New to the fold...

[OperaHawk]

Greetings, fellow Lancisti!

I guess I'm now a member - I just picked up an '81 Zagato and drove it home. I hope I don't get flamed, but it reminds me very much of my old rally car, an '86 Dodge Omni GLH - very responsive, hugs the road, and the song from the engine is heaven!

I do have some things to start taking care of, such as rust (of course), but it's not that bad. I have some questions - any help would be appreciated.

1) Will a generic window crank work? The driver's door is set with a PVC & steel stock cobble-together unit.

2) The passenger power window works, but only halfway. Can I lube it to solve this problem?

3) The previous owner took off the power steering pump, since they said the rack leaks (I have another one). I do know my way under a hood, but should this be an easy replace?

4) Tires - Any comments on the best size? It's now on 70-series tires (regular rims). I'd like to go to a 50-series, if possible.

I have a spare condenser in good shape, if anyone needs one.

I'll dig into this (no name yet for this beast) soon, and I await some help!

Love these Forums!

Steven Jepson

[SubGothius]

First, congratulations! You'll love the car even more, once you get those minor bugs quashed and get some decent tires fitted. I can see what you mean about the Omni GLH (good ol' Shelby-tuned turbo performance ;) ), as certain aspects of the car's size, driving position, and even the HVAC controls remind me of my dad's late Dodge Rampage. But of course, we can all agree, despite a few superficial similarities, that our Lancias have notably superior handling and overall road manners, styling, etc.etc.etc... Regarding your questions:[list=1] Not sure if "just any" crank that fits would work, but window winding mechanisms are still available here'n'there, at least from Beta Boyz (http://www.betaboyz.co.uk/) if not the usual suspects Stateside (Vick, Obert, et al. -- check this forum's links page for URLs);
Yes, and you can pull out the whole works and bench-lube it, which I'd imagine is a bit easier than doing it in-situ;
Obviously, you'd want to get the rack rebuilt, or get a rebuilt rack, but getting it all back together should be doable for a competent DIY mechanic -- bonus points if you have the old pump and especially the hoses, as new hoses (if needed) can be made using your existing HP fittings (same goes for A/C hoses, as well, if necessary);
On standard Lancia alloy rims, 185/65R14 is the sensible maximum. A very few tire models (e.g. Falken Ziex 512) have been known to fit 195/60R14s without rubbing the spring seats under cornering, but this is prolly more a matter of the tires being physically a bit smaller than their rated size. I'm needing to get new tires very soon, myself, and have settled on the BFGoodrich Traction T/A T-rated (http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=BFGoodrich&tireModel=Traction+T%2FA+T) based on TireRack.com survey and test results (or you may prefer the H-rated version for slightly better handling, which may not be realized at our cars' relatively low power/speed capabilities, at the expense of treadnoise and longer wear).[/list:o]

[Gregory Smith]

Good choice there, '81. The window crank may be the "emergency crank" fitted for obvious reasons. Does it have a knurled knob on the end? If so you can unscrew it, and there's a trim plug that fills the hole.

Lubing doesn't always help, as the fuzzy rubber track just wears out. Once the fuzz is gone the track is too sticky to allow the window to operate. New channel material can be had from body shop suppliers or J.C. Whitney.

Get yourself a repair manual to figure out the p/s replacement. The A/C compressor will need to be there to give the p/s & a/c tensioner something to push against, you see they work together. P/s hoses can be custom made with DIN fittings, my pressure side hose cost $30 and was thinner, so easier to reinstall. A/C is awfully nice with the Darth Vader interior.

[Jim Keller]

Hi Steve,
If your power window motor is the problem, the driver window on this 82 I am stripping works perfectly, (I think the drive is ok in the passenger but the motor is shorted), and I also have a set of new Falken Ziex 195/60-14 that are on a nice set of wheels with decent to ok center caps. Can't ship the tires and rims though, you have to drive out for them.

I only run the 195/60-14 size on my Betas, had Pirellis, Falkens, BFG's on them in that size and a friend had Firestones that didn't rubb. The only ones that ever rubbed were my nearly 10 year old Pirelli P6's, and then it was just ever so slightly that it gave a mild howel on high speed corners and left a black line, but never dug in, on the inside sidewall from rubing the strut spring perh. 50's are not recomended but if you have a set of wheels made up with enough offset, you can do that too. The main problem is the spring perch. A set of coil overs help there too, but those can get expensive.