An Augusta Story

[the.cern]

So, it is over two week since I posted about work on the Gussie, but I have not been idle!

The rear axle has been rebuilt with a new oil seal sleeve on one side, new oil seals, new bearings,  new Belleville washers and new bearing retaining nuts. I just hope the diff. is ok! I am just keeping my fingers crossed with that!!!

Photographs of the assembly procedure. They might all look a bit the same, but they show each stage after the half shaft has been inserted. I am annoyed that I have omitted to take photographs of the half shafts and the axle casing without the half shaft inserted. I will not be dismantling it just to get those pictures!!

                                       Andy

[the.cern]

Another item that has had a little attention has been the hand brake lever. This had been badly painted, as had the gear lever. The jury is out as to whether they should be finished in nickel or chrome plate!! More investigation required.

Anyway, the paint has been stripped and the ratchet mechanism dismantled and cleaned, but I still have to deal with the ratchet operating rod and button. The bushes about which the mechanism rotates have been centre punched to prevent them from working loose. Apparently a common practice, but not one that I have come across before, so they must be drilled out and new bushes made.

Photographs to follow ..... when I can find them!!!!

                                   Andy

[chugga boom]

Andy you don't need to drill it out, drift it through and re centre punch it when refitting , done it on atleast 4 and worked fine, j

[the.cern]

The punching is standard? I had thought that someone had done an earlier repair. That is very helpful, thanks James.

                             Andy

[the.cern]

Just a quick photograph showing the old and new oil seal sleeves ... that is a fair amount of wear!!!

              Andy

[the.cern]

Another little delightful piece of Lancia engineering .... the door check strap!!!

Steel cable No.6 is soldered into no.7 and is screwed into the frame of the door. The other end of no.6 is soldered into a short externally threaded tube which passes through the hinge pillar. No.5 is a rubber buffer with an internally threaded steel core, no.4. Then follows no.3 which is a felt bush with a steel tube centre. The whole is retained by washer no. 2 and nut no.1.

I believe the felt bush, no.3 does no more than stop the assembly banging around between the bodywork and the internal trim when the door is in the closed position!!!

Contrary to what I thought initially, the assembly can be removed without having to unsolder the no.6/no.7 joint, simply by undoing the nut no.1 and the threaded steel core no.4. Simply is not accurate, the nut is easy, but undoing no.4 is difficult as there is no way of holding the threaded tube and the steel cable simply winds up!!!!

                                   Andy

[simonandjuliet]

Lancia are always full of little surprises ......

I am enjoying all the detail !

[the.cern]

I now have a photograph of the handbrake ratchet pivots showing the centre punch work referred to above. I will apply a little heat and drift them out, as recommended by Chugga! Then I will be able to finish the cleaning and start a pile of parts for plating.

                                 Andy

[Parisien]

Just a quick photograph showing the old and new oil seal sleeves ... that is a fair amount of wear!!!

              Andy

Andy, thats like something off a potters wheel, or maybe it has a place as part of a modern art display.

It must have been the Italians who came up with the phrase...."The devil is in the detail"


P

[the.cern]

 ........ and to make the art functional, glue a circle of glass to the ribbed end, et voila, one has a beautiful shot glass!!!! 

                              Andy

[the.cern]

Something that I had no idea about came up a few months ago!! Jim had mentioned some welds on the sills and cross member in the front of the engine bay and commented that something was missing. Independently, a couple of months later James Parry showed me an original Belna shell with aprons welded to the sills and front cross member!! This it seems was standard detail for Augustas and Belnas ...... and there was a third apron that fitted into the rear of the front aprons that filled in around the back of the engine, so the whole of the engine bay was floored out. This was all news to me!!!

Fortunately James decided to re-manufacture the two front  aprons so I ordered  a pair!!

Photographs to show what I mean and then the 'how to do it' bit in the next post. The third photograph is poor quality but having seen the first two it is possible to make out all three aprons. 

                    Andy

[the.cern]

Well this should be easy, James has made the parts, there are photographs too show where they fit, simples!! Actually, NO!! James has always maintained there is no such thing as a standard Lancia. As each car is potentially different and as the aprons are a snug fit, especially the right hand one around the Autokleen oil filter, it is prudent to install the engine to check and to adjust the aprons if necessary.  That is the instruction, not difficult, but the reality is something else!!

The shell is on the rotisserie which not only has a limited load capacity, but also is attached to the shell with brackets extending through the engine bay. See first photograph. So the shell must come off the rotisserie. I contemplated axle stands under the sills, but was not comfortable with that so decided to put on the front axle with axle stands under that. My axle is away being rebuilt so a borrowed axle was put on, the fixings for that did not align by about 2mm so the left side was bolted in correctly, but the right side was attached with a strap. Bear in mind that the shell will be put on a transporter to go away for its respray so this is all work that would be necessary for that operation! So the axle was fitted and the shell was lowered on the rotisserie by some 300mm onto a steel stand at the rear and onto the axle on axle stands at the front. Then the front A frame of the rotisserie was removed followed by the brackets in the engine bay. My home made (not by me) engine crane was extricated from a corner of the workshop and the engine wheeled out from its hiding place and the relatively easy task of putting the engine onto its bearers was managed without any hiccups. The aprons were offered up, LH a perfect fit, excellent. The RH, unfortunately the Autoclean fouled the cut out in the apron and was some 6mm short of the front cross member. Time for Jim!!! He duly arrived and the necessary modification agreed. Then engine out, clean paint off the areas that will be welded and put the engine back in ready for a final check prior to tack welding the aprons in place which will happen tomorrow.

A few photographs to give an idea of the fun and games!!

                           Andy

PS I split the engine and gearbox to make it easier to install the engine on my own and also I have a new clutch spring to fit!!! I wonder where I put that?

[the.cern]

Having read the above, a couple of points:-

1) the engine is not meant to be nose down as it is in the photographs ... but it did remind me that I need to look at the front engine mountings (3 leaf cantilever springs) as there is a wear groove in the front cross member where the crankshaft pulley has fouled it!!!

2) look at the first photograph in the previous post. The hole is for the Autoclean and it is quite clear that on this car there has been some serious movement of the engine relative to the body, the hole is meant to be circular. See the 3rd photograph of that post where, although it is somewhat murky, the hole is clearly visible and is circular!!

                                     Andy

[simonandjuliet]

Fascinating - more please !

I hadn't realised how far back the rotisserie fits

[the.cern]

Fascinating - more please !

I hadn't realised how far back the rotisserie fits

With the B20 we just fitted it to the bumper mountings so it was mounted only on the face of the shell. The Gussie was a different matter. One area of concern was the front of the sills where there are three vertical skins close together which can corrode badly. Therefore we decided to try and take some of the loads back to the engine mountings ....... ideally all the loads should have been back there but it was difficult to see how to achieve that. As it happened, the corrosion was not as bad as I had feared (and seen) so all was well!!

                                  Andy