The little red Fiat.

[SLOSpider]

Yeas they should match up with the crank only once. Easy to get the distributor a tooth off as it slides in though.

[CShroom]

It is running!!!

*me and Tersta do a victory dance*

So here is where the admission of stupidity comes in.

SLO mentioned the 180 out thing. While I was adamant about timing it correctly, I unfortunately timed it to the wrong cylinder. I had looked in the Haynes manual and it kept saying to time off of #1....

So I did a search on the site and saw that you time off #4 when the marks are aligned. DUH!...

So we got it set up and we got it to run until the float bowls drain. Which works fine for us, it idles and revs and no strange noises. Now to get everything plugged in. Tank to drain, timing to set, etc. etc.

w00t!!!11!1!!

[SLOSpider]

Congrats!

I noticed mine had a nice oil stain on the ground the other night after looking under there the day before to confirm all was dry. Took awhile to find the leak on the left side as its all fresh red paint and new oil......Oil pressure switch, nope, leaking head gasket I thought, nope, Breather assembly gasket, nope, finally found the new 45 degree hose off breather was split open on its bottom side! I was a new hose but one I got from Recambi that was useless and took forever to fit on and still had a kink in it. I just bought one of Ebay from NJ Fiat that looks to be better than the other one but $8.00 shipping for a $8.00 is killing me!

[CShroom]

Things have been busy, so there hasn't been much Fiat time. We did get the top on and adjusted.

today the old gas was drained out of the tank and fresh fuel poured in. Fluids topped off and everything checked for leaks. Still got some mystery wires and need to figure out how the temp gauge on the radiator is wired.

But took a quick video of the Fiat running out back. It's dirty but it's running. I have no idea what brand muffler it is, but it definitely has some bite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rHONJBiKjQ

[jfletchx00]

Exceptional job! Its been fun to read through all your "blog" of restoring it, hope to see some more!

But i do have to ask one thing, where did Tersta get the paint for the timing belt cover? Or whatever it is that makes it look so shiny and nice.

[Tersta]

It's not paint. I cleaned and polished it. If I remember correctly I spent about a week working on it.
Tersta

[CShroom]

It's been a while, but the work has not stopped completely. We moved out of California last year and work kept me swamped for while there, so only a few things got done until recently. As of about two months ago I joined the ranks of the unemployed, but with all the extra time on my hands I started spending my down time fiddling with the Fiat.

Since the last major update we did the following.

Fix the timing,
Replaced all sorts of rubber fuel and vacuum lines.
Straightened up most of the 'lectrical gremlins.
Added new carpet (though it is not really particularly nice carpet)
New dash cap, and other misc. dash items.

And as of today, we took it for a drive around the neighborhood and it survived it without a hitch. No pic log, but I did get a quick video of the Fiat running in the garage earlier today.

http://youtu.be/n0fog9fHWMc

Still more things to be done, and a ton of work to get it all restored, but we are still pretty happy overall.

[Zippy]

I followed your posts last year and now it's good to see you're back at it. Keep up the good work.
Al

[courtenay]

Sorry about the employment situation, but good to see you back!!

[CShroom]

It's good to be back at it. Losing my job for now has been a stroke of decent luck, I had been working pretty hard lately and generally avoiding anything on the Fiat or our daily because of burn out. So the time off has allowed me to really concentrate on some things that needed to be done. So now the daily is running better than ever, and the Fiat is getting in good enough shape that I can actually take it around the neighborhood, probably further if I had good tags.

A couple of things I learned lately on the Fiat,

The dual points, the set to the left are the cold points, and the set to the right (relatively speaking) are the warm points. I chased this for a while where I had them wired backwards and it caused all sorts of grief.

If your car has set for a while, just replace every single rubber line you can. And when you think you have them all, check again. Can't tell you how many puddles of gas I have fought with lately.

New formulations of gas is not the best. It shellacs fast, like in a matter of a month or two. I had to disassemble the carb when we moved up here because of that.

Replacing brake lines goes best with a small torch. We did all the rubber brake lines on the Fiat and they were stuck fast, so a small butane torch was just the ticket to get them to break free. Though if you plan on doing it that way, make sure you have plenty of brake fluid to flush the system.

And the most important thing I learned (relearned is probably closer to the truth) is that whatever bolt or nut you are looking at, it's probably rusted. So don't think for one moment that your knuckles will survive unscathed.

[tinman760]

Great post! Thanks!

[kmac33]

For the gas issue, get some of the Stabil Ethanol additive. I will not put gas in my Spider without adding this.

[124JOE]

use premium fuel

[CShroom]

Hi everyone, it has certainly been a while since the last post.

Life happened, so we moved from our place in Southern Utah and now are living near Salt Lake City.

Since the last series of posts we made some very good headway. As of the first of May the Fiat is now legal for street use. We are currently registered with Vintage plates. The limited driving we do and the lack of Smog made it the right choice for now.

I have been snagging the Fiat to take to work when the weather is nice, but there are some lingering issues that are driving me crazy. I bought a set of advance springs for Vick's but they are not the ones I need for the distributor in the Fiat. And now that we can really drive the car around I am fighting issues with acceleration that I am not sure if it is a case of Carburation or a case of ignition.

When accelerating, I can open it up all the way in first and second gears, but the Fiat falls completely flat in once I get to third. I can feather the gas, but if I open the second barrel it bogs down.

The advance appears to be working, but I can't say if it is completely correct.

Any suggestions on what I might want to focus on first? I am leaning towards the carb, but I figured I would check with the experts.

[azruss]

when you get into the higher gears, you are demanding more fuel. Sounds like your fuel pump may be starting to fail. could also check the fuel filter and the screen going into the carb.