1984 Beta Volumex coupe

[anotherdeadhero]

So this Friday we start in earnest on the mechanicals, ahead of starting on the cosmetics in September.

After my tyre thread I bought some Yoko C Drive 2s. It was a toss up between those and Toyo CF1's. Managed to get the Yokos at £50 a corner. Nowt special, but they're black and round and legal.
 
I was going to leave the Volumex untouched until this Friday when a mate is coming up to give me a hand to change the cambelt, but the weather has been so lovely I just had to get it out the past two evenings for jaunts to Hinton Charterhouse and Brent Knoll. Bliss.
 
So Fridays jobs are fit new rubber, change oil filter, engine oil, gearbox oil, cam belt, plugs, swap out rusty headlights, investigate gearbox baulking into 5th (if not solved by fresh oil and wiggle of linkage), fit new washer bottle, investigate why the windscreen wiper motor blinks the battery light on (gummed up mech, or buggered motor?), investigate why the coolant water is black and weld up the driver's seat frame ...

Hopefully in time for me to run it down to Sidmouth for a navigational exercise run my Exmouth motor club on Friday night.
 
Then MOT it Saturday morning for a run to a rally starting in Buxton Saturday evening ... wish me luck!

All that mileage should let me know if we've done the job properly. It'll be the longest run it has had for probably over a decade. Otherwise I'll have to take the Golf of Infinite Shonk to Buxton

Andy

[rossocorsa]

jealous that yours is on the road and running, god knows how I ended up in this endless restoration thing .... Looking good if you need any part numbers etc. don't forget to ask i have the full microfiche for VX cars amongst others.

[anotherdeadhero]

Well. Friday didn't go so well due to circumstances beyond my control, so I couldn't take it for its MOT.

Good news is that the cam belt is fine. Once the cover was off and we'd rocked it back and forth in gear, the belt looks fine. Changed the oil (old oil was like treacle) and filter. New washer bottle slotted straight in. Wiper motor issue is probabaly a bad earth, so that should be easy enough. The spark plugs that were in it were fine too.

New rubber arrived but no time to fit, got the seats out but no time to get the driver's seat frame welded up, and no time to change the gearbox oil either.

Bad news is the new headlight units I bought don't fit (tabs on the new units look completely different to the tabs on the originals - any tips?).

Then we started to investigate why it was seeping oil out of the top of the engine. It wasn't a lot so I'd assumed that the cam cover gaskets had gone. However, airbox etc removed we discovered that one cam housing cover bolt would not tighten. Removed to discover this:



The threaded section of the cam housing has broken away, which is why the cam housing cover won't tighten. Very lucky indeed that the bit that had broken off hadn't fallen into the cams and engine, or it'd be toast!

So now I either have to try and source another cam housing, or try and find a good aluminium welder to weld it up, heat treat it, and retap the thread.

I've used some instant gasket and araldited around the head of the bolt to the cam cover, so the car drives still, but I don't really want to drive it far until I can get it fixed properly. I'm trying to remind myself that it is lucky I found the problem before it got much more serious and terminal.

[MattNoVAT]

I wouldn't trust having it tigged up, I took some cams off a VX a while ago, I'll see if I can find them.


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[rossocorsa]

Which make of lights did it have? Universal fit lights will only fit in carello type bowls if you have siem lights they have funny unique fittings. Best long term option is to find carello fittings and swap them for an easy life in the  future.

[rossocorsa]

By the way make sure you have searched on here about gearbox oil, it's very easy to put in the wrong stuff beta gearboxes need oil without ep additives plenty of old threads that give full advice.

[rossocorsa]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ekzgzkdpzhrtn9b/9cam%20carrier.JPG
https://www.dropbox.com/s/s6fzof0z37pqehc/10cam%20carrier.JPG


0930 refers to volumex 0085 to ie

[anotherdeadhero]

Matt, that would be amazing if you could.

rosso, they're siem units in the car. I'll have to find some carello fittings then. I specifically sourced some ZC90 for the gearbox thanks. Huge thanks also for those microfiches - very useful indeed - I assume that the ie and vx part is the same (82353998 (0085)(0930)?)

Cam box discussion has moved here: http://www.betaboyz.myzen.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2560.0

[anotherdeadhero]

So I seem to have sourced a cambox from droptop and significant help from rossocorsa. Now all I have to do is find someone local to Bristol, UK, who is familiar with the Fiat twin cam to do the work changing it all over. May as well do the gaskets on the other side, tappet shims, cambelt and bearing all at the same time - and that is going to be easier with the engine out methinks.

Thought I'd get on with some 'easy' jobs in the meantime, which means getting the drivers seat frame welded up, and taking the wheels off . So cracked the nuts off, jacked the car up to find I could not get it jacked up high enough to get the axle stands underneath. A few bricks later, wheel off, I was just grabbing an axle stand when a noise like someone ripping a loaf of crusty bread in half alerted me to the fact that the jacking point on the nearside had failed.

