New '78 owner.

[garion]

Hi all. Name is John and I purchased a '78 Spider this past weekend.. I live just outside of Phoenix, AZ, so the weather is just starting to convertible weather... I've been googling and reading the forum here for the past few days... I'm a software engineer, wanna be mechanic (never rebuilt an engine (well, I did do a lawn mower engine once in highschool), but I've done all sorts of brake jobs, oil changes, etc.)

The car needs a bit of work before I'll really trust it, but I think I have a decent starting point...

Known items:

1. Pretty much everything works. Starts easily, drives (though noisy), lights work, turn signals, brakelights, horn, and so on..
2. IN the past, someone switched it to electronic ignition. Crane Fireball XR700 or something like that. Seems to work fine.
3. Someone also removed the smog pump and associated equipment. This is ok, I live an area that doesn't require smog (Pinal county).
4. Painted, blue/purple two tone. Original color was red. Paint is fading.
5. Needs body work.. I suspect there's a bunch of bondo.
6. Redone interior with cloth, coming close to matching the painted colors. THere's rips in the seats, but otherwise functional. Dash is cracked, but ok otherwise.
7. Had the car up to 70 or so without much fuss, just lots of (suspected) tranny noise.

Some things that I know I need to do:

1. Tires. Dry rot. Cracking on the sidewall.. It has orignal wheels, so I'm thinking 175/70R13 for a tire size...
2. I get a bunch of 'driveline noise'.. It reminds me of the sound of Lego gears turning too fast, but with metal... I also can feel the heat from the tranny above the gear shift.. My first project is to change the tranny fluid and I'll change the diff fluid too, since I think that uses the same fluid (NAPA GL1).. The transmission seems to shift just fine to me..
3. Drivers door doesnt shut properly. It does shut, but not fully.. The passenger door doesn't open with the inside handle.
4. Slow/Rough idle. I swear its probably idling around 500 rpm. Its definitely slow. I even saw the tach under 500 at one point, though the tach bounces.. I through some carb cleaner in, and the idle seems to have improved. I'll do a better this weekend.
5. At idle, I seem to have some value knock.. I also did catch some knocking with acceleration too... I'll to investigate more after I fix the tranny noise and the carb.
6. I have some ratnest of wires in the passenger footwell. Stuff that looks like it should be mounted, but isn;t.. Just hanging there.
7. My 'night dash illumination' is *REALLY* dim. As in, I might be able to see if its perfectly dark with no other lights around me. The adjuster works, and just makes it even dimmer.

My goals for the car is to have fun.. Maybe some mild performance mods (exhaust, headers, maybe upgrade cam?) and some handling mods (upgrade sway bars, shocks).. Looks will come in time, I wanna have some fun first

I'll try to get some pics up when I figure out the pic posting..

[Martin124]

Hi John. I'm a new member also and I'll do a self intro when I figure out the photo thing.

It sounds like you've got a nice project to keep you busy. I have a 1976 Spider that I have just bought from my sister (who bought it out from under me after I found it 6 years ago!!). There's not a lot that needs to be done to it once I clean out the empty make up containers and Red Bull cans.

I'm in Australia and I will be its third owner since it was imported and converted to right hand drive about 10 years ago.

[garion]

Attempt at some pics..

[RRoller123]

Welcome aboard!

[baltobernie]

Hello John, and welcome! It's a great time of the year for many Spider owners in the US

1. Modern tire equivalent is 185/70-13
2. Could be any number of things; you'll need to get it up on a lift. Possibly a bad diff or tranny, which is not the end of the world, as salvage or catalog ones are available. First to check is the rubber "donut" joining the driveshaft to the transmission. Look for cracks and outright dissolving under oil weeping on it. Next is the center bearing and support. The rubber surround is susceptible to the same damage. Ditto the rubber/metal rear transmission mount. GL-1 in the transmission, 85-90W gear oil in the rear. Don't be alarmed about the heat coming up. These old cars weren't sealed very well, and your observation is common.
3. Many (most?) Spiders have sagging drivers doors. There's not a lot to be done. Don't lean on it when entering or exiting, and check the triangular rubber door wedge, which helps guide the door into latching.
5. Valves tap or slap, pistons and rods knock. Worn or mis-adjusted valves are noisy all the time, but even valves within spec seem noisy to the uninitiated. These engines don't have hydraulic lifters like modern cars. Knocking usually is worse under load, and can be a simple matter of ignition timing or a complicated matter of rebuilding the engine
6. Common problem. Save for later as long as your signals, etc. function.
7. Also common. If you're used to modern cars, Spider illumination is indeed very dim. But if you're getting proper voltage to the circuit, and the bulbs and glass are clean, the lighting is fine. Save for later.

I bet you can find an graybeard mechanic in Phoenix. Doesn't have to be knowledgeable about Fiats. Have him look at the car; he can probably diagnose everything except the carb without difficulty. It would be a good idea to have such a mechanic look over the car anyway, from a safety standpoint. Then you can post individual questions under the appropriate headings, and we can help.

