500 Abarth 1.4 Turbo swap.

Thanks for the replies.

Just when I thought everything was going well with the adapter the CV joint wrenched and my centres were all off. I had no choice but to start the drilling and tapping again of the mating flange. A new pilot drill guide was turned in the lathe and as I drilled the first hole I tapped it and put a bolt in it to keep the two parts together and prevent the turning of the two parts. With that done now with some extra holes ( sorry Mike) last operation was to machine in the cir clip groove. I set up the lathe on slow rotation and used a cutting wheel on my battery angle grinder to cut the groove then used my dremel with some small cut off wheels to dress the groove. Part done. Next is to cut the axle, weld it and check to see if it is straight.

TonyK.

Grimsby Ontario Canada.

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Next step is the shorten the right side axle. 3/4". This is done in the centre of this steel axle which is not hardened. A cut line is made and then off to the power hack saw. Next to chamfer the shaft in the weld zone. Both sides are done and the axle halves are placed in the welding jig. Clamp will be installed prior to welding. The weld zone needs to be heated for about 20 minutes before the welding can begin. Then post heating for 20 minutes and cover with sand until cooled. I will do the welding tonight as I ran out of time last night.

TonyK.

Grimsby Ontario Canada.

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TonyK said:
Thanks for the replies.

Just when I thought everything was going well with the adapter the CV joint wrenched and my centres were all off. I had no choice but to start the drilling and tapping again of the mating flange. A new pilot drill guide was turned in the lathe and as I drilled the first hole I tapped it and put a bolt in it to keep the two parts together and prevent the turning of the two parts. With that done now with some extra holes ( sorry Mike) last operation was to machine in the cir clip groove. I set up the lathe on slow rotation and used a cutting wheel on my battery angle grinder to cut the groove then used my dremel with some small cut off wheels to dress the groove. Part done. Next is to cut the axle, weld it and check to see if it is straight.

TonyK.

Grimsby Ontario Canada.

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More holes=less weight 😁
 
Continuing on. A few fire bricks allow the heat to be directed into the weld zone. The weld area is heated for 10 minutes with a propane torch prior to being MIG welded. with my Cebora 140 Amp welder. With the half shaft clamped into the welding fixture the welding begins. It takes about 20 minutes to weld the shaft as the work must be turned from time to time and layer the weld beads. Once the welding has been completed the weld zone is heated for 10 minutes prior to being covered in Sand allowed to cool over night. After the weld has cooled it is machined and a sleeve is pressed over the welded shaft zone. Notches in the sleeve allow more area to be welded to increase it's strength. Once welded post heating is done for 10 minutes to relief any stress and again it is packed in sand over night.

TonyK

Grimsby Ontario Canada.
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Completed drive line modifications. Left side spacer is made from a section fo 3/16" flat stock. The most simple way to make this part is to drill a hole in the centre of 4" square and insert a 1/2" bolt with 2 nuts on the back side and weld the head of the bolt to the section of flat stock. Cutting the corners off helps a lot but the lathe takes a pounding until the cuts are rounded off. The tool is fairly big but it still takes a beating on the corners. Once round the simple way to cut out the centre is to use a hole saw and slow the lathe down. Heavy pressure and a bit of cutting oil and the ring come off in a short time. A transfer punch in used to establish the first hole and a bolt is insterted into the place and hub, then the second hole is punched and the process is repeated. Once I have the two opposite holes drilled I used 2 bolts to hold the spacer then punched and drilled out the remaining holes. With that done it was on to the right shaft and check for run out. .017" on one side and .007" on the other. I used my arbour press to bend the shaft is now has a .004" run out and is acceptable. A little bit of paint and it will be ready for Mike to clean the CV joints and reassemble then grease the completed right hand shaft.

TonyK

Grimsby Ontario Canada.

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So what has been going on. Well... lots of stuff. I have finished the stainless steel doors for my son. Have worked with my lawyer for my constitutional challenge that was filed on the 19th of December. My wife's 2010 Infinity G37x all wheel has a fault in the ECU and has 270,000 miles on it. All I ever did was change oil and 1 set of spark plugs. Brakes as required. It died at the dealer, they offered $500, we said sold. I have gotten back into this swap and the pause takes so long for my mind to figure out where I left off and where next to start. My milling machine computer crashed and I found an old Dell with 32 bit buss and XP in Arkansas. That repair is still pending. Currently working on the electrics in the module box. The Abarth shell was picked up today for the scrap yard and I have room again in the barn and shop. A few progress pictures.

