Greetings from Italy!

[divace73]

Hey Riccardo

there is a guy here in Australia that is doing up an early black AS, not sure if he is on this forum but is on another http://www.turbo124.com/forum/viewtopic ... 24#p120916
What part of Italy are you from? It's more than 10 years since I was there, really miss it....
You will learn a lot by trial and error, most things on our spiders can be done by the home mechanic depending what space and tools you have available and of course you have this forum.
Aprat form fluids, spark plugs and the like, I would strongly recommend changing the timing belt, you don't want that to snap, on a positive note, I have heard that many fiats kick ove almost straight away after many years of storage.
go to go, my young one has woken up
ciao

[RCSquadraCorse]

Hi David, the restoration that the Aussie guy is doing is amazing! I will never go even close to do such a good job on mine...
Money is an issue for me right now, so I just want to start enjoying my 124 as it is. With more time and more funds maybe one day I'll be able to do a proper complete restoration like that one, we will see in the future!
I've never done a timing belt replacement, so I'll let a mechanic do that for me. I don't want to do the job and blow up the engine when I fire it up! Ahahah!
Space, I have enough; tools, I still have to buy some but I have a good amount of them to do the basic things right now; knowledge, I have some of it by myself, I have the manual and this great forum!
However I'm from the north of Italy, Milan to be precise. Which part of Italy did you visited when you came here? I bet something like Tuscany, Sicily or Naples, am I right?

Riccardo

[djape1977]

engine is very simple and easy to work on. unlike the modern cars, 124 was made when cars were meant to be repaired, not thrown away when something goes wrong.

[divace73]

djape is right, they are very simple especially compared to new cars, just a case of reading a good book that describes things step by step and take your time. Or like you mentioned see if you can find an old school mechanic that is happy to show you how its done.
I've been to all the touristy parts, spent time in Rome, however my father is from a place called Rionero in Vulture which is in between Bari and Naples and my Mother is from Agrigento Sicily, they migrated to Australia when they were quite young.

[RCSquadraCorse]

engine is very simple and easy to work on. unlike the modern cars, 124 was made when cars were meant to be repaired, not thrown away when something goes wrong.

Hmm... but do you recommend to do a timing belt replacement to someone who never did it before? I'm a bit worried to do some damage to the engine!
I would like to try it, but I'm a noob with that... however we'll see when it'll be the time to do it.

djape is right, they are very simple especially compared to new cars, just a case of reading a good book that describes things step by step and take your time. Or like you mentioned see if you can find an old school mechanic that is happy to show you how its done.
I've been to all the touristy parts, spent time in Rome, however my father is from a place called Rionero in Vulture which is in between Bari and Naples and my Mother is from Agrigento Sicily, they migrated to Australia when they were quite young.

David, I'm already reading the manual book of the 124 and of course it doesn't seems very complicated at all to do all the minor work on the car. I'll try to do as much as possible by myself!
Your parents are from some really nice places, especially your Mother! Sicily is really a beautiful place, but it's too much hot for me! Ahahah! I love my fog, rain and cold during the autumn and winter periods!
I've never been to Australia, but I would really like to come over there in the future, some friends of mine were really impressed by your Island!

Riccardo

[djape1977]

follow a very simple procedure and you can't go wrong.
it's been described on this and other forums many times. why pay 100+ euro for replacement when you can do it

[RCSquadraCorse]

follow a very simple procedure and you can't go wrong.
it's been described on this and other forums many times. why pay 100+ euro for replacement when you can do it

Because I'm afraid it would be already an issue to remove the engine from the engine bay
I'm studying the manual, but my engine is different from the other series (similar but different) and the pictures are not very helpful because I can't see almost anything... I'll try to figure out something when the car will be on the jack stands...

Riccardo

[djape1977]

why would you remove the engine???

[giuliot60]

Ciao.

Welcome.

What the guys here have been saying is good advice. My car was sitting for 4 years and had similar issues, but I was able to get it on the road after cleaning the brakes (and make sure you bleed the brake lines) and changing the fluids. I am going to change my timing belt and found a link on this site you might find very useful: http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic ... 5&p=127638

Good luck!

[RCSquadraCorse]

why would you remove the engine???

Do you think that removing the radiator would give me enough space to change the belt? I don't know, looking at the manual and some threads it looks like a not very easy process for my skills...

