My Fiat experience thus far.. (pictures)

[Fonz]

Well it has been almost a month with my spider 2000 and I am loving it. I recently restored the interior with success and the car has been out of commission for two weeks. I go to start It and its a no go.. I figure its a typical problem, you let a car sit for to long and the battery will die on you. I jump start the car and let it sit in idle for a while with a rev here and there. I notice the fuel is low so I take her out for a spin, might as well recharge the battery while I'm at it. When I get back and shut off the engine It doesn't start back up! Is this a common problem? Im taking the battery in for a "checkup" on tuesday.

I keep hitting little road blocks (expected when dealing with a foreign car) and I cant find the answers when I search. Can someone guide me towards the right Threads? I'm usually pretty good when it comes to research. Where is the fiat spider guru in San Diego CA?

Here are my speed bumps, I would hate to start a thread for every single one of these Issues I cant find the answer to:

-Battery wont charge? is it my alternator?
-Fuse/wiring diagram? What goes to what?
-I removed the rear bumper but am left with the two pipes, how do those come off? (legality of that in CA?)

[mbouse]

remembering that this forum is primarily attended by folks from all across north america and australia (not just california), many of us haven't a clue or a care about what is legal in california. however, there are sufficient folks living there that have the experience you desire.

secondly, remembering that you are restoring a +/- 30 year old car, and one that has been neglected for quite some time. you will find most systems on your car have aged and have failed or soon will fail. electrical issues are one of the primary things that you will have issues with for a while; the charging system is just one of those.

you are gonna be very unsuccessful at restoring electrical circuits without a volt meter. Get one now. even a cheap one is better than none at all. make sure it is rated to read at least 20 volts DC. a multi meter is better, if you know how to use it, and most volt meters are sold as multi meters. $20 at Radio Shack should do it.

does the indicator light for the alternator come on when you turn the key? does it go off at any time while the key is on and the engine is running? find a good alternator/starter rebuild shop and take your alternator there to have it tested. of course, this is after you have assured yourself that the v-belt is tight and turning, and you do not get a good reading from the alternator with your volt meter while the engine is running.

of course have the battery tested as well. have you put a volt meter across the terminals while the engine is running? what was your reading? taking the battery to Autozone will guaruntee that it will read bad. they are, after all, in the business to sell needless car parts to the unsuspecting masses. but, you must disprove that your battery is bad in order to diagnose your charging system woes. try a battery from your other car first. have you attempted to hook a charger up to the battery for a few days, and not relied on the car to charge the battery? if so, what were the results?

http://www.artigue.com is a great place to look for wiring diagrams that you can download.

what does not go to what, what goes to which

of course, spending some time finding all the various grounding points and cleaning and tightening those connections is an excellent way to spend a sunny saturday afternoon. great bonding time between you and your Spider, and essential if you ever want to chase the electrical gremlins from your car. Adding a second grounding strap is another well taken piece of advice for anyone with electrical issues in their car.

practically speaking, those two bumper shocks are held in with ONE bolt each. removal of the passenger side is as simple as pulling out the spare tire and removing the bolt (17mm wrench, i think)...giving the bumper shock a firm tug outward. the driver side is not quite as simple, as the fuel tank must be pulled out of the way first. many of us have done this for the front and rear..

[rlux4]

It would be a help if you remind us what year your car is (if it's an 80, is it carb'd or FI). The FI models will have a whole different set of non start diagnostics than the carb'd.
Ron

[katsi]

One month and you have already restored the interior and have had fun driving her arround. Count yourself WAY ahead of the curve. As for the electrical, definatly download the link M Bouse sent you. You can print it out on any size paper and it does not distort. I printed mine out on 11 x 17 so I can follow and read everything better. If you keep the car, you will get to know these diagrams almost by heart - - no really, you will.

As for the starter and the battery, I found that my fan was just "Turning on" and running the battery dead. I too thought it was just from sitting. But, if the battery is good, two or 3 weeks should not kill it. Again, take mbouse's advice on this. You probably have a short somewhere draining the battery- or two - or three

Finally, does your starter click or buzz when you try to start it? Could be a bad connection to the starter.

Good luck, have fun and keep us posted.

[PittsburghKevin]

Wow. We got our cars about the same time! I am jealous, I thought mine would be easy going.

But...

My fixes so far.

• Wiring (various lights and ungrounded stuff)
  Gas lines (bumped them with my foot...smelled gas)
  Floor Pan (didn't look rusty under that black rubber)
  Driver's Door (articulated door, cool!)
  Driver's Seat (limbo to the right)

What did you do to fix the interior? I need to do that, after ripping mine out. Did you go with Lowes / Home Depot?

