The continuing saga of my Lancia Beta Spider

[mangocrazy]

'tis true.

On the flip side - far fewer tiny fiddly Japanese screws

Which are JIS form head and are almost always attacked by a numpty using a Philips (or worse still) Pozidriv screwdriver...

[Mr. Dazzle]

Yeah that's why I specified "Japanese" I would say the Bonnie at least doesn't have those, but I wouldn't like to bet on it.

[mangocrazy]

One of the first tools I ever bought was a Honda JIS T-driver, back in 1966. I've lost count of the number of cross-head screws I've successfully removed from Japanese bikes with that. One of my better purchases...

Your Bonnie would have had Imperial fasteners, Shirley?

[Mr. Dazzle]

It's got Whitworth, "Normal" Imperial and Metric, all from the factory.

[mangocrazy]

Good grief. I guess it was built while the UK was transitioning from Imperial to Metric. What was the year of manufacture?

[Mr. Dazzle]

Oct 1969.

Have I mentioned before how I think it was fair for them to go out of business?

[mangocrazy]

I started riding motorbikes in the mid 60s and there was a real divide between the Brit bike purists and the 'Jap crap' enthusiasts. For me it was no contest - do I want a bike that's unreliable, leaks oil, vibrates your fillings out and is a 20+ year old design, or do I want a Japanese bike which is none of those things?

The metric/imperial divide was just another reason to be 'turning Japanese' - metric was simple, logical and understandable whereas Whitworth etc. was anything but. I did briefly consider a Norton Dominator, but it was like looking at something from a bygone age.

And it was obvious to anyone who cared to see that the British bike industry was on its last legs, with the British car industry following close behind.

If you don't invest and keep on churning out designs that dated back to WW2 you deserve to go out of business.

[Count Steer]

I remember someone arguing that Japanese bikes 'aren't easy to work on and 'they're put together like you don't need to take them apart' 'and 'you'll need to take them to a dealer when anything needs doing'.

The idea of having a bike that you didn't have to dismantle every week with a handful of spanners was completely alien.

[DefTrap]

I tend to replace as many bolts as possible with something more reliable, typically Allen headed.
Otherwise, with cross headed stuff, I start every time with an impact driver just in case

[Rockburner]

Yeah that's why I specified "Japanese" I would say the Bonnie at least doesn't have those, but I wouldn't like to bet on it.

I do wonder how many 'different' nut/bolt sizes the Bonnie has (given that it's still Triumph everything). The JAPton has everything on it, BA, BSW, Cycle, Metric (in odd places), I wouldn't be surprised if a JIS screw or two has found it's way in somewhere.... if I find one I'll let you know.

Every time I have to twirl a bolt I still spend 2 minutes finding the right spanner.....

[Mr. Dazzle]

Probably a couple of BSPs in there somewhere too.

[Rockburner]

Probably a couple of BSPs in there somewhere too.

Oh definitely - all the (fucked and cross-threaded) tubes dropping from the tank for starters (the oil tank is embedded in the fuel tank so there's at least 4 different tubes sticking out of the underside and every single one is cross-threaded because Dad wasn't that great at getting the taps threaded on well in his last few years. )

[mangocrazy]

I'd managed to steadfastly avoid working on anything other than Japanese or Italian bikes all my life. Then I decided to renovate a 1950s/60s Startrite Mercury pillar drill...

I now have a fair selection of Imperial spanners/allen keys/sockets.

[Rockburner]

I'd managed to steadfastly avoid working on anything other than Japanese or Italian bikes all my life. Then I decided to renovate a 1950s/60s Startrite Mercury pillar drill...

I now have a fair selection of Imperial spanners/allen keys/sockets.

I've found that I need at least 3 of every "Imperial" size spanner, not just because often an engine mounting stud has the same size bolt at each end and they both need to be tightened at the same time, but also because invariably I'll need the 3rd at a different point and can't find the other 2....


Oh - and at least 1 adjustable because there's some nuts that seem to defy the system completely.....

[Mr. Dazzle]

I also find some of my 1/2" spanners fit better than others Most of 'em were pilfered from RAF Binbrook when my FiL helped shut the base down.

[mangocrazy]

I'd guess that back in the day some nut and bolt heads were close to being hand made and as such tolerances varied. Then you get variations between spanners for the same reason and then you have BSW, BSF, AF, BA, Cycle etc. etc...

Yeah - adjustables rule...

[Rockburner]

I also find some of my 1/2" spanners fit better than others Most of 'em were pilfered from RAF Binbrook when my FiL helped shut the base down.

A few years ago I lucked into a trio of fully loaded tool chests from a neighbour - he was a professional workshop engineer and retired then offered me his stuff for seriously cheap (IIRC £300!! ). In amongst it were a bunch of Elora spanners (mostly metric, one or two imperial). So, this year I've been picking up Elora imperial spanners from ebay, they're very well made (German), and seem to fit very nicely. The main trick is to get BSW rather than AF, but luckily they're very clearly marked and as long as the photo is good on the advert then I'm happy to buy. IIRC I haven't been caught out with AFs yet...

