fiat spider

Tue Sep 30 19:23:21 PDT 2003
QTY DESCRIPTION
1 START SOL 124,128,131,X1/9
16 FIAT LUG BOLT FOR PANASPORT
1 NEW IAP CATALOG - FIAT

So, new 40mm lug bolts for my wheels and a new solenoid for the starter. Should be in this Friday, which means I have time to do it this weekend.

Well, I guess it was the solenoid in the starter. Glad I didn't drive it anywhere and turn it off. It wouldn't start at all today. Good battery and all that. No clicks either. I checked wiring diagrams and that has to be it.

So, I did other things. Put on the new wheels to see if they'd fit. I need longer bolts. Quite a bit longer. Thinking of going with studs too. Looked for tires today online too. Looking like I'll spend about $50 each. 205/60R13 is what I'm looking at.

Also installed the new air cleaner and re-mounted the electronic ignition. No biggie, but it cleaned up the engine bay quite a bit. I am missing 3 bolts that mount the air cleaner to the carb. I might be able to find those at the local hardware store, or possibly from IAP.

Must order some parts. New solenoid, longer wheel bolts (possibly studs) and bolts for air cleaner.

My wheels came! Yay! Check out the pics here.

Gotta get some rubber, hopefully this week or next. May need to hold off for a bit due to the cost. Want to get them mounted soon, then do the brakes, etc.

No headway on the metallic noise...I need more expert advice. May have Karl listen to it...or may make a trip on Sunday to leave it with Carlos at ITAL. He needs to check it out anyhow.

So, I took her round the block tonight. Started up great, idle is great, sounds great. So, new issues now that my engine is starting:

Oily smoke coming from engine bay, definatly a leak on the rear end of the exhaust manifold.
Singing metallic noise from engine, hope it doesn't have anything to do with leaks of oil.Rattling on accel and decel. Possibly valves need adjustment or the tensioner bearing is going bad. Or both.

But other than that, she drove great. The carb rebuild and new fuel pump really helped. I have a lot more power and the car takes off without hesitation. My wheels come this week so I'll be getting tires and a brake rebuilding kit soon. I'm a little worried about the metallic noise from the engine, but it could be something easy. Most likely not, I just hope I don't need a rebuild already.

Whoo hoo! So, my friend Bob, visiting from TN for a conference, and I went to get some more fuel line and a new fuel filter. We hung out for a while, geeked out on radio and computers, and then I went down to put it on. I discovered that the 'old' filter is one of those that has a replaceable filter....and it screws together. I guess that during the refreshing of the fuel lines, I must have twisted it loose. I tightened that thing up, turned on the ignition and touched the ground to the chassis, pump whirred and boom, no leaks.
Sweet.

But no gas in the carb. WTF. I checked the lines, lots of gas in the lines. Must be the carb. I suspected that the old filter Karl gave me was in the way. Turns out, it was too big for my carb, or not designed to go there anyway, and was blocking fuel passage. I had to rip it out with pliers. Yuck. But, once I wired up the fuel pump permanently and turned on that ignition, I got fuel in the carb. A couple cranks on the starter and I was back in bid-ness.

She fired up great, and no smoke cloud! Could the carb have been causing all his bad running and foul clouds from the tail-pipe? Time will tell. I still think that my starter may be toast. It took a few clicks to get it to roll...once it did, it was fine. Probably the solenoid. Anyway, I am happy. My wheels get here next week most likely, and after that, I can start driving her to work. I need to order the brake rebuild kit soon.

Yay!

So, I got new fuel lines and mounting screws from AutoZone today. Installed new lines up front to replace the cracked, aged originals and used the rest to put the fuel pump in a little bit better location in the trunk. Got it all installed, cleaned up and ready to test. I left the ground wire disconnected so I could turn the filter on and off right there in the back. I may install a switch for that at some point, although I can't see why I'd need it once I get it working.

So I flipped on the ignition, ran to the back and touched the ground wire to ground, the pump pumped away and filled up the glass filter...and then the glass filter leaked everywhere. WTF. I guess that it was already leaking, but with the mechanical pump pulling thru it, there was no leak. With the electronic pump pushing thru it, definatly a leak. So I need to get a new one. Will do tomorrow. Think I'll get some more line so I can run new lines in the trunk as well.

Haven't heard from the wheel dude. Shipping info hasn't populated on UPS's site yet. I'm a little worried, but not really. He was so honest and his ebay feedback was killer. Terror alert level 2.

Finished the install of the electronic fuel pump tonight. Well, almost. Just needed to get the wiring right. Still need to do the ground wire in the trunk, but I have no screws! And I wouldn't mind mounting it to the chassis with something. That'd be good.

Put on the rebuilt carb as well. Removing the old fuel pump from the chain means I need a longer fuel hose...so off to the auto-parts store tomorrow to get some lengths of hose. I need to re-do all the rubber lines anyway, they're hard and cracked. I am kind of surprised how dull the thing is. I was expecting it to come out all shiny and polished looking. Guess my expectations were too high. Karl said that a good buff would do the trick, I think he's right. I need to get a dremel and polish that bitch up. BUT, what is it called, patina?, will be lost in that process. Eh, when I have extra time.

Bout it. My project comes along well. I need to find out if the pump is the right fuel pressure before I go flippin it on...don't want a fire. But other than that, I'm good to go. I hope to have her fired up by tomorrow! No word on the wheels yet, but I hope to see them soon.

I think that, for the first time since the start of this project, I have made the next milestone when I said I would. I rebuilt the carb. Heh.

