prefer the idea of a rim that would allow me to continue to use Michelin Xs, so the Citroën option sounds interesting. There is a man local to me who works on steel wheels - welding, replacing rims etc., so I think I might well get my 4 spare wheels re-rimmed. Were you B11 rims from old wheels or have they been remanufactured?

Andy, Cavalitto is now (I expect you've spotted) advertising 4th series wheels, with the correct centres but non-rolled rims.
https://www.oldlanciaspares.com/1234-lancia-AURELIAA-sparepart-wheel-serie-3-4.php