Lancia Owner Once Again

[Jim Fierst]

:) Once again i am joining the ranks of the lancisti . As some of you may know i purchased DJ' 79 LBZ. I drove it home from Denver to kingman about 1000 miles. MPG was 27 to 28.. Like all of these older cars it comes with a 'to do ' list. it is in the shop getting the A/C upgraded to 134A. i have couple of electrical gremlins to get worked out. Val,jim K. and Allen have been helpful there already with tips .
i am making this post ffom a computer other than my own. DJ and i have several hours in trying to get my computer to work with this site .l suspect it is something to do with cookie handling but we could not figure it out. Until I do i will not be posting here on a regular basis.r

[A1.6HPE]

Hello Jim,
Good to hear you have a Lancia again and a good one.

On the computer front - have you tried using Firefox ? I use it and all works OK with this forum/board. www.firefox.com (http://www.firefox.com)

Leo

[SIMid]

Congrats!! 8)

Tried deleting all your cookies and re-checking your firewall?

[jp]

congrats as well!

working on my own gremlins as well in time for summer

[radioal]

Congratulations on the new Lancia. I just bought my first ('75 coupe) after a lifetime (literally- my Mom drove Fiats before I was born!) of continuous Fiat ownership.

I am very interested to hear how the 134a conversion goes. That is one of the next steps for mine. I have done 2 conversions on American cars (the Wife's). A mid-80s Oldsmobile went well and worked even better than stock. A '68 Mustang was a dismal failure and I never did get it right. I eventually ended up selling the car due to rust issues before it ever consistantly blew cold air. It had some sort of restriction (?) that caused it to either smoke the belt or the clutch every time I tried to run it for any period of time.

Are you replacing any major AC parts or just converting?

Al

'71 850 Spider
'78 124 Spider
'87 x1/9
'87 Yugo GV

and now...

'75 Lancia Beta Coupe!

[Tx_Al]

you know what Jim with a Beta means.........


WHOA! Brakes for the Beta!

[DJ]

I'd expect that's true but I wonder how much of a market there would be for them. The Betas already have excellent brakes and I've never heard anyone even wish for better brakes for their Beta. At least they aren't as wanting as Scorps and Spiders.

The market could be there, though. Maybe at least for those who race their Betas.

[Jim Fierst]

:) Hooray.. I can finally post here.. Cookie controls were set too "high". Anyway, responding to DJ's & Al's comments regarding brakes.. DJ is correct, the Beta brakes are fine for street use and there would not be much of a market for a kit. ..
I have attacked the" to do" list aggressively . I redyed the interior using black shoe scuff dye from Wal-Mart after first conditioning it with SEM cleaner. Finished up with several applications of McGuires vynil conditioner.
It came out looking pretty good.
Got the power windows working by removing a pair of relays someone(pre DJ )included in the circuit and lubing the mechanism .
A/C is working fine . 134A conversion required a new receiver dryer.I used one fram a 1970's Chrysler and had to make a fitting to adapt the pressure control switch. 1970's AC is what it is and will keep thins cool at road speed but comes up short in city driving at 95 degrtees. I had the windows tinted yesterday.That may help some.
My PS is /was leaking . I followed Jim K.'s recommendation of a bottle of Lucas PS fixer. It seems to have stemmed the flow. Sent a backup unit to Val to see if it is any good. I am going to f/u on the use of 81/82 Audi 5000 seals in the Beta units.. .
Next to last installation thing is a new radio. Chasing a period correct twin shaft type.
Last is a crazy rattle that starts 5 seconds after I start the car (clutch in or out) that lasts for about 4 seconds then stops til the next time the car is started. It is a buzzy tinny sound . It seems to be in the cowl area around drivers feet..

[radioal]

Great news on the AC. I'll probably try the 134A route, too then. Do you have an original application from the Mopar Dryer?

I, too am working on my radio now. I have the original Blaupunkt Frankfurt that was dealer installed in the car, but it gets one station and sounds like crap on that one. I am trying to find a service manual for it and hope to eventually return it to its rightful location. In the mean time I found a flea-market grade analog 2 shaft radio called a "Mazaratti" that actually doesn't look too out of place and at least works. The name (spelling and all) just cracks me up!

I modified a power antenna from Advance Auto to mount in the old hole in the rear quarter panel and it looks really good. What I did was to use only the provided top nut without the swivel adapters and cut a gasket out of a neoprene washer to go under it with all of the other hardware beneath the panel. The result was a nice little chrome nut which is nearly flush with the antenna down and sort of "factory" looking.