Pumping the clutch to start the car?

[hexagony]

I am going to see a '79 Spider 2000 tomorrow. The owner warned me that I would have to "pump the clutch to start the car, but that's normal for Fiats". It sounds crazy to me, I didn't have to do that on my '64 1500 (in 1970), and I couldn't find any references on various web searches. I have only seen the outside of the car, which looks beautiful so I want to drive it tomorrow, but I'm suspicious. Can I trust this owner?

[mgbgtn]

I could understand pumping the throttle to allow the choke to close for starting but not the clutch.

[SpecialTool]

Could be he has his pedals mixed up. A lot of people with cool "driver's car" type cars know nothing about them. I see it every day at work (Porsche dealership). Just sayin'...

[Martin124]

That is the strangest thing I've ever heard.

[spider2081]

I would pay close attention to the engine to frame ground wire on the drivers side of the car, near the steering box. If that ground breaks or is missing the ground gets made through the clutch cable. If this is the case eventually the clutch cable will fail.

[fiat218]

Some one wires are crossed,unless he hooked the clutch to the carb linkage lol
But that don't surprise me!
I read alot of stupid shit people do, even the things I do
Oh well

[spidernut]

I agree that his statement makes no sense at all. Pumping the clutch will do absolutely nothing.

There are others who would disagree with my assessment, but 79s are notoriously hard to start after sitting overnight due to a bleed-back problem with the fuel. The system often won't maintain fuel pressure to the carb even when the check valves in the fuel supply are working correctly. The result is that you have to crank the motor for a while to get the fuel pressure back up. Most people will pump the gas pedal which really doesn't solve the problem. You still have to crank it until the fuel pressure comes up so it will start. The easy fix is to retrofit an electric fuel pump to the car and dump the mechanical pump. The problem will no longer exist.

[leeputmanjr]

I agree that the engine ground should be checked! back in 2007 I had this symptom on my '83 from time to time, a much better enging ground solved it.