Aprilia Diary

[DavidLaver]

Lunch two and all that lot turn up...  At this rate lunch three is going to be like the Goodwood Festival.

[simonandjuliet]

At last - I can drive the Aprilia again !

Lovely run out into the hills, everything nice and warm (including me - doesn't bode well for Italy next July !) and my new radiator cap doesn't leak ..... the rubber gasket I made wasn't hugely successful, but amazingly there was an unused original in the spares I bought earlier in the year which still has the cork gasket. Works much better !

Talking of corks, we labeled and hand-numbered this year's vintage of our wine last week. Some of this is making its way to a club member as an exchange for Aprilia bits ..... Next year I hope that the Appia furgoncino will be making the deliveries !

Finally, we were delighted to receive the Farnham Trophy for PGY. David Laver picked up the award, gave a rousing speech and sent it out here, now pride of place in the sitting room !!!

Thanks David

[simonandjuliet]

Aprilia Lunch 3

L'Asphodele in Oupia

Set 3 course menu 14.80 euros (inc wine)

Starter - Olive bread and salad or prawn and trout rillettes
Main - Tender pork in mustard sauce or steak and chips (fait maison)
Pudding - Cherry Clafoutis or tarte au chocolat
Value € (very good value)
Location - centre of very quiet village
Parking - easy
Local roads - dusty and bumpy !
Recommend ? - Yes - probably the best value for money in the area at the moment !

We took the back roads to this resto, to see how other vineyards are progressing as much as anything else. The vintage is very late this year, no-one is picking reds yet. Whites only started this week - I reckon we are 2-3 weeks behind last year

Aprilias excel on unmade roads, I can drive tracks like this more comfortably than in the Land Rover ...... 

[simonandjuliet]

Time to give the Aprilia a good service, change all the oils (inc front suspension and rear Houdaille shocks) and grease the driveshafts etc before the weather turns and she is put away for the winter.

Finding the correct, high quality oils down here can be quite difficult, but fortunately the "Penrite" stockist for France lives the other side of Beziers (about 50 mins away) and with the 20% discount for collection in person, the prices are not too disastrous .....

The other plus is that he lives in the village of Pinet, home to the unique grape variety of "Picpoul". It produces a delicious dry white wine which is perfect with the salty, Mediterranean oysters we have here. So a visit to the Cave Coop was in order ! At 4€ a bottle it is a bargain and much cheaper than the oil.

It is also a very nice apèro wine - there is a glass in front of me as I type !

A list of oils I am going to use:

Engine - Classic light 20w60
Box - Forest Gear Oil - a EP 90 GL4 oil
Diff - Mild EP - another GL4 oil (an SAE 140 EP replacement)
Front suspension - Classic light for the top and will do a test on Classic light or EP 90 in the bottom (I think Geoff suggested this for Aurelias)
Rear shocks - Shocker oil 2 - However, I will need to remove, empty and rinse the shocks first because they may well still have "Castor Oil" in them.
Driveshafts - Graphite grease for inner and High Melt for the outers ( supposed to be more resistant to water washout - another trial !)
Wheel bearings - High Melt grease
Central bearing - High Melt grease
Steering box - Mild EP

The average temps here are quite high so I have erred on the side of the thicker oils. The original Lancia data gave a range depending on temperature (including something called "Lancia CO 1045 - 75% MobilOil A and 25% Napha !)

[BlueSky]

Luckily down here Penrite products are stocked by most auto stores.

As a comparison the oils I use are:

Engine - Penrite Everyday 15W-40 mineral
Gearbox - Penrite Sin 75 gear oil (75W-90)
Diff - Penrite Sin 80 gear oil (80W-140)
Front suspension - Top, Classic light.
                          Bottom, SAE 50W engine oil. Someone recommended to use the heaviest you can get in there!
Bearings - Castrol HTB bearing grease
Steering box - Penrite steering lube
Radiator - Red Line Water Wetter with de-mineralised or distilled water.

And then maybe a glass or two of nice cool local Lucinda Estate Chardonnay...
Noel

[lancialulu]

Just be aware of mixing synth and non synth oils as they can react over time to produce gluey solids which can cause oil way blockages so I have been told.

[simonandjuliet]

Servicing the Aprilia

As always with old cars you start one job and end up doing several more ..... started at the front and am working (ie not finished) backwards. First get the whole car high enough to crawl around comfortably

When changing the oil (4.5l of 20w60) on an Aprilia you have to remember to drain the filter barrel as well. There isn't a modern-type replaceable oil filter but a vane filter which sieves out deposits and they fall to the bottom of the barrel. There is a drain plug which empties this - directly onto the side of the sump !
The vane is automatically turned, and cleaned, every time you depress the clutch ......but when changing the oil it is a good idea to rotate the vane a few times by hand before draining the barrel
Once clean oil is in you can turn the engine over on the starter without the ignition so the oil is pushed around without strain

The sump-plug needs a large 22mm Allen key to undo it. There is a combined special tool that does this and the 14mm plugs on the steering and gearboxes

