Working at Bob Martin's

[TonyK]

I am working on Bob Martin's car this week with a few items that have surfaced or have been haunting us. First off he has a transmission leak on the left side half shaft adapter at the transmission. As discussed in another thread the parts so far seem to be the same between the Abarth manual transmission and the X1/9 transmission. Bob did order a seal from Fiat in Louisville Kentucky the seal was $37 Just to let you know they can be purchased for alot less than that at MidWest Bayless. We changed the shaft adapter and seal as it showed pitting at the seal rub location. Time will tell if we are successful.

The other problem that has been haunting me and Bob is that we have not been able to get the Air Conditioning working on his car. The car did not come with A/C but over the years I had purchased AC parts for the car and when the build was happening at my house the AC system was installed. The 86 body was wired for both AC and Non AC use so the wiring changes were fairly simple. Bob, Jim Decker and I made an attempt to get the AC working before FFO in Texas, but were not successful. In the fall of 2023 again we opened the system and flushed it, it was contaminated. When do my builds once all of the welding is completed the engine bay is sand blasted. The down side of this is that there is a lot of sand everywhere and I suspect that when one of the lines was being pulled through the body sand entered the lines. Flushing in the fall of 2023 presented grit in the flush catch can and although we thought the system was clear we were not able to build any real head pressure. I found two used AC compressors and today we changed one out and I pulled the head from the removed AC compressor. Sand. The valve plates were stuck open with grit. We changed out the compressor, this requires displacing the module box, tomorrow we will flush the system again and install a filter screen ahead of the compressor on the suction line.

A few pictures.


TonyK at Bob Martin's in Radcliff Kentucky.

 

[JimD]

Good luck guys. Hope you can get the AC functioning for Bob.

 

[TonyK]

Work continues but as life goes, two old guys get distracted easily. We concentrated on flushing the AC system, there is still grit in it and we have broken the system into 3 sections for flushing. We have 2 of the three sections, it takes time to set up and flush 10 times then using a coffee filter we filter the flushing liquid. With the hoses off at the compressor I inserted the reamer so that the suction screen can also be fitted after flushing.

Next problem is that the low pressure cut out switch is bad and the location under the left intercooler requires a 24mm crowfoot to remove it. That we don't currently have, tomorrow's quest.

TonyK.

Working at Bob Martin's in Radcliff Kentucky.

 

[TonyK]

The flushing continued today with good results. I removed the expansion valve and it was clear then flushed the evaporator core. All clean. We added oil and the filter screen assembled all of the hoses and pulled a vacuum but it did not hold. Looking into it a bit further we found my manifold set was leaking. Repairs done. We put 100psi air pressure on the system and it appeared to hold and soaped all of the connections. Pulled a vacuum again with Bob's son's Robinair pump and charged the system. I pushed 2 LBS of R134a into the system but it was over charged and had too much head pressure. ( 450 psi) When the engine was rev'd the high pressure relief opened. With a bit of playing around we got 29 psi suction and just under 250 Psi on the high side. Outlet temps at the centre vent were about 36 degrees and it was 80 degrees here when we were messing with the AC system. This was at idle with the car stationary in Bob's garage. I think it will do a bit better with the car on the road with more air flow. With all of this done it was time to button up the module box, here is shot of what is in there.


( See pictures )
th
Tony K at Bob Martin's in Radcliff Kentucky

 

[bbrown]

You two are having way too much fun!
Nice work.

 

[TonyK]

Last day here. We finished buttoning up the car, installed the front grill and moved on to an oil leak on the oil sender TEE that was custom made for the Abarth Swapt. The ECU needs to see the pressure sender open and the oil light on the X1/9's dash as well. One works on a 12 volt system that cannot be cross connected. Also Bob has a direct reading oil pressure gauge that also needs to be connected to the oil galley. A small feurrel was changed and that too was completed. Bob has a test stand for the old engine and it runs. With that done, it was time to pack up the tools and get the truck loaded for the 12 hour drive back to Canada tomorrow. We spent a bit of time looking at the FFO 2024 web site planning our visit there. It has been a fun and productive week.


TonyK

At Bob Martin's in Radcliff Kentucky.

 

[JimD]

Have a safe trip home Tony!