1300 Coupes

[Neil-yaj396]

My 1600 f/l, like a few others, the DVLA has the capacity as 1592 (the pre f/l value), guess when registered they just carried on with the engine as being 'generic Lancia 1600'. An old phrase comes to mind, 'close enough for government work'......

It could of course have been laziness on the dealers, just copying the previous car details when first registering them.

Peter

You would think that the cars came with some sort of check sheet when delivered to the dealer, especially re the correct engine size, but perhaps not?

Graham, any idea where your car was first purchased? Mine was from a Lancia agent in Stockport I think?

[rossocorsa]

Approvals were not as strict back then as current type approvals, perhaps it was just easier to ignore minor variations?

[cheeky monkey]

Graham, any idea where your car was first purchased? Mine was from a Lancia agent in Stockport I think?

All i know at the moment is the first owner had it serviced at Vicarage Road Garage, Watford, which still exists so I'll contact them to see if anyone there remembers the car. I have an MOT receipt from that garage in 1990 ... £14.26 !

Does anyone know if there was any reason behind which registration office was used for a cars first registration?
If i understand the letter prefixes correctly then as some examples  'YAJ' was Taunton,  'FNC' was Canterbury  and my car 'FRK' was Preston.

cheers
Graham

[cheeky monkey]

Does anyone know if there was any reason behind which registration office was used for a cars first registration?
If i understand the letter prefixes correctly then as some examples  'YAJ' was Taunton,  'FNC' was Canterbury  and my car 'FRK' was Preston.

or is it the 2nd and 3rd letter that denote the office? That would make 'YAJ' Middlesborough,  'FNC' Manchester and 'FRK' London North West.

cheers
Graham

[Ammy]

In the  days of three letter prefixes the "county" was always indicated by the 2nd and 3rd letters. For instance Denbighshire in North Wales was always  UN  and CA so you had  AUN and ACA working thro the alphabet as the years progressed.

[Neil-yaj396]

'AJ' and 'NC' definitely represent the North East and Manchester respectively, as that is where my Coupes were originally registered (albeit that FNC32T is a cherished transfer by the second owner).

[GerardJPC]

YAJ update:-

I have been blatting about in the old thing a bit  ("Well, the handbrake was working this morning, Officer").    My mech has been off work ill, but is back in action as of tomorrow.  He says in an email:

"I will be bringing my special tools with me, and if the calipers are O.K. and I
can, I will rebuild them there and get the handbrake working.  You'll understand
more when you see them, but there is a small wedge in the back
that gets knocked out if the calipers don't self-adjust and then you
have to strip them to put it back in.  It is a tricky job even when on a
bench and is almost impossible on the car.
The wedge gets trapped in the boot at the back with the grease so
generally you don't lose it unless the gaiter is split open or missing and both yours looked O.K. last time."

He adds that garages often get stumped as they do not have the special tool for stripping calipers and may incorrectly advise fitting new ones, only to find that locating new ones is a mare.

[GerardJPC]

Handbrake inspection reveals:-

1.  The pistons have been put on upside down.
2.  The pads are the wrong size and don't fit properly.
3.  The cable is seized, so the calipers have not been self adjusting properly.
4.  One wedge had fallen out but is still there and can be repositioned.

Also, the back wheels were held on by, in effect, two studs, as someone has fitted studs that are way too short and only grip by two threads.  Yikes!  

[peteracs]

Hi Gerard

It is not like it is important or anything.........

I take it you are going to check the front two wheels now?

Peter

[GerardJPC]

You betcha.  

[GerardJPC]

Also no thermostat fitted.  My eBay clicky finger is getting a workout.

[peteracs]

Also no thermostat fitted. 

Well that is better than the guy on Lancisiti.net who has had a mare with thermostats, read on....

http://www.lancisti.net/forum/showthread.php?7886-Beta-Beta-Thermostats

I assume the US ones are the same, so please excuse me if not.

Peter

[GerardJPC]

Hang on, thermostat at the three branch bit at the front, not on top.   Clicky finger can have a rest.

[GerardJPC]

Update: the oh crikey brake bodge has been unbodged and the wheel have proper bolts.  Onwards and upwards!

[Neil-yaj396]

Update: the oh crikey brake bodge has been unbodged and the wheel have proper bolts.  Onwards and upwards!

Would be interested to know what the brake bodge was? Especially if it was the nearside rear, as I paid for that doing properly!

Knew about the assortment of random wheel bolts, I never did get round to sorting those out, and carried a multi-head wheel brace instead.

[GerardJPC]

Piston upside down, wrong type of pads.

[Neil-yaj396]

Piston upside down, wrong type of pads.

Piston upside down? Don't really know what that means. As for the pads, I recall them being Mintex, or do you mean that they weren't the correct pads for the caliper? If it's the latter then it was an ebay failure (not unknown!). Anyway take it all is good on the brake front now?

[rossocorsa]

the piston that the cable works on at the back of the caliper has a slot in it, the lip on this slot is deeper on one side, this retains the piston drive block (wedge). if the piston is upside down I imagine there is no proper retention of the wedge and it can fall out

[Neil-yaj396]

the piston that the cable works on at the back of the caliper has a slot in it, the lip on this slot is deeper on one side, this retains the piston drive block (wedge). if the piston is upside down I imagine there is no proper retention of the wedge and it can fall out

Black mark for Big Red then if this is the case. Disappointing, as they came highly recommended on here.

This would explain the sudden failure of the handbrake though. It was fine while I had the car.

[rossocorsa]

the piston that the cable works on at the back of the caliper has a slot in it, the lip on this slot is deeper on one side, this retains the piston drive block (wedge). if the piston is upside down I imagine there is no proper retention of the wedge and it can fall out

Black mark for Big Red then if this is the case. Disappointing, as they came highly recommended on here.

This would explain the sudden failure of the handbrake though. It was fine while I had the car.

Without physically looking at a calliper to check construction I can't be 100% sure but in diagrams it looks that way