10,000 miles and now we have problems

[Lex]

Alright guys, first off, sorry I joined then posted a few pics asked a few questions then disappeared for a year, but when the car is running smooth I tend to be in it

Second, sorry I wrote the following novel upon return

alright so last summer we started out with the slight project car, the following link is my first post that shows some pics of what we started with.

http://fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic.php ... 166#p50166

Sorry I dont have any pic's of what she looks like today, but tomorrow after I've explained and hopefully fixed the 10,000 mile problem. My world, my life,well God must really be trying to tell me something because as soon as this car hit 10,000 miles...lets just say i haven't had as many blessings to count.

So first the heater value's rubber gasket decided its had enough and started leaking nice hot anti-freeze on my passenger on the way back from a nice movie. Well by the time I made it home boy was she hot. The next day I take her apart thinking it might be the heater core. Well to get to the heater core, of course I had to take the upper console out, and for the heck of it also took the center floor console out as well because i'd never done so.

Ok so side story, a friend shortly after having the car in running order broke my only key at the time in the ignition, peiced it back together and had a key cut from it (took a few tries, but once we had it made 4 more). I know about 80% of the forum has had that problem, and the other 20% either wont admit it, havent had it happen yet or have what i now have. Under that center console I discovered what must be the factory key, made from a far superior metal then the previous key, and all the replica forms you can buy from international (had one of my copies brake too.)

Ok so back to the heater, under further examination discovered the dry-root in the heater value. Call up international they have them out of stock but next week or so they should be in and i'll be good to go, but for now I just re-routed it away from the heater core.

Dont mean to sound like Im bashing international you guys are great, everything I buy from you works, and you have great customer support.

So lets recap, misfortune 2, blessings 1

Well in my spider i have a toggle switch set up to power the radiator fan (thanks to previous owner) instilled in the upper console, well this toggle switch i kind of like, and decided to keep 10,000 miles earlier. Well When plugging these cables back in i thought all was well. So i went and plug the CD player in, and because of how its setup i decided to test it before working the puzzle of wires back in there home. I start the car, smoke starts coming from the toggle switch, to which my hand decided I should grab that, before i turn the car off, burnt my hand. lucky for me the smoke was only from the cables for the toggle switch which i mis-plugged. Becuase i burnt my thumb it was to hard for me to run new wires so i got my father to do it. Well attempt 2 at the toggle switch, (note: this thing is not labeled, and had 3 plug, and i did a truth table from a multimeter reading to figure out what was what on it) well the two hot wires i had of course had to be wrong so the wires smoked. Quick fix, no harm done right as rain.

Misfortune 4,blessings 1

Talking about rain, after the fire event and such, I'm driving around looking for a job, I see it coming so I put the top up, and roll the windows up, I notice my passengers window crank has some play in it, dont think much of it. later in the week i park it for the night, put the top up, roll the windows up and sure enough all the teeth in the crank have been grinded down and are no longer garbing, so my window is half stuck down, and more rain is on its way, i pull it in the garage and call it a night. I cant address the issue the next morning but i drive it to a job interview anyways. Today i address the issue to discover the worn teeth,my father was near a auto-zone so he picked me up a quick fix handle, its to wide, so until i order my heater value and a new handle, i'm stuck with pushing my old handle in all the way (without clip) cranking it then tossing it back in the glove box.

