Lancia Beta Forum

I'm not sure if this should be under this section or under the specific areas, but here goes . this weekend we attended the Classic Weekend at Silverstone. It was our intention to go via the M25everything was fine until we got near for the exits to M3 and M4,thats when things went wrong. We were in the car park that is the M25 the car was ticking  over fine then nothing it just died, the weather was warm and the engine was hot but not overheating. It would not restart and we were in the third lane unable to move a call was made to the RAC plus the Motorway Service the next half hour was very scary  until the traffic was halted and we were pushed over to the hard shoulder.
The car would not start we had a spark and fuel  coming through but when the air cleaner was taken off the float chamber was dry then after priming the car started and ticked over fine. We continued on to Silverstone.
We turned up at the event and was ready to park up, but reverse could not be engaged and we were pushed back, to finish off the window on the passenger side refused to wind up the handle just slipped, after taking off the door card we got the window up manually.
So I have a few questions, would the carburettor be sticking or was the problem heat, the problem with the reverse seems to be the oil getting hot and gear engagement being lost I would appreciate a recommendation for a good make of oil for this plus  a good engine oil my local spares shop is stocking Comma oil specifically  for 1970s engines.
If the winding mechanism needs replacing are they available?
Lastly I noticed the  spark plug cables were carbon filled, would it be a recommendation to replace these 

Sounds like a vapour lock in your fuel supply caused by the heat. So, so common in classic cars now. Modern petrol is designed to be blasted through injectors at high pressure not aerosoled through carburettors anymore. Could be the float sticking, but if so I suspect you would have broken down again. An ongoing problem with no obvious solution other than fitting Filter Kings and electric pumps perhaps.

I've been using Comma Classic oil for the last two years with good results on pressure and leaks. Castrol Universal 75W-90 in the gearbox.

Finding a good window winder will probably just be pot luck on ebay.

I had loads of problems on mine when I was still running the mechanical pump.

I think the problem is that with the engine at idle there just isn't enough flow through the feed and return lines and heat soak from the exhaust boils the petrol in the pipes as they come up the bulkhead. Modern fuels seem to be particular susceptible - that might just be my imagination. The 'suck' setup of the pump makes things worse as it further lowers the pressure in the lines.

Making sure the return line is clear will help as will heat wrapping the exhaust but the ultimate cure is a rear mounted electric pump.

Synthetic gear oil will help the change generally but it may be that your linage just needs a tweak.

Most modern HT leads are carbon. Replace them if they look old or knackered.

Many thanks to HF Stuart and Neil, I will certainly take your suggestions and act on them

Many Regards Alan

You can find second hand ones, but they are usually also worn. The working solution is to dismantle regulators from both sides and swap the driving springs as they worn only on one side while the opposite side is still like new. So the right side spring goes to the left side regulator and vice versa. This at least works for electrically operated windows, but I think the manual system basically is the same in design.

Yes, this solution was quoted to me by Chris Bastow some time ago re my last Coupe, but I never got round to doing it.

I did and works as new. But this is the second and obviously the last life ;)

I have just pulled my jumpy regulator out. I think that the issue is the pinion rather than the 'rack'(spring) as the spring looks fine, but it jumps at the same place on each handle revolution.

I have a NOS regulator, BUT, it is a bit kinked and straightening it looks tricky without kinking the split tube.

So, probably a silly question, can you get the the winder apart, so I could perhaps put the new winder on the old mech, possibly with a new spring? This suggests it is to change the spring?

 Mark

It must come apart for CB's solution above, flipping the 'cog', to work?

A new thread might be an idea too Mark, had to read up the page to work out what you were on about!