My HPE....now a rolling recommission

[squiglyzigly]

Hi Stuart,
The tipo box was quite different to the Beta. There seemed to be an evolution of gearboxes through Thema, delta, Fiat coupe, tipo etc but other than some bearings and internal dimension similarities, I’m not aware of any of these gearboxes being closely related to the Beta to share the hard to find parts. I hope I’m wrong and we can find a good source of a available parts.
I’ve just completed a rebuild on my i.e. gearbox running in my Berlina after searching for syncros, hubs and bearings for nearly 18 months.
I dread the idea of doing it again as I felt some of the parts were very lucky finds due to mis-labelling.

As Eric has mentioned before, it ends up stripping several gearboxes and selecting the best bits to make one good one.

[Nigel]

A little bit more progress this afternoon.

The distributor has been annoying me for some time as one of the cap clips was
fouling on the inlet manifold.
So I rotated to TDC, marked where the rotor arm points to, whipped it out
and refitted it so that the longer of the two cap clips is now facing the rear.
Perfect.
Reset the timing, fettled the mixture screw, one test drive and all's good.

[Nigel]

More progress.
During the past few days I've changed the other 3 wheel bearings.

I found it really difficult to hear the bearings as my car is quite noisy,[ stainless exhaust] and
there wasn't really any visible wear inside the old bearings. However, a rumble was evident
on all of them during disassembly.

The drive is now noticeably quieter.

[Sandro]

Nice work Nigel.

( thumbs up )


A.
 

[Nigel]

I took the hpe to Brands hatch last weekend, and although she ran fairly sweetly I felt
it was a little rich, especially during initial cold running.

Leaning the mixture screw has improved it. Probably a good move anyway as
I took it for its 2nd MOT [in my time] this morning.

It passed with a couple of advisories, outer headlamps poor pattern, OSR shock misty leak, and a small
screen chip. The CO test was 1.046 compared to a max of 4.500, a great result. Credits to
Ian squiglyzigly for the work he did on jetting sizes.

The leaking shock was a surprise as I'd been under there last week doing the wheel bearing. It must
have popped during the trip to Brands.

No matter as all the shocks are on the radar to be changed in the near future along with the springs.

The headlamps were also mentioned last year. I have the Siem variety at present, and the outers are slightly
rusty. If anyone has a pair of as-new spares I'll willingly remove them from your storage.

[Nigel]

The rear of the car had been up on stands for 2 weeks during some wet weather
and when I climbed in to drive it last weekend after I'd replace the rear shocks...horror, the
passenger seat was soaked, as was the carpet.

This was the first time I'd seen any evidence of a sunroof leak. I had
previously cleaned out, or thought I did, the front drain tubes.
Clearly, this didn't work.
I took the seat out, now indoors and dry, and poured a generous amount of absorbent granules
on the areas of wet carpet. They're doing a fine job so far, I'll pull out the wet stuff and replace with
dried-out grit over this weekend. I should have a dry car soon.

And I'll get to doing the tube clearing job again, with a longer prodder this time.

[WestonE]

Hi Nigel

An annoying business. I like the using granules idea. I used to use old towels dried in cycles on radiators. These days I use a stack of de humidifier bags dried on radiators between use. These live in the car over winter drawing out the moisture.
BTW lift the carpet if you have any of the OE Felt left it holds a huge amount of water against the metal work promoting rust.

Eric     

[Nigel]

You make a good point Eric.
There's probably original felt in there, so I will. Hindsight says I should have removed the entire carpet
earlier on...!

The granules are still sucking, and the first lot are still drying out indoors, so I'll give it a day or so.

Luckily the seat has survived its soaking!

Cheers, Nigel

[Neil-yaj396]

If the car is pointing down hill, or is nose down on stands/ramps, even clear drain tubes can be overwhelmed by a heavy bout of rain. Happened on my 2000ie Coupe.

[Nigel]

Thanks Neil, good to point that out, and as it happens, my drain tubes may not be as wide as factory
because this is an after-market [electric] roof fitted in Australia. I wish there was a neat and easy way to
get rid of it.

Meantime, look what arrived today!
The existing starter has always occasionally malfunctioned, so it's a worthwhile
upgrade and very little extra cost over a standard unit.

[WestonE]

Very Nice Nigel

With good battery/ alternator connections/wires these are amazing. I have one for my Beta Spider and use one on the Monte

Eric 

[mangocrazy]

I remember Guy Croft giving the US-produced version sold by Auto Ricambi an A+ rating. And anyone who knew GC knew that he was very sparing in his praise. I have one of the US versions ready to fit - as far as I can tell they are identical to the WOSP item, aren't they? Basically a Denso unit with 1.4kw output and reduction gear.

[Nigel]

I fitted the new starter motor today and it's great. Spins the engine much quicker.
I am, however, going to re-cable the battery/alternator wiring as Eric suggested.
There was an aftermarket relay fitted to the original starter, is this still a good idea?

I lifted the carpet on the pax side and indeed found very sodden felt, so the entire
carpet is coming out to remove all that and replace with modern non-absorbent sound deadening.

I'd like to replace the carpet with something new, as it's seen better days. Possibly something
with 4-way stretch that can mould around the corners?  Anyone done this?

Cheers all, Nige

[mangocrazy]

Hi Nigel,

I remember the Project Binky guys recommending this stuff (which is why I saved it as a bookmark)...

https://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/product/2057/hi-flex-lining-carpet-black

Graham

[WestonE]

Hi Nigel keep the relay it protects the Cr*p ignition switch. I used Dynamat Foam for my Beta Spyder. In reality something sound proofing and not absorbent that is not stupidly heavy (avoid lead lined stuff) or really expensive will do.

Hi Graham WOSP have upgraded the motor units on recent versions of their starter and I think it now has a higher rated motor. Your reduction gear item will be good.

IMHO it is just not worth using the Old Starter motors even after a re-furb.

After all failing to start is such a PITA 

Eric   

[Nigel]

Graham, Eric, thanks.

I'd seen that Binky episode too, and then forgot where I'd seen it.

Cheers, N.

[Nigel]

I've stripped the interior and very glad I did as the felt underneath was
sodden in three out of four wells. The sunroof is probably responsible with inadequate
drainage its whole life.

I'd like to to something better with the wiring on both sides. It's held in place with
a non-setting mastic-type goo, and masking tape. Are they all like this?
There is a channel running down the top of each sill which would be a natural place to
put them, after taping them up. However this channel has what look like drain holes all the way along.
If I stop the water getting in, this is my preferred option.

Nigel

[frankxhv773t]

Might the "drain holes" be for locating harness clips or would that be just too good to be true?

[mangocrazy]

There was an aftermarket relay fitted to the original starter, is this still a good idea?

Cheers all, Nige

Hi Nigel,

How was the aftermarket relay wired in? Sounds like a good idea (as Eric says) to protect the ignition switch.

Graham

[Nigel]

Hi Graham,
It was cabled-tied to the battery cable right next to the starter.
It had an earth wire connected to the bottom of the gearshift stirrup, and a live
from the positive starter terminal. The ign wire was simply routed to the relay instead of
to the solenoid.
It worked fine but was a messy solution.

For the re-install I'm going to use the unused relay/fuse box on the left inner wing that used to
run the air-con system. I'll just run a new longer wire from the new solenoid connection to the relay
box. Pos and neg are all there.

Frank, who knows! Maybe.

Cheers, N.