Flavia Coupe Servo Problem

[the.cern]

My youngest son, a professional photographer, enjoys using his late grandfather's Rollei. However, it must be said that his standard tools of the trade now are digital!!! My wife, also a photographer, was a late convert to digital but succumb she did!!  I just use my phone  ....

                                                 Andy

[DavidLaver]

We're off topic but:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollei_35

I'd forgotten how the flash fits to the base and that the case comes off to replace the film. No battery required for the meter, that seems so strange these days.

David

[rogerelias]

I still have a Leica 2 that I use every now and again, 1932 from memory

[ColinMarr]

I love all this distraction about old cameras. The Rollei and Minox compacts were great, but for me never quite offered the quick point-and-shoot ease of use of the Olympus.

Linking this back to Lancia (which is what it’s supposed to be about!) I offer the attached photos (sorry, some of these have been posted before). Again it’s 1991 and driving solo in my Flavia on the M40 I just happen to catch up with another Flavia Vignale – and I couldn’t resist taking this sequence of photos, shooting blind.

The red car was being driven by its then owner, Bob Summers – it was owned later by Roger Elias.

Colin 

[stanley sweet]

Rollei's seem popular. I had a Rolleiflex 35M - my first 'proper' camera when I got my first job, replacing the Russian Zenith I'd had all through college. The Rollei had through the lens metering, a luxury. whereas the Zenith had a little lightmeter window above the lens and you then lined up a dial on top to give you your options. Good little camera though for I think about £20 new and built like a T34.

[fay66]

I love all this distraction about old cameras. The Rollei and Minox compacts were great, but for me never quite offered the quick point-and-shoot ease of use of the Olympus.

Linking this back to Lancia (which is what it’s supposed to be about!) I offer the attached photos (sorry, some of these have been posted before). Again it’s 1991 and driving solo in my Flavia on the M40 I just happen to catch up with another Flavia Vignale – and I couldn’t resist taking this sequence of photos, shooting blind.

The red car was being driven by its then owner, Bob Summers – it was owned later by Roger Elias.

Colin 

Great photos colin

Brian
8227

[JohnMillham]

I used to own a little Rollei compact 35 mm camera which saved the day when my Leica M2 was waterlogged at a very wet Monaco Grand Prix. Water actually got onto the film of the M2, but the Rollei kept on working and produced adequate results. The Rollei had a Zeiss Triotar lens, which was the bottom if the range, but really not at all bad. Another Rollei I owned many years ago also had a Triotar and was particularly good. It took 120 film and the lens wasn't even coated, but took remarkably sharp photos. One shot from Dover Castle showd the French coast very clearly.
Regards, John

[frankxhv773t]

I have always maintained I am not a fan of the Flavia Vignale's looks but these photos might change my mind.

Choice of camera; Super Ikonta, Leica 3c, Contaflex or Nikon FE depending on what period of car I am photographing but for digital point and shoot I am rather fond of my original Canon digital Ixus. I wish I had as many Lancias!

[stanley sweet]

Flavia frontal treatment always reminds me of a contemporary Maserati. Was it the Sebring which had a similar little 'snout'.

[Seara Cardoso]

Seara/Colin

I was interested to see Colin's photos. My Vignale (1800 carb NOT INJECTION) is only geared at 17mph / 1000 in 4th (checked with GPS against the car rev counter which a crudely calibrated with a car test set in the garage) which makes motorway driving a bit heavy on petrol. I too have not tried to find out if the gearbox is a correct one although I believe it is as I have the complete history on the car and it has only done 56k miles. What should the respective gearbox identification plates show??

Tim

Isn’t it great to find such positive memories of these lovely cars from the past, at the same time as comments from those enjoying them now?

According to Oude Weernink’s book, the late type Farina Coupe and Vignale Convertibles with fuel injection (type 815.400) had a final drive of 10/37 giving 20.1 mph per 1000 rpm. This suggests that the photo of my instruments is about right – with say 4200 rpm corresponding to 85 mph, plus a bit for speedo error. Yes, it would cruise happily at this speed and it was easy to see more than 110 mph - but I was wary of taking photos at that speed!

