(Feb 10, 2018)
Project Mutant: Hole-y Floorboard, Fiatman!
Cut out the only rust-through spot I found on the whole car. This is the floor-drain in the drivers side footwell.
Will cut an appropriate patch and weld it in, and then prime and paint, after I wire-brush away the surface rust around the footwell.
AND, the new CV joint cover arrived! So, maybe tomorrow I can get finished replacing the shifter seal and boot, and get the axles back on the car. (Also need to remember to put in the GL-1 gear oil). Then, maybe put the motor back in position, with the lower mount in place.
(Feb 11, 2018)
Project Mutant: Quick update. Both axles are ready to install. Replaced the gear selector shaft seal and rubber boot on the transmission. Replaced the grounding strap. Re-tightened the bolts on the oil pan.
Next to re-install the axles, re-install the lower engine mount, re-connect the shifter to the transmission, and put fresh GL-1 90wt oil in the transmission. That should just about be one evenings work.
But not this evening.
(Feb 16, 2018)
Project Mutant: It is kind of a difficult thing, when rebuilding a car, to get other people to relate to the efforts involved. You take a ton of things apart, refurbish, replace, repair, and then re-assemble. So after many many hours of work, you end up with something that looks like it did when it left the factory, albeit usually somewhat seasoned and beaten up.
Hard to get friends and family hyped by pointing out the axles that took so many hours to remove, rebuild, and replace and say "Yep, they look like axles, by golly."
"Yeah, but these axles are clean and shiny and have new CV boots, and the motor mount is clean and satin black, and, and, and..."
I now have the axles mounted back in the car, the suspension re-attached (which required removing and then replacing a portion of the exhaust to get one bolt back in), the lower engine mount back in place, and the engine back up to the level where it belongs. Gonna fill the gear oil tomorrow, and then I will get back to the master cylinders. Yay!
One other really frustrating thing I have found a couple times now, is losing a Fiat-specific part, and having to order a replacement. Case in point is a little shoulder-bolt that is used to connect the shifter to the transmission shift rod. I KNOW I took it out. I bag every nut and bolt. But that little sucker just up
and vanished.
Had to order one (and the new axle nuts) from Midwest Bayless. Now I have to wait a few more days before I can officially wrap up the under-carriage work. One small gripe I have with this is that I end up spending more on freight than I do on the parts. Doubles the cost for repairs.
(Feb 21, 2018)
Project Mutant: Got the shifter mechanism all put back together. Still need 90w GL-1 oil in the transmission. Got the clutch master cylinder out, and started taking the brake master cylinder out.
The two master cylinders reside just above the pedals, under the dash. Oddly enough, they use really long bolts to go from one, across the pedal assembly, into the other, to hold them on, together. They are not bolted onto the pedal assembly separately. The bolts are not very big diameter, but they are VERY long..
It LOOKS like I will need to pull out the heater box in order to be able to remove the bolts. Hehe. Engineering, eh?
I adjusted the engine timing by ear, and now it starts and idles a LOT better. However, it won't accelerate... It didn't before, and it still doesn't. Idle good, press throttle, engine dies. Dunno, maybe Mass Airflow Sensor? THAT is a problem to tackle after the clutch and brakes and radiator tubes are done, and the beast sits down on it's own feet again.
(Feb 22, 2018)
Project Mutant: I am truly excited! With some help from a friend, and some info from the internet, I fixed a definite and crippling problem for exactly zero dollars!
The car would start, and idle reasonably well. However, when you went to press the accelerator to rev the engine, it would just die. By all indicators, this was related to the air flow meter. On newer cars, this has been obsoleted by the mass airflow sensor. The job of this device is to measure the amount and temperature of the air flowing into the engine. It does this with a flapper valve that gets pulled when the engine wants more air.
I used the good old neanderthal method of checking it by sticking my finger in the opening to check for whether it would move freely. It wouldn't. It met some sort of soft-stop, and wouldn't open up at all.
AHA, I said.
I took the device off the car, and on the workbench I was able to remove the top cover, and examine the inside. Thanks to the internet, I had a vague notion of what I should be seeing, and how it was supposed to work. I found a small metal arm that had moved past a limiting switch, and so it was in a permanent shut position, and could not move back. I gently moved the copper limiting switch back, and moved the flapper valve back where it belonged, and then allowed the copper limiting switch to go back where it belonged. NOW the flapper valve moved freely, AND the engine started and revved like it was SUPPOSED to.
In the two pictures attached, you can see in one that the arm has swung clockwise TOO FAR, and is now on the left side of the little copper limiting switch. In the other picture, you can see that the arm is now back where it belongs.
EUREKA!
I was also able to determine that the AFM electronics in the case are in really good shape! That is one less BIG item off my list. The car starts, runs, and accelerates. Now just need to get the brakes and clutch cylinders refreshed and cleaned and bled, and this X might just be ready to run!
AND, after even MORE digging, it looks like the little chrome arm is in the WRONG position!
When the flapper is closed, the u-shaped contact should be in the location that it is in in the first picture. Time to take it off again, and get the chrome arm positioned correctly to insure things run like they are supposed to!
The picture attached to this post shows the arm and contacts in the correct position.
Aaaand... Now the components are correctly adjusted, and the car runs great. (Only running for short bursts, since no coolant yet). Someone had tried to do some brute-force adjustments to the AFM, and they succeeded in screwing it up. I had wondered why the cover that was supposed to be sealed on was taped on. MUCH better now, and correct.