Talbot Samba LE, this need to be saved!

[Andy1979]

Hello people. I haven't been back to this forum for some time as I temporally left the scene to sort other things in my life out. However Ive returned with something unusual and full of character to bring back to life.

The story.

Ive been with my girlfriend for almost 14 months now and I visited her family in Surrey back in the summer this year. It was a 70th birthday visit of one of her aunties. I was sat in the living room of the family house while members endeavored to grill me and ask me questions about myself and my interests. My girlfriend mentioned to her auntie that I was a classic old car fan and loved going to the shows and taking part etc, her  ears perked up and said to my GF, "oh he might be interested in what Ive got in the garage then". I naturally overheard this and within 30 secs I found myself in the garage getting personal with this Talbot Samba. Shes a 0.9cc engine LE spec which is a base model Samba. The clock showed 51000 miles and by now I was very curious and started asking questions. My girlfriends auntie told me she garaged the car approximately 21 years ago because she hated it due to her x boyfriend forcing her to part with a Morris Minor in favor of the Samba. I suppose in those days nobody wanted the thing anyway and I would of kept the Morris too. I gave the car a full body inspection and discovered there was very little rot underneath and the engine turns over with a spanner. At this point as far as I'm concerned the car is mine so I went to work. I didn't have to work hard as she basically said "take it I don't want it, it'll close long opened book for me and the garage will be available". I was like school boy in a sweet shop. So 4 months later armed with a flatbed, tools, two friends  a pot of coffee, a massive box of chocolates and a thank you card, we returned to collect the car, the photos say the rest.

This was an all but dry stored car which really has saved it in my opinion and I'm glad I came along to save it. She is not everyone's cup of tea but for me is love at first site and plenty of potential.

A large list is already forming so wish me luck. If anyone on here knows these cars well and has a good spider web of contacts and knowledge please get in touch as ill need help on parts which includes a whole engine if possible

 

Thanks

[Cavcraft]

Great fund, looks a decent car that.

[New POD]

Is it basically a 104 ? Did they do a rallye version of it and will an AX GTi engine fit ?

[Sudsprint]

Great story, great find and great to see an old red car not faded to buggery

[beko1987]

Wow what a find! Nice save! I would say take the aunt out in it when done, but maybe try and borrow a minor for a day instead to do that...

[red5]

Why's it need an engine?

[garbaldy]

 

Nice car. I struggled to get the 1360 engines for these 10 years ago as most blocks had gone pourus due to sitting dry. If that ones still full of a strong mix of coolant it should be fine.

[hairnet]

xud like will

 

looks nice - even sat with that miles engine should be ok tho right?

[Skizzer]

Paging @SambaS!  Urgent call for SambaS!

 

Oh, and a cleaner with a mop to the Talbot Rehab aisle please, someone seems to have spilled a lot of yogurt.

[Andy1979]

Thanks for all the comments peeps. The car is the same underneath as a 104 yes and also shares parts with Citroen Visa. All part of PSA group back in the 80s.

 

The engine turns over but the lady I got it off said the gearbox was crunching in third and at the moment the clutch won't release. It's going to be an engine out job anyway as it's all integral of the engine etc.

 

What I need to know is as mentioned above what other engines will fit, the engines used in these cars are of the PSA X type developed by Renualt I think. The small ones had a different letter code respectively. I believe the very Peugeot 205 had these engines. So rare now in every search I've done.

[AlabamaShrimp]

Nice find but same question as red5, if the engine turns why do you need another?

[theorganist]

NIce car, I do like to see an old Talbot saved.

 

I don't see the need to replace the engine if there is nothing wrong with it, however?

 

My Horizon has crunchy 2nd gear (after 49,000 miles) and sometimes jumps out of 1st, I just get on with it.

 

May get round to getting it fixed at some point!

[Andy1979]

The engine is the 0.9cc version too. For that reason I'd like a bit more poke to cope with today's motoring.

 

Just need to find out what my options are that all

[Mr_Bo11ox]

try and get it runing and driving before sacking off the engine, its probably alright

[Asimo]

Peugeot 104, early 205, Citroen LNA, early Visa, early BX, Talbot Samba, Renault 14 all used this engine / gearbox assembly. And maybe some other French oddments I have forgotten / never knew about.

[Talbotman]

Easiest route to a bigger engine with one of these in current times would be to find a rotted out cabrio. If you want to run the 5 speed box you'd need to swap the whole front subframe out of one too as the gearbox is wider and the 4 speed mounting area is narrower and it won't just simply swap back in....that is if you don't want to start modding and hacking around too much to start with.

There used to be all sorts of Peugeot sport stuff you could get for Sambas and 104s and they used to be very very competitive machines in their class when well prepared. The biggest exponent for tuning them back in the day was Ernie Larton of L.A.D. Motorsport Developments in Morecombe. It's a wet liner engine and you could get piston and liner kits to take it to 1294cc. Coupled with a big valve or an eight port head,sucking through big fat weber 40 dcoe, a plain Jane Samba could be made in to quite a screamer. The 1294cc had a shorter stroke the the 1360 and with the correct cam Rev'd better and was more torquey. Anything is possible and people have converted Sambas to the Tu series and XU series motors. The Tu engine and box is probably the better bet as you probably wouldn't require and increase in track. Remember the Citroen Visa and C15 van is essentially the same chassis as a Samba..and it grew the plastic front arches when the XU petrol and diesel engines were fitted.

