My Affair with Celeste

[dmwhiteoak]

I have 2 or 3 distributors at home for an 1800. Don't know if they would work for you but your welcome to one or any parts you may need.

[FiatBen]

I have 2 or 3 distributors at home for an 1800. Don't know if they would work for you but your welcome to one or any parts you may need.

Thanks, Dennis. Actually, I've got boxes of used dizzys around here as well. Guess I'll go dig some out and see if this little shield was common to later models and if any are in any better shape. Just never seen one shattered before, so I'm not sure that I've ever seen one at all.

[FiatBen]

It was raining today. Great time to do a little wrenching.

I am replacing the water pump and the tensioner bearing on a 1438cc motor. In order to get to the retaining bolts on the pump, and to make clearance to pull the bearing, the electro-magnetic fan assembly/water pump pulley has to come off. The fan is held by a 32mm central nut. Once it is off, there are nine 10mm nuts/bolts on the fan hub. Only three need to be removed, but I can't say for sure which three. I referred to Haynes pg 53 Fig 2.6 which I found after I had pulled all nine. Even then I had to get a gear puller on the hub/pulley and crank it off after getting the fan itself off.


There are four 10mm bolts holding the water pump to the block. There are also two 10mm nuts holding the pump to the heater pipe below the outlet/inlet nozzle. And there is an electrical connection to the fan with a spring blocking access to the 4th mounting bolt.


Since I couldn't get the puller to yank off the tensioner bearing, I removed the entire assembly. I pried the tensioning spring out of its locating hole in the mounting plate, removed the 13mm bolt and the 17mm nut. With the pump pulley out of the way, it comes right off. Then I put a socket inside the bearing and used the puller to break it loose.


One note. If you're replacing the water pump, loosen that monster nut on the fan before you do anything else. You will need the tension of the belts/plugs/tranny to keep everything still while you loosen the big nut.

Now, on to changing out the thermostat. Then it's back in with the tensioner, remount the water pump, rebuild/reset the cooling fan assembly, set the timing, reinstall the belts, rebuild the ignition from the coil to the plugs, and see if this darned old thing will start!

[deftone]

Good luck with the build, my 69 is in similar condition, although I have stripped mine right down now.

Interesting that my car is only 4 older than yours! my vin is 13307! They must have been within touching distance in the factory

[FiatBen]

Good luck with the build, my 69 is in similar condition, although I have stripped mine right down now.

Interesting that my car is only 4 older than yours! my vin is 13307! They must have been within touching distance in the factory

You know, that is pretty cool!! What color is yours?

[deftone]

Good luck with the build, my 69 is in similar condition, although I have stripped mine right down now.

Interesting that my car is only 4 older than yours! my vin is 13307! They must have been within touching distance in the factory

You know, that is pretty cool!! What color is yours?

Originally it was French Blue. But some previous owner has painted it a kind of apple green....really badly. Its a totally flat paint, no clearcoat or anything.

[FiatBen]

So I'm putting things back together when I notice that the inside diameter of the shaft that holds the tensioner bearing is much larger than the bolt it fits on. The washer that goes between the nut and bearing has the right size hole for the bolt.

Now I'm wondering if there's something I don't understand about this, or is there something missing????
Anyone know?

[FiatBen]

Last week I put in the water pump and the thermostat, or at least I tried.

Wanting to do things right I went to the trouble to go to town and buy a 3/8" torque wrench and looked up the specs for the bolts for both. This was the result:

Top bolt was on the 'stat housing, bottom bolt was at the top of the water pump. DARN!!! Pretty much ruint my day!

So I decided to get back on the project today. Thanks to Pete A's excellent advise I was able to pull the water pump (and fan assembly) back off and found this:

with my small Vise Grip pliers I was able to clamp onto the stub and extract the bolt. YEAH!!! Thanks Pete!!

