Greetings from Oregon
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Zach
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2025 12:30 pm
- Your car is a: 1976 Fiat 124 Spider
Greetings from Oregon
Good morning! I recently purchased a 1976 Spider. Previous owner picked it up out of a 30 year barn hiatus, put a good amount of work into it and got it running. I was able to drive it the 22 mile trip home. Replaced a bent tie rod and fixed the driver side window (cable had broken) so far. I plan on driving it around a bit this summer, come poor weather I intend to start working on interior stuff. Possibly body work/pain next year - has a few dings here and there plus a decent dent on driver rear fender. My current main issue is the steering is rather vague, and the alignment isn't dialed in - doesn't turn very well. I'm pretty low with mechanical experience, only having replaced some starters/hoses and helped with the transmission on my old Ford Ranger in high school. I'm super grateful for all the helpful YouTube videos and great advice on this site! From what I can tell this is a good car to start learning on. I'll definitely be bugging everyone as I figure out what all needs to be done.
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Online18Fiatsandcounting
- Posts: 3913
- Joined: Fri Mar 15, 2019 11:23 pm
- Your car is a: 1969 and 1971 124 spiders
- Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Re: Greetings from Oregon
Welcome! There are 3 common causes for vague steering:
1. Bad tires, including simple stuff like underinflated. Keep them at 28 to 30 psi.
2. Worn tie rod ends or ball joints, or the center link. You can check this yourself or have a shop look it over.
3. The steering box needs adjustment. There is an adjustment screw on top secured with a jam nut. Not the easiest thing to get to, but you can loosen the jam nut, turn the adjustment screw inward until you feel a slight resistance, check that the steering goes through the full range of motion without binding, and retighten the jam nut. Might take a couple tries. I find this easier if the front tires are lifted off the ground as you can better feel the play (or binding) in the steering.
Bryan
1. Bad tires, including simple stuff like underinflated. Keep them at 28 to 30 psi.
2. Worn tie rod ends or ball joints, or the center link. You can check this yourself or have a shop look it over.
3. The steering box needs adjustment. There is an adjustment screw on top secured with a jam nut. Not the easiest thing to get to, but you can loosen the jam nut, turn the adjustment screw inward until you feel a slight resistance, check that the steering goes through the full range of motion without binding, and retighten the jam nut. Might take a couple tries. I find this easier if the front tires are lifted off the ground as you can better feel the play (or binding) in the steering.
Bryan