How well is the car cranking over? If it is very slow, you still could look to your battery, check voltage while someone is cranking it over. 11.5 volts static is a little low, and if it drops way down while trying to crank then it could be battery.

So I checked a couple of things and I hope I have found the problem.

I unplugged the wire going from the coil to the distributor and checked for a spark but it wouldn't spark on any metal surface. I also opened up my distributor and everything seemed to be OK. So it sounds like it has to be the coil, right? Or is there any other mechanism between the battery and the coil which might be causing the problem?

Try pulling a spark plug, with the wire remaining attached, and grounding the side of the spark plug to the head and repeat the test and see if there is a spark.

So I tried checking several times for sparks, but with no success. I don't get a spark at the wire from the ignition coil to the distributor. So I think I am going to replace my ignition coil and module. My local autozone sells an ignition coil for the 1981 fiat spider for $11 and ignition module for $25. I must say I was surprised that they even had it. I suppose though different car makes use the same ignition coil and module. I hope it works with new parts.

So I replaced the ignition coil and module and tried to turn the car on. The engine would choke once and then all the electricity in the car would leave. This happened several times. So I had someone stand behind the car while I crank it and read me the voltage. Before I would try to crank it my battery would be at 11.8v but while I was cranking it, itwould go down to 11.3v. Is this too low and so could be the problem?

dbr wrote:So I tried checking several times for sparks, but with no success. I don't get a spark at the wire from the ignition coil to the distributor. So I think I am going to replace my ignition coil and module. My local autozone sells an ignition coil for the 1981 fiat spider for $11 and ignition module for $25. I must say I was surprised that they even had it. I suppose though different car makes use the same ignition coil and module. I hope it works with new parts.

Not sure this will work. Go back and do like roller said, remove spark plug one at a time. Have person crank car while you hold plug against engine block or head, but be careful. If you have bad wires you could get shocked real bad. Also be careful of igniting any residual fuel that may be on your engine.
I would wear thick rubber gloves and maybe hold plug against engine with rubber handle plyers.
Can you borrow a known good battery from someone?

Make sure the metal body of the spark plug is in good contact with the engine block. Do 'em one at a time, crank it over and you should clearly see if/where the spark problem lies.

Pete

I took my battery down to Autozone for a free check. They found out that it only had 15% battery power, so they charged it for me. When I returned to pick it up they double checked the battery and found out that it wasn't holding the charge. So I had to buy an new one. I hope it was worth what I payed for it. I then tried starting my fiat with the new battery and it worked like a charm! Whew! The only thing is that when I take the key out the car beeps three times. I don't know why the beeper would go off. The battery light is no longer on and neither is the oil light. Why it would beep when I turn off the car and not when I turn it on is beyond me. Anyone have any clues?

I took out one of the spark plugs and it looked alright but wouldn't spark. I now realize that was because of a bad battery.

cool!

awesome ..congratulations ... been following along and glad that things are progressing ... I too am curious about the beeping ... might want to try and find out that answer to that question ... mine has never made a noise as long as I have owned it ... but usually when a car beeps at me it is trying to tell me something ... whatever that something is may be the cause of your dead battery .... remember the first part of your post before you talked about the fuel lines ... that red light was trying to tell you something also

So I have just found something else rather curious about my fiat. Besides that it beeps three times when I turn the car off everytime I switch on the main head lights while the car is running the engine turns off. My quess is that this is an electrical issue. I am afraid I might have to tackle my wires sometime soon.

P.S. I canged the thread's topic since the car no longer has a gas leak nor is it dead. So the subject of the thread isn't misleading anymore.

Even if I don't always say it. Thank you to everyone on this forum for all your help. This forum is really fantastic!

might want to pull the battery cable till you track it down ... hate to kill a brand new battery

found this

http://forum.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtop ... ts+come+on

back to the old mantra,....ground, ground, ground. Sounds like the ignition is grounding thru the headlight switch cutting power to the engine. can verify by puting a volt meter on the coil + and see if it goes to 0 when you turn the switch on.

I have been out of town for the last two weeks so I haven't been working on the Fiat. But now that I am back I took a look at the ignition switch, wiring diagram, a couple of old forums.

Thank you 81SPIDERMATT for the link to that thread. The problem there was fixed by swapping the Direct 12v and Power 12v wires on the ignition switch. I think I should try that first since that is most likely what will work. Does anyone know which are the Direct 12v and Power 12v wires on the ignition switch?

This might help

http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic ... &sk=t&sd=a