With regard to the angle of the camera lens - the camera I used then and right up to about 2005 (when it was stolen from my bag in Paris) was an Olympus XA. This was a compact non-automatic 35mm film camera with coupled rangefinder. I became quite adept at winding the film on single-handed and shooting blind, perhaps altering the focus at the same time – not to be encouraged today! 35mm film cameras then had ‘standard’ lenses with focal length of 50mm (which was supposed to represent normal vision), ‘portrait’ lenses of 80mm, ‘telephoto’ of maybe 120mm +, and ‘wide-angle’ of 35mm. The Olympus XA had a 35mm lens, which worked well for general purpose, but I doubt if it is seen a ‘wide angle’ by the standards of modern digital cameras.

Happy days ….

Colin

Tim, 17mph/1000rpm is not supposed I think, the book says the Berlina 1500 should do 18mph/1000rpm so your car should be better, can you see the code on your car gearbox? Mine is 815 430 (same code as the car) and is number 861, so I think it is a correct gearbox after all, my rev counter is still not good!

John your car seems to be as it should, can you recall if your red tape marking the speed was fast or showed a little delay when going up the scale? The one on my berlina behaves like that, and seems to show less speed than suppesed when compared to GPS speed.

[Seara Cardoso]

My Vignale Flavia, back in the 1970s was extremely economical, always returning about 32 mpg, no matter what I did with it! Even towing the Austin Seven on a trailer to the Nurburgring with two pals on board. Barrie Crowe and I spent a weekend getting the Kugelfischer fuel injection to work without any special knowledge of how it was meant to work. I had the round instruments, but perhaps that's because it was left hand drive. It was a very good car and certainly amongst my favourite Lancias.
Regards, John

Amazing pictures John! I see you had 3 round instruments, different even from the coupe, could they be this rare Svama accessory?

Ricardo

[Seara Cardoso]

I love all this distraction about old cameras. The Rollei and Minox compacts were great, but for me never quite offered the quick point-and-shoot ease of use of the Olympus.

Linking this back to Lancia (which is what it’s supposed to be about!) I offer the attached photos (sorry, some of these have been posted before). Again it’s 1991 and driving solo in my Flavia on the M40 I just happen to catch up with another Flavia Vignale – and I couldn’t resist taking this sequence of photos, shooting blind.

The red car was being driven by its then owner, Bob Summers – it was owned later by Roger Elias.

Colin 

Great photos Colin, how nice must it be to randomly cross another Vignale!

[Seara Cardoso]

HELP 

I have a new problem with the brakes, but I think they aren't related to the servo.

When I did the 200km tour in the car I started to feel a longer travel in the pedal before it actually braked. I took the car out today and it became even worst, the servo was only actuated with the brake pedal almost at its limit.

I thought some air might be in the system, and I was right, bleeding the two nozzles at the servo from the two little pumps at the Master Cylinder showed lots and lots of air.

I then (not sure if I should have done it) opened the same nozzles with the car running and applying the bake pedal. This way even more bubbles showed up. I'm thinking that the problem must be in the pump, letting some air enter the system, and I noticed some bubbles going up inside the reservoir when braking and after braking, what can be letting this happening? I'll post a video next.

I seems like there is air entering the system but no oil leaking.

Ricardo

[stanley sweet]

I had a similar thing happen to my Fulvia a few years ago. The pedal almost went to the floor. When a friend pressed the pedal air was bubbling up inside the reservoir on the master cylinder. We changed the seals but the same thing happened. On closer inspection the inside of the cylinder had some pitting. A new brake cylinder solved it.

[Seara Cardoso]

I had a similar thing happen to my Fulvia a few years ago. The pedal almost went to the floor. When a friend pressed the pedal air was bubbling up inside the reservoir on the master cylinder. We changed the seals but the same thing happened. On closer inspection the inside of the cylinder had some pitting. A new brake cylinder solved it.

Thank you, I'm taking the MC cylinder out today to check it's inside.

Here you can see the bubbles on the right of the reservoir:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=530EWPCsS_s

Ricardo