Fiat Spider 2000 partial restoration
Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 3:40 pm
Hi guys, first post here. I'll tell a little about myself first. I'm a graduate of the Automotive Restoration program at McPherson College, Kansas. Graduated in May 2014 with several Porsche internships under my belt, so naturally I got a job in North Carolina working at a Porsche 356 restoration shop. While I was there one of our cars (a four cam carrera) sold to Hans Peter Porsche for the family's collection-pretty cool! Anyhow, after 7 months of working there I decided I wanted to start my own restoration shop so I moved back up to Baltimore, where I was born and raised. As far as work goes I've got this 1981 fiat spider 2000, a full resto 1950 mg td next, a 1959-61 corvette after that, and a 1957 Chevy pickup after that lined up. Pretty cool to be doing what I love and making it so far!
So I'm wrapping up this Fiat spider project. I had it on a rotisserie to repair the driver side lower frame rail (it was cracked) both upper frame rails in the front wheel wells, all the floor pans, most of the tunnel, and both trailing arm mounts. While I was there new fuel lines, new brake lines, bushings, etc. The entire motor was gone over with new seals as well as the transmission input shaft seat. Motor was cleaned and detailed. So I've gotten it all reassembled and filled with fluids. I'm have a not start condition and it's because I'm not getting fuel. This car came in with an intermittent no start condition before and it was attributed to an extremely rusty and dirt filled tank. However, the lines are now new and clear of all debris. Here's the weird thing, the pump is building up plenty of pressure to the rail, as I observe gas leaking out of the connection under the car where the rubber line from the fuel filter is clamped onto the feed hardline. For some reason the pressure regulator isn't bleeding any pressure-not even a drop! My thought is that even at start up while cranking-the motor is creating at least some vacuum-enough to make the regulator bleed some pressure. In addition I took #1 injector out of its bung and held it in a can while cranking the car over-no fuel. The injector grounds are sparkly clean and tight on their manifold connection. So does anyone have some Fiat-specific experience that might help me with my two issues? 1) the fuel pressure regulator not bleeding at all and 2) the injectors not firing. Thanks in advance!
So I'm wrapping up this Fiat spider project. I had it on a rotisserie to repair the driver side lower frame rail (it was cracked) both upper frame rails in the front wheel wells, all the floor pans, most of the tunnel, and both trailing arm mounts. While I was there new fuel lines, new brake lines, bushings, etc. The entire motor was gone over with new seals as well as the transmission input shaft seat. Motor was cleaned and detailed. So I've gotten it all reassembled and filled with fluids. I'm have a not start condition and it's because I'm not getting fuel. This car came in with an intermittent no start condition before and it was attributed to an extremely rusty and dirt filled tank. However, the lines are now new and clear of all debris. Here's the weird thing, the pump is building up plenty of pressure to the rail, as I observe gas leaking out of the connection under the car where the rubber line from the fuel filter is clamped onto the feed hardline. For some reason the pressure regulator isn't bleeding any pressure-not even a drop! My thought is that even at start up while cranking-the motor is creating at least some vacuum-enough to make the regulator bleed some pressure. In addition I took #1 injector out of its bung and held it in a can while cranking the car over-no fuel. The injector grounds are sparkly clean and tight on their manifold connection. So does anyone have some Fiat-specific experience that might help me with my two issues? 1) the fuel pressure regulator not bleeding at all and 2) the injectors not firing. Thanks in advance!