I wouldn't discount the original engine, they can be hustled along quite nicely...and as the gearbox shares the same oil as the engine, a good flush out and some fresh lube in there would do the gearchange the power of good.

[406V6]

Great story and a fine save. Plenty of Talbot love here - there's probably some Talbot DNA buried in my 406. I've got a feeling of deja vu though - my memory banks are nudging the rest of my failing brain saying that I've read the story before either on here or the blue forum. Or has my brain broken its cam belt ?

[SambaS]

My Samba Roller clutch was stuck:

 

 

After taking advice from Cyanide Steve on the seized clutch I let the car warm up, then turned it off, put into gear then went to start it, I rocked the car backards and forwards like this with the clutch pedal pressed about ten times until one time when it just stayed still: et voila! A working clutch! So I went for a celebratory drive round the carpark with can still on roof. The next job to do was to remove the shank of a bolt I broke from a captive nut on the petrol tank bracket. I tried Snap On mole grips and penetrating spray - no luck, so brought out the gas bottle and welder and after a bit of a fire had a nut welded on and the snapped bolt out.

[John F]

My Samba Roller clutch was stuck:

 

 

I freed off the clutch in my Maserati using this methiod too.

[AlabamaShrimp]

The engine is the 0.9cc version too. For that reason I'd like a bit more poke to cope with today's motoring.

 

Just need to find out what my options are that all

This i don't understand.

 

I've got 957cc in my Fiesta and it copes with modern* motoring just fine. It's a bit slow to accelerate but it will happily drive round at 40 no problems and is fine on the mway you just have to plan a head but then you should already be doing that

[mercrocker]

Blimey that looks bloody clean in the sill department. I am with the others above. The 950 was nae bad - we often had those in as pool cars at work and I seem to remember the Samba being a better drive than the Sunbeam with that motor, despite my FWD aversion....Great save, great story and luck is wished...

[dollywobbler]

My wife proved that a 1-litre AX (later type engine but principle applies) is no slouch. Poor thing regularly found itself being thrashed down motorways at 80mph.

[alf892]

That is a nice littl motor........especially for what you paid!

 

An Austin Rover dealer I worked out sold one of those secondhand and the pre sale service showed head gasket type symptoms. I did the head gasket and put the engine back in.

 

Put coolant in then dropped the oil. I Left sump bung out while I went for tea break and came back to find anti freeze dripping out of sump.......

 

Engine out again to do liner seals which is very fiddly without loads of stripping.

 

This was about 1985..........funny how some things stick in your mind!

[Guest Breadvan72]

This and the Mazda 323 are the hits of Autoshite 2015 for me.   Big love!

[SambaS]

This i don't understand.

I've got 957cc in my Fiesta and it copes with modern* motoring just fine. It's a bit slow to accelerate but it will happily drive round at 40 no problems and is fine on the mway you just have to plan a head but then you should already be doing that

Have to agree, we are running the 1.0 Samba Style about at the min and it's perfectly adequate, infact it's off to London on Friday from N Yorks so will be doing 200 miles of sustained 70-80 mph

[Dick Cheeseburger]

This one had the same thread on RR about 12 months ago didn't it? What's the latest?

[Andy1979]

This one had the same thread on RR about 12 months ago didn't it? What's the latest?

 

Yes it did. Ive been really lazy and Scott has kicked me back into action now so i probably deserve a slap from most people out there with regards to interest.

[Andy1979]

As for the engine idea, i really don't know what to do now as opinions here suggest that its powerful enough for today. I haven't even got it running yet and the clutch will need freeing off, however a full clutch kit is £30 on line haha. cheap!!! I suppose there wouldn't be any harm in taking the engine out anyway as it has suffered a major oil leak at some time and the now tarred oil is all over the back of the engine underneath. Possible rocker cover gasket don't know. IF the engine was taken out and the CC really isn't an issue i may fit a new clutch and a new top end gasket kit including the head. Ive already re built the carb on it. Can you get electronic ignition for these?

 

I think the best thing to do for the immediate future is try to get it running in its current state and add coolant and bring it up to temp to see if there are any horror stories i haven't found yet, Ive already put fresh oil in it and filter and new plugs. It turns over with he plugs out fine and the oil light is going out so that's good news. I Just need to find a spark on the dizzy again as new points were fitted too. The worst thing Ive found on this car so far was a fuel tank filled with rust!! Ive cleaned it out now and poured tank liner in side it to protect.

[AlabamaShrimp]

If the engine is in a state and needs bits then yeah take it out and clean/fix it up. If it were mine it would go straight back in.

 

The car is quite rare and original. Start changing stuff, especially big things like the engine, and you lose a lot of this making it very hard to sell if you ever need to

[chaseracer]

As previous advice: the 954 will be just fine - and a metric shitload of fun along the way! 

 

Top bombing, sir.