Misfortune 5, blessings 1

So tonight I'm driving to town to see some friends, pick one up and start to follow a buddy riding 4 deep in a well kept convertible LTD that he only has out due to the local fair. (seeing a spider behind a ltd is comical ) Half way into town we meet a stop light, when i shift into first it feels loss, well we take off i begin to shift into second and the gear lever hits me in the knee, this is odd i think to myself, find second, third is fine, forth is odd. i pull in a gas station, and make my friend pump the gas as i figure out whats going on. well the wood paneling around the shifter comes up easy in my car so i pull it out, well the rubber gasket that covers the shifter is lightly torn, so that needs replacing, so i just finish was it started and get a better look the shifter configuration. Well we decide i can still shift so we drive to my buddies house that is close by for some tools and a light. My buddy is more a mechanic then I so i let him take a look, as soon as he touches the shifter it comes right out. Jaw drops to floor. Well even longer story short, we figure out how to get her in and out of gear, so i ask him to follow me back to my house where we can park her in a garage, have some light and a better selection of tools to work with. back out into the street, put it in first hear a very bad grinding noise coming from the either transmission or shifter when we started to move, worried I pull the shifter out reducing the noise, and coast the rest of the way to a gas station at the bottom of his road.

My buddy pulls in behind me, informing me parts fell out in his driveway, he drives back home to get them, i call my dad to bring the car trailer I've torn enough up today. I know attempting to drive it seems like a bad idea, but id rather have part of my car the next day, then leave it there and have less of one tomorrow. Plus there was no way you could get my fathers truck and car tailer there and have room to get the car onto it. Either way we had to get it to the gas station at the bottom of the road to get it anywhere.

Well as we wait for my dad to get there with the car trailer i start to figure out from the pieces i left in my buddies driveway, how this shifter works. Dad gets there, we put it in first and drive it onto the trailer. we figure, oh if all this is because that nut just came loose then its an easy fix. (yeah i know from what follows that having that nut in my hand is a bad sign)So we move the floor of the car trailer over and slide under to see whats up underneath, yeah that metal triangle at the bottom of the shifter compartment only had one bolt in it and is bent and grinding on the drive-shaft.

Misfortune 6, Blessings 1

So I came here to see if the problem has been going around. Found a few threads talking about pretty much the same thing. So.....

Fixing It Again Tomorrow

Figured you guys would give me a moral boost, and in return i'll give pretty pictures of the ride tomorrow and the current progress on the car.

P.S. knowing now whats wrong thanks to the help of my father, and this forum is a bigger blessing then 5 misfortunes any day of the week.

[FiatJim]

Ok, trying to take a "the cup is half full" approach: While the problems seem to keep coming,.. at least they aren't critical

[Lex]

Oh yeah, for sure FiatJim, its just funny that its all by chance right there at 10,000 miles. And the last piece of trouble i had was a 'small' exhaust leak at 5,000 miles and a broken key. But I guess my small novel last night was more me wanting to vent about something to people that can at least understand and relate to most of what i'm talking about.

Two total side stories i forgot to tell, you know how we had the car on the car trailer looking underneath, well first off if I'm out in the car in town and hanging out with friends i'm in dress pants and a polo(car is only as good looking as the driver ;) ), so of course my love for the car i totally climbed under and dirtied all my cloths without realizing until this morning.

Second, has anyone had this happen:

Guy walks up: "what kind of car is this?"
Me: "1980 Fiat Spider"
Guy: "Who is the manufacturer?"
Me: "Fiat"
Guy: "Is that German?"
Me: "Italian Sir"

That happened while we got gas and discovered the shifter problem too.

[BEEK]

well not to male lite of your situation, but none of the problems you have experianced are life ending or wallet busting!
shifter replacement parts are available, replace the grey plastic piece the lower cup and use a new crimp lock nut, im sure someone might even have the parts you need used, just not the nut. use a new one. \
FIAT= Failure Is A Tradition not! look at the sum of these cars still running . with proper care fiats will go far

[Lex]

Well, we got the car into the garage a few minutes ago, and all the parts were still in good shape, we just had to take the triangle plate off (which only had one bolt in it), beat it back to form and it all went back together smooth, with a new nylock nut, and 2 new bolts to replace the ones that apparently havent been there for a while, maybe from day one. Never has the shifter felt this smooth and this tight, now i know what it should feel like if the nut decides to come loose again, or if those bolts come off. But 15min of work and she runs again

I'll up date you guys this afternoon with pictures, now its time to fix a hay baler....we hope.

