Sunbeam

I have just returned from an epic roadie to collect a new toy. Actually I arrived 4 minutes before midnight Sunday, but mentally it's taken til today to catch up. Awesome trip, but I am reminded that I'm not 20 anymore. Did the drive from Clevedon to Rangiora in one day with a loaded tandem. I booked a cabin on the Ferry. I highly recommend. Dragged this out of a damp rotting dirt floored cow shed from where it hasn't moved for 19 years. Back story, yarning to work colleague while on layover in LA and somehow got talking about this MG he got out of North Dakota in 1993. The conversation ended with an offer of said MG in return for a box of craft IPAs. So, big hammer to smash the brake drums, a shot of air in the cracked tyres and onto the trailer... Many hours and litres of diesel later... to wind up here That's apprentice No 3 looking very excited in my NEW SHED!!! Bought a 10 acre block with this beauty on it. Upshot, no time or money for cars because house building. Anyway, this thread is about my Fiat, so, Relevance? Picked up a 5 speed box for the Fiat on the way.

Nice find. My buddy picked up an identical one from a barn on the coast. One owner only 80k on the clock, reg on hold. Looked mint, but beware found a lot of surprise hiding rust when stripping it down. All done and painted now, should be on the road in a few months.

Any chance you want to rehome that carb? PM me with terms and conditions please. I'd be keen to know what version. It should be C34 PAIA #. I'm most interested in the # Cheers

Twin carbs is a long way off at this stage. I'm planning on keeping this car for a long time, so there's no rush. In the interim I'll try and get it running right as stock so I can concentrate on getting it road legal, iron out the bugs, enjoy driving it and then start throwing money at frivolities like wheels, carbs, steering wheel etc. We're building a house later this year so both time and money will be scarce... good news though, the land comes with a 135sq m shed...

I have been mucking around with the carb. It still leaks fuel along the gasket line. I think I figured out some of what the mystery screw is for. I think it's some sort of air correction device. I have decided to leave it closed, because if you open it up some, you get a wicked backfire in the primary throat when you blip the throttle... It has also been sucking at cold starts. I have had a play with a 34 DMS Weber that NickJ lent me which is real good at cold starts. Unfortunately the DMS requires substantial linkage mods to be able to work, and I don't want to go down that road just yet. I think some of the issue has been with the Solex carb's lack of accelerator pump output. So I have pulled it to bits again and double checked the jets and passages which are all clean. The jet sizes are all factory or very close to factory. It's hard to say for sure though, because there are so many versions of these carbs. I did find a problem however...Item 43 in the diagram below has a crack running right through the threaded hole on one side. I'm not sure how this will affect the operation of the accelerator pump if at all. Upon reassembly it seems it's pumping quite well, and the car started easily and did not bog down when blipping the throttle, so I went for a drive to get her warm. The idle drops significantly when the engine is at operating temp, and also the accelerator pump output drops, and the hesitation/bogging down starts again. Interestingly, reaching in with a hand to crack the secondary (while the engine is idling) reveals good, crisp pickup despite the secondary not having an accelerator pump jet. I am confused! I need to find a parts carb to swap out the cracked plate in the accelerator pump I think.

Gotta love the modularity (I'm sure that is a word) of old fiats, particularly the twin cam fours! Funny you mention Jag stuff, it was a well known performance upgrade to use jag valve springs in Triumph engines. Dirt cheap too.

Waterpump and head gasket for one of these on trademe. Cheap.

Hi, Yeah I'm in Loburn which is near enough! What kind of strange things is that carb doing? Wouldn't mind taking a look at it. Love the Niva btw. My Dad had one in 1979 which I just barely remember. We lived in Europe at the time. It replaced a series 3 Landy!

