Repair book

[Bobfla]

My 1974 project Fiat Spider came complete with two nasty water soaked moldy repair books;
- Clymer's
- Haynes
Need to get a new one.
What is your choice for a best repair book?

[rridge]

The best book depends on your skill level and budget. There is useful information in both Haynes and Clymers but there is also a lot of holes and misleading info, Haynes was published in the U.K. and specs between European and North American cars differed. Both book attempt to cover sedans, coupes and spiders, but each body type has differences.

The best single source of technical info is the factory service manual which were written for dealer service staff. They are specific to model and year.
Original manuals are in blue binders. Reprints are also available. The down side is that they are written for moderately trained mechanics, assumes access to factory tools, and does not reflect the problems and lessons learned on thirty year old cars.

If you poke around this forum you will find a discussion of Brad Artigue' new book which is an excellent starting point for a new old spider owner.

Richard

[RRoller123]

I just ordered Brad's book to add to the library. Many of us here, I think the most widely held belief, is that you need a collection of them to cover all the holes. Get a good factory manual (available free with lousy unreadable pictures off the internet, or for a fee on the usual sites), get all of Artigue's various manuals, guides, etc. Look at the Mirafiore and other sites for specific guides, and buy new copies of the Haynes, etc. Very few special tools are actually needed unless you plan major invasive surgery.

And don't forget the best source of all; this site. Ask a lot of questions. We are a pretty good bunch here, not at all prone to attacking newcomers, but instead, welcoming them! My son has had troubles with other sites related to his VW, and I was shocked to see the treatment he received by just asking some simple questions. We get a little nonsense here once in a while, but usually what little there is of it comes in the despair of Winter.

Pete

[Nanonevol]

There is also the Brooklands repair manual. I find it to be very good.

[bradartigue]

Most manuals are decent - but always the torque values given by FIAT in the official service guides. I believe that to be the biggest complaint - some of the torque values are wrong (such as 32 pounds on the crankshaft nut, which could be catastrophic for your motor).

An exception: I will say there is one truly terrible manual, and I've not seen it often, I think the publisher is Haynes and it tries to cover the X1/9 and 124 Spider in the same guide. The cars were different in literally every way (they're not remotely the same platform) and the inaccuracies are glaringly irresponsible. Throw it away.

[vandor]

>Most manuals are decent - but always the torque values given by FIAT in the official service guides.

Except for one: the factory manual lists the same torque value for all the connecting rod nuts, when in fact the value give is only for the 2000cc engine which has larger diameter conrod bolts.
I believe the correct rod nut torque for the 1400/1600/1800 engines is 38 ft-lb. The 2000 is 54 ft-lb. This is from memory, correct me if I'm wrong.

>An exception: I will say there is one truly terrible manual, and I've not seen it often, I think the publisher is Haynes and it tries to cover the X1/9 and 124 Spider in the same guide.

I believe you are referring to the Clymer's manual. It actually covered ALL the Fiats sold in the US. A truly horrid affair.

[toplessexpat]

One other Csaba. In some of the reproduced Shop Manuals, the water pump torque is listed as 185lb/ft... this is incorrect!