azzurro

Wagons, wagons, yum

Just add lightness

Trip up to nats and back was awesome. 

DAY 1: THURSDAY, DEPARTURE

Loaded the Mrs, 2 bikes, a tent, blowup bed and pump, 2 chilly bins, 2 tool boxes, food, clothes, oil water and some spares, and a million of camping stuff,

To the gunwhales!

Pre flight systems check, then dropped the cat off for a weekend in cat prison, and hit the road to Nelson.

It rained pretty much the whole day, so stereo, wipers, heater and lights all giving the alternator a good hard testing.

Dry spot on the road to Hanmer

First night, we didnt make any plans as we werent sure how far we would get, or if we would get there at all, but ended up making it  as far as Hanmer Springs before calling it, and left the booking to Kirsty, we ended up staying in the Hanmeet Campground, in one of the cabins.

Ended up being both the coldest and most uncomfortable night of the trip.

DAY 2: FRIDAY - TO NELSON

Next day was better, no traffic due to a bad accident just before the turn off to Hanmer from Chch side meant we had a clear easy run up though the valleys to Motueka.

Op shopping all the way

Lovely roads, with the 2300 singing at about 3500, making about 85-95km/h

And then Nats

DAY 3 and 4: NATS Saturday and Sunday

To be honest, after setting up the tent on Friday night, its all a bit of a slightly hungover blur,

but lots of good chat, and cruising about, cheeky birds, looking at things, swims and bike rides

And best of all won a thing

DAY 5: MONDAY - HOMEWARD BOUND

Packed up Monday morning(ish!) to hit the road back to Dunedin.

Again, no real plans, but a 125 parts car popped up on tme on the way, but despite making plans to look, Kirsty had booked us into Leithfield Beach Campground, which had an early closing time on a Monday so had to boost it.

The town is full of the worst judder bars but nice beach and lots of period correct caravans.

Also not far from Sunbeams lovely house and man cave, so popped out there for a howsit before retiring back to Villa d'Azzurro

Camping like we mean it. We dont travel light

DAY 6 - ALL THE WAY HOME

Bit of a frosty start, but keen to get rolling home, still at least 6 hours away.

PHEW!

Was A Big Mission, but the wagon went great!

Used less gas than I was expecting, averaging 12.8l/100km (excluding the blast over Takaka Hill), and on some stretches, close to 10l/100km, which isnt bad at all considering the weight and drag from the bikes on the roof.

Used hardly any oil, maybe about 1l, (in fact was overfull because i put a wee bit in every time i checked it because i just couldn't believe it), and no water.

 

Cat was happy to be out of the cattery

Sparkplugs looked really good too, very pleased with the look of those after 2000km of hard running!

Have a pretty bit list of things to sort out including

• swapping the pass side wheel bearing (lol - was pretty grumbly by the time we got home)
• some exhaust tweaks, mainly to move the flanges (low point) further forward which will improve clearance, and probably another muffler before the diff to take out some of the harshness as it only has one at the rear (i feel old!)
• a slightly longer bolt for the drivers side torsion bar to wind it up a bit (i know, i know, but its maxed out and was bottoming out, not good, but the pass side has lots of thread and no tensing for every bump)
• replace a couple of ball joint covers (torn/eaten by brake fluid)
• swap out the inop gbox speedo drive (have the part, but need to fit, which is a box out job, which will be a gearbox seal replacement, and clutch disc clean & adjustment  

Of course wouldnt be a FIAT refresh without a wee bit of body work. 

This all kicked off with my pre WoF check noting only one licence plate light working, and no amount of tappy or wiggly would get it going again.

Problem is, Id dented the rear bumper (backed the towbar of my old van though it DOH!) and tore it years go, and removing the licence plate lights is now a bumper off job. 

Bumper off means i could knock out the dent and weld the tears, fix the rust where it had dented the body, and also, remove and fix the overly complicated bulb holders.

