New To You X1/9 To-Do List - Do it now or do it later

Matt Brannon - Midwest Bayless

Matt Brannon - Midwest Bayless

Mad.Matt
I've had this conversation with a couple of new and prospective new owners lately, so I figured I'd start a thread about it.

So you're considering the purchase of an X1/9. Let's say it's a 1980 1500, 5-Spd...
The ad and the seller says "Runs and Drives Great!"

However, starting in a 65 degree garage and making it twice around the block is way different than a worry free drive to another state and back with your significant other in the passenger seat...

Unless that car has a stack of maintenance records, you can't trust anything to be highly functional for long. Worst case scenario, you have to assume that most significant "consumable" parts on that car are 40 years old and may be near the end of their service life.

Anything that carries fluid (Fuel, Brake, Coolant) is suspect regardless of mileage. At or above 60K miles, electro mechanical items (Starter, Alternator, Switches, etc.) and mechanical (suspension, brakes, driveline, clutch) may start to come into question due to a combination of use + age.

So, as a new owner of a poorly maintained 40-year old car, you have two choices to make:
  • Start driving it, and fix things as they break. The first 30-40 days may be bliss. You'll say to yourself "man, I got a screaming deal, this thing is awesome, just needed some fresh gas and new tires!". Then you get stranded. Then you fix the thing that stranded you. Two weeks later, you get stranded again. You fix the thing that stranded you. Then you start cussing the car as a piece of s#*t FIAT and get a bad attitude about it. The problems persist, not because it's a FIAT, but because it's a 40 year old car that has been mechanically ignored by its previous owners and minimally supported by YOU.
  • Bite the bullet and commit to a complete mechanical refurbishment. Keep in mind that in most cases, an engine build / rebuild is not necessary.... And the refurb doesn't have to happen all at once, but in sections, one after another. Knowing that the odds of break-down are reduced with each completed section. But until you get it all done, you should bet on needing an occasional tow, and it's best your girlfriend or wife NOT take an afternoon ride into the boonies with you unless they have a good sense of adventure.
Now X1/9s are really basic mechanical packages, so you don’t need a PhD or secret handshake to do the necessary work if you’re already handy with a wrench. Aside from valve clearance adjustments, and wheel bearing replacement, a basic toolbox of metric wrenches and hand tools will do the trick.

Further, this place right here, www.xwebforums.org has 20 years of accumulated knowledge and tech posts to help you. Just about everything you will need to do to the car has been photo documented here by multiple owners. Xweb is an adjunct for the factory service manual.

In most cases if the car you're purchasing can make it around the block a few times, you’re looking at $6K of parts or less to do a pretty comprehensive mechanical refurb.

That is in-line with most 80's domestic car part prices, and a pittance compared to the same items on vintage imports like BMW, Porsche, Mercedes, or Jag

If you’re starting with a rust-free car, and you're able to turn all the wrenches, and you commit to the "full magilla" as they say for preventative maintenance, then you'll have a car that will be worth as much or maybe more than you've invested it, in most cases.

If your FIAT needs a complete interior, has rust issues, needs a paint job, an engine rebuild, or new trans then yeah, you'll be "upside down" investment-wise, but still doesn't mean it's not worthy of such effort. Dozens of other desirable 1980s sports cars are in the same boat.

Again, let me repeat:

The biggest disappointment for classic FIAT ownership is hoping against hope that its old parts won't fail.
...And then getting stranded 2 or 3 times a season because old parts did fail.
...And then getting mad at the car about it.

Just bite the bullet and plan to do it all.

Below is the laundry list of what is likely to need replacement after 40 years. Red is usually for 60K miles and higher

