I spent the afternoon and evening over at Alvon's (Ventura Ace), while he "helped" me check my valve clearances. Picture #1 is the day before, me letting my son drive the Spider. (My poor clutch!)
Picture #2 is me giving instructions to Ace. I was going to question his choice of tools, but hey, he's the teacher.
Picture #3 is me turning the engine. We have a ratchet on the alternator pulley bolt, pressing down on the belt and it turns easy
Ace is a very good teacher. He must be, he was able to teach me! It was a fun time together, and I was fed dinner at the Elrod's, turkey meatloaf, which I've never had, and it was great.
Ron
Ron Luxmore rlux2n2@gmail.com
'82 2000 Spider: after 26 years between Spiders.
I should have warned you about Alvon's strong arm tactics, but it looks like he didn't break anything on your car. Something's just not right here. You get him to work on your car and he feeds you? How come he works on my car and I have to feed him? I think I'm jealous.
1972 124 Spider (Don)
1971 124 Spider (Juan)
1986 Bertone X19 (Blue)
1978 124 Spider Lemons racer
1974 X19 SCCA racer (Paul)
2012 500 Prima Edizione #19 (Mini Rossa)
Ever changing count of parts cars....It's a disease!
Well, Denise & Ron, you're both great company, so it's an absolute pleasure to be wrenching with either of you. Ron's was my first opportunity to tinker with a FI Fiat engine, and I was amazed at how quick and easy it was to move some of the FI stuff out of the way to get to the valve covers.
But first, we needed to tend to the gear shift mechanism that had worked its way loose from the 3 little bolts that hold the lower cover plate, and essentially hold the whole assembly in place. The plastic pivot ball had cracked and was in 2 pieces so we replaced the whole gear shift lever with a spare one that Ron had. Following that, the gear shifting was nice and solid again.
Then we pushed the car up in the garage and got down to checking the valves. It was intersting that all 4 Intake valves were spot on at about .0165 - .0170", and three of the 4 Exhaust valves were at .0195", but #2 exhaust was at .014", so we swapped that out to make it the same as the others. No telling what had made that valve tighter than the others.
Denise, here's the trick: you take your car to his house, stand around and look hungry while he does all the work. Pretty soon he'll tell Maureen to feed you. Works like a charm.
Right Danno, the only thing missing is I should have had a beer in my hand!
Ron
Ron Luxmore rlux2n2@gmail.com
'82 2000 Spider: after 26 years between Spiders.
P.S.; if any nuts or bolts are missing when you go to put everything back together, look on the magnetic end of the driver drill you're using as a speed wrench.
Just a little something I hear may happen.
Ron
Ron Luxmore rlux2n2@gmail.com
'82 2000 Spider: after 26 years between Spiders.
So that's how he got all those parts at his place!
As far as the wallet goes, I'm married, with children at home. My wallet is usually empty if it's over a day past when momma gives me my allowance.
Ron
Ron Luxmore rlux2n2@gmail.com
'82 2000 Spider: after 26 years between Spiders.
Good one Pope. Speaking of him, HE GOT A JOB! It'll be nice not having him home all day playing World Of Warcraft, I only hope it doesn't interfere when I need his help.
Ron
Ron Luxmore rlux2n2@gmail.com
'82 2000 Spider: after 26 years between Spiders.
Part of the pleasure of these old relics is the tinkering with them. Too bad there's not more time in the day for it. I'm just happy if it still runs at the end of the day. And, there's bonus points if there aren't too many parts left over! All I can say is Ron is mighty brave to allow me to touch his car. This is how the work session started, when Ron met me at my work in his spider:
After humbly telling me how heavenly smooth the car is running, especially with the new tires, Ron hands me the keys. I put them in the switch and give the starter a go. The starter goes fine, but that's about it. Ten minutes later: by now we've confirmed that we have spark, but no fuel, and can't hear any activity out of the fuel pump. We've checked all the fuses and wire connections, and Ron is completely flabbergastered as this has never happened before (little does he know that I've jinxed him). As a last ditch effort before pulling things apart, Ron gets under the car and whacks the fuel pump with a wrench while I turn the key, and it comes to life! We're good to go! And it does drive smooth . . . heavenly smooth . . . for now, anyways.
It's on up the fwy to the local recreation center, where we have company softball league on Wed night, then on to pizza and beer afterward (Ron will sit thru a whole softball game if there is free food afterwards!!) ;>)
So, Ron and I part ways, with me driving an hour west to our house (in his spider), and Ron driving my car an hour east to his house. The plan is to leave his car at my house overnight, so it will be good and cool for when we intend to adjust the valves the next evening at my house. The drive home started off heavenly, but I noticed something seems a little odd with shifting gears, so I turned off the radio and kept an ear out for funny sounds. Seemed to be fairly normal, though it did seem that the gear shift lever was rather loose. It WAS loose. So loose that it just suddenly popped out of 5th gear about 10 miles from home. I coasted to a stop, and realized that the gear shift lever was totally flopping all around. It was dark, and my choices were to have it towed home, or figure out a roadside repair. I fiddled with it for a bit, and somehow managed to shove it into 3rd gear. I used 3rd gear, and 3rd gear only, for the rest of the drive home, keeping a gentle hold of the now useless gear shift lever to keep it from flopping around. That last 10 miles was a mighty long drive, carefully timing the lights to keep from having to stop, and rolling through several stop signs in the process. I breathed a heavy sigh of relief when I made it to our driveway, and gave Ron a call to give him the bad news.
Next afternoon, Ron picks me up from work (I carpooled in), and we head to my house for some wrenching. Reference Ron's pictures. All goes well with the gear shifter repair (the 3 screws and cover plate that holds thing together from below had vanished!). Ron insisted that Maureen cook us dinner, to celebrate how the aparent bad Juju had now come around favorably. She came through with a good meal, and then with spirits renewed, we made way to the garage to see how much more havoc we could muster . . . In short, it went well. Ron had a long 2 hour drive home, which involved no tow trucks, as far as I know! Life is wonderful! The end, for now.
He's gotta be drunk and thought he was using his middle finger because who in their right mind would let Alvon adjust the valves with a sledge hammer and crowbar???!!!
1972 124 Spider (Don)
1971 124 Spider (Juan)
1986 Bertone X19 (Blue)
1978 124 Spider Lemons racer
1974 X19 SCCA racer (Paul)
2012 500 Prima Edizione #19 (Mini Rossa)
Ever changing count of parts cars....It's a disease!
