What is it????

ltheriau

ltheriau

Jet fuel for the X....?
Folks, I have a couple of questions, but first....some background info....

I bought a 78 X a few years ago from a friend that had full intentions of repairing her, but never did.

I got it for a song...and it came with a spare engine and trans. It doesn't run and I don't know the extent of refurbishing so far.

I was doing some general cleaning up of the X today in preparation for a complete re-build, and found something VERY intersting.

All this time I thought it had a 4 speed, but while going through the gears today, it went into 5th?!?!?

Closer inspection shows the early style CV Axles?!?!?

Is this possible? It has an 8 Ball 4 speed knob on the shifter, and it clearly goes into a 5th gear, as I pull straight down, it slips into reverse. (different sound going into reverse)

Also, can one visually indentify the differences between the 1.3 and 1.5 without a taking them apart?

Here I thought I had it all figured out, but none of my manuals say anything about an early X with a 5 speed.

Please advise. Thanks in advance,
 
One possibility

Lou, there's a chance you have one of the rare Colotti 5 speed conversions. You should be able to tell by looking at the end of the transaxle that sticks into the left rear wheel well. If the end cover says "Colotti" you have your answer, although it's possible the end cover on a 5 speed conversion would not be marked. So look for a spacer between the cover and the gearbox if there's no name on the cover. Post pics here either way.

I don't know if it's even possible to retrofit the earlier tripode joints to a 5 speed-- that's a SteveH question. However, I can't imagine why anyone would go to the effort, even if it is possible. 4 speed owners have been known to update to the stronger CV joints but never I've heard of going backwards.

Probably the easiest way to tell a 1300 from a 1500 is by the prefix of the numbers on the motor. A 1300 will have a 128 prefix, a 1500 will have a 138 prefix. Check the number on the head first because it's easier to see-- look on the firewall side of the head near the timing cover. But even if you find that it's a 1300 head someone may have installed it on a 1500 block. The block numbers are on the rear trunk side of the motor and will be difficult to see in a car without an access panel between the rear trunk and the engine bay.

Please let us know what you find. All of this is kind of interesting so it'll be fun to see how it all shakes out.

HTH,

///Mike
 
a couple other options would be that it has a somewhat rare 5 speed adapter kit that FAZA and PBS offered (Steve will correct me here..) that 'adds' a fifth gear outside the main case near the reverse gear. It would have required a new main shaft and cover, but otherwise would be a normal 4 speed.

Another option would be that someone adapted the 'guts' from a late Yugo 5 speed into the X 4 speed case. This was an option I looked into a while ago for a sportsracer project.
 
Further...

well not being satisfied with my initial findings, I preceeded to really work the shifter. First, the clutch isn't functioning due to a lack of fluid....so going into 3rd & 4th is fairly stiff. I pulled the rubber boot off the shifter and closely observed movement and realized that I ONLY have a 4 speed.

It seems that 3rd & 4th have a wide space to engage (quite clunky too) and it felt like it was going into 5th & Rev.

So, I would like to apologise profusely!!! :dunce::gong:

I did take some pics, but not worth posting now.

One thing I did discover......I have a 138 block with a 128 head. I've read many posts about interfacing a 4 speed to the 138, and I hope the PO has followed suit.

I intend on doing a complete strip and build on this car, so I'll be lurking around for quite some time.

Thanks to all that have replied.

Have a great week....
 
I know precisely what you are talking about....

Because I have one. I looked around for quite a while and finally bought a car that had this in it for my '74X 1300cc project. The gearing is perfect for a 1300 and the overdrive allows me to get 33-34 mpg, even with a hot rod engine.
DSCN4339.jpg

DSCN4335.jpg

FAZA5-SPD.gif

This particular one came from FAZA, though as noted, several others made the conversion as well. I know for certain that Abarth, Collotti, and Alquati made 5-speed conversions for the X1/9. I do not think that there were that many sold before Fiat came out with their own 5-speed. I chose to go this way because the overall weight of the assembly is less and the gearing is a bit lower. Love mine. Cherish what you have.

Ciao,
 
Too bad....

The 5-speed conversion works really well for a 1300.

And yes, the reason that I wanted to find something else for my car is that huuuuuuuuge gap between 3rd and 4th on the X1/9 4 speed.

Ciao,
 
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