FUEL SYSTEM
  • New or Rebuilt Carb
  • Fuel Injectors
  • Fuel Pump
  • Fuel hoses including filler neck hose
  • Drop the fuel tank, check internal condition, replace if needed, along with new sending unit
ELECTRICAL AND IGNITION SYSTEM
  • Cap
  • Rotor
  • Plugs
  • Wires
  • Ground cable at battery
  • Ignition switch (miles dependent)
  • Starter or Alternator (miles dependent)
ENGINE
  • Timing belt / tens bearing
  • V-Belt
  • Oil pressure sending unit
  • Temp sending unit
  • Breather hose
  • Gaskets and Seals as needed
  • Valve adjustment
  • Motor mounts (miles and oil leak dependent)
EXHAUST
  • Exhaust manifold / Header / Muffler (miles dependent)
COOLING SYSTEM
  • Cooling hose main set x 5
  • Thermostat
  • Expansion tank (unless its already stainless or a good condition plastic with no bulge or rusty cap bung)
  • Water pump
  • Water pump return tube
  • Heater valve
  • Radiator
  • Undercar tubes (as needed, especially if coolant mix has been neglected, regardless of miles)
  • Blower fan switches
SUSPENSION / DRIVELINE
  • Struts x 4 (78 and earlier always replace, 79-on are miles dependent)
  • Upper strut mounts x 4
  • Radius rod bushings
  • Tie Rod ends (miles dependent)
  • Steering rack inner bushing
  • Control arms if needed (miles dependent)
  • Wheel bearings as needed (failure is caused by potholes, not miles)
  • CVs and boots
BRAKES AND CLUTCH
  • Clutch Pack
  • Clutch Master
  • Brake Master
  • Clutch Slave
  • Flexible Brake Hoses
  • Rotors
  • Pads
  • Reservoir Hoses
  • Reservoirs if needed
  • Calipers if needed (miles and storage condition dependent)
CABLES: (miles dependent)
  • Trunk / Engine Cover release lever cables
  • Speedo Cable(s)
-M
 
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I would also add, to improve the ownership experience, electric fuel pump for carb models and electronic ignition if still on points and condenser. Relay mod for the headlights and wipers.
 
This is a succinct list and reality check for new owners. I don’t disagree with Matts but might suggest a process to go about it.

My personal approach starts like this (having bought two quite used cars in the last few months it has been in practice quite a bit of late). The way to think about it is you want to get the car to a good baseline where you know the basics are correct and up to snuff. From that baseline you will be able to understand what is actually wrong with the car and then work up to and through the needed repairs. Each step in the maintenance process will will allow you to learn something more about the car and what you can expect in the future in regards to immediate and long term repairs.

  • Purchase the car and drive it at least home. Note down the obvious deficiency's, noises and after getting home inspect the car, all around and particularly underneath.
  • When doing the inspection use a strong LED flashlight to clearly look at everything on the car, particularly in the engine compartment. Note down the additional things you find.
  • If during your first drive the brakes are pulling, failing to stop the car etc then you should start with them first. It may only require cleaning up the slides and faces of the calipers but likely it is also time to replace some components. Starting with rotors, pads, hoses and rebuilding the calipers. You may have to buy new calipers if they are beyond rebuilding. If it stops decently you can likely defer working on the brakes for a bit. The Wiki will be your friend here.
  • Now go to your preferred purveyor of automotive liquids. Buy the correct fluids to replace all the oil in the engine and transmission, the right coolant and the filters for oil, air and fuel. Have a look at the manual (on the Xweb Wiki) and have a look at the Best Of Xweb for the best way to bleed air out of the system. Replacing the brake and clutch fluid is also on the menu here if you didn’t already do it in the previous step.
  • In the course of doing the fluids it is a great time to inspect in detail all of the hoses, all the hose clamps and find additional areas of leakage or other bits of ugliness. Note down anything you find.
  • If the coolant was really nasty clearly there is more to be done in the coolant system. You will likely find that the fuel lines, coolant hoses and their associated clamps will need replacing either in the near future or immediately.
  • Once that is complete, you should replace the distributor cap, rotor and ignition leads along with the spark plugs. Inspecting the spark plugs will tell you a number of things about the condition of the engine. You could check the plugs before replacing them if you like in case the PO (previous owner) actually took decent care of the car.
  • If the car has a 1300cc engine you must replace the timing belt and its tensioner. This isn’t hard but requires being methodical and following the clear directions in the wiki. If it is a 1500 you can wait if you like as if it were to fail while driving it is just a tow and then replace the belt. While you are doing this you should also replace the the drive belts for the water pump, alternator and air conditioning compressor.
Having completed the above you will have seen the fluids and likely can surmise the general condition of the associated systems. If anything was particularly nasty there are clues as to what lies in your future as clogged radiators don’t just unclog themselves.

It is now time to enjoy your car a bit which should be running well and possibly the best it has in many years. Again make a list of noises and the behaviors while driving that will be clues to what needs to be done next.

The things that affect safety (brakes and suspension) should come first and general drive ability needs second. You will end up working your way down Matt’s list as time goes on.

I wonder if Matt just used my order history to make his list :) I have a lot of those things in MWB boxes in my garage, slowly being replaced area by area on my two X’s.
 
