YoukaiMori wrote:Any suggestions? I might make a dedicated thread in the electrical section if I can't get it figured out.
Yes. I'm guessing that "belt driven thing" opposite the alternator is your smog pump, and it has a 1" hose that goes up to a valve at the top of the passenger side firewall. The smog pump is almost always inoperative or disconnected.
Yes, please do start a new thread in the electrical section. Meanwhile, inoperative turn signals and lights are almost always either a bad ground connection, a bad bulb, or blown fuse(s).
Woah, looks exactly like my 1978 when I started. Down to the fucked up seats and missing carpet.
Hang in there, it'll look like this soon enough. Took me two years, but I'm very happy with the results. Been driving it here, there and everywhere. In retrospect, the worst part was probably the interior. Or maybe the transmission removal and installation, that never got any easier even after the third time.
YoukaiMori wrote:Unrelated comment why can I suddenly not get the hood to latch?
Two common problems: 1) the latch hook and/or the latch mechanism needs adjustment, or 2) the cable for the release, or the release lever down in the footwell, is not returning to its rest position and so it's holding the latch mechanism open.
For the latter, try pushing the tab at the bottom of the latch mechanism all the way towards the passenger side, and then try to close the hood. That tab should be roughly straight up and down when fully released. If it's tilted towards the drivers side, something is binding.
18Fiatsandcounting wrote:Awesome work, Steiny! Put in some points/condenser and a few SAE threaded bolts here and there, and it will approach perfection.
Thanks!
You never fail to raise my blood pressure with your suggestions. BTW the exhaust manifold still leaks. Feel free to come over and helicoil the head. In situ of course
Very nice, not usually a fan of white cars but I think your spider pulls it off nicely.
Unrelated comment why can I suddenly not get the hood to latch? Ahhh every time I fix something I find something else! (Classic car syndrome)
Thanks! Yeah, white would not have been my choice, but the car was already that and I did not want to do the trunk, engine bay, door jams etc. It looks good, but it's high maintenance.
You need to 1) adjust the latch on the car and 2) Maybe add a spacer or two undereneath the latch on the hood. It takes a looong time of trial and error, but the hood should close easily when dropped from about 18 inches. And open with a nice little pop, not a bang. Pro tip: make sure you have a backup cable installed and ready to go when you mess with the hood latch! You do NOT want to be with a stuck hood on these cars. Always test the latch mechanism with the hood open before you close it when you make your adjustments. Also, the rubber stops play a big role in how (or if) the hood closes.
All lights except the front right headlight are now functional, and I'm pretty positive I just need to buy a replacement lamp for the headlight, might as well get a pair and update both of them to be a bit brighter.
Now I can focus on aesthetic repairs! I took some closer looks at the paint and where some dents had been "repaired" in the rear, and it looks like at the very least large spots have been repainted if not the entire thing. I'm thinking about sanding it all off and repainting it myself, or possibly taking it to a relative who does body work and paint and seeing if he'll do a pro job for cheap.
Well, to update, everything mechanical and electrical now works (That I actually have plugged in), things like the lighter and the courtesy light aren't plugged in because well... I wouldn't use them and I didn't want to risk them causing some other problem. Got the carb cleaned a tiny bit and tuned the idle to be a little less shaky.
Known issues:
1) When first starting it wants to pull to the right, twice in a row now I've had to pull to the side of the road because it's BAD but after pumping the brakes a couple times and getting back on the road the problem goes away. Sticking caliper? Collapsed hoses? I've got new hoses for the front brakes but haven't had the time and help to get them replaced and bled so they're just sitting in the trunk.
2) It's pretty shaky at low idle, shaky enough that there's an occasional "thump" sound while idling with the hood closed. Was worried it might be a rod knock but it's inconsistent and only at low idle RPM where the whole thing gets real shaky, it also doesn't really sound like a knock. Still something I'm wary of.
3) The pull to the left on brake is gone now... at least I haven't felt it the last few times I've taken her out, the brakes actually function pretty well possibly even better than my daily.
4) The big issue I'm having now! Poor acceleration and low power all around, this wasn't a problem until I changed the fuel filter and replaced the fuel hoses connecting to the carb as both hoses that connect there had very slight drips, and where they connect to the carb was very soft and worn looks like heat damage, new hoses have no leaks and the new filter should be doing fine.
It was a nice cool morning, something like 50 degrees and a very light drizzle so I took her down the road, it's all school zones on the route I took so never passed 25mph for most of it, but she felt like she struggled to even get up to that speed. It was only about 2 miles there, 2 miles back, it seemed like acceleration got a LITTLE better for the last half mile stretch but at the same time right before getting back to the house the fuel gauge light came on... with the needle still showing half a tank, and considering I've put 14 miles on it since I filled the tank.... Fuel pump issue? Clog maybe? I'm frustrated and PERFORMANCE stuff is where I get real worried about working on the car myself. It was doing so well right after I got it all working! Ahhh!
Somebody suggested dumping a can of sea foam into the tank to see if it helps so I might try that.
Youkai, I think these issues are all unrelated, and here are a few thoughts:
1. Performance. Try advancing the ignition timing a few degrees and see if this helps. If you are having trouble accelerating to 25 mph, something is definitely wrong. With a "normal" running spider, you should be able to lay a pretty good patch of rubber if you're good with the clutch.