Saturday I went up to Karl's house for "Carbfest 2003". We both had carbs to rebuild and getting together to do car stuff is always fun. Plus having a nice, large garage to work in is heavenly. He had purchased a pair of 40 DCOE's for his 72 BMW 2002 a while back and I needed to rebuild my 32 ADF. We set out to do it about 11am and completed around 5pm or so with more than a few little teeny o-rings left over for each of us. It was a learning experience...I never knew how complicated a Weber really was. And you'll use a LOT of carb cleaner too. That stuff will get you high if you're not in an outdoors type environment. I wouldn't recommend you do it indoors. We were in a double garage with the doors open. I still got a headache. Also, it's easier if you put down something to soak it up while you work. We used cardboard with paper towels on top. Finished up in time to eat some home-made burritos, courtesy of Karl and his wife, Marie-Pierre, and watch the sun set while contemplating telescope accessories.

So, that's done. Yay.

Today (Sunday) I decided it was time to figure out why I have no fuel. So I went out and disconnected the gas tank. The carb was off so it was already disconnected. I blew on the hose. Clogged. Disconnected the filter. Ditto. Disconnected the pump. Aha! So, I set about installing the electric pump. I started running some heavy-duty copper wire from the trunk to the front. Had to remove the seats and tear out some of the rear so I could get to the unobstructed side where the wires go. They go from the trunk, over the wheel well and right into the body next to the rear seats. No biggie. I ran the wire up to the front. Disconnected the battery and unscrewed the fuse box. Turns out, the reason I could never figure out what was up with my electrical system is because my stinkin' fuse box was put on upside down. I can see where the wires were twisted wrong for 30 years. Jeez. Even the lettering (A-J) is on the top where no one could see it. I have to admit, it fit on better upside down...probably why it ended up like that. Jeez.

So I used the voltmeter to find a fuse that had 12v when the ignition was on. Don't want that pump running except when the ignition is on and the car is running. The "i" fuse was good. So I set about trying to mate up this solid copper wire with the little female prong connector. After about 2 hours of frustrating work, I realized it was impossible, pulled the copper wire and ran copper strand from the back. 20 minutes later I had power in the back, tested and everything. Lesson learned. I saw that it would be a lot easier with the other wire at the very start...but tried anyway. Don't do that shit N8. Heh. But I stopped there. My SO and I needed to get some dinner and it was a good place to stop. I will continue soon with the install and hopefully get fuel moving again.


I also ordered a pair of wheels off of e-bay. They're *brand new* vintage BWA 13x5.5. They were original Fiat equipment from the 70's. Apparently a guy ordered a few sets of them and had them shipped TWA air-freight from France. Then he closed his Fiat dealership before they were sold and they have been in a box for 30 years. Somebody found them and put them up on ebay! I made some photoshop examples for the wheels to see if I'd like em. I do. They'll be here this week, I'm excited!

Well, I put the starter back in. Damn. And I installed a new clutch cable too. Man, that was a chore. Getting that cable end to hook in the notch on the pedal was impossible! Took me about 2 hours because I didn't have the right tools. So I made a tool, a hook out of stiff wire, and finished the job in 10 minutes. Heh.

Charged the battery. Went out today to try it and the same problem. Half-crank and click-click-click-click...but I kept cranking. A puff of smoke or two came from the starter, and it started working again. WTF.

But it didn't start anyway. I cranked a while. Discovered that no fuel was getting to the carb. Checked the tank, holy cow, I think I'm outta gas. I shook the car, no sloshing. So I go get 2 gallons of gas. Went to Home Depot and picked up a 2 gallon tank and a few mounting brackets for when I re-mount the ignition. And went across the street to the Shell to get some octane. Looks like it's the pump. So now I am looking to replace the pump. It makes sense. If the pump burnt out or was burning out, it would have left me stranded like that on the side of the 15. Possibly, I could have burnt it out by running out of gas? But I couldn't tell..even after putting in 2 gallons, I could just barely get a sloshing noise from the tank by violently rocking the car.

So, anyway, I made some progress. I'm going to put in an electric pump this week if I can. Hopefully that'll fix things.

Next on my list when that seems to work: .

Too lazy to re-write. From an e-mail I wrote to Motorsports:

So, the fiat was running decently for the first time ever. Till it decided not to start a month or so ago. The starter would roll the engine over 1/4 a turn and then click quickly as if it had slipped off the ring gear. My manuals all say this is highly unlikely and don't even address it. So you can imagine what a time I've had of diagnosing it. Pulling the starter is one of the hardest things to do on my car, due to the location of the bolts that secure it...up inside the bell-housing. I've done it before to replace the steering box and I spent a day this last weekend doing it again. I get it out, I give it the thrice-over and I can't see any evidence of a mechanical problem *at-all*. It's ok...just my untrained eye, right?....

I was all ready to send it off for a $164 rebuild till Zac (a co-worker, fellow restoration artist on a 65 Malibu, and a lurker on our list) took a long slow drag on his cigarette and calmly suggested that a low battery could cause such a condition. Only having enough juice to roll the engine a quarter-turn and then click as the electro-magnets don't have enough juice to spin properly and the solenoid slaps metal against metal over and over...

I never thought to fully charge the battery.

I checked all the electrical connections, even beefed up the wires to the starter in an attempt to make sure it's not electrical-related. I mean, the horn worked, and that bitch is so loud it's sure to use as much juice as the starter *wink*.

*sigh*

After all the starting I was doing on he side of the 15, it probably needs it. I am a dumb-ass. I will slap the bitch back in and get out the charger. If it is a problem with the starter, I'm not pulling that shit back out again. Period. I'm getting it towed to ITAL, at this point, it's worth it to me. ;)

Monterey 2004, here I come!