Thank you all three.
Hollytree:
I did a bit of research on you here and now I've forgotten what I saw but I think it was you who used to live Portsmouth way and moved to foreign parts (sorry Chris). I will contact some local companies but as you have recommended them, I'll get in touch with WJUK to see what they can offer and if I can get some economy of scale without buying by the thousand. Chris and Guy will know if my drawing is sufficiently accurate to be used for restoration and the like. It might just as well be right as wrong. An A4 size pice of steel will do about 49 of them but there may be constraints that I'm not aware of like how close the parts can be placed. I'll see. I think laser cutting is likely to be cheaper because there's more competition but I don't have any evidence one way or another.
Guy:
I persuaded the Italian seller of the callipers to post them but he won't do it inside eBay - probably due to eBay commission charges on postage. Expensive purchase but I think of it as insurance. I'll recondition the single one I'm buying from Neil if it welds well and the other two as well, barring catastrophes. I'm documenting everything for my son.
The calliper I'm replacing is an odd thing. It looks for all the world like a beta calliper as indeed it may well be but the iron claw is a very loose fit and it is tha alloy part that's the problem. The piston has a flat circlip and not the wire type that I was expecting. The machined groove in a replacement piston is for the thick wire circlip and that's a part that would prove difficult to get I think. When I took out the calliper, the flat circlip had come out of its groove and when replaced it, there was no play at all in the piston's handbrake adjuster mechanism - I've seen a diagram that shows some "slack" in this part where I had none at all, which would have made the mechnism difficult to turn. I think this lack of play is why the circlip had not seated properly and had come out - it won't now but it was a bit of a fiddle to get it properly seated. So what's it from? Only possibles that I can see aside of a Beta is a Trevi, possibly early Thema 2.0 (maybe V6 too), possibly early Delta 1.6 or Gamma. The Gamma has the same "thick end" on the cable outer and the small ball-type nipple.
Chris:
I've just bought a gear knob from the chap in Italy with the rear Beta callipers that Guy pointed me at. It's from a Beta but I seem to remember that the original may have been from a Fulvia and not identical to the Beta item. It's gloss varnished too - don't know if correct like that. As I'm about to sell my house (auction Tuesday), I've sold my milling machine and my lathe I've dismantled and put it into storage. Now no longer teaching, I can't avail myself of the machinery at school any more or I would turn a gear knob and an insert. I saw something on one of your threads about rear spring rate for a Beta-engined car. Mine have 175 painted on them but I don't know the units of measurement. Nobody would work in lbf/in now would they? Obviously not N/cm so possibly kg/cm? I'd have had a fit if the kids in school had used units like that or written them like that too.
I think Dampertech and Gaz may be related, as it were. My Leda struts were replated, rebuilt and revalved with softer valving by Dampertech about ten years ago as the piston rods were unevenly worn and weeping. The old rods had been sawn off so that the rear cover would close but the new ones are as you describe with the flat but mine also have a hex key recess too. Not too long either, so very pleased. I'll still use the tab washer and I'll post my drawing of it. If you don't think it looks quite right, let me know - I have radiused the entry to the tab by eye (6mm) as my radius gauges are in storage as are my drill bits that I'd use for testing. I've chamfered the ends of the tab. The rest is by measurement of an original. Happy to change this if you think it better to do so for accuracy or aesthetic reasons - please don't be afraid to say so if a change is needed.
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