she drives!!

[trippbannister]

my lady and i took our maiden voyage tonight! what a thrill!! first time on the road. i have 45 day temp tags to take care of all remaining issues necessary for tough dc inspection laws. but man it was just fun to be out driving after seeing the spider in the driveway for 8 months.

couple issues came up though, some may be serious

1 - the transmission makes an awful grinding noise. it's never been super quiet, but after driving around for an hour tonight it's considerably worse. not sure what i'm going to do here...

2 - brakes still aren't what they should be. i think i'm going to have to break down and buy some rear calipers. haha brake down..no pun intended

3 - couple of misc. electrical issues - battery has a slow drain and i caught the brake lights not working a couple times.

4 - it's building some HEAT in the leg area. i've read that these cars put out some heat, but it was pouring up through the trans tunnel and engulfing my legs. of course i was nervous about being on the road, too, which didn't help.

5 - the worst part in my situation - it's pouring out some thick smoke. it's not constant, but every once in a while at a stop light or when i start her up i'll look around and i'm in a cloud. there's a weber 32/36 and no other emission controls that i have noticed (no cat. converter). any ideas on this? it's going to be my toughest inspection hurdle in dc i think...


i guess that's more issues that i thought. this was meant to just be a post to report how happy i am to actually be driving. so much fun!! i guess i have some kinks to work out over the next month, but this was a big step today. woohoo! i am a happy guy.

tripp

[rlux4]

All right Tripp!!! Have you checked the gear oil in the tranny and rear end yet? Regular gear oil in the differential, but check out the discussions on tranny lubricants that come up frequently on the forum.
I'm just giving you an atta-boy now, I'll ponder your issues and see if I can give you any helpful input later.
Ron

[bradartigue]

On the issues -

1) Change the fluid and adjust the clutch.

2A) Auto Zone sells rebuilt calipers for next to nothing and they are usually OE FIAT calipers. Also make sure you replace the rubber grommets on the rear brake compensator control arm - about $5.00 a set I think, check with Bayless (I don't know who else sells them). Without the grommets the rear brakes don't work correctly anyway.

2B) If you are replacing the calipers then replace the Master Cylinder as well and the brakes lines if necessary. Cheap insurance and a good time to it all.

3) Brake lights not working is a bad thing; the activation switch under the dash is likely bad.

4) If the transmission does not have the inner (rubber) boot under the leather boot then you can cook yourself. I find the 2000 Spiders produce the most heat in this sense.

5) Black or white smoke? Black smoke means you are running too rich. White smoke means you are burning oil. The former is cheap, just adjust or rejet the carb. The latter could be several things, head gasket, valve seals, bad rings... It has nothing to do with the lack of a catalytic converter or other emission systems; FIATs burn clean when properly tuned even without all of this junk.

[perthling]

Re #2A above: if you can't find the grommets for the compensator linkage, fuel hose with a bit of grease makes a fair sustitute and will take the slack out of the linkage.

Concur on the brake overhaul - that's one system you don't want failing (Just ask Mr Seinfeld...). I think a complete overhaul of my system including rebuilt calipers, new hoses, replacement master cylinder etc plus new pads was less than USD$400 (plus my labour).

[trippbannister]

thanks for the the words of wisdom, guys.

i haven't checked the oil in the diff yet. it's on my list. i replaced the transmission oil when i had it out for the clutch, but unfortunately it was before i read the past posts about what the correct oil is, so right now the oil that's in it is regular autozone gear oil (bad bad, i know...would this really be the reason for the noises? it's been maybe 10 miles since i swapped the oil)

the smoke from the exhaust is black. i never found adjusting/rejetting carbs to be easy, but i just bought the haynes weber book, so i'll see what i can do and if this helps the problem.

i know i owe the brakes some more work, however, there are new calipers in the front along with a new master cylinder. i ended up bypassing the compensator valve because it was stuck open anyway and giving me a headache. i'll pick up some rear calipers and probably replace the hard lines at some point.

good call on the rubber boot - i was wondering where that mangled piece of rubber came from (it that was sitting on the floor when i bought it). i'll have to pick one up from somewhere - i think i threw the old one out.

the brake lights work, for the most part. the switch is ok. what gives me problems (on more than just the brakes) is the fuse box. seems like every time i take it down to repair or clean a connection i reinstall it and something else doesn't work. usually it's a case of wiggling wires to get it back, but i guess i'll have to address the unit as a whole at some point.


thanks again for the helpful comments.

[baltobernie]

Hi Tripp,

Great time to be outside in a Spider, eh? I was on the B/W Pkwy yesterday in my Dodge sedan, and it just broke my heart with everything in bloom and Gina in the garage waiting on parts. Maybe this weekend ...

When you drained the transmission the first time, what did the fluid look like?

re: electrical issues, I'm sure you've heard by now that the first place to start troubleshooting is faulty ground.

Good luck, and I hope to see you on the road shortly! April 27 is all-Italian car tour from Haymarket to Sterling, see DCFiats.org. I won't be ready, but you might be.

[trippbannister]

Bernie,

I met with the DCFiat crowd a month back - I hope to make some other events this summer. Maybe even on the 27th.

The trans fluid was pretty dirty when i took it out. But I was guessing that 30 years would do that. There were no metal shavings, but like I said, very sludgy.

Tripp

[ga.spyder]

I dont think the wrong gear oil will create a problem ,except in the long term.The standard gear oil is not compatible w/ the brass parts in the tranny.You should switch over soon ,but better to diagnose the noise first.You might be draining it ,and pulling the tranny soon anyway.
good luck ,Craig

[bradartigue]

i never found adjusting/rejetting carbs to be easy, but i just bought the haynes weber book, so i'll see what i can do and if this helps the problem.

It is likely just the idle jet, which is on the outside of the carb, and very easy to replace. Pull it out and subtract 5 from it (50 down to 45) and you'll probably fix the problem. You'll have to readjust the mix but that's easy as well.