The Fiat is running well on the road, but there are some starting and idling issues and transition issues to deal with. The first thing I have done is block off a vacuum take off that had nothing on it. This is clearly a source of un metered air and I had to tweak the throttle stop/ idle adjustment about 4 turns to compensate. I've just been for a drive to get the engine fully warmed up , re adjust the idle speed and have another twiddle with the mixture screw. I think the tip of the screw or the seat may be buggered because only when the screw goes tight does the idle even begin to pick up. I think the engine would prefer to idle a touch leaner even. I'm still baffled by the 3rd screw on the carb. I cannot find what it is in any literature I have or indeed the googlebox. I have had a fiddle with it, but I don't know what it's doing. I can see the results though... As received, this screw was snugged into its housing. backing it out half a turn increases the idle by about 1200rpm, but does nothing for the hesitation in pickup. I suspect the hesitation may be related to insufficient fuel from the accelerator pump circuit, although the pump diaphragm and seals are brand new. I need to find out what the mystery screw is anyway, it will drive me mad otherwise. Also takes a lot of cranking to get going when cold. These poxy carbs don't have a traditional choke either, it's some sort of magical enrichment circuit... Or this...... currently on TM for 6 hundy. Wrong manifold tho, for a worked 4K. Too much $ anyway for now, but we can dream.

Nope, no carbs yet. I would probably save up and buy new tbh. I check Trademe Fiat parts often. I did see an IDF manifold pop up the other day for 200 but yeah, I don't know if they'll fit on a 125. Would rather DCOEs anyway. My old 125 had a Weber DGV fitted. No issues with that one.

My first instinct was breather for the fuel bowl..

3. The idle mix and throttle stop are self evident. The other one looks like this when removed.

Hmmm. The small breather was attached here....

This is the dream setup. If anyone can point me in the direction of such a manifold...

Mine had no cracks. They do exist. I know the 1UZFE is a good engine but it's so, um, Toyota. Have you ever heard a Trumpy with PI or triple Webers with a 6-3-1 manifold at full song? It will make your pants wet. I miss my Triumph and part of the reason I loved it is the shit engineering. I loved spending my time trying to make an overweight badly breathing cast iron relic do more than it was designed to. However, if you must, I endorse the comments about using an R200 and upgraded driveshafts and sticking with a stock(ish) rear end. The Triumph setup works as well as any trailing arm design.

I have fitted the carb kit. This is the easy bit. It did fire right up but doesn't actually run any better. Now, according to my manual it seems my particular Solex carb C34 PAIA/9 is an "exhaust emissions control" model. These words strike fear into my heart as this is usually a euphemism for "this is a shit carb and you will never get it to run properly". I must admit I am a bit of a noob when it comes to carbs (except for dirtbike carbs). I have a few questions for those more knowledgeable on the subject. Firstly, the screw outlined in red. None of the diagrams in the workshop manual show it. This was nipped up tight when I disassembled it and so I did it up the same. Twisting it with the engine running even 1/8th of a turn has a profound effect on the sucking noise the carb makes. I have no idea what it does. The blue circled screw is the idle mixture adjustment. Secondly, none of the diagrams show this spigot either. There was nothing hooked up to it, but it is sucking air. Blocking it with my finger with the engine idling makes it die. Thirdly, fuel is weeping from the red lined area despite the fact it is a new gasket, the surfaces are clean and look flat, and the fuel level in the float chamber is 12mm below this line. Actually I don't know if this is right as I can't find a correct float level anywhere in my books or on the google, just reference to special tool xyzabc to bend the float arm correctly...

The little Fiat seemed to be running horrendously rich. There was fuel oozing out around the emulsion tube due to a bad seal. Also, it turns out the mixture screw was set 7 full turns out... 6 and a half turns in later and it's much better. I took it for a good fang up the road and the plugs are a much nicer colour. 3 days after this, a carb kit turned up. So easy to get at, I love it. Minutes later... Take one of these and call me in the morning.

Success! (ish) Flat50acres is now merely a flatspot. The rest must be down to fuelling. Put the timing light on it, idle set at 10 BTDC. Drives well, idle is a bit crap. I've spotted a rebuild kit for low $ on Ebay for the Solex carb.

