International Lancia Forums

Hello! I am brand new to the Lancia world. My brother-in -law put a new roof on my house, and towed this prize down to me to work on. It is a 1964 Lancia Flavia Vinale Sport. I would classify it as a basket case, personally, but he is very proud of it. He did send down a manual that comes close in some respects.
My first problem ( of many I can forsee!) is that someone in the past has changed the transmission out with one from a salvage yard. Our Vignale is right-hand drive, with a floor shifter. I think the transmission in the car is from a column shift car, as none of the linkage matches up. If I had a diagram of the floor shift linkage, I could Rube Goldberg something together that would work, or if original parts are around that would work. Am I dreaming, or is there access to information and parts for an issue like this? Thanks, anyone for any help! John

Hi John

I appreciate the situation you find yourself in. I took on a Flavia 1800 Coupe in New Zealand where there are only two others. My car was also partly dismantled and I have spent the last couple of years locating missing parts and trying to figure the thing out. There are a few different arrangements with the shifts on these cars. If the box is from an early column shift saloon (815-200 or 815-300), the selector mechanism is mounted on top of the cover plate. The early model coupes had a long floor lever while the later model 2000 coupes had a remote with a shorter lever. If you emailed me a picture I could probably identify what you have got but what you need is a gearbox from an 815.100 motor (1500 Coupe and convertible) or the equivalent 1800 model (815-300). I have a scan from the parts book that I can send you. Have a check of the engine numbers and compare them to the guide on this page (http://www.lanciaflavia.it/varie/model_index.php). The four speed boxes on these cars are quite robust (more-so than the later 5-speed) and you should be able to pick one up in okay condition for reasonable money. What has probably happened is someone has swapped the whole subframe at some stage. The 1500 single carb saloon engine was no ball of fire so you may want to shop for an 1800. Good luck with it and feel free to contact me off list.

Cheers

Michael