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I remember someone arguing that Japanese bikes 'aren't easy to work on and 'they're put together like you don't need to take them apart' 'and 'you'll need to take them to a dealer when anything needs doing'.

The idea of having a bike that you didn't have to dismantle every week with a handful of spanners was completely alien.

Z1000s are piss easy to work on, they even have a little indent at the bottom of the barrel that's specifically there to put a screwdriver in to break the seal on the barrels.

[mangocrazy]

Last time I left the tale of woe with the replacement engine bolted into the Beta's engine bay, and the newly reconfigured and coated exhaust system bolted up to the engine. What I didn't mention was that I didn't fit a gasket between the two flanges because I didn't have one. Instead I used the Würth equivalent of exhaust paste to try and meke a good seal between the two flanges. Flange is a lovely word, don't you
think?

The other point I need to draw your attention to is that, in spite of advice suggesting I do so, I didn't perform a compression (leakdown) test on the replacement engine before I Transporter-ed it to France in the van. Hold those thoughts...

By April 2017 I'd re-fitted all the bits I'd removed from the engine, reconnected all the wires to their respective terminals, filled the thing with coolant, plumbed the fuel supply to the carb etc. etc. and it was time to see if it would actually fire up. I gave it a try, more in hope than expectation I have to say, and bugger me if it didn't start with the first turn of the key! I nearly shat myself in surprise... I really wasn't expecting that.

But while it did actually fire up it was running as rough as a badger's arse. I was having to work the throttle overtime to keep it going and it sounded like it had a really bad exhaust blow. However my first concern was to get the engine warmed up and then dump the oil that had been in the motor since God knows when and re-fill with fresh. I needed to get the car's front wheels up on ramps so I had decent access to the sump. I was just about to do this when the gear lever went all floppy. The gear linkage had snapped at a well-known failure point, part number 48 in the diagram below. At least it had done that at a time and place where I could fix it, and in first gear so I could still drive it up the ramps. Be grateful for small mercies...

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When I finally undid the drain plug the oil that came out was absolutely disgusting - filthy black, thick and smelly. Rancid doesn't begin to cover it. Christ knows how long that oil had been in. With some new 15w40 semi-synth in the engine it was now time to turn my attention to the gear change, and the exhaust blow. I tightened up all the exhaust bolts/nuts I could lay a spanner on but the gearbox problem would need specialist parts that I didn't have and couldn't get in France.

Consequently it was October 2018 before I was able to do battle with it again, and (predictably) it put up one hell of a fight. The part that had failed was (unsurprisingly) the flimsiest part of the whole mechanism but the replacement part (remanufactured by BetaBoyz) was much sturdier. It was still a kingsize PITA to fit when under the car, on your back and having to try and force fit a part to another part that could move of its own free will. If I'd had a helper to lock the gear lever in place it would have been much easier, but I was on my own apart from the cat, who is no help at all even if he does fancy himself on the tools.

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As soon as one issue was fixed, another one took its place. Starting the car was becoming increasingly hit and miss (mainly miss). It appeared that the fuel pump simply wasn't pulling fuel through to the carb. This was a concern as I'd replaced the block-mounted mechanical pump with a Huco electric pump a few years back and it had done less than a thousand miles since installation. I was using a piggyback connector on the coil terminal to provide a switched 12v feed, and gave no thought to the fact that there was a ballast resistor in circuit just before the coil. It turned out that the ballast resistor was reducing voltage at the coil to not much over 7v, and that wasn't enough to persuade the fuel pump to get out of bed and do a shift. When I moved the connector to the 12v side of the ballast resistor it immediately sprang into life.

For whatever reason around this time I basically just lost interest in the car for a couple of years. It seemed to be one problem after another and I was getting really despondent and dispirited with it. It had never run right since I fitted the replacement engine and I think I was in denial, to be honest. Anyone reading this has by now probably already figured out what the root problem was, but not I. When I eventually took it for a circuit of the village, it was obvious that something was still amiss. The engine wouldn't run smoothly, it still sounded like there was a blowing exhaust and it was hard work just keeping the engine running, let alone making sensible progress.

However, in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary, I decided that the carburettor needed attention. So an overhaul kit for the Weber carb (a DATR 250) was ordered when I was back in Blighty and I planned to take that and my ultrasonic cleaner over with me when I returned in spring 2022 to give the carb a proper overhaul. I'd also followed the advice of a Beta forum member and richened the jetting up across the board, mainly to compensate for ethanol in the fuel. When it came to start the car, it certainly started better than previously so I drove it out of the garage, parked it up in the street and left it running for a while. It still sounded rough, but I told myself it just needed to warm up properly.

That was when I noticed the developing puddle of coolant mixed with oil under the engine...

(to be continued)

[Mr. Dazzle]

Actual problems which actually matter aside...who the fuck decided on the numbering order on that exploded diagram?