2. Brakes. It sounds like this might be OK now, but my first suggestion is to bleed the brakes if you haven't already. If that part is OK, then yes, it could be sticking pistons or collapsed brake lines, usually the front ones.
3. Gas gauge/light. The sensors for these do go bad with time, so that might be the issue. The sensors for both are a single unit (into the gas tank) that you can buy replacements for. It's not a fuel pump or clog issue.
4. Seafoam does actually work, but mainly in cleaning out combustion chambers. For carbureted cars, I doubt it will help much, but it can't hurt.
5. The '78s had a dual point ignition setup. One set of points for starting and warming the engine, and one set for normal running. Are both of your OK, in terms of the dwell and timing for each? Some people tune to one set of points, but then forget about the other set.
A question: If you start the engine and open the hood and work the throttle by hand, what do you hear? When you open the the throttle, you should hear a slurping sound in the carb followed by a deep sucking sound from the engine and then a rapid increase in engine speed. Does it seem to falter, or hesitate?
1) Haven't gotten around to messing with this, not really having "trouble" getting up to 25 now it's more just sluggish, revs high but accelerates slow at the same time. Seems like it really only has issues with the high revving in 1st and 2nd, once I'm in 3rd it actually accelerates/revs at about exactly what I'd expect. Still slow, but for comparison pulling onto the main road out of my place is a 35MPH zone, so going from a stop to 15 takes a couple seconds and hits 5k RPM, 2nd gear also shoots to about 5k RPM just trying to get up to 25, but I put it into 3rd and it all smooths out. Never had this experience with anything so it's hard to explain honestly.
2) I still get the slight pulling to the right when I first start driving but it goes away shortly and it MIGHT be fixed by pumping the brakes a few times, but yeah I haven't gotten that pull to the left on brake that I first got in the past few drives.
3) Yeah seems to be a bad sensor, filled the tank and it still had 3 gallons left in it. (Gauge said half, but I knew that wasn't right to begin with since it originally said full when the tank had almost nothing in it). This one's not that big of a deal to me, very low on my fixing priority, but noted.
4) I dumped two cans in, let it idle for a while and started to get some white exhaust smoke after it seems to have worked its way in, was told this is probably just it burning off whatever it's getting cleaned out. Weird thing is, this was the ONLY THING I did on that day, and the next day it started to idle at 2,000 RPM... Adjusting idle speed and idle mixture screws have not brought it down, thinking it could be unrelated and I might have nudged the throttle linkage and it's just sticking or something.
5) I uh... I hate to admit it I have no idea about this. I'll read up on dual point ignition and see what I can do about this.
As for your question. With the hood up and pressing the pedal from the driver's seat I hear sort of a "hissing", not sure I would classify it as a slurping, but it kind of goes like this... Press pedal, hear the "hissing", then after a small delay get the rev increase. I'm not ENTIRELY sure if this is hesitation, as this is the first carburetor I have experience with. I'm not really sure if I get the "sucking" sound you mentioned. It's been raining off and on the past few days so I haven't been doing much under the hood, but next time I do I'll try listening harder.
It sounds like you have an air leak in the intake system. That would cause poor performance, a high idle, and a hissing sound. The challenge now is to track down where the leak is, and then fix it. Could be a disconnected fitting, bad vacuum hose, brake booster is shot, leaking intake manifold gasket, or leaking carb gasket. See if you can track down where it's coming from.
As for the car pulling to the right but getting better as you drive, that is likely a sticking brake caliper on the right side. I can't remember, but have you rebuilt the brake calipers or put new ones in? With a car this old, it's definitely time if it hasn't been done. Sometimes the brake pulling is caused by the friction points where the front calipers are held in the caliper yoke (stuck when they should slide freely), so that's one area to check as well.
-Bryan
PS: Fiat gas tank sensors can be highly accurate, but most are not. I just get used to translating what the gauge says to how much gas I actually have left.
Well I went through and replaced all the vacuum caps that were on it, they were all pretty worn and a few of them just tore in half when tugging gently, I think the high revving on that last drive was caused by the throttle cable rubbing against some EGR tube and "sticking". But the new caps seem to have helped even things out and improved some feel and performance.
Doesn't seem to want to stall the second the clutch engages now, and I don't have to rev it nearly as high to avoid it. Was able to take off smoothly at just 1500RPM as opposed to having to take it to 2000-2500 just to not nearly stall. Even sounds slightly quieter, and after a little tuning by ear again it's also idling smoother and starting a little easier but I'm no expert so I'm sure it could get better with a proper tune.
There was ONE port that wasn't capped to begin with, on the left side of this picture. Should I cap it off?
As for brake calipers, going off of receipts from previous owners there were new calipers installed by a mechanic all around in 2016. It sat from 2018 or 2019 until two months ago, so maybe they need replaced again but they seem to stop the car just fine.
YoukaiMori wrote:There was ONE port that wasn't capped to begin with, on the left side of this picture. Should I cap it off?
This looks like the carb bowl vent fitting, and yes, you can leave it disconnected unless you need to pass an emissions test. This fitting captures the small amount of fuel that slowly evaporates from the float bowl, rather than releasing it to the atmosphere.
As for the brakes, run the car for a while and see how it behaves, and then we can revisit the brakes as necessary.
