First drive of the season: Mar. 31, and first "no go"

[cyborg7]

Ta for that Phaetn. I'm probably biased but I can't get enough of sound that the 1800 makes. I've only had mine a year to date this month, but think I got lucky as I really had no idea what I was buying and bought the 1st one in decent nick that came along. But not only has it got the 1800 engine but it's got a 34ADF carb on it and everything emission-wise and cat has been stripped off so similar sounding. I just need to get hold of a dash cam now to capture it for posterity!

[autotransgression]

phaetn:

a few things...first, you just made me feel WAY better about putting in corbeau harnesses. in fact, you and your young daughter driving with them on completely made my day. my daughter is the primary reason i got them, as i just mentioned on my introduction thread.

next, which corbeau seats are those? how do they fit? ONLY as a stop-gap measure, i got some absolute garbage (but very comfy) chinese-made seats via ebay. NRG is the brand, but i am sure the same ones have any number of logos stitched into them. i justified them as a temporary fix to a sadly-broken stock driver's seat. if you looked down from above, the driver's headrest must have been at like a thirty degree angle to the passenger's one. it was pretty horrible. these i have are crap, but i think they must be at least incrementally safer than what was in there. i am pretty sold on corbeau for quality and price, and would love any feedback you have on yours and their fitment.

finally, to address your OP: within a couple weeks of getting my spider this past winter, the brand-new battery died, which made me suspect the alternator. here in seattle, we have a great british and italian garage called autosport. a guy i know there told me (counter to lies i received in the past) that an alt will rarely develop any kind of internal problem that requires a full replacement other than a very noisy, obvious failure of bearings. the afternoon i spoke with him about it, he got in a regulator module for me. i was previously unaware that there was such a module on a bosch (hopefully yours is the same brand; i can't speak for any others...), but for $35 and seriously 90 seconds of 'work', i was back up and running (and charging). the regulator is the brush carrier, and my old brushes were very badly worn. if it does turn out to be a charging problem and not a battery problem i hope this can help.

[phaetn]

phaetn:

a few things...first, you just made me feel WAY better about putting in corbeau harnesses. in fact, you and your young daughter driving with them on completely made my day. my daughter is the primary reason i got them, as i just mentioned on my introduction thread.

next, which corbeau seats are those? how do they fit? ONLY as a stop-gap measure, i got some absolute garbage (but very comfy) chinese-made seats via ebay. NRG is the brand, but i am sure the same ones have any number of logos stitched into them. i justified them as a temporary fix to a sadly-broken stock driver's seat. if you looked down from above, the driver's headrest must have been at like a thirty degree angle to the passenger's one. it was pretty horrible. these i have are crap, but i think they must be at least incrementally safer than what was in there. i am pretty sold on corbeau for quality and price, and would love any feedback you have on yours and their fitment.

finally, to address your OP: within a couple weeks of getting my spider this past winter, the brand-new battery died, which made me suspect the alternator. here in seattle, we have a great british and italian garage called autosport. a guy i know there told me (counter to lies i received in the past) that an alt will rarely develop any kind of internal problem that requires a full replacement other than a very noisy, obvious failure of bearings. the afternoon i spoke with him about it, he got in a regulator module for me. i was previously unaware that there was such a module on a bosch (hopefully yours is the same brand; i can't speak for any others...), but for $35 and seriously 90 seconds of 'work', i was back up and running (and charging). the regulator is the brush carrier, and my old brushes were very badly worn. if it does turn out to be a charging problem and not a battery problem i hope this can help.

Great info, thanks!

From my previous experience with vintage bikes, a regulator was a way to ensure a certain voltage/amps. It would dump any excess voltage/amps to ground and was often a stand-alone metal unit. I thought brushes were part of the alternator itself and how it generated current. On Fiats are the two combined? I'll have to look into the manuals to dig around and see what they say. Thanks for the tip, though!

The seats are called Corbeau Clubmans. They are quite economical, about $600 for the pair, with free shipping for two from most vendors. They fit, but their backs are not adjustable and can be a tight squeeze. I'm 180 lbs with a 33" waist so its comfortable enough for me, but probably not for anyone much bigger. They sit a tiny bit higher than the original seats, and this is after a custom made steel bracket (see this post and make sure to read to the end), rather than the Corbeau sliding brackets which would probably make the seats considerably taller.

Hope this helps and enjoy the car!!

Cheers,
phaetn

[autotransgression]

cool. thanks. the clubmans are the ones i have been planning on. the classic bucket is pretty cool, but i would rather have cloth than vinyl, and leather is way too much.

yeah, i was surprised about the regulator/brush combo. i was of course delighted that i could get off so cheap, instead of getting a new alternator, although only a few months later i decided to get one anyway. girlfriend and i drove down to portland for my birthday, and it was ALL RAIN, ALL THE TIME. horrifying time on i-5. i decided quickly that brighter lights and faster wiper speed were necessary, and i have not been let down. the alt was a bit of a pain to get in, but not bad. my one remaining issue is that the lower yoke-style mount does not allow adjustment to the short end of the slot above, so i couldn't use a 1" shorter belt. the pulley size is just enough smaller that it is now within about 1/4" from the outer limit on the slot.