Result: big dent in the passenger door, and a wheel I could not get back on. Fiance had to lift the car up while I reseated the wheel and put a 999 call in to a mate to bring his trolley jack round pronto! One step forward, two steps back this Lancia lark  

Got the seat out to sort mind. Passenger door skin had a huge rust hole under the mirror, so I'm think it'll be best to try and source another door skin now.

[rossocorsa]

I would have thought you could do it in situ. Why not have a go at diy? It should be relatively straight forward. You have now learnt not to use jacking points! Better to use a trolley jack on proper load bearing areas instead

[anotherdeadhero]

I have been meaning to buy a trolley jack for a while. One will be purchased tomorrow!

Didn't much like to look of the jacking points. Decided to give it a go and keep an eye on them as it was jacked up. Looked fine. Then suddenly didn't look at all good ...

I'd have a go DIY if I had the foggiest what I was doing. I have all the timing info for the Volumex engine, as the previous owner had sourced it all. I have a Haynes manual which has some dubious info, but good step-by-step guides and clear pics. But I am seriously out of my depth and well aware if I get it even slightly wrong, it will lunch the engine when I try to start it.

[peteracs]

You should not be able to destroy it if you take care and make sure you can hand turn over the engine several times BEFORE you try to do anything like applying power to the starter, this will check for issues with cam timing/valve hitting piston and idler shaft ( does the VX have this?) timing.

The rest is about keeping everything clean and using correct assembly lubricants etc. Having a copy of the GC book would be useful, though for what you are doing a slight overkill, but does have some useful checklists.

Peter

[Neil-yaj396]

I started this job a couple of years ago on my old 1300 (changing both camboxes to replace leaking gaskets).

Despite knowing what I needed to do it all went wrong when I couldn't get several bolts undone, including a couple of those locating the camboxes themselves. The main bit of damage I did was taking a tooth of the inlet cam wheel while trying to lock it in place with a screwdriver to undo the cam wheel bolt to replace the cam wheel gasket. Of course it will come off as a unit if you don't want to replace that particular gasket (if all the bolts will free off).

As an amateur mechanic I usually know what to do, but don't have the 'knack' to free off tricky fittings. Chris Bastow came to the rescue that time, but I had to tow the car to his workshop.

I'm in a similar boat at the moment with my crankshaft seal. It needs replacing, but I fear I will never free off the big pulley bolt. The last time I tried that I couldn't believe that a tonne of 2000ie Coupe, in gear with the handbrake on was inching across the garage care of the breaker bar I had on the pulley bolt, rather than the said bolt freeing off.

Then there is always the cambelt to worry about as well. So I will probably end up paying for this job doing too!

[anotherdeadhero]

Exactly Neil, whereas I do not know what I'm doing. I don't mind paying to have it done right, it is just a case of trying to find someone competent and local-ish to do the work.

 Start with some easier jobs and work up.

[rossocorsa]

A cheapish 50 litre air compressor and a nice quality (not misc Chinese brand) air impact gun (which can often be found on eBay not too expensively) are a good investment. Crofty's latest book is worth purchasing but it might scare you a bit as it is orientated towards racing engines but if nothing else it will give you an idea of how to organise your work and do basic stuff as well as the complicated. Personally I wouldn't rely on the Haynes manual too much, the official lancia beta manual in English that covers series 1 appears on eBay quite often and is still useful for later cars too (in the unlikely event that you can read Italian I have a nice copy in Italian you could have cheap)

[peteracs]

I must admit an impact gun is on my list of wants, but this situation reminds me of my father when he worked at one of the local pits. He was the surface forman at the time, but still got called upon to wield a hammer as he had the knack to break a nut/joint etc by hitting it with the correct force at the right angle etc. I have of course tried to carry on the tradition, but have lots of practise to do........

The front hub nuts will be a case in point I think when changing the bearings.

Peter

[rossocorsa]

I must admit an impact gun is on my list of wants, but this situation reminds me of my father when he worked at one of the local pits. He was the surface forman at the time, but still got called upon to wield a hammer as he had the knack to break a nut/joint etc by hitting it with the correct force at the right angle etc. I have of course tried to carry on the tradition, but have lots of practise to do........

The front hub nuts will be a case in point I think when changing the bearings.

Peter

Definitely get a compressor they are cheap these days and very very handy also much cheaper than a physio!

[Neil-yaj396]

Yes, I have a compressor and a  couple of impact guns (both Chinese I fear, one has no humph at all). I also have a 12v impact gun that I found in my Father-in-Laws garage when I was clearing it. Is there is room to get a gun on the crankshaft pulley bolt?

[rossocorsa]

I think so, it is a big nut though, from memory I think it's 38mm(??)

[smithymc]

I have a compressor I got from Aldi, which is great for most jobs. The accompanying impact driver however wouldn't undo a sweet wrapper, so I took it back.

I think you need a larger compressor for some of these tools - I know my garage approached the hub nut issue with the approach of - 'it will either come undone or flip the car over' using a garage compressor.

Mark