The gearbox is drained underneath and is refilled via a window in the passenger foot well. It is not very easy to remove the plug because it is angled in such a way that the special tool fouls the sides and floor, so I made up an extended Allen key using a spare 14mm bolt and 2 locked nuts at the other end so you can turn it with a spanner. A small blob of dum-dum on the bolt will even lift the nut out without dropping it on the floor ! Refilled with 1litre of EP 90

The oil in the steering box was sucked out with a large syringe and rubber tube and refilled with EP 140

Next were the front suspension units which were first drained through the bolts on the bottom of the units and then refilled with EP 90 using the special syringe. I left the bolts out of the bottom until I could see clean oil coming through. Reservoir for the top was refilled with 20w60 and pumped a few times

Whilst at it I took off the front drums to have a look at everything, I have always blocked the plunger on the brake fluid reservoir because it can be a pain to get the drums back on if the return spring is tired the shoes move !
All OK, quick wire brush to remove the dust and refit. Adjust the shoes and all finished

It was then that "the extras" became apparent. I had always been aware that the drop arm was a bit bent , but I hadn't realised how much! This meant that I had to remove the steering arm, tie bar and all the bushes and eccentric adjusting bolts - some of which were seized ....then once it's off, everything needs to be cleaned, checked and repainted. Oh and don't forget to strip the underside of the valance, clean the axle and repaint it all !

The eccentric bolts have a series of holes and pins to adjust the toe-in, but all these were blocked and had to be redrilled (3mm) and all the split pins had been sheared, being held on with Loctite (I hope)

I had new tie bar bushes on the shelf but not the steering arm bushes , so quick call to Elizabeth at Omicron and I should be able to put it all back together next week

Then I can start on the back .....

ps in the special tool picture there is a screwdriver with blue tape on it - this is to remove the hub caps without chipping the paint !

[simonandjuliet]

More photos

[davidwheeler]

Ah yes, the bar across the front - so useful to attach a tow rope.

[simonandjuliet]

The bars showed more than one scar !

Question - is there a home use/DIY way of setting the tracking ? I know a friendly garage who can do it for me but I would rather do it in one go here ...

[lancialulu]

Question - is there a home use/DIY way of setting the tracking ? I know a friendly garage who can do it for me but I would rather do it in one go here ...

I used my pair trusty tracking sticks (bought when I was much younger and have set every car I have owned ever since and never had a problem). Not sure where you would buy them these days but worth every penny.

[DavidLaver]

Some options over three pages:

http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motorsport/wheel-alignment-products

[SanRemo78]

Or

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Trackace-Laser-Wheel-Alignment-Tracker-Tracking-Gauges-DIY-Check-Toe-In-Out-Tool-/300970019080?pt=UK_Measuring_Tools_Levels&hash=item4613360908

Guy

[ben]

I use a simple eyeball method which works given that the front and rear track are the same.
Get your head down level with the wheel centre in front of the car and line up one front wheel with the rear one by looking along the outside edge of the tyre and making small adjustments of the steering wheel as required.
Then look along the edge of the other front wheel and you see straight away if you have toe in or toe out.
Adjust the track rod length as required to get just a hint of toe in. (The Aprilia maintenance booklet suggests zero for radial tyres.)
1/16th of an inch at the wheel rim using sticks or whatever equates to 3/8th over the 8 foot wheelbase.ie your line of sight should take you 3/8ths of an inch outside the rear wheel.Take the guesswork out if you must by taping a strip of 3/8 or 10mm ply vertically to the rear wheel.
It goes without saying that the car needs to be on a level surface with the tyres pumped up hard and the car rocked to and fro a bit before doing the eyeball checks.
Hope that is all clear!!

[simonandjuliet]

Thanks for your comments on tracking, everyone

In the end I took several of your ideas and set up on my wheeled seat,  a building laser (which produces horizontal and vertical lines) to line up the grooves on the central groove on the front drum with the centre of the back tyre - since it was mentioned that the track is the same front and back, it isn't going to be a mile out. I had to use the holes and dowels on both sides to get it right.

All put back together with new dowels , split pins and copperslip so should be easier to dismantle next time. Finally reset the steering limiters to stop the RH tyre touching the inner wheel arch

I am going to try this and see how it feels and maybe get my local friendly garage to sanity check it !

The straightened bar means the steering wheel is centralised again , so I'll have to get used to the new position ....

Front end finished, moved along the drive train.

I have mentioned elsewhere about a vibration above about 55MPH and someone suggested checking the couplings (sorry can't remember who !) for wear/flex. They are all very good and no degradation, however the flexible mounting for the central bearing is quite tired and badly split on one side, allowing the prop to move slightly to that side - so I am sure this is the problem

Has anyone tackled this job before and can they give me some pointers ? Are the sheets of flex available cut to size or will I have to source and trim them ?

Thanks

ps Syrah vendanged yesterday using the 4L - a job I want the Appia to do next year !