Working on it.

TonyK.

Grimsby Ontario Canada.
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TonyK said:
Possibly at a Fiat Freak Out all three cars could converge with some driving video. Neat suggestion worth the effort.

TonyK.
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I’d be 100% up for that!! At least an article in Ricambi magazine…..or a spot on Jay Leon’s garage would be fitting..
 
I have for those of you that are following this build a video of when Bob Martin's Dallara X1/9 swap was started. Part 1 and I will try and keep any further video no longer than 15 minutes as I know this can get a bit long winded.

So if interested please take a look. Yes I am still doing wiring on Mike's car and will have a few pictures to share when I get further along in his build.

TonyK.

Grimsby Ontario Canada.

 
TonyK said:
I have for those of you that are following this build a video of when Bob Martin's Dallara X1/9 swap was started. Part 1 and I will try and keep any further video no longer than 15 minutes as I know this can get a bit long winded.

So if interested please take a look. Yes I am still doing wiring on Mike's car and will have a few pictures to share when I get further along in his build.

TonyK.

Grimsby Ontario Canada.

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Between getting a BMW X3 for my wife because the ECU died on her Infinity, working on my son's outdoor fire place I managed to squeeze some time in on this project this week.

First off, Christmas the time when people that are in my family want to buy me stuff and this year I asked for this portable spot welder. I wish I would have had it when I built the module box. I do have to build a remote free flow air cleaner box and I will be using it to weld the sections together. I did a test with some steel and stainless steel sheet. The tips seem to deposit some copper at the weld but it may be the tips or that a bit of oil on the sheet metal could help the weld process. Still learning. I finished up the module box wiring harness. I have 1 hole to enlarge and make up a way to mount the OBD2 port to the cover. The car body harness needs to be made. The module box needs to be stripped out, sand blasted, painted and then covered with fabric. Several wires were too short and some too long. As organized as I think I am, still mistakes will be made and that happened on Bob Martin's car. When changing the length of electrical wires 1 mistake discovered, well... then there has to be another and in some cases one more for the challenge. I make field notes to each build specific to that car as all are variants of my car because of driver requests of the build. Bob car posts 1 DTC small evaporative leak in the gas tank. I am good with that seeing that the evap system was never installed and it does not affect engine performance.

Here are a few pictures.

TonyK.

Grimsby Ontario Canada.

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Tony I would love to do this conversion to my Scorpion. Unfortunately this is way out of my league of fabrication skills.
 
lanciahf said:
Tony I would love to do this conversion to my Scorpion. Unfortunately this is way out of my league of fabrication skills.
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Not to say there wouldn’t be fabrication needed on a Scorpion, but the Scorpi-carlo engine bay is so much bigger than the X. I would expect wiring and electronic integration to be most difficult, followed by subframe adaptation, and then clutch/shift systems.
 
TonyK said:
The car body harness needs to be made.
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Hi Tony,

Thanks for the updates. I'm getting closer to the wiring on my Stilo swap and I was wondering how you converted the X's throttle pedal to accommodate the throttle by wire from the 500 Abarth. The Stilo also has an electronic throttle, so I think I'm looking at a fairly similar modification.

Best regards, Marc
 
Although I am not at this part of the build yet as the road car is not here nor is it needed I am currently in prep for the engine swap making parts for it to happen, I will share a few pictures with you. Once seen it is actually fairly simple. What is required is that the spring needs to be reduced for lower pedal pressure to operate the actuator/transducer as in this set up pedal pressure would be very heavy to get the gas pedal arm to move. I will post the pictures and if needed latter answer questions as posted.

Mystery solved?

TonyK.

Grimsby Ontario Canada.

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Yes, thanks a lot Tony 👍🏻
I see clearly how you've did it, once I get the Stilo throttle pedal out and adjusted I'll post some pictures too.
 
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