Hi Baron!!

Sorry for the VERY slow reply, things have been busy here, unfortunately not on the car front ...

I'm not an expert, but I can tell you what I know/have heard. The problems w/ the Urraco belts have been attributed to:

1) Lack of Maintenance

I've been told that even if you don't drive your car often its a good idea to change the timing belt and bearings every 5 years. Some folks will go a few more years ... If you think about it, that jibes well w/ the belt change interval for some of the earlier mass produced cars w/ timing belts, for example the typical Honda belt service interval was every 60,000 miles or roughly every 5 years.

I'm sure you know our cars have an interference engine so if a worn belt breaks or a worn bearing siezes you end up w/ bent valves. Most folks are told that changing the belt is an engine out service - not cheap, and early owner's apparently didn't want to sping for that hence a rash of broken belts as age mounted.

If you don't have A/C, you can change the belt through the wheel well - TheCarReaper did. If you do have A/C then you either pull the engine - (Laust has some nice pics of how for a Jalpa) or cut the timing belt shield in half (horizontally) to get it out and weld some nuts onto half so you can screw the shield back together after it is remounted - Mike Dodge did this. Haven't tried it w/ my car yet, next belt service ...

2) Belt Tensioning/Popping the clutch

I've also heard rumors of early problems w/ belt tensioning and folks popping the clutch getting caught by this ... Not sure what to think, but the same rumors say this was only the early cars, the belt tensioning mechanism has been fixed and just check the tnesioner now and again ... See fig. 18 in your Driver's Handbook.

I'm sure others can coment more intelligently about tensioning ...

Anyway, from everything I've heard from other owner's changing the belt (and bearings) every 5 years or so should be all you have to worry about. Some folks inspect their belts well and push things to 10 years ... hmmm ...

As far as getting parts, I'll be surprised if Eurospares doesn't have everything you need ... timing belt, alternator belt and bearings. The timing belt crosses to an early Lancia Beta AC belt for cars w/o power steering. You can see that these cars spec the same number - Pirelli/Isoram 367 L 100. Look in your driver's handbook. I haven't found a cross for the other belt.

Dealers will tell you the bearings were originally SKF and have been superceded by SKF 3205 D bearings. If you look on SKF's site, you'll see this is not a fully shielded bearing:

http://www.skf.com/files/151315.pdf

However, I believe the bearing comes in a 3205 2Z version which is fully shielded. I am having trouble finding my notes for some reason (will keep looking), but I believe there is also an upgraded SKF Explorer bearing that is fully shielded as well. A bearing shop should be able to look up crosses and let you know what is available. One key point IMO is the bearings are smaller in diameter than the crank pulley, so they will rotate faster. You'll note the RPM limit on the 3205 is 12,000. I think you want something that has this sort of range ...

Again, I'm sure others w/ more expertise will comment ... Or just don't worry about saving a few $ this time around and get it all from Eurospares and research the next time round at your liesure ... :-)

Regards,

Bryan
'74 P250S S/N 15622
Indianapolis Indiana USA
blissinindy@yahoo.com