New Member

[kaymanfiat]

Hello all. I have a 78 124 in the restore stage. My 1st. fiat. I'm gonna need lots of advise, but it looks like I came to the right place. 1st off.....I have a mechanical backround including welding, engine rebuilds (4) , fabrication and a small shop to do it in. I'm a retired mechanical contractor, so the car thing is a hobby and I'm pretty excited about it. I'm going to try to post some pics ( if I can figure out how) along with this thread including the ID plates and stickers. I have so many questions..., but I'll start with the simple ones. By the way, I live in maricopa county, az.
Here's what I know...1978 fiat spyder. Engine; 1756cc, 132 a1 040.6
Stock exhaust w/ converter. (sticker on driver door frame says NON CATALYST) ???
Weber 32adfa carb. NEEDS REBUILD!
No smog pump
Bought the car 2 yrs ago for 1000.00. Engine ran and not a dent on the body work. 4 speed with 3 something rear end. Interior was shot.
The first thing I need to do is put a carb on it, fresh fuel, run it to temp and do a comp. test. Stock ignition components have already been replaced. I'm picking up a "lightly used" 32/36 on monday for $150.00. I'll use that instead of the 32adfa.
If the test goes OK, then no need to rebuild the engine. I'll let you know the results.

Any feedback between now and monday will be well appreciated. Thanks...Patrick. PS: It looks like posting pics here is a wee bit hard.

[kaymanfiat]

How can I post pictures????

[RRoller123]

Welcome aboard! You will find plenty of knowledgeable and friendly people here.

Here is a thread on how to post pictures to the forum:

http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=21014

Pete

[johndemar]

Here's something you may already know, but you can register the car as a collector and avoid having to go through emissions.
Just pick up collector car insurance through a company like Hagerty and register the car with DMV.
The insurance is value based, (set by you), and a payoff value of $8 to $10K will probably cost about $125 to $150 per year.

I don't necessarily advocate polluting the air, but I'm assuming the car will be a toy for you and won't be driven as a daily driver anyway. The car will run and look better without all those hoses and wires under the hood. I can't remember if the 78 has a single plane intake on it or not, but if it doesn't you may want to consider finding one before you put on that new carb.

Oh, by the way, welcome, and lots of knowledgeable folks here willing to give advice.

[azruss]

Welcome, there are many of us that live in Maricopa County, although we live in the city. What part of the county are you in. A 4 speed gearbox is very rare in these cars. I think they only came on the 67 or 68 years. If yours is a true 4 speed, then you've got a cobbled up car.
The worst issue about posting picture here is the width of the picture cannot exceed 700 pixels without being chopped off. I use a photo editor to size my photos down. I go an extra step and combine multiple photos into one file by copying and pasting each photo on to a long blank sheet and the crop to size. Once this is done, you just need to go to a picture posting website and load the picture. This gives you an address you can copy and paste into this forum. I use HostingBytes2.0. It is a free software that doesnt require membership or a password and its pretty straight forward.

[kaymanfiat]

Thanks for the replys folks.
I belive the intake is a single plane. It has 1 elongated throat hole.
The trans is def. a 4 speed. I read that the 5 speed was somewhat weak, compared to the 4 speed. ???
Thanks for the advise on pics and emmisions. After I get the pics up, take a look at the ID plates.
KaymanFiat.

[kaymanfiat]

OK. I figured out how to post the pis...so here they are.

[kaymanfiat]

Heres a few more

[2ndwind]

Welcome. Looks like a relatively easy project. I'm no expert but I don't think a '78 ever came with a 4 spd. Is it possible it is a 5spd that will not go into 5th?

[kaymanfiat]

Hi 2ndWind, thanks for the reply. Easy Project...LOL. I love rebuilding stuff, so it should be fun.
You may be right about the transmission. Is there any way to tell? Thanks, Patrick

[azruss]

take a pix of your tranny, particularly the back portion. Not an expert here, but i think the 5th gear is an add-on with its own casting on the end of the tranny. Others will chime in here.

[TX82FIAT]

Azruss is on to something here. Not sure if you can tell in the picture below. I looked at the 68-71 trans on a 68 once and thought that the rear casting was odd until I realized it was a 4 speed. The upper picture is the 5 speed we all know and love. Below is the 4 speed and with different internals and rear casing.

[kaymanfiat]

Thanks to azzrus and tr8. After looking at pics of the trans in HAYNES 34010 manual, I've confirmed that it IS a 5 speed. Would anyone happen to have a diagram of the 5 speed shift pattern? Thanks, patrick.

[2ndwind]

You mean this?

[johndemar]

Patrick, If you can look for the numbers stamped on the block just above the oil filter mount you can see if you have the original motor in the car. And the 449 paint code means it started life dark blue.