New to me 79 1500

ricar said:
I had it taken off the rim today but kept the tire. They think (by what they assume is a date code 2/68 that it was the second week of 1968. The rim is stamped FIAT, so I assume that it is not original to my car (1979) but it may actually be an original 68 X wheel. If it is, I think it's kinda cool!
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If it is a three digit date code, then the first two digits indicate the week of manufacture, and the last digit is for the year of manufacture. 268 would be the 26th week of some year ending with 8; I would guess in this case 1978 or 1988
 
ricar said:
I had it taken off the rim today but kept the tire. They think (by what they assume is a date code 2/68 that it was the second week of 1968. The rim is stamped FIAT, so I assume that it is not original to my car (1979) but it may actually be an original 68 X wheel. If it is, I think it's kinda cool!
Click to expand...

Reference the "before 2000" section on this page at TireRack.com: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=11

So more like the 26th week of the 8th year of the decade 197x. Exactly halfway thru the calendar year. Falls into place if your 1979 car has a late 1978 or early 1979 manufacturing date on the door plate.
 
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So if that is the case, then this may be an original tire to my car! Very cool, but I don't think I can carry it as a spare. You can see by the bubbles how it was leaking around the rim but the sidewalls did seem t hold air.
 
1968 sounds like way too early a date for a 165/70-13. When the X came to the US in 74, that tire was not available but by 79 that was the stock size (not sure that was the first year on an X). My 74 came with 145-13 Michelin XAS tire that were actually an 82 profile. I put on some 185/70-13 tires in 1975. In that time frame, a number of 70 series tires came out that fit the X.
 
Another wheel question... Can anyone tell me what the numbers on my rims mean?

550J x 13H2 I know the J references the bead seat, J= Passenger cars, 13 is a 13" rim and H2 is the interior rim profile BUT... what is the 550? It can't me mm or they would be some seriously wide rims,but it can't be 55 or they would be seriously narrow rims. I'm just trying to figure out a reasonable tire size for the rim. I don't see the offset anywhere.
 
ricar said:
Another wheel question... Can anyone tell me what the numbers on my rims mean?

550J x 13H2 I know the J references the bead seat, J= Passenger cars, 13 is a 13" rim and H2 is the interior rim profile BUT... what is the 550? It can't me mm or they would be some seriously wide rims,but it can't be 55 or they would be seriously narrow rims. I'm just trying to figure out a reasonable tire size for the rim. I don't see the offset anywhere.
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Are you sure it is not 5.50J? 5.5 inches would be a reasonable rim width, and the width is customarily given in inches.
 
Rim width is usually the number before the "J", so I i'm still guessing 5.5". Easy enough to measure, inside to inside as in the picture below (found on americastire.com)


EDUrim-width_rim-width_hero.jpg
 
ricar said:
I had it taken off the rim today but kept the tire. They think (by what they assume is a date code 2/68 that it was the second week of 1968. The rim is stamped FIAT, so I assume that it is not original to my car (1979) but it may actually be an original 68 X wheel. If it is, I think it's kinda cool!
Click to expand...

I apologize for bursting your bubble.

The rim is the right year, the P3 didn’t exist in 1968 so I suspect the tire guy didn’t get it right or the coding was different back then.

Sorry for posting late, I didn’t see the other posts regarding tire coding
 
Date codes prior to the year 2000 were different than they are now. Your code of "268" would mean the tire was built in the 26th week of the 8 year of the decade. The problem is obviously... "which decade?". So you tire could be the original spare, built in the 26th week of 1978. Or it could be a tire built in the 26th week of 58, 68, 88, or 98. :)

In 2000 the year was added to the date code to solve this aging problem. You can read about this on Tirerack.
 
My post does now, not make sense with the previous two replies!

In regards to my current rims, 13" MOMO rims- The problem is, they have tires on them and are under my car. 5.5 may be right, they are not that wide, running 175 60s now, I'm not needing tires this year, but I'm looking at the Federal 595 tires.
 
Any wiring guys out there?
I took the cluster out (and dropped the steering column) and now I lost my fuel gauge, temp gauge, voltmeter and tach... It was working after I had the cluster back in for a couple days, then it all stopped. I still have the back light from the center console switch. I took all the connectors under the column apart and greased them. Any thoughts on where all those come together?

Thanks.
 
ricar said:
Any wiring guys out there?
I took the cluster out (and dropped the steering column) and now I lost my fuel gauge, temp gauge, voltmeter and tach... It was working after I had the cluster back in for a couple days, then it all stopped. I still have the back light from the center console switch. I took all the connectors under the column apart and greased them. Any thoughts on where all those come together?

Thanks.
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I suspect your connector on the back of the cluster has come adrift.

Dielectric grease I presume?
 
Yes, dielectric grease. I have had the usual grounding issues. I took the cluster out yesterday and put it all back together with lubed up connections so I'm pretty sure it's not a problem at the cluster.
 
Well I may have fixed my issue. I took all the teeny little nuts off the back of the cluster and put the dielectric grease on them. I also did the light bulbs but I didn't check to see if they were any brighter.
 
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