Weird bulbs

[rodo]

Trying to update some bulbs and have found two oddballs. I need to know what sizes/numbers they are to replace them. First is in a tiny plastic sleeve that plugs into the back of the lighter. This is not a regular push-in bulb. It is small, tiny, and has no writing. And I lost it. The other is for something I didn't even know my car had. (Car is an '82.) It is a courtesy light in the driver's footwell. The fixture is clear plastic and is held in place with a nut. The bulb was long gone by the time I got the car. I'm looking at the fitting and some kind of bulb pushes into the copper strips but...not like anything else I've seen on the car.

Grateful for the help.

[RRoller123]

I think that footwell light is a socket for the elusive "mechanic's service lamp", occasionally mentioned but apparently never actually seen, elusive as the Unicorn.

[rodo]

Mechanics Service Light? Maybe? Just seems kind of pitifully small for getting any work done down there. There were wires attached. When I sort the bulb I'll be anxious to see if it goes on with the door switch. If not...er...

[RRoller123]

It was a bulb at the end of some sort of flexible hose or arm, and the socket under there is just for the connection to power. I have never actually seen one.

[18Fiatsandcounting]

RRoller is right, that "socket" in the driver's footwell is for a service light which was offered as an option when the car was first sold. And yes, it is as rare as a unicorn as almost no one knew about it let alone purchased that option. I have never seen one in person, and only one picture, and so if you ever find one, it's worth its weight in gold. It had a special plug that fit into that socket, with a long cord (15 feet or so?), and then a lamp at the end. Giving every Fiat buyer a flashlight would have been a much more elegant solution...

As for the cigarette lighter bulb, at least on my cars, the housing (behind the dash) has a metal bracket that clips onto the housing, and this bracket holds a 12 volt 3 watt or so bulb. It's neither a screw base nor a bayonet base, but the bulb has a round "ring" around the base that holds it in place. It's an odd duck. But, when installed and working, it lights up that orange ring around the cigarette lighter that you see from the front. Sorry I can't give you a bulb number, but in googling this, I think it's referred to as a "miniature bulb midget flange base". Again, this is what I have in my cars, but yours might be different.

-Bryan

[rodo]

Wow, it all just gets weirder and weirder. A unicorn service light! But it isn't actually a light, right, it is more like an outlet. Can't believe any service man would have wanted to have used it. Anyway, I'm sure my putting it up for auction on ebay will provide me the funds to finish restoring my spider.

The cigarette lighter light seems to me to be a throw-away. There is one female plug that attaches to teh ground by the ignition and the other end is female and plugs onto the lamp for the fibre optics. Bulb is in the middle and was wired in and covered with shrink tubing. just tried to make it work with a christmas tree light bulb but, of course, the voltage was wrong and it just fried.

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Wow, it all just gets weirder and weirder. A unicorn service light! But it isn't actually a light, right, it is more like an outlet.

Yes, the "thingie" under the dash is just the outlet. The service light just plugs into this and it comes with a long cord. It was meant for the owner fixing his car on the road (changing a tire?), rather than a service shop. I guess you're also supposed to curse in Italian as the ill fitting lug wrench slips while you're out there in the cold rain in the dark, and you didn't get the $50 service light option when you bought the car. But I digress.

On the cigarette ligher housing, yes, later model years had a fiber optic light setup rather than a bulb. I'm not at all familiar with that, other than it existed. I think the fiber optics also ran down to the heater control symbols down by the handbrake.

-Bryan

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Rodo, I don't know if this helps, but I was digging around in my stash of electrical parts, and I came across a cigarette lighter with the bulb fixture on the side. The bulb shows 4W, 12V on the side, and also "Fuci Hai 3M" which I assume is a manufacturer. I don't know what model year I got the cigarette lighter from, but probably earlier than yours.

Anyway, the bulb I have looks like: https://www.bulbs.com/product/1816

-Bryan

[ORFORD2004]

What about the light for the heat control?

[RRoller123]

Yes, the lights down at the heater controls are fiber optic, the actual bulb I think is back behind the center vertical console.

[rodo]

Thanks, Bryan. My arrangement for the ciggie lighter lamp is different: black wire that plugs in at the ground point under the dash at one end and into the light that illuminates the fibre optics at the other. (It is a small fixture under the middle of the dash, as stated.) In the middle is a black plastic sleeve that is to slip over the receiver on the lighter. There used to be a tiny bulb in it. I took it apart yesterday: two wires, simple. I soldered in a christmas tree light. Blew immediately. Hm, now none of my dash lights work. So made a wire with two female ends to bypass the lighter light. Still nothing. Checked fuses. Everything else works. A new job for today!

[18Fiatsandcounting]

It's been a long time since I've owned a "new" car like an '81, so my memory is too weak in this area to be of much help. What I can tell you is that (for the spiders I've had) the circuit for the dash lights, cig lighter illuminating light, and light for the fiber optic cables for the heater controls are all tied together, and they all turn on when you either have just the parking lights on, or the headlights (and parking lights) on.

Since the dash lights aren't working, you have either lost the ground for this whole system, or the +12V part of it. If you have a voltmeter, the best thing might be to test if your illuminating lights are getting the 12 volts like they should.

-Bryan

[rodo]

Ach, can't get those dang dash lights to go back on! Right on the way the '82 system works.

I resent the ground by the ignition, but had already put a new pod there and cleaned the metal. Swapped out the rheostat just in case that, suddenly, went belly up. Checked every fuse, everything obvious. Maddening as they DID work, on several occasions, and now everything else works except the gauge lights.

Not checked voltage but think it hard to believe it just suddenly wasn't producing enough.

Trying to imagine something with the bulbs in the gauges. Surely they would not all go out if only one burned out. But what if one popped out? Are they grounded into the gauge body? I am loath to remove the gauge panel. Still in therapy for when I installed it last week.

[spider2081]

Ach, can't get those dang dash lights to go back on! Right on the way the '82 system works.

A great aid to Spider wiring and electrical trouble shooting is a Fiat publication "Spider 2000Electrical Diagnostic Manual 1980-1981. This manual has wire diagra circuit description and troubleshooting that can be applied to most all Spiders.

I have a little trouble following your issue with the dash lights. Especially " I umped out the light with a jumper wire". Sounds like you are shorting the dash light circuit to ground. Try removing the jumper.
The Dash lights are powered through fuse 8 in the fuse panel. Fuse 1 is closest to the steering column.
Are you aware the dash light dimmer control has an internal fuse?? Have you removed the wires off the dimmer control and jumped them together bypassing the dimmer?? ( first remove the jumper you installed at cigar lighter) If you try this and the lights work the dash dimmer internal fuse is blown.

[rodo]

I've got that guide. I actually have both the digital one as well as an old bound copy. Jump was the wrong word, sorry. I'm sure that wire, from the ground directly to the fibre optic light isn't the issue. But I did think it was the dimmer. A fuse in it! No, I had no idea! Okay, now I'm onto something. Thanks a ton, 2081! I'll go and check it this evening.