Fulvia / Flavia wheelbearings

[Huib Geurink]

Ciao Fulvisti

As many know there is a continuing availability problem on Fulvia / Flavia wheelbearings. Price has gone up to 190 euro each. Even if somebody decides again to have a 1000 or so made, they price is not going to drop significantly and the problem is not going to disappear long term. The Fulvia / Flavia bearing was custom designed for Lancia. It never was and never will be a standard bearing.

One of my former employees now works for SKF. He put me in touch with the right people at SKF who recommended to use the standard 3209 bearing with washers and a bush. The inner diameter of the 3209 is the same as for the original bearing.
The outer diameter is 85 instead of 96 and the height is 30,2 instead of 34. The 3209 bearings is in the catalog and is expected to be available from your local bearings shop for the next 100 years. Current price level is around 60 to 90 euro depending on the version.

I am now setting up the manufacture of washers and bush. Initial estimate suggest a price of 25 euro for one set to convert one 3209 bearing to the Fulvia bearing.

Remember that once you have converted a wheel to the 3209 bearing, you never have to buy the washers and bush again for that wheel. If the bearing ever fails you just buy a low, sorry reasonable cost 3209 bearing from the shop around the corner.

Engineers working with bearings calculate the so called B10 life expectancy. This is a statistical thing predicting when 10% of the bearings have failed. Mind you, it is purely a mathematical excersize. Any bearing may fail within 10 minutes.

We have done the calculation for a Fulvia weighing 3000kg (thus 100% overload) driving continuously at 90km/h on a circle with a radius of 135 meter (standard radius for motorway spaghetti junctions). B10 life is then 165.000km for a S1 Fulvia coupe on 145x14 tires. It is more for the berlina's and for the S2 coupe because their tires have larger diameters.

Also we have invented a "B25" life expectancy. This is when one of the 4 bearings on a car is expected to go bust. When driving straight most of the time with a normally loaded car this is 1.000.000 km.

The conclusion from the calculations is that the 3209 bearing is not going to fail as a result of normal use, but eventually as a result of dirt and / or old grease or like the original one as a result of not being torqued enough as on the cars I am fixing now.

Let me know if you want to order some. The higher the total quantity, the more likely it is we meet the target of 25 euro per wheel. I will keep you informed if the price changes significantly.

Please ask any friends if they want to join. The higher the quantity, the more likely it is we get them at a good price as these are made on a CNC machine. Thus treat this posting as a "chain letter".

Ciao, Huib

[christos skriapas]

Hi Huib
I'm a new member in the Fulvia community and I'm just finishing the restoration of mine 13 IIs. Now the car runs well and I'm looking for those thinks that it will do it better. Yes I'm interesting for these bearings, so put me in the loop please.
I will post some information about tuning of my engine. I'm Greek but I'm leaving In Italy for a wile and I found here a fantastic Italiam mechanic that he's prepearing Julias and Fulvias for Gare in salita. So he did a great job to my engine. (so far ha ha....)
I'll be back soon
Ciao