Scorpion #621 resurrection

This evening I pulled the fuel sender out of the car. Here's one problem:

fuelsender.jpg


But that wasn't the only problem. I tested the sender with my multimeter and found readings going all over the place from empty to about 1/8 of a tank full. Then I got an open circuit from there all the way to full.

I opened up the sender and saw this:

fuelsender2.jpg


The black line is where the ohm meter goes dark. Mototrooper, I think I'll be hitting you up on your fuel sender. :)

tJ
 
The other night, I took apart the steering column cover to see if I could figure out why my high beams didn't work. I found a black ground wire that wasn't plugged in, so I plugged that in. I also found a little white plug that was unplugged. I chased it down on the wiring diagram and determined it's the seat belt buzzer. I plugged it in out of curiosity (my aftermarket seatbelts don't have wiring for the buzzer, so I wasn't going to plug it in permanently). I turn on the ignition and, OMG, what an obnoxious sound! It's like someone wrapped tape around a bicylcle bell and wired it so that it rang constantly. This is one thing the PO did that I completely understand.

After that, I tried the high beams and no go. I had read up on this on lancisiti.net and apparently the high beam stalk acts as a flash-to-pass signal (on U.S. market Scorpions) as well. That didn't seem to work either. Everything I read about non working lights/dim lights/weird electrics boils down to a bad ground. I chased down every ground I could find. I took the negative battery cable off the body, cleaned it up, and re-earthed it. I found a ground under the dash by the fuse box. Cleaned and re-earthed. I found two grounds by the headlights. Those looked a bit rusty, so I had high hopes cleaning these would help. I had done the one in the engine compartment by the left tail lamp awhile ago. I even took the ground strap off the transaxle and cleaned it up (man, was that funky). Turned on lights. No high beams.

I gave up for the night and did more reading. In my reading, I discovered that the high beams only work when the ignition is ON. I'd been testing them with the ignition off. Since the fuel sender was out of the car, there was no way for me to test this, but I noted it.

That evening, I also had picked up a known working sender off eBay... and it arrived today. It went in with little drama I now have a working fuel gauge. w00t! My wife is grateful that the tank is buttoned up again and the garage doesn't smell of petrol. Since I had the fuel gauge issue worked out, I decided to start Sofia and pull her out and let her warm up. I tested the lights, and they worked nicely...brighter than I remember them being. Possibly cleaning the grounds did help matters a bit. I tried the high beam flasher, and it worked! So I tried the high beam and it also worked. So, that was likely the problem the entire time...I didn't RTFM...DOH!

This leaves only a couple more things for me the sort out. The nose band is warped, so I'm taking it to my body guy to have it sorted out in the next couple of days. The roof still won't close because the vinyl is too tight. I'm taking that to the trimmer that put it on the frame for me and see if he can either sort that out or make a new one from scratch.

Then...smog.:eek:

tJ
 
Interesting day today. I took Sofia out with my daughter riding shotgun to get her some gas to make sure the fuel gauge actually goes to FULL. Thankfully, it did. A guy at the station looks at Sofia and says, "What IS that car?" I tell him, and he says "That's a cool car. I've never seen one before". I told him that very few were imported and you rarely see them. The truth be told, I've never seen another one personally in the wild. Although I know that motoTrooper, who is maybe 15 miles away has one and there's one on BAT Auctions that's in Monterey.

So we drive around a bit, enjoying the respite from ash from the nearby fires and then finally head back home. She runs beautifully. Shifts smoothly, handles nicely, and doesn't complain a bit. She's SLOW, but hey, what can you expect from 80 hp?

I get her home and turn off the ignition and pull out the key. And Sofia is still running. I stare at the key in my hand, dumbfounded, wondering how the F I'm going to turn this thing off. 5 seconds later, I put it in 4th and dump the clutch and that did the trick. I started her up again and try killing the ignition again. She stays running. I notice on the center console that the heater is running (I was testing it, and it worked fine, btw). I kill the heater and the car turns off. WTF???

I try it again, and turning off the heater (or fan) kills the car. If the heater is OFF (the pushbutton on the left of the center console) and I kill the ignition, the car shuts off normally. If the heater is running, it will continue to run until I turn off the heater.

I look at the wiring diagram and it makes no sense. I don't see any interconnection between the heater controls and the ignition switch. This is one of the weirdest things I've ever run into. Anybody have any ideas what is going on?

tJ
 
Congrats on getting the car running so well.
Sounds Ike you have discovered an undocumented feature on your Lancia ;)
 
Sounds like you have discovered an undocumented feature added by the PO and part of one of the many plugs you recently plugged back in....

Oh the PO...how much we hate thee.
 
I had to take a break from the Scorpion as our cat stopped eating and became very ill. Turns out it was lymphoma and she ended up passing yesterday. :( My daughter is taking it pretty hard as the cat's been around longer than she has. But, slowly working up more energy to go out to the garage. I haven't worked out why the car stays running when the heater blower is on, but I'll get around to that.