[Fonz]

wow what great feedback! I am in the middle of classes at the moment so I don't have time for an extended response, I just wanted to thank you guys for the prompt posting. mbause the electrical diagram is just what I needed to solve a few wiring mix-ups. As far as my schedule goes I want to get it up to par as soon as I can because it will be daily driven (yes I know the sacrifices that come with that) Dynamat took two days for 36', which completely covered the cockpit. The two days before that were for sandblasting and a coat or rustolium (for the interior). The carpeting was finished recently and now I am looking in to either finding new driver and passenger seats, getting them reupholstered or possibly painting them (I hope not). The reason for this is because the tan color on the seats does not match the tan color of the rest of the interior (it is very noticeable).
Mbouse I know the forum is world wide. I was expecting for a possible guru in my region to respond. I have my reservations about removing the gas tank, sounds like something for this weekend. I lost my volt meter when I moved to my new home about a year ago, ill have to pick one up some time soon.
Rlux It is a 1980 FI Spider 2000,

well I will get back in to more in-depth responses when I get home. Thanks again guys.

[kmead]

... I figure its a typical problem, you let a car sit for to long and the battery will die on you. I jump start the car and let it sit in idle for a while with a rev here and there. When I get back and shut off the engine It doesn't start back up! Is this a common problem? Im taking the battery in for a "checkup" on tuesday.

So when you say it won't start back up, what does it do, exactly? Does the starter turn, does it just click or is it just nothing? Do the idiot lights come on when you have the key in the Start position? Do they go out when the car starts? How old is the battery? Will it start if you roll the car to "bump" start it when you pop the clutch? Getting good base data helps us divine what the problem is.

I keep hitting little road blocks (expected when dealing with a foreign car) and I cant find the answers when I search. Can someone guide me towards the right Threads? I'm usually pretty good when it comes to research. Where is the fiat spider guru in San Diego CA?

Here are my speed bumps, I would hate to start a thread for every single one of these Issues I cant find the answer to:

These are the problems of an average old car, whether it is foreign or not. However given that it is a Fiat and electrical items can be a bit finicky, you might be right in blaming it on being a foreign car issue.

It is ok to start a new thread, your "new" problem is likely someone else's new problem. If its not a new problem few of us are going to chastise you for failing to do a search, this is not the Car Lounge. Searching can be an art, being an art sometimes its more successful than others.

-Battery wont charge? is it my alternator?

This could be the alternator, or the regulator or even a failure of the grounding circuit (depending on your spider's year) related to the charge light (some use the ground of the idiot light to complete the charge excitation). It could also be something as simple as a loose connection at the alternator or a bad ground from the engine to the body.

-Fuse/wiring diagram? What goes to what?

I would definitely buy a manual (several different ones so you can have a variety of manuals that cover different areas differently the factory manual can be downloaded and the Haynes and Motorbook ones are on Ebay all the time). As others have posted up, there is a plethora of information available you just need to find it here and on Google.

-I removed the rear bumper but am left with the two pipes, how do those come off? (legality of that in CA?)

California doesn't have a vehicle inspection system for the mechanical aspects and given that your car's basic bodywork goes back to 1967 when bumpers were tinfoil, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I would remove the rear bumper shocks. The fuel tank is pretty easy to remove on these cars, just make sure its nearly empty, lifting 10 gallons of gas is no fun.

It sounds like you are making great progress, it can and will be frustrating but it is rewarding. A thing to remember about these cars is that though they were pretty unusual for the time they were introduced the march of time has made them rather simple compared to what is at every dealer around. Mostly its simple mechanics and dogged stick to-itedness to solve some remarkably simple problem whose solution is mired in 30 years of use, disuse and neglect.

Keep up the good work and don't stop asking questions, the only stupid question is the one you didn't ask.

[Fonz]

I was driving the spider for a good week before it sat in the garage. When it doesn't start it makes the clicking noise,just like when your battery dies.
here are some pictures of the progress. I wish I had a picture of the interior before the renovation, but all I have to say about that is that it was disgusting...

interior stripping, sand blast, rustolium, dynamat and carpeting, its is done but I dont have up to date pictures. I also moved the radio in to the glove box while I was at it.

[narfire]

Wow,that looks great. You did this while going to school? I'm impressed!!! Glad to see you have the prioities in the right order ,you'll have many years of happy fiat ownership
Well done

Chris

[htchevyii]

lookin good ! nice job.

[deftone]

that interior is looking nice!! I really need to get mine started

[Fonz]

well autozone said it was a bad battery, go figure (odd because it looks new). I know a buddy who I can borrow a good battery from.

[katsi]

Check the connection to the starter. If you can reach it

[Fonz]

Check the connection to the starter. If you can reach it

its not the connection because the car runs every time... I just have to jump start it

[htchevyii]

The connection(s) can have enough resistance that it can start when jumped, but not on the battery alone. My dad fought a random no-start condition on his '69 Nova, it turned out that the new, (heavy duty, premium) battery cable that I put on had a poor crimp that didn't always make a good connection. Of course, every time you tried to troubleshoot it, it worked fine!