1300 Coupes

[neil-yaj396]

I am now the owner of around 30% of the UK’s road worthy 1300 Beta Coupes (and 100% of the Lancia Blue ones???).

I bought the post facelift Coupe from a Lancia enthusiast in Sheffield this week (he has a nice blue Series III Appia saloon - tried to talk him into joining up!).

Unfortunately, after a faultless thirty mile cruise up the motorway, the car developed the dreaded Beta hesitancy under load syndrome, to the point where I had to stop on the outskirts of Bradford.  A’ switch off and switch on again’ restored a semblance of drivability and got me home (and avoided the dreaded “Can’t find anything wrong with this mate!” from the AA man!), but that annoying ‘fluffyness’ remained and is even worse today.

I changed a rather ratty rotor arm and cleaned up as many connections as I could find this morning. This has improved the idle, but things are pretty poor once you set off and put the engine under load.

The car came with quite a lot of history, including notes from it’s original owner (Bernard Power 1979 – 2008; LMC member 6624). Turns out various mechanics have been mucking about with the carburettor and ignition for the last twenty years, with at best, it appears, only temporary success.

My money is on the vacuum advance and/or the ignition unit itself, as the ‘off and on’ business seems to eliminate the carb to me? Though the last mechanics bill is for freeing up the secondary choke flap.

The ignition unit is the Marelli type that sits under the coil, which I haven’t seen before. Any other suggestions are welcome of course.

Unfortunately this has taken a bit of the shine off my latest acquisition!

The car's history has inspired me to write an article for VL however. Some of Mr. Power's notes to his mechanics/restorers are quite poignant, it was obviously a very precious car to him, and for some reason it appears that when he finally parted with it, he retained it's original registration number.

[Angle Grinder]

Looks nice. I know of someone up here who scraped a T reg 1300 coupe just 4 years ago because he needed space in his garage to set up a workshop. The only fault with the car was some easily repairable rust in the front turret area. Cosmetically it was rust free and had only 54K miles on it. I nearly cried when he told me he'd sent it to the scrap man. I last saw it wobbling on top of a heap of other bland moderns.

Not that I really know Beta coupes, but I had a Prisma 1600 with hesistance under load and it was eventually solved by replacing the small diaphragm and plunger that actuated the accelerator pump in the carb. However, I also had bad idle problems as a symptom with this too and I'm not sure if that is your issue too.

[neil-yaj396]

Shame about the 1300. I think there are only six or so left. My older one may be the last pre-facelift.

It''s such a sweet engine and I prefer the understated steel wheels, but in this country it served little purpose as the 1600 delivers better overall performance and uses less fuel.

In Italy they sold lots because of road tax restrictions.

[neil-yaj396]

My garage was built in 2007 as part of the extension to our house. For the first time since then it is housing a Lancia, rather than a selection of household junk (and to be fair my bikes and snowboards).

[neil-yaj396]

I eventually fixed the poor running by taking off the carb, removing the jets and an blowing through every passageway (of which there are many) with an airline. A new vacuum advance unit, plugs and fuel filters had also helped, but didn't really cure it.

Strangely, when the carb was re-fitted the car would not rev at all over 3000 revs. I left the car alone for a week in abject frustration (it was stuck in the garage at work) and only returned to restart it to avoid the battery going flat. The car has run perfectly since then!

I can only assume that I'd blow some gunk even deeper into the fast running jet channels, but that the modern Redex rich petrol dissolved this in the intervening week?

[neil-yaj396]

Goodbye to the pre-facelift Coupe after seven years sterling service. Sold to a genuine enthusiast for £1450 via ebay. More than I expected, but probably a lot less than it will be worth in the future if it gets a good restoration. 173 watchers and 2500 hits so it generated lots of interest.

[Parisien]

Great to hear.......was tempted myself, but I got one of those stern looks from her indoors


P

[Derek Moore]

Haha, same here. Why do they not understand??

[lancialulu]

Excellent Neil

I hope you shoved a LMC application form into his hand as well as a receipt!!!???

Tim

[neil-yaj396]

Excellent Neil

I hope you shoved a LMC application form into his hand as well as a receipt!!!???

Tim

Yes, he asked me to send a link to the website with the inner wing/sill photos that I need to email.

[Dilambdaman]

Haha, same here. Why do they not understand??

The problem is, they understand all too well!

Robin.

[SanRemo78]

Looks like it's back on eBay.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lancia-Beta-Coupe-MOT-and-Tax-/261476601114?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item3ce1384d1a

Guy

[lancialulu]

Also plagerist ......

[neil-yaj396]

Yes, he text me yesterday to say he was moving it on for 'financial' reasons. Don't think he's after a fast buck because he could have had it for £500 less from either this Forum or Betaboyz. Odd, yes, he has 'cut & paste' my add!

Ironically Andy Collin's old Series1 saloon is next to it on eBay.

[neil-yaj396]

Auction ended early so he must have taken an offer. Anyone on here?