Valve Timing?

[Richard]

Hello all,

The 1965 1800 Flavia PF is on the road now and gets yells from women drivers wanting to know what it is and shouting "Gorgeous".

"What, me?"

"No the car, stupid!"

What a babe magnet! Pity it's for my wife...

Anyway all is not well. The engine was reconditioned by a reputable firm here in Cape Town, and reassembled by my mechanic, but he complained that there were no timing marks to be seen anywhere. So he had to set a TDC mark from the piston 1 and set the valve and ignition timing accordingly. This sounds like great lattiude for error. Well, not unexpectedly, the car sounds like a motor-boat, has no torque and backfires a bit on overrun.

The ignition timing has been all over to get this to go away, but to no avail. The carb has been serviced and seems to work well.

Are we one tooth out on the camshafts? Does anyone know if there is any factory marking for the timing? Or any special tricks for setting the camshaft timin?

regards
Richard (nearly there)

[alan cooper]

I've e mailed some info. unfortunately i scanned them at too high a resolution but not time to do again I hope that they do'nt take too long to download

[Richard]

Thanks very much Alan, this will be very helpful.

I am sure the valve timing is out, so any other valve timing tips would be most appreciated.

Interestingly, the PDF file indicates a timing mark on the flywheel, but the chap who assembled the engine insisted that he could find nothing. I wonder if the mark could have worn off? Seems odd though.

regards,

Richard

[alan cooper]

the mark will be there but it is not easy to spot on some cars

[Richard]

Hello again Alan,

Would it be a great inconvenience for you to scan the next page of the manual that tells of setting the timing chain? There may be something there.

I need some ammunition to convince my chap that we need to look at this again. I recall driving a Flavia years ago and being impressed that the engine was quite torquey. Mine isn't.

Thanks again,

Richard

[alan cooper]

as regards spotting the timing mark it is on the teeth of the flywheel impossible to spot except by manuallly turning the engine. I usually turn the engine carefully using a screwdriver as a lever on the flywheel teeth and shining a torch at it. Once you have spotted the mark a quick dab of white paint does the trick, if he has tried looking with a strobe and the engine running i think he will struggle!! On some flavia models there are 2 marks one for tdc and another (a thin line on the tooth ) to indicate the static timing advance

[Richard]

Thanks again Alan, and many thanks for the extra manual pages.

I've got the hydraulics happy-ish again. I skimmed the front discs which were not badly scored, but it has helped. It still needs a fair shove to stop the car, but that may be because I routed the booster to work on the front wheels only. I run that option on my Alfa Giulia Sprint GT and it stops on a dime. The thinking is that since about 70% of the weight is on the front wheels of the Flavia while braking, the back doesn't need much force before it will lock up - although it seems that there is little chance of that without an elephant pushing on the pedal. Should I put it back to boost all four wheels? I can't think that it will make much difference to the stopping distance though.

Now to get the handbrake to bite. Any tips? It feels like there is a long piece of rubber band connecting the hand brake and the wheels...

Richard

[Randy Adams]

I would be very suspicious of that booster. It\'s essentially the same unit used on the much heavier Flaminias and it should NOT take a lot of force to function. I recommend a rebuild of the hydraulics in the booster and an inspection of the vacuum proportioning valve (the diaphragm thing on the side of the hydraulic cylinder. When rebuilding the hydraulic portion of the booster, consult Lancia\'s special book on the brake system. It is very easy to put the parts in the wrong order or facing the wrong way and this may be what has happened on your car.