FIATs have a reputation for being cheaply made cars, and there is no question that like many other mass market cars, there are budget realities that must be realized in design and manufacture. But to be fair, from the era of our cars, FIAT's quality level for basic structure, drivetrain, and systems is at least as good as anything from the Big 3, VW, or the Japanese brands. So if a tired OEM part can be replaced by a genuine NOS part (with obvious exceptions like parts with perishable rubber components like hydraulics), chances are that new part will last another couple of decades in "hobby car" service.

One thing I would suggest be added is a comment about the relative quality of replacement parts. I am sure that I am not the only one here who has been bitten in the ass by disappointingly inferior non-OEM replacement parts sourced from mass-market resellers. FIATs are a global car with parts made all over the world, and oftentimes the quality of third party parts is just not there. One of the major advantages of buying parts from marque experts like our trusted vendors, even if other options exist that may be more convenient or less expensive, is the fact that they do the best job they can curating their offerings to try to insulate owners from being let down by inferior replacements. I know that if I buy a non-OEM part from Matt or Chris, they have done their best to make sure the part is the best available.
 
Nice article. All of us here are much more experienced than the guy who has never been here and wants to buy an X "like the one I drove in college" and is for a lot of disappointment because he now has to spend hundreds of dollars to make the really nice X he just bought drivable.

I usually buy Xs and spiders at the bottom of the pyramid but have several friends who got really nice low mileage Xs We learned that everything rubber is trash even if they look great. You can never trust the seller (use that as a guide, doesn't mean it's true) and what you see is what you get.

I bought a 90 Miata in October from a kid who indicated he got it from his uncle who was a Miata enthusiast. I doubted that was true as it was a quart low on oil (I bought it anyway as the oil pressure gauge was giving great readings). None of the fluids had been changed possibly ever. Hey, it was red and had a roll bar, how could I pass it up.

Sure the 1500 X is noninterference but who wants to wait at the side of the road waiting for a tow truck. And finding out that gas smell is a pin hole leak and the FI pump is shooting out a thin but strong stream of raw gas on your exhaust manifold is not a happy event (do I park and call the tow truck or drive it home and pray I don't set my X on fire.
 
I've had my X1/9 for forty years this month. That is long enough to have had Matt actually be the one to do the work on my car. Over the past few years, Matt or the folks at Midwest or their partners have rebuilt the engine, the transmission, refreshed a few systems, repaired a few others. I even did a few things meself.

Which brings me to something that happened a year this past fall.

My 2015 Jeep Cherokee was in the shop for two days for a recall repair.
My girlfriend's 1998 Jeep Cherokee's radiator had finally blown out after a 250,000 miles. That was the end of that car.
My girlfriend's 1972 Chevelle would not start. That made her mad enough that she sold it the next spring.
My girlfriend's 1979 Oldsmobile 98 (Her Father's old car) would not start either.

But my trusty X1/9 had no problem running. So, the X became the household's daily driver for two full days!
 
Unless you see recent date codes I'd make replacing all the high pressure fuel injection lines the highest priority and keep a fire extinguisher in the passenger seat until you do. Even lines a few years old may not be ethanol compatible. My original lines started leaking on the way home from buying it. Yikes!
 
I've owned my car for 1.5 years now, and this list is spot on. I purchased my car out of a backyard for near scrap metal money. The drive/fix cycle ran its course over my first 2 months of owning the car, now things still break but they are not strand-worthy breaks. I have only ever been stuck somewhere with this car, and it was because of a snapped V-belt to the water pump. I even had a breakdown where i lost a drive axle, but it was very low speed and uphill from my house (very lucky).

Just an idea of what you are in for to get a 1987 X1/9 on the road after it has sat for many years outside. (and 88,000 miles on the clock)
Initial problems were very shaky ride, insufficient cooling, no 5th gear, uneven idle, no brakes, throw out bearing noise when clutch pressed, strange engine ticking, unstable voltage.

Replaced the following: Tires, brake hoses (both from reservoir and to calipers), pads, brake disks, brake master, brake reservoir, timing belt, timing belt tension pulley, clutch plate, throw out bearing, all transmission seals, thermostat, radiator, water pump, water temp sensor, radiator fan switch, engine bay blower fan switch, fuel pump, fuel filter, all fuel lines (one burst and nearly caused a fire, lesson learned.), starter motor, voltage regulator, assorted bulbs, inner/outer tie rod ends, all control arms (bad ball joints), long drive axle, shocks on all corners, exhaust O2 sensor, rear toe rod ball joint things tie rod ends (fake steering rack in back), spark plugs, wires, hall effect sensor in distributor, bottom engine mount, torque rod engine mount, 5th gear, 5th gear slider, 5th gear shift fork, replaced headlights, main battery, windshield wipers, steering column switches.