[rlux4]

My car lost the cover plate and the nut came off the bottom of the shifter making for driving at night without being able to shift. Luckily for me it was Ventura Ace (another forum member) driving it so it wasn't any problem for me. LOL
Good to hear that it went together without a hitch, and that it's working so well now.
Ron

[TulsaSpider]

Well you are learning a lot in a short time! I have had these issues and more! and worked through them just be patient. These cars are pretty easy to work on and the parts are readily available! Best of luck!

[Lex]

While the problems seem to keep coming,.. at least they aren't critical

15,000 miles ....... Think things got critical

Lucky me it was.....

a low speed wreck caused by a failed master brake cylinder

and not

a high speed wreck caused by a failed master brake cylinder

It ended up hitting a guardrail head on, and spinning back around and hitting it again with the rear. And to think, if I would have left that rusty front bumper on, it wouldn't be frowning and have a black eye (well for the most part). Well, repairs and Bondo have already started, I'll post some pic's when she's back on the road.

[mdrburchette]

Good gracious! After reading your first post, I figured you just had luck like mine. After seeing these new pics, I'm inclined to believe your luck is worse. You had no forwarning of brake failure?

[Lex]

Yes/No, and I'm aware that when the brake fluid is low, the dash light will come on, and because it was raining i had no idea that in an hours time the much fluid had drained out. Well the small amount of fluid i had(in my trunk) wasnt enough to make the light go off, and because i only needed to brake(as in stop) 4(to 5) more times to get home from the lot i figured it be ok to drive home a little low. Stop one, everything was fine (edge of parking lot) 5mph, stop two, was a stop sign 25mph, stop 3 was a sign as well but no more then 20 feet away from the last. Stop 4 didn't happen, because I got a green light so i was home free for 15 miles or so, and stop 5 the turn on to my street didnt happen, so it was like well alight foot on brake, this is odd I normally don't have to push.. OH F&%k!.....more words used......., lucky me i was on my street, so i limped it the short ways home.

When I got home, it was raining so i just went inside sad/angry. The next day took these pic's and went over the damage/problem. First, because amazingly the hood still opens, checked the brake fluid, none, second looked around the cylinder, whats this wet spot underneath it....? Hummmmm, took it off, looked inside, there was pitting in the cylinder (i guess from where it was parked for nearly 25 years) the pitting had wore down the half dry roughed gaskets to the point where they weren't holding fluid, at least that is my best guess. So word of wisdom to those who buy a long term setting car, take the MBC off and look at it real good!

[mdrburchette]

An expensive lesson learned, but one we should all be aware of. Brake m/c's are an inexpensive part. It's a good idea anyway to bleed your brakes on a regular basis.

[Lex]

That might have been part of the problem to be honest, the day before hand, I took it to a car show(its first car show, and its last guardrail ), when I opened the hood and was cleaning, I noticed that my brake fluid was light brownish, so when i got home that's what I did, that's also why I had a bottle in my trunk.

[TulsaSpider]

Wow you are learning quite a lot in a short time! So sorry about the damage, maybe you can find a new hood ?

[Nancy1340]

I am so sorry to hear of your crash. Thankfully you weren't hurt and you can fix the car.

[Lex]

Well the hood is... well fixed. But is now emblemless, so I went ahead and popped off the back one and filled the void. But the Hood, isnt 100% and only someone really familiar with a Spider could really tell that its different besides being emblemless.


The hardest part so far is the Headlamp Nacelle Valance, its hard to make something out of nothing you see. But in fixing it, i had to weld it to the lower grill, and in doing that I pulled it apart the other side, so now its seemless across the front, which looks really good, wounder y it wasnt like that factory.


Sorry no pics yet, cant find the battery charger for the camera, and my phone as you can tell from the wreck pics, really doesnt do things justice unless its well wreck pics.