Little stinker give up it's secret, finally

[KeppelmanJ]

This is not really a new thread, but the title was irresistible. If you read the '81 coupe gas vapor thread below you haven't missed anything, mainly lots of helpful thoughts about the likely cause of a fuel smell in my coupe. After much noodling and some thoughtful deduction, replacing parts and sealing joints, I found it today by accident. It was the flange fitting in the fuel emissions manifold which is the hub of the emissions circulation in the trunk of this '81 car. Smelling raw gas in the trunk made it clear where to look. Of course, I needed to replace the rubber hose up front between the canister and the intake first to complete the hoses replacement. A pound of air to the hose circuitry in the trunk and tried and true soap bubbles identified the manifold as the bubbling culprit. I pulled it and sweat soldered the halves. I am so pleased with this. The car has stunk for years, less and less subtly until it made me feel lousy. Now it's like a little luxury car. Along the way I replaced the steering column switches (eBay from Athens) and welded up the floppy steering column. I was sure I'd have that in my lap before much longer. What's left? Electric windows that wont go down past three inches. I'll be posting a query here about that once I'm rested. Thanks for all your advice.

[1,6 HF]

Bravo, Johnny.

[Jim Keller]

Yes, Bravo! another quirk we now know the answer to! (:-) I'll be soldering mine when I do the vent hose changes later this month

[Pope1]

Glad you found it. Any chance of a photo please as I'm not sure which bit you're referring to and whether I have one in my car.

[Jim Keller]

You have one, every Beta Coupe, Zagato/spider and I think HPE and Sedan owner has one, carbed or FI. It is located behind the trunk carpet at the top of the right rear strut tower, has a bunch of vapor hoses coming off it and has a body connecting them that is machine pinch rolled together he is talking about he soldered the pinch rolled seam on......you'll see what he is talking about if you look at yours

[Pope1]

Jim, maybe I'm being particularly dense at the moment but I still can't figure out which bit your guys are referring to. I've just posted a photo (http://lancisti.net/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=7262) of my arrangement in my gallery. It's the last image in there. Perhaps you could use that to explain further please...

[DJ]

You have one, every Beta Coupe, Zagato/spider and I think HPE and Sedan owner has one, carbed or FI.

All North American cars do. But did ALL Betas have them worldwide? Chris's car is one of those with the steering wheel on the "wrong" side. ;)

[KeppelmanJ]

Chris, your VX doesn't show the same manifold. Actually, your photo wouldn't include it as it's up bolted to the top of the RR shock tower. It would be in the shadow of your pic but I can tell it's not there since you don't have four fuel vapor hoses coming up out of the hole in your floor. That hole should be covered somehow (mine has a sheet metal cover w/ rubber stuffing) to keep vapors coming up from the tank, fuel pump (injection models), fuel filter and connections. I think the US model may have been the only one with that emissions arrangement. As it is, with that hole open, you could be smelling vapors from the trunk or below from the tank. The Lancia Beta shop manual and Haynes both show photos of a similar arrangement to mine but with a different collector- looks like black plastic in the photos.

[Pope1]

My car does have the black metal cover for the hole in the floor but I'd removed it just before taking the photos when I was on my quest to find the source of the smell from my car. If we actually have a whole week-end without rain any time in the next couple of months, I'm going to get under the car and have a careful look at everything just below that hole.