Re-worked/cleaned the following: Brake calipers, speedometer cable, throttle cable, air flow meter, auxiliary air valve, every ground contact i can find, steering rack, distributor, window switches, blower fan resistor, blower switches, window motors, headlight motors, hood/trunk/engine bay release cables and shifter linkage.

Quality of life additions: New speakers behind seats, one forward speaker, basic bluetooth audio capable head unit, manual switches (for radiator fan, blower fan, rally lights, aux power), a reliable tachometer, CB radio and antenna.

Currently planned(these are still "ok" so not urgent but soon): Valve shim adjustment, radius rod bushings, transmission rework (3rd and 4th are rough, sometimes will not go into reverse.)

Still on original wheel bearings and most of the transmission.

After all that I have a car that does 40mpg highway and seems to drive quite well. It not a small process to take an abandoned X1/9 and bring it back on the road, but it's not especially difficult. Car now has 93,000 miles on it and got 2nd place in a Lemons Rally that took us 3600 miles last summer.
 
carl said:
Nice article. All of us here are much more experienced than the guy who has never been here and wants to buy an X "like the one I drove in college" and is for a lot of disappointment because he now has to spend hundreds of dollars to make the really nice X he just bought drivable.

I usually buy Xs and spiders at the bottom of the pyramid but have several friends who got really nice low mileage Xs We learned that everything rubber is trash even if they look great. You can never trust the seller (use that as a guide, doesn't mean it's true) and what you see is what you get.

I bought a 90 Miata in October from a kid who indicated he got it from his uncle who was a Miata enthusiast. I doubted that was true as it was a quart low on oil (I bought it anyway as the oil pressure gauge was giving great readings). None of the fluids had been changed possibly ever. Hey, it was red and had a roll bar, how could I pass it up.

Sure the 1500 X is noninterference but who wants to wait at the side of the road waiting for a tow truck. And finding out that gas smell is a pin hole leak and the FI pump is shooting out a thin but strong stream of raw gas on your exhaust manifold is not a happy event (do I park and call the tow truck or drive it home and pray I don't set my X on fire.
Click to expand...

I had exact thing happen to me on a daily drive to work in my 1982 X 1/9. Gas smell, the red flames at the rear window. Yikes.......!! Ignition off, park and extinguisher over closed engine lid. Then opened and more white extinguisher chemical powder and the Passenger floor mat to smother.
Fire consumed and melted all plastic, fuel filter, HT leads distributor cap, fuel lines and barbecued inside of engine lid. With time and some money restored to running pre-fire with some precautions. No points in MM S 135, Metal fuel lines and filter. Extinguisher always at the ready between seats. Still after thirty years and much work at keeping it running safely, still love my red X 1/9.
 
milan1951 said:
I had exact thing happen to me on a daily drive to work in my 1982 X 1/9. Gas smell, the red flames at the rear window. Yikes.......!! Ignition off, park and extinguisher over closed engine lid. Then opened and more white extinguisher chemical powder and the Passenger floor mat to smother.
Fire consumed and melted all plastic, fuel filter, HT leads distributor cap, fuel lines and barbecued inside of engine lid. With time and some money restored to running pre-fire with some precautions. No points in MM S 135, Metal fuel lines and filter. Extinguisher always at the ready between seats. Still after thirty years and much work at keeping it running safely, still love my red X 1/9.
Click to expand...


I didn't follow "No points in MM S 135". Can you say it a little slower? 😃
 
Mayze and Bart,

Apologise for having been absent from site for a few days. Had my head deep in X 1/9 amongst other things.
My Australian 1982 X 1/9 bought in 1986 has had a Magneti Marelli S 135 with points. I have since bought an Ultra Spark electronic ignition conversion kit which Im fitting to a spare Magneti Marelli S135 distributor that I plan to fit to complete project.
 
Mayze said:
I didn't follow "No points in MM S 135". Can you say it a little slower? 😃
Click to expand...
Mayze Hi, from 1986 to 2017 when fire occurred the 1982 1500 X 1/9 had contact breaker points in its S 135 Magnetti Marelli distributor.
Since bought an electronic conversion kit from UK for a similar S 135 fitment. Have yet to try it out.
 
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