However, the 'stat housing was another story:

It had broken off flush. The only way I knew to fix it was to dig out the drill and extract it. I started with a VERY small bit and even tried to punch the center first. The biggest problem was the little nub on the valve cover was in the way, so....

off with the cover. (I was pleased to see how clean it is in there. Good sign for future things.)
So, itty bitty drill bit, then one a bit smaller than the 6x1.0 bolt that was broken and finally a bolt extractor and VOILA!!

These things are handy!! Worth the trip I made up to Harbor Freight and the $7.19 I paid for the 12-pc kit in a case. (they are on sale right now and I had a 20% coupon from Sunday's flyer).

While I was in town, I stopped at the local big box and bought some 6x1.0 metric bolts, grade 8.8, along with washers and nuts (even though I didn't need 'em) for about $6 with lots left over for future problems.


The only thing I ran into, and not really a problem, was that the standard size bolts were just a bit longer than the originals on the water pump. Glad I bought those washers. I stacked 3 behind the two long bolts and snugged it all down (by hand this time!!).


I guess I could have nutted the bolt, sliced a bit off the end and unthreaded the nut to clean up the thread but by the time I remembered that trick I already had it back together.

Anyway, some progress made. Now I feel like I can start putting it back together for a test firing. The new timing belt and tensioner are on. Need to rotate by hand a couple of times before I try to start it. Also want to flush the gas lines so the new gas gets to the carb. Carb probably needs a good cleaning, but I want to see if she'll fire and then we'll start on the long list of things that need to be done.

[FiatBen]

It turns out that on the tensioner, the answer was that it was missing a stepped washer that goes between the bearing and the nut. Thanks to some excellent information from a friend on the mirafiori forum, I was able to solve that mystery, and thanks to my good friend, Csaba, I was able to get one quickly and finish putting the tensioner back together.

[RRoller123]

That is a great story, and it is made so much better with the pictures. It happens so often here that we have a limited idea of what someone might be talking about, and then it becomes completely clear with photos. It it really good to see the differences in the various engines too. That is ahard thing to absorb with just words. Glad it is working out!

[FiatBen]

Oh, I agree. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but when it comes to working on the cars I'm thinking more like 5000 or 10,000!! I know for the guys who've 'been there, done that' it may seem like overkill and redundant, but I'm more concerned about the new guys who are on the same learning curve I am. If I can save someone a little time, or unneccessary aggravation, or even a major problem, then it's worth my time to document and try to explain as best I can what I see and what I'm learning. The manuals, no matter who printed it, are good but there's always little things left out that just knowing make the job so much easier.

[FiatBen]

Let me see if I can summarize and describe what I'm up against now.

The '69 was parked because it quit running about 15 years ago. The PO tinkered with it a couple of times when he came home to visit his parents where he had left the car. He never got it to run. I bought it 8 years ago.

When I pulled the cover off the timing belt, I found the two cams to be out of alignment:


The exhaust cam was about 10° left of the pointer, the intake about 10° right.

I reset the cams to the pointers. I've replaced the timing belt, tensioner bearing, thermostat and water pump. I set the tension on the belt and proceeded to turn it by hand. With the centrifugal oil filter on the front, there is no easy way to crank the engine over. Turning it is VERY hard to do.
I have checked, double checked and triple checked that my starting point is with the cams' little holes lined up with the pointers, the auxiliary between 1 & 2 o'clock and the timing mark on the crank pulley at 0° TDC (the long mark on the timing belt cover).



Anyway, I get about 35-45° off the pointers, going clockwise, and CLUNK.
Something is hitting somewhere.

I would worry that the thing has dropped a valve or something equally catastrophic, but before I took the front cover off (and pulled the radiator, etc.) the engine turned quite easily with the starter engaged. With the timing belt off and the plugs pulled, it was fairly easy to turn by hand.

The plugs are still out. The dizzy is on the bench being rebuilt. It does have a mechanical fuel pump mounted. The 5-speed is in neutral. The accessory belt is back on (new) and tight (as Pete suggested this helps turn the engine by giving me something else to grab), but basically I'm stumped.

What do I look for now??