Test drive yesterday revealed not so much a flat spot in acceleration, but more of a yawning abyss the car would fall into when throttle is applied too rapidly. I have mild whiplash as a result. Today's mission is to put all this In here Mum is in town and the kids have found a Rammstein CD and are headbanging to Du Hast in the dining room. Hilarious. Dad escapes to garage. Anyhoo, those green HT leads are original 1973 Cavis items. I got another box from Germany with rotor, condensor, points, and leads. Essentially shipped for free with the wheel bearings and brake stuff I was getting anyway. All parts were very cheap. Unfortunately I broke this while undoing, it's the insulator block in the side of the dizzy housing that keeps the points, LT, and condensor leads electrically seperate from the housing. Ideas where I can obtain another? I can still use the inside bit. New high impedance insulator manufactured from Marmite lid for the outside..complete with special offset hole. Feeling quite chuffed at achieving some Barrying. Test drive on the cards for this arvo. When I got it, the accelerator pump on the carb wasn't working so I suspected this at first for causing said abyss. It seems to be working now however, so hopefully replacement ignition components will fix it.

To my knowledge all 73's got the high back seats. The car was in runout mode by then. At the moment, engine plans are restricted to new cambelt, water pump, thermostat etc. plugs, leads, points, radiator clean out and a rebuild kit for the carb. When I'm a bit more financial I'd love a 2 litre with sideys and a 5 speed, but for now it's soooo original I want to keep it as is for a while. It's a beautifully quiet motor and leaks no oil, so why mess with it...

Some of you may be thinking "hey that's not a proper project car, it's too flash eh" So, to prove its pedigree, here is a rust. There is another rust in the radiator support panel and I suspect a good quantity of bog in the front valance. Otherwise for one of these it's quite good.

Interieur So, the heater fan doesn't go, and the lower heater flap is a bit broken. Needs seatbelts in the back and needs a stealth stereo. A nicer steering wheel wouldn't go astray either, the rim on the original one has a crack in it.

Today is the day when after nearly 3 months on axle stands in the garage, the wheels are back on! Much excite. The painfully slow brake rebuild is finished. The daughters helped me bleed the brakes (they are finally tall enough to push the pedal). Once bleeding was complete I got number 2 daughter to put both feet on the brake pedal and hold it down to check for leaks of which there were 2. I managed to stop the leaks by nipping up some fittings. Actually by doing them up quite a bit more tight than I'm comfortable with... I felt brave enough to drive it to the servo to pump up the tyres. The car looks quite non-derelict so I don't think I'd get pulled over unless I was doing something stupid. The brakes feel really good. Got treated to a wash too!

So, as well as not having been driven in nearly 10 years, it also hasn't been serviced. I drained a couple of litres of creosote out of the sump and treated her to fresh 20w50 and a filter. After this, I replaced the air filter which was so soggy you could almost knead the rubber like play doh. There is quite a lot of blowby being pushed into the filter housing and I think this has led to the deterioration of the rubber. This morning I changed the gearbox and diff oil. The gearbox oil was dark but at least it doesn't smell of gear oil. The EP additives in most gear oils are liquid death for these boxes and your average joe mechanic has no idea. The Castrol is what I used in the gearbox. The suction gun is great for jobs like this but it's very hard work sucking up 25w50 through a straw. Also, I sometimes think I am the only person in NZ who owns a 12mm hex driver. The sump, gearbox, and diff plugs have all been massacred with vice grips. My old 125 was the same and the few modern(ish) Fiats I have done work on were also the same!!

First job was to fix the brakes. I have also lost the photos of this job... I'm shocked it managed to go and stop at all, let alone pull up in a straight line. I had to crowbar the calipers off the discs. Now, I like fixing stuff because my time is cheap (and I'm cheap). Sadly, I lack facilities in our current home. All my stuff is in a 20 foot container and the modern (clean) attached double (ha! how do you actually get 2 cars in a double?) garage is not a very good workshop. I took the calipers in to CBC in Christchurch and the lovely folk there rebuilt them and made them look brand new. Which is a good thing because the bill came to $736. Gulp. I'm a little bit insulated from workshop prices because I usually do my own work, so I tried to hide my shock when presented with the invoice. They did a lovely job though. While it was apart, I did the rear axle seals which were were weeping slightly. Also, I thought since my calipers look so nice, why not spend even more money and get new discs as well along with new pads of course. . Man I love getting new parts.... All four corners look like this now. Honest. Now I'm just a little bit worried about the mess I've made on the nice floor of the garage... I really miss my 12x9 metre man shed.