Update/ Now running

[rlux4]

I caravanned with Ace (sort of) down to Dana Point yesterday, 303 miles round trip in all kinds of traffic conditions. The car did beautifully. The temp gauge hit 190 and stayed there no matter what, the engine was purring like a kitten. Had it up to 85 mph for a while and it felt great!
We went down to Rudy's place with the WebX group to get a last look at the 500 and wish Rudy smooth sailing on his drive back to Tennessee getting the car back to the east coast for shipping back to Jim in Ireland. (His place has a killer view of the ocean, must have been 100 sailboats out)
I took the oportunity to drive the 500 a little. It's an amazing car. And everyime you stop, people want to know all about it, as you're driving, they stop in thier tracks and look.
I forgot my camera, but Ace took a lot of good pictures I'm sure we'll see.
Ron

[kristoj]

Nice! Nothing better than a drive in a Spider that is running perfectly.

[msrmd]

Glad to hear all is well. A day like that erases any memory of troubles.

[Tappy]

as long you dont put it up to 140 m/h , mine was busted after that , but i did gave a trill :d

[rlux4]

Uh, no Tappy. I'll never know if I get up to 140. Because A. I have the 80 mph speedo, and B. I'd be dead of heart failure waay before 140!
Ron

[kristoj]

And C) a stock spider is not capable of 140 unless you are talking k/ph.

[ga.spyder]

Proof that it's hard to keep a good 82 down! I'm glad to hear the demon has been exorsized from your car.In a nutshell did it end up being the dizz and the double relay both?
Craig

[racydave]

Denises Gremlins infiltrated the FFO, got into Lee's luggage, and into Alvons trunk, and into your car at Oregon... I used fly paper, but theyre very smart! I had bite marks in my guibo.

[rlux4]

Good one Dave. That explains it all.
Here's the final skinny on the series of mishaps that kept me stranded for two days, towed the car home about 1000 miles, and had me in my garage for a week into the wee hours.
The whole fiasco started with what turned out to be the gasket at the water pump on the return tube from the heater core. A small leak there was letting the water pump suck in air, displacing coolant into the overflow bottle which got so full it would "boil" over. The head and head gasket were beautiful.
The mechanic in Grants Pass was not familiar with twin cams and didn't get the timing marks right. The cam marks were about 20-25° off, The dist. was about the same. I Got it to dialed in and I had the dist. wrong too. I used the nipple on the cap for a reference point to position #4, and Ace guided me out of my ignorance by pointing out that the contact inside the cap doesn't line up with the nipple like they do when the nipples point straight up. When I lined that up, it fired up instantly. After I put the timing light on it, it started and ran perfectly.
What initiated the non start issue was the dual relay. Which was only a couple months old. But it wasn't the relay's fault. There are two live 12V wires going to it, and one of them (large brown wire) comes straight from the battery, no fuse. The other is the one in the inline fuse with the brown with white wire behind the fuse panel. The mechanic got a pretty good spark when he contacted the starter/battery post. That fried the dual relay.
So, two weeks of stress and expense (not to mention not driving the Spider) can all be traced back to a 2"x1" gasket!
I must say that up in Oregon, before the head gasket job, Ace did say it looked like air was being sucked into the system. I checked all the coolant connections and didn't see anything. The leak was so small it never left a puddle under the car, but when the water pump was running, it was plenty big enough to let air in!
Sorry for the long post, but it may help someone with a similar issue.
FI people: disconnect the battery whenever doing work around any electrical on the car. Save a dual relay.
Ron

[adrians]

Ron,

I'll view that little gasket with a lot more repect now, since I had a similar problem awhile ago and you suggested I checking/install the backet that keeps that heater pipe in place.

Regards

[Tappy]

And C) a stock spider is not capable of 140 unless you are talking k/ph.

your right i made a bad conversion it was more like 115 m/h ....or 185 km/h

Its a 2l (fiat 131) a 1592 head and duall webers

[ventura ace]

140 kph is more like 87 mph.

115 mph is about 185 kph.

Anyway, you were going fast. I get the message.

A

[msrmd]

I got my original stock 73 124 up to 115 mph back in the seventies. It started feeling reeeealy light...like it had enough lift to come off the ground. Scared the heck out of me

[launieg]

I was surprised to discover how easy it is to become airborne. We have some nice ups and downs and curves nearby, and I don't think I was going that fast, but at least two of the wheels were off the ground when I went over one rise! I was a little surprised. I guess I drive the truck too often. So I don't need to go 115 to feel the thrill. Maybe some day.

[kristoj]

Of course I would NEVER do this on public roads , but I do occasionally take my bike to the track and it's incredible how much lift you generate at triple-digit speeds. It literally wants to suck the helmet right off your head to the point where your chin strap begins to choke you:shock: