I said that I would never buy another Fulvia ....

[stanley sweet]

Good photos. That's the first time I've ever seen what's behind the heater controls. I hadn't realised the plastic levers attached to big chunky metal ones. I thought the whole thing was plastic and that's why they got broken sometimes. Of course, I should have known, if Lancia could overengineer something, they would. Repainting it in the original colour hints at a proper subframe out strip down. Or is the engine bay still in original paint? Nice Marron Fulvia today in 'Lancias seen on the road'.

[lancialulu]

Of course, I should have known, if Lancia could overengineer something, they would.

Slightly off topic as I am working on my newly acquired B12, and have got to the water pump.

This is what I found courtesy of Paul Mayo's workshop manual:

The Aurelia water pump is beautiful and excessive in its design.  Drive and fan loads are isolated and dealt with by a pair of large ball bearings, just like the car’s wheel hubs.  The ‘drive shaft’ water pump spindle floats independently in a wide bushing.  The only fault is expense.  Countless complex machine operations are held to tight tolerance.  Hubs, bearings, bushings, spaces are expenses offered to an ideal of excellence not often shared with the ultimate driver. The Ferrari water pump used on the V12 is agricultural in comparison – but more than adequate.  The advantages of the Aurelia water pump are academic and unseen in use.
The excellent handling, fair performance and wonderful lines of the Aurelia sold a good number of rather expensive automobiles.  The excesses throughout the car made each sale a dubious success.  The losses mounted.  A car “too good for its own good”, according to Setright.  If the Aurelia is too good for its own good, its water pump is far too good for a water pump.

[lancianut666]

looking at the pics of behind the dash it is darned handy having the fusebox inside the car

[JohnMillham]

"If the Aurelia is too good for its own good, its water pump is far too good for a water pump."
Same goes for the Lambda!
Regards, John

[stanley sweet]

looking at the pics of behind the dash it is darned handy having the fusebox inside the car

Sure is. I was once in the queue just about to go out in the rain at the Castle Coombe trackday. My wipers packed up but by the time I was waved out a new fuse had been put in without a single raindrop on my head.

[simonandjuliet]

Good run out today to test everything - heater is excellent, maybe too hot even ! Need to adjust slightly so it closes fully, but air can be directed as required ....

And the temp gauge works - Phew !

Replaced a couple of headlights (other LHD outer lamps due to arrive from Italy in the next couple of days) and refitted the grill so it isn't bent like a banana, plus a few other details

Abandoned the 3500 rpm limit so smiles all round

Still need to sort out the ignition switch problem and next are the rear end rattles

[Neil]

Simon,  I have located the spare glove box lid with hinges, I'll send you a photo later.

[lancialulu]

Simon,  I have located the spare glove box lid with hinges, I'll send you a photo later.

Neil, If you can get the hinge to me today I can bring out to Simon as I am flying out on Friday (fat chance I know).

[Neil]

Mission impossible I fear...  That is a shame, let me know if you have any other dates in the near future.

[lancialulu]

Mission impossible I fear...  That is a shame, let me know if you have any other dates in the near future.

This is it until the new year sometime...

[Neil]

Hinges (& glovebox lid) dispatched!

[simonandjuliet]

Brilliant, thanks very much - another job crossed off the list !

[simonandjuliet]

Not posted for a while, December spent pruning and then Christmas

Lancia ownership is rarely straight-forward and today was a case in point. It was a nice, warm, dry day so I thought I'd pop over to the MOT station to organise a Controle Technique (CT) for the HF. I was able to do it now because the new V5 had arrived over Christmas , having taken a while because it came from the estate of the previous owner, anyway .....

I don't have an electric pump yet, so once the fuel was up she started straight away (full choke , foot on clutch and don't touch the throttle for mine). I drove the 5 miles to the garage and as luck would have it, an elderly gentleman with a Renault 4 had forgotten to come for his RDV, so they said they could do it straight away

30 mins later I had my nice , new CT. Couple of minor advisories that I knew about , but OK for 5 years. The guys at the garage loved the car and couldn't believe how good the brakes were !

Now for the fun, I roared off up the road with the new paperwork proudly piled on the passenger seat and then 1 mile from home I ran out of petrol !

The gauge has never worked and I had even bought a secondhand tank unit on eBay last month - but of course hadn't fitted it !
I phoned Juliet for assistance, so she turned up 5 mins later in the Land Rover with a gallon of petrol and a tow rope (just in case) , I topped up the tank, turned the key,  blipped the throttle ...... and the cable snapped

Since we were on a single track road at "rush hour" in the dark, we just towed the car home and I will sort it out tomorrow !

Tant pis

ps photo taken at the end of Nov, no leaves left now

[stanley sweet]

Yes, it's strange when you have days like that. At least these little problems are happening close to home and aren't major. Might be worth fitting a new clutch cable too so that you know you don't have to worry about that in the future.

[jmspear]

I think it is historic car ownership, in addition to fettling my new HF 1600 - see seperate post - I had the back axle refurbished on my GT junior, I refitted it and took it out for a test drive and on over run the handling was horrible, to the extent that it almost threw me into a spin in the fast lane of my local dual carriageway at 80 mph, was fine up until then, on puling over I found that the wheel nuts on one of the rear wheels had come loose and were almost off- I was lucky - then the realisation the wheel brace was in the garage, so a very slow trip home, stopping every mile to hand tighten the nuts!