[RRoller123]

3. I found that by adjusting/tightening the door latch mechanism inside the door (requires removing the inner door panel) that I got the drivers door to latch much better. The latch point on the hook in the door lever mechanism can be moved somewhat in or out (laterally) by fiddling with the tightness of the mounting nuts. Combined with adjusting the placement of the rubber door wedge, (it floats maybe .150") I got it a whole lot better. Not perfect, but a lot better.

@martin124: Here is photo instruction:

This is a procedure that I have been developing for a little while on how to post pictures here in the Forum. Hope it is useful, and comments are always welcome.

HOW TO POST PICTURES IN FIATSPIDER.COM REV: B

Well that picture-posting thing sure is confusing. Took me forever to figure it out. Here is what I do:

First, you must post your pictures on photobucket.com or one of the similar competing websites. You can't post pics directly from your computer. So set up a free account there first. The instructions here reference photobucket.com.

Then in your FS.com post, look for the "Img" box at the top of the post, #9 from the left in the row of command icons.

Put the cursor where you want the pic to appear in the post (leave a few spaces after text is a good idea) and click the "Img" button/icon above.

Then go to the photobucket.com site (or competitor) and find your pic. Hover the cursor over the pic and a drop down menu will appear. Then click the "Direct Link" or similar button. In Photobucket, it will respond with a "copied" indication.

Go back to your FS.com post and make sure the cursor is EXACTLY in between the 2 Img boxes: [img](cursor%20in%20here)[/img] then right click and hit "paste" and the web link for the pic will show up in between the 2 img boxes. DON'T hit the IMG button a second time. MOVE your cursor out of the IMG info you just created before you hit enter.

Now when you post the post, the pic will be there!

Remember that if you delete the photobucket "master" pic, it will no longer appear in the posting here on FS.com

Also: there is a size limit to the pictures that can be displayed here, I think it is 750 pixels in width, someone correct me if I am wrong. So you may need to resize (typically downsize) the pics so that they fit properly and all of the pic is displayed and not cropped.

This can be done in MS Office Picture Manager, where your pictures can be cropped and resized. Do this resizing before you load the pictures onto Photobucket or competing site. Remember to resize them to be no more than 750 pixels in width, or they will be truncated.

Another approach, which is what I usually, do is pretty simple but requires some emailing effort. I email the original picture to myself embedded within an AOL email. AOL will automatically prompt you to see if you want the picture "optimized". Say "yes" and send this new pic to yourself. I then save it with a "small" addendum to the picture name and put this optimized picture up on photobucket. It works every single time like a charm.

[Exit98]

Hi John,

I wouldn't be doing 70 MPH with dry rotted tires. TIres might be the first order of business. Here's the 13's I bought a few months ago. Happy with them and the price is right, and they are on sale right now too:

[url]http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?d ... P&dsco=135[/url

There's been a number of posters from Phoenix from time to time, hopefully one or two will chime in.

Like Bernie said, do the safety stuff first, brakes and running gear.

BTW, the diff oil is different than the trans oil:

Transmission Oil – GL1 (SAE 90)
Differential Oil – 80-90 Gear Oil

NAPA has both.

The 78 Spider was probably the most emissions restricted version, and has a pretty constricted carb. So don't fret it if performance seems wimpy. There's plenty you can do to free up some more HP for not a whole lot of dough.

Good Luck.

[FiatBen]

Well, I found it interesting that your '78 has a '79 hood and '78 doors, whereas mine

has a '78 hood and '79 doors. Mine is in the original Plum color but has faded to brown over the years. If I ever get around to it, I'm going to fix it up and repaint in the original color, which I really like.
Welcome! Hope we can help you fix it up and keep it on the road.

[garion]

Hi all... I've been doing some 'surface' investigation the past few days.. Can't do too much more till this week when I clear out my garage..

The tires arent as bad as I oringally thought. Its just surface cracks.. They are still high on my priority list though, just to be sure. First items are the tranny and diff fluid change. Then tires, then brakes.. As for safety, I won't be driving it much at all until I get those things done. Concern noted.

Looking under the car shows me that stuff is in pretty good shape.. there's some surface rust, but thats about it... The shocks look recent, and the towers aren't rusted at all..

One interesting thing is that I don't believe I have a cat at all.. Exhaust comes down from the engine, to a pipe to the back, into a resonator I believe, to the muffler. Not only am I missing the smog pump and the injectors, but the cat too.. I hope I never have to get it smog tested.

Looks like the reason the drivers door doesn't completely close is because the bolts for the catch mechanism are loose, and there's some rust there.. I'll have to come up with something to solidify that.. Its also missing the lower alignment triangle thingy.. The passenger door has that, but its broken.. (but that door closes..)..

There's a lot of oil down by the transmission, but I can't tell if it the trans, or just flying back from the engine (which does have a leak around the cam covers I believe).

So I have a 79 hood? Interesting... The color is not original.. It used to be red, as evidenced in the trunk by the gas tank.

As I get the car up onto stands where I can move around under it, I'll take some more pics to get peoples opinions.

[giuliot60]

Welcome!

Before changing the tranny oil, make sure you can get the lower fill plug loose before draining, then buy a oil pump from NAPA about $15. The pump made it really easy to fill with no mess. The hose fits nicely in the fill hole. It will just take a couple of refills to get up to the proper level.

Good luck!