Ciao.

Welcome.

What the guys here have been saying is good advice. My car was sitting for 4 years and had similar issues, but I was able to get it on the road after cleaning the brakes (and make sure you bleed the brake lines) and changing the fluids. I am going to change my timing belt and found a link on this site you might find very useful: http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic ... 5&p=127638

Good luck!

Ciao Giulio and thanks for the welcome!

I still have to decide about what to do, because I keep to find some new problems everyday! lol!
I'll keep you updated!

Riccardo

[djape1977]

i've changed timing belts even without removing the radiator.

[giuliot60]

You're welcome Riccardo.

Like Djape says, people change the timing belt all the time without removing the radiator, but I believe you have to have a short socket to not hit the radiator. I'm planning on removing it to clean it and paint it and taking advantage of the extra room it provides to do the timing belt since it's my first time. Does your car still have the timing belt cover? A lot of folks remove the front and back pieces or just remove the back plate (don't know if the 69 has the same as the newer cars) and leave the belt exposed (may damage hood if it breaks though), which makes changing the belt in the future a lot easier. Search for timing belt topics to gain some more insight. Read as much about doing it as possible before doing it. Like I said, I haven't done mine yet and am repeating what I've read here and on mirafiori.com. From what I've read so far, the crank shaft sprocket bolt can be difficult to remove.

You should also see if you can find someone around you that may have replaced belts before if you're not comfortable doing it. I'm sure there must be someone. Or get an estimate from a mechanic.

Let us know how it goes and post some photos.

[RCSquadraCorse]

i've changed timing belts even without removing the radiator.

You make everything look easy man! My hands are not small enough to work in that tight space, let alone replace the timing belt!

You're welcome Riccardo.

Like Djape says, people change the timing belt all the time without removing the radiator, but I believe you have to have a short socket to not hit the radiator. I'm planning on removing it to clean it and paint it and taking advantage of the extra room it provides to do the timing belt since it's my first time. Does your car still have the timing belt cover? A lot of folks remove the front and back pieces or just remove the back plate (don't know if the 69 has the same as the newer cars) and leave the belt exposed (may damage hood if it breaks though), which makes changing the belt in the future a lot easier. Search for timing belt topics to gain some more insight. Read as much about doing it as possible before doing it. Like I said, I haven't done mine yet and am repeating what I've read here and on mirafiori.com. From what I've read so far, the crank shaft sprocket bolt can be difficult to remove.

You should also see if you can find someone around you that may have replaced belts before if you're not comfortable doing it. I'm sure there must be someone. Or get an estimate from a mechanic.

Let us know how it goes and post some photos.

Hi Guido!
I want to remove the radiator because I want to flush it and clean it properly, so I'll also have enough space if I'll think about doing the timing belt myself. I have an ugly front cover for the belts (see my thread in the "restoration projects" section) and I hate it already, so when I'll take off the radiator I'll remove the cover for sure!
However I've always found photos really useful for the maintenance works and for timing belts I would need an entire book of images! Ahahah!
You know, I don't have the car in Milan, I have it where my mum works and lives, near Trento, so I don't know many people here, let alone a good mechanic! The only good one I know is 80km away from here and the car is of course stuck in my garage.
For a timing belt replacement here in Italy a normal mechanic use to charge up to 200 Euro easily, and that's not cheap for sure... I'll keep you updated in my restoration thread (pics included!)!

Riccardo

[giuliot60]

I'm surprised you can't find someone.

I found a shot on our Facebook page of a 74 with the covers off. You could always paint the cover if you want to keep it. I'm planning on removing my back plate and keeping the front. It's gray now, but I may paint it yellow to match the fan. Check it out and maybe join us there as well.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= ... =1&theater

GT

[RCSquadraCorse]

I'm surprised you can't find someone.

I found a shot on our Facebook page of a 74 with the covers off. You could always paint the cover if you want to keep it. I'm planning on removing my back plate and keeping the front. It's gray now, but I may paint it yellow to match the fan. Check it out and maybe join us there as well.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= ... =1&theater

GT

I'm in a small town in the middle of the mountains... Trento is the bigger city near here and it's 40kms away (where I buy my parts).

I don't know why but it seems that I can't see the picture you linked, is this the FB group? http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/fiatspider/
Maybe I have to be part of the group before looking at the photo.

Riccardo