 

No before pics, but this is after knocking out the dent in the body line/seam that usually hides under the bumper, couple other boo boos there as well.

Crazy light set up, glass semi circles under slit metal domes and M3 (!!!) screws holding this all down with a rubber gasket on a metal plate, that has pressed in bulb holders, with no drainage, facing up. Bonkers

Anyway, old bulbs were rusted in, and the base was full of crap, so a soak in teh evaporust and new bulbs and we have working lights.

Fixerating - hard to stop picking scabs!

And newly bashed and 'welded' bumper back on. Better than a torn hole but not exactly good.

Unfortunately the metal is very thin and weak and covered in chrome, so i didnt want to spend too much time breathing it in chasing holes, so it got some drift stitches. 

May put a sticker on it.

 

And an actual rusty hole, passenger side rear dogleg.

 

Chop back to clean metal

Inner patch shaped up

Burned in

Outer bent up and in

Few more pinholes to go but we are basically done here.

And then, becasue i was going to have the paint out, why not pick a few scabs before the WoF man sees them?

Pretty much did the same on both sides. 

 

And then time for a test run to blow the dust off

 

 

APPROVED

 

Did a GPS check on the way there, 3500 rpm is about 88kph, so its gonna be wagon time!

With 4.4 gears at 1:1 in 4th with 195/60R14s, vs the equivalent of 165/92R14s as originally specced, i loose about 11% to the tyres (3500 rpm with the original tyres is 58mph), but shes for stylishly hauling all of the brats up the mountain, or parking on the beach, or just sharing a joke with on the patio, not for vmax runs on the autostrada*

 

 

*the book says "maximum speed under full load on level pavement and with run in engine" is 100mph, or 160kph, which would be pulling ~5800rpm, max power is at 5400, with 98hp.

At 3500rpm the book suggests 75hp, and fuel consumption of 220g/hp/h, which calculates out to ~22l of 98 per 85km, or ~25l per 100km. Will report based on actual use in due course.

 

Brakes sorted, time for WHEEL BEARINGS.

I ordered some stuff from Rockauto a while back based on the part numbers in my 125 and 132 parts manuals, assuming they would be the same (some places list them for the 2300 as well), also because the last set i had bought for this,way  back when i first got it, i actually used in the Ute becasue the ute were fucked and this was fine...

once i had them in stock, Ugh nope too small, fuckety fuck where am i gonna get some of these on short notice?

but for under $100 i have a lifetimes supply for my 125/125p...

now with the brakes off i could knock out the seal and the races and find the part numbers.

When i rebuilt this originally i reused the original bearings and seals, just cleaned and regreased so theyve never been fully out before

Started on the drivers side as this was where the noise seemed to be coming from, the outer was fine as i already knew, but the inner race had a wee bit of pitting probably from when it sat and was starting to get some waviness. 

Now i could get a look at the numbers on these original Made in italy RIV bearings, lead me to find they are common as muck!

Set 5 for the inner bearing and Set 3 for the outers! The grease seal on the inside i measured up and it was also a reasonably easy to find 48x65x10 seal not the 48x66x10 listed on some parts sites.

So yay. Now i have more bearings in my box of wheel bearings, including for the pass side if needed.

I could have probably just replaced the inner bearing race tbh, and i felt bad about not reusing the original 65 yo bearings but i was in there so....

 

 

INTERIOR

This has a front split bench and the drivers butt had blown out and was going saggy.

I mean the seat, gosh.

 

Couldnt see anything wrong on the underside like a broken ring or anything, so must just be the splits in teh cover letting everything sag a bit more than it was

Went to spotlight and got some cheap felty stuff

Cover back on 

Carpet seaming tape on the underneath as a hail mary

APPROVED!

ENGINE

Yep still there.

