76 Fiat Electrical Disaster

[Hawke187]

Well it look like I will be parting out my unfinished 76 Spider...

I was chasing a intermittent short in the wiring harness behind the inst cluster and the worst case happened, the harness went up in flames....

Luckly I was able to disconnect the battery before secondary dameage happened but the harness is toast...

But there is an upside to this, I found a 78 124 Spider in great shape, no body rot and runs great for less than the expected tab on just getting the 76's body to decent shape, so I bought the 78...

Now I have quite a bit of spare, now unneeded body parts that I did not install.

But here are a few questions that I hope someone can help with:

1) i want to keep the 76 gauge cluster, it has the deep set gauges and an oil pressure gauge, as I have not yet dug into the gauges on the 78 are they direct swap or will i need to do some rewiring? I know the 78 has the oil idiot light in the tac , so something has to change, Anyone done this before?

2) I was looking over the intake and carb set up on both the 76 and the 78 and was thinking of keeping the 76 set up, it seems much simpler, but which one is best?

3) The 78 will need a new dash cap, exactly how easy is it to do, I have not had the pleasure of doing one....Yet.

4) the coolant line set up on the 76 looks much more user friendly than on the 78, again would this be advisable or is there critical differances.

5) Getting tired of my questions yet? Anyway, the 2nd gear syncro is toast on the 78 , but the 76 tranny is perfect, any differances, easy swap?

And last, If any one is in need of some parts ( the ones I will not be using) I will probably be parting her out or selling her off so just let me know what you may need and I am sure we can work something out, I always feel it is best to offer parts to those who can help me out first, but then there is always Ebay...


Hawke

[brad131a4]

Tranny will bolt right in no problem. I would think that the idiot light might use the same pressure switch as the gauge but I could be wrong. I would think that you could retro the pressure switch for the gauge but you'd have to probably add wire for the gauge. Haven't done a dash cap so I don't know about that.I would go with simpler is better on a fiat application as far as the carb problem go's. Good luck.

[racydave]

AM IN NEED OF INTAKE, CARB, COMBO. THANKS Dave

[Hawke187]

Sorry Dave I am going to keep most of the engine and trans so that I can build a performance motor. Plus a close friend has a 79 and he wants the intake carbs as well....
I will list the "spare" parts that I have in the parts section as I go.
Main thing I need /want to get rid of now is the "spare" body parts that are taking up tons of room in the garage.

[jacksplace]

Hawke:

I recently did the dash cap. It's important to have everything ready when you actually start. Chefs use the term "mis en place". I'd advise a couple of bricks, plenty of newspaper to crumple, an extra tube of silicone (just in case) and all the things recommended by the manufacturer. Make certain that you have a helper and also that you and the helper fit the cap a couple times first so that you know just how to do it. I had to lower the steering wheel and column. Understand that once you apply the silicone that you should be committed to fitting the cap and letting it stand for maybe 24 hours. Mine came out great (except that now my speedo jumps which means that I'll need to take out the instrument cluster again). Good luck.

[ICF]

Since the car was not finished to start with, why not find a wiring harness on eBay and swap out the burned one?

Since '76s were carburated they are a little easier than FI cars. Having done it, I can assure you it just isn't that hard.

-Jerry
'76 Fiat 124 Spider with FI (At the time it was rewired FI was added).

north Texas

[bandit]

Hi RacyDave

I have a manifold and carb off a 76 if your interested ???


Dan

[Mad-Machine]

ok... answers.

The 78 and 76 should both be CS1s.. later 78s are a mishmash of CS1 and CS2.

1: Guages should fit right over.. but you may need to grab the OTHER sender on the filter housing to make it work. One to run the idiot light and one to run the gage. You may also need to try and salvage that part of the harness.

FYI.. fiat stopped using an oilpressure gage because americans kept bringing the cars back to the dealer for "low oil pressure" when they were perfectly fine.. out cars just run lower than your typical chevy engine.

2: The 76 carb setup is the "hot setup" for later carbed cars.. it has the largest thoats and the best manifold out of the emissions controlled cars.

3: I do not know about the dash caps.. but I can tell you what they look like when they go wrong. My 77 had a dash cap installed wrong. When they say to only glue the edges, they mean it. The PO of my car glued EVERYTHING.. which made the dash under it warp so badly it popped the cap right off... I will someday take pics.. but the edge of the dash where it meets the windsheild looks like a wave cresting due to all the warpage.

4: Not sure on the coolant lines. Fiat seems to have flip and flopped and flipped again when it came to running them. Some models have the external t-stat.. others have the internal. Personally, I like the external even if it is more expensive.

5: As mentioned above.. direct swap.. have fun! You might want to either rebuild the trans out of your 78 first before dropping it in to your new 76... or just save the old one incase the "new" one dies too.

[bandit]

The 74 is the best manifold from a performance point of view .

Dan

[Mad-Machine]

true enough on the 74.. but they are rare and not really part of the "emissions controls" that the later cars were. If you can find a 74 manifold.. BUY IT!