Bad Day/Good Day

[spidernut]

Sometimes it seems you just can't win. Other times, it seems like you always win. Case in point:

1. Took the 79 Spider in for its emissions test. At idle, it was "perfect" said the technician everything operating just as it should. Here in the People's Republic of California, they also test the car on a dyno at 35 mph. At that speed, it ran too rich...apparently WAY too rich. The local Fiat mechanic took a look at it...tinkered a bit and it appears it isn't a quick fix. Driving down the road to get my other car so I could leave the Spider to be worked on, my wife followed me and noticed a white puff of smoke every time I accelerated (not accelerating hard, just speeding up). Now the Spider sits at the shop to diagnose the problem and get smogged. How many miles driven since the last test? How about less than 200.

2. I came home and worked on the 80 Spider I bought to relieve some stress. It had an electrical gremlin and some wiring under the hood that needed to be returned back to the factory design. Sooooo, I start at the tailights where the problem lies (I should have taken pictures of them for a good laugh on the forum), checked the circuit boards, cleaned up the wiring, spliced the wires back the way they were made at the factory, and worked my way as far forward in the circuit as you can go to the front turn signal and voila!...the wrong lightbulb in the socket! It had a single tipped socket instead of the two-tipped socket on the lightbulb. I replaced the bulb and I now have properly functioning lights - all wired as they were meant to be and all working as designed! I got under the hood, figured out the mess there, pulled out the hack job for the windshield washers and assessed the homemade fan relay (that works properly but looks ugly under the hood). I'll find a stock relay and fan wiring harness and replace it too.

3. I then started working on a custom idea I had for the dash since the dashboard is a warped mess of black vinyl. I almost have a Nissan cup holder built in just below the warning lights in the center of the dash. If I can make it work, I'll post pictures. So far, so good.

[DUCeditor]

Ah, the joys of having classic cars!

I remember when I too lived in a People's Republic (I've since fled!) - in my case The People's Republic
of Massachusetts. How I dreaded that idiot test.

I too just went through the non-functioning tail lite thing. In my car it was a fairly new bulb in which the glass had
separated from the metal base. Once the problem was clear the fix was easy, but until it was clear..

Still, life is good!

-don

[So Cal Mark]

even though it may have only been 200 miles since your last smog check, the standards have been tightened several times over the last two years. Cars that sailed through, now fail. The standards now are much stricter than these cars were ever designed for. It takes some creative jetting to get through the test these days

[Tobi]

Why don't they have different standards on classic cars and go after the people that have there cars idling in front of stores while they are shopping?

[baltobernie]

That'd be too easy. That's why all the gearheads in CA are constantly fighting smog legislation for pre-1975 vehicles. Once the government gets their foot in the door ...

[kmac33]

It's posts like this that make me thankful to live in a state that exempts vehicles older than 75 from emissions testing. And for the older cars, they just have to meet the requirements that were in place the year they were manufactured.

[spidernut]

On my 79, the mechanic found several T connections in the vacuum lines going to one of the many gazillion vacuum valves (I forgot which one). $10 in parts, $180 in diagnostics and labor, $50 smog test, $25 pre-test, smog certificate fee, California state sales tax on parts, etc., and it has its biennial smog inspection completed. The emissions numbers now look fantastic. Even the mechanic was impressed. It is WAY below the average output. With 40,000 original miles it runs very clean now that the T connections are fixed.

While at the shop, numerous people asked if my car was for sale. There was a great deal of interest. I should have put a for sale sign on it since it is for sale. I guess it was a missed opportunity. The mechanic said it is one of the cleanest he's seen in a long time. Made me feel good!

Now I need to find and fix the two oil leaks or sell it to someone who wouldn't mind fixing the leaks themselves. It looks like it might be the cam box at the top and one of the lower seals in the front of the motor. Given everything on the motor is original since 1979, it is no surprise that they're leaking. It is probably time for new gaskets and seals all around.

[fiat218]

what do u do when u have a older car without all the smog stuff on the car

[spidernut]

All original emissions equipment must be present or it will fail even if the car was legally registered without the emissions equipment in another state. One of my clients had several thousand dollars in modifications to his Chevy pickup from Alaska. He tried to register in California and they said they couldn't until everything was reinstalled. Of course, all those parts were long gone. I recall he drove the truck back to Alaska to sell it.