Swapped out the glass 'firestarter' filter for a metal one with a 90deg outlet that fits much better, cleaned the carb bowls (quite a lot of sediment), wired the electric fuel pump to a switch in the cab (just need it to prime the lines if its been sitting for a few days), charged the battery, checked the stereo and cigarette lighter works, reglued the phone holder.

After a few long idles test runs dropped the oil - this is the centrifugal filter on the crank nose - works very well at collecting (concentrating?) impurities but nothing much to see there. Nice

Dropped the gearbox oil (wanted to eliminate the box as a source of the noise) and that was pretty clean too.

Adjusted the tappets, couple were a little loose, checked the timing, andjusted the spark plug gaps (way too big!) and it now runs like a sewing machine and starts first crank

I did notice this when checking the ignition timing - - seems like its been like that for a long time so im gonna pretend i didnt see it

 

Been pulling finger to get this piece sufficiently ready to drive 800km/10 hours one way to nats.

Last time i drove it any distance (from the transporters yard to home back in 2021?) the brakes were a bit sticky.and there was a grumbling noise from somewhere in the front end that was speed dependant.
 

First job on the list, sticky brakes.

A combo of being parked on the lawn at Muriwai a lot before we moved down here, and sitting a lot since.

These have 4 wheel disc brakes with Girling 3 piston calipers front and rear (12 cylinders!) so plenty of scope for shenanigans

assumed the position

Pulled the calipers and the front wheel bearings 

Disassembled the caliper halves ready for cleaning- at least one piston per caliper was stuck but they all came out eventually. 

The design of the external dust seal on the calipers creates a water trap.

This was the state of a typical piston when they popped out - they are stainless steel, but the rust off the cast caliper bodies.

They all cleaned up with a soak in exoff to clean them, then the bodies into evaporust.

This is the worst caliper after coming out of the evaporust after a day or so, the lip that holds the external dust seal (and any moisture)  is a bit chewy but the cylinder seal part and rest of the body is fine

Assembly 

Used lots of red rubber grease (compatible with brake fluid) as the assembly lube rather than brake fluid which cause its grease will help to keep moisture out,  its not hydroscopic (so wont absorb and hold water in the external side of the cylinder walls) , and its less fresh paint destroying than brake fluid on my nice new caliper paint.

Cylinders x Twelve!

12!

Flippin count them! 

Reassembled - all the pads, seals and etc were fine from last time i refreshed them, and got reused

Rears back on

Had a look at the wheel bearings, the inners are not removable without removing a seal but seemed ok, outers looked good, and the grease was still red from when i first restored and repacked them  

Bleeding didnt go so well one piston was leaking past the seal.

Thought i had maybe rolled the seal, but I must have had a bit too much rubber grease stuck behind the seal and inserting the cylinder took a bite out of it.

Honestly thought that that was a fatal blow for the wagon coming to nats, getting seals from Europe off ebay or whatever would never arrive in time.

Went with my tale of woe down to Sims Brake Services (who have been helpful and friendly before, they did a good job resleeving my 1100T master, and supplying bits to rebuild its hard lines) hoping they could order a cylinder kit from some car with Girling brakes with similar diameter piston, that might come in in a few days, but turn out they had a big box of baggies with seals of many diameters, and handed me a couple right then and there for a total of $7, so crisis averted!

 

18 months since last update, 

Not too much has happened.

Its pretty reliable, sits outside on the driveway and starts first pop. 

 

it goes to the dump every couple of months, and we use it to get compost and dirt for the garden.

Gets used harder than your average Ranger

 

 

The Direzzas on the meshies have gone hard and started sidewall cracking, so I repainted these 14" 131 steelies and fitted some spacers on the rear. I like the colour.

 

Moar Dirt

 

Another load of Green waste

Next job is probably redoing the pinstripe (ive had the stuff for over a year) and maybe looking into getting some pink stripe sticker/kicking rad graphix made up to fill the gaps either side of the doors.

The brakes could probably do with a going over too (i think a caliper or two is sticky).