Yesterday, I dropped off the car to get the warped noseband sorted out. It's back and looks much better!

noseband.jpg


Today I stopped by a shop that was recommended to me by the guys that did the paint to sort out why my top won't close. I'll be bringing it by on Monday for them to evaluate and make a plan for. I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

tJ
 
I took Sofia to THE convertible top guy in our area today to sort out the issue with the top not closing. I was convinced the top was going to have to be re-worked or, worst case scenario, made from scratch. He scratched his head a little, messed around with the front of the top a little. Then finally, he gets on the back of it and puts all his weight on it and mashes it down. And it latches. And then pops up again. My heart leapt to my throat...I was sure if I had tried that I would have royally screwed up the top. But it was fine. It didn't want to stay closed the first couple of times he did this, but after about 4 times, it stretched the vinyl enough that it stayed latched.

"Keep it out in the sun for a week and you should be fine".

Now, I still need to put the roof straps on and the guy that did the roof in the first place (a different place) didn't know about the roof straps, so the holes have been covered up. I'm going to have to find where those holes are, poke them and put on the roof straps. But yeah, I was expecting the worst and walked away not paying a dime. I'm over the moon.

tJ

roofon2.jpg

roofon1.jpg
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roofon3.jpg
 
I took Sofia to THE convertible top guy in our area today to sort out the issue with the top not closing. I was convinced the top was going to have to be re-worked or, worst case scenario, made from scratch. He scratched his head a little, messed around with the front of the top a little. Then finally, he gets on the back of it and puts all his weight on it and mashes it down. And it latches. And then pops up again. My heart leapt to my throat...I was sure if I had tried that I would have royally screwed up the top. But it was fine. It didn't want to stay closed the first couple of times he did this, but after about 4 times, it stretched the vinyl enough that it stayed latched.

"Keep it out in the sun for a week and you should be fine".

Now, I still need to put the roof straps on and the guy that did the roof in the first place (a different place) didn't know about the roof straps, so the holes have been covered up. I'm going to have to find where those holes are, poke them and put on the roof straps. But yeah, I was expecting the worst and walked away not paying a dime. I'm over the moon.

tJ

View attachment 36581
View attachment 36579\
View attachment 36580
Looks Great!!!
 
Finally got the noseband and headlight buckets on. Turns out that I needed to do some mods to the Midwest Bayless bumper in order for the headlight buckets to clear when putting the lights in the down position. Wasn't expecting that (nor was I amused). A dremel with a flex-shaft comes in handy for these occasions. Using it, I was able to cut out a crescent shaped radius from the bumper so the headlights could go down.

I still need to let the car sit out in the sun a couple more days before I put on the roof straps. Then badging, wheel centers, and the first wash.

tJ

nose-on2.jpg

nose-on1.jpg

nose-on3.jpg
 
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This is an opinion which you can easily ignore:

If it was my car, I would paint the part of the headlight bezel and the ’band’ end caps where they align to the grill, black.

This will greatly unify the front end of the car, right now, to me, it looks somewhat unfinished.

Looks great overall. I really appreciate you taking the time to create an excellent thread which covers the trails and tribulations of bringing a great car back. Nice work as always. 👍
 
Karl,
Are you saying to paint the parts that surround the actual headlights and the inner crescent shaped pieces black? If so, I had thought of that...and may still do it. I don't want to do the whole nose band, headlight buckets, and bumper black as I think it shortens the car, giving it a stubbier look.

I appreciate the kind words along the way. I'm really happy with the way this has turned out.
tJ
This is an opinion which you can easily ignore:

If it was my car, I would paint the part of the headlight bezel and the ’band’ end caps where they align to the grill, black.

This will greatly unify the front end of the car, right now, to me, it looks somewhat unfinished.

Looks great overall. I really appreciate you taking the time to create an excellent thread which covers the trails and tribulations of bringing a great car back. Nice work as always. 👍
 
Karl,
Are you saying to paint the parts that surround the actual headlights and the inner crescent shaped pieces black? If so, I had thought of that...and may still do it. I don't want to do the whole nose band, headlight buckets, and bumper black as I think it shortens the car, giving it a stubbier look.

I appreciate the kind words along the way. I'm really happy with the way this has turned out.
tJ
Yes, just the inset. The band front facing surfaces, top surfaces would match the rest of the car as you have it. Just the face of the headlight bezel and the inset of the nose band side trims. I will sketch it up.
 
I mocked this up with black electrical tape today (before reading your reply). Yes, that is MUCH better. I have pulled the buckets off and will take them to my paint guy on Monday. This is a big improvement. Thanks for the opinion Karl...something was bothering me about the front and you hit the nail on the head.

tJ
 
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