ThePogs Fiat X1/9 Wedgetable

[ThePog]

I did a thing.

First I went to visit @yoeddynz who kindly welded the crack up.

I also got a preview of exciting Imp developments....

When I got home I had a look to see what that plug thread was. Interestingly it appeared to be an M22x1.5 parallel thread, which meant a tapered plug made very little sense.

And it just so happened that I had an M22x1.5 tap and some threaded rod. So I messed around for a while to get this;

I put some pretty mega threadlocker on the insert, so it shouldn't go anywhere.

Now the fucked shaft. It was pretty obvious that the broken bit wasnt a new development, and that the box had basically been working ok like that, so I did the obvious thing and just put it back together with the broken bit back in place, retained by the gear and the retaining nut. It feels fine.

I figure that worst case I lose 5th at some point, by which time I will have a new box to go in. I will lift an optimistic pint to that notion tonight....

[ThePog]

I got it all back together and has all of its gears so I'm calling that a win.

It also does not appear to be leaking any transmission fluid, another win.

So then I looked to the wheel bearing situation, and smashed that out. There is a dedicated X1/9 forum, Xweb, which has a lot of excellent info and how to's. I found a great pictorial run through of the process and set to. I did need to make a special tool to remove a locking ring but that was no drama.

Octagonal lock ring fuckery.

Special tool made by a special tool.

 

That and the engine going in meant Sunday was quite a big day, so I left the tie rod end for tonight.

On the basis of this minor last task I booked the car in for its recheck and a wheel alignment. After work I went down to sort it, only to find that the rod end is the wrong one, and about 50mm too short, GAHhhh!

It took two weeks for the last one to arrive, I am so disappointed.

Anyway.

Previously to this weekends shenanigans I had done some messing with the jetting, and drilled the mains out to 130 from 125.

So I took it out for a short run so I could bleed the cooling system properly and check the AFRs which were much improved, as was the idle to main circuit transition, so that at least was good.

[ThePog]

The correct tie rod end arrived a couple of days ago thankfully before the wof grace period ran out;

 

And so this just happened;

 

And I was greeted by a complementary bit of even leakier wedgieness which was an irresistible photo op;

 

So fucking excited.

[ThePog]

Ah man I just took it for its first 'just for the fun of it' blast around the back roads, fuck it goes well. The engine is just so willing to get up and go and it feels amazingly planted for a 43 year old car. The handling is really really good.

It does an almost comical amount of burbling and popping on the overrun, I might have to tune a bit of it out.

11/10 would trade again.

[ThePog]

As expected something shat itself, I would have been incredibly surprised had my *stress testing* over the weekend not opened a few cracks.

It turns out that the occasional non start I had been experiencing was not the battery going flat, but the starter not playing the game.

I pulled it tonight, the starter that is, and it spun up no problem on the bench but less so firing it with the solenoid. But the solenoid was clunking so it must be the contactor.

Shortly afterwards some crispy was uncovered;

 

I cleaned those contacts up, soldered it back together and reassembled, then had the old girl firing into life shortly afterwards. Nice.

I have also had the weird situation where the resting voltage of the battery(s) after a run has been over 13v. I suspect the alternator might be overcharging but when I had it running I was seeing 14v at about 3000 revs.

This is kindof weird anyway as the alt light does not come on, which is either a poor connection or blown lamp, but this also has an LED not an incandescent fitted, and I now know that theoretically this isn't enough to excite the alt anyway. It was on my list to fix when I got a chance, so I will investigate.

Obviously I'll do more testing about the charging, including fitting the voltmeter I have ordered.

[ThePog]

So it wasnt running quite right last time I went out, it started after taking a spirited left hander, and I had to curtail todays supply run as the problem persisted.

So tonight I pulled the carbs to see what gunk was blocking things up, and it turned out to be a noticeable amount of water. I stripped both and blew out the passages then reassembled.

That cardboard surface was a great idea as it turned out cos the petrol soaked in and the water sat on the top which made it super obvious thats what was going on.

Interestingly someone has fitted some proper 32mm chokes, I recall the ones I had on it were 28mm that had been bored to 33ish in a rough manner.

It all looked pretty good in there tbh.

But I suspect tomorrows effort will be siphoning out the tank....

 

[ThePog]

My budget tank pumperouterer

This only worked averagely as the pump kept getting blocked with all the clag coming out, and the results were displeasing.

The dark stuff is rusty water, time to pull the tank I reckon, i can see a layer that is obviously where water has sat and rusted shit up.

Pah.

[ThePog]

So the tank came out, pretty easy all in all. 4 bolts and two straps and it drops straight down. There does need to be a bit of room so I lifted her up onto the big ramps again.

 

Shes pretty claggy down in the hole;

 

And here is the most obvious culprit, the joiner between the filler and the tank. ;

 

I ordered a silicone joiner of the correct diameters which arrived promptly.

I took the tank to the local radiator place and he reckoned I needed to split it open to sandblast the inside. We settled on cutting big holes in either side, and he said he could just solder it up again. This he did, and did a tidy job, but he reckoned it was so glazed on the inside it took 4 hours to blast it properly  poor boy.

He ended up coating the inside of the tank, so unfortunately the paint kit that @dmulally sent me expressly for this purpose will not be used.... Not on this job anyway.

So I got it back today and chucked it in, somehow without managing to take any pics, and its all up and running. I'll have to balance the carbs again but it runs ok.

While I waited for the tank to get sorted I tidied a few other things, I sourced a relay that @vk327 suggested, and wired that in to run the fuel pump.

 

There is a signal that comes from the starter to prime the pump when cranking, but I wired that to a button on the dash so I could just podge it to get things going if it has been sitting for a while.

I also pulled the cluster (fuck) to put an incandescent bulb in place of the LED so the charging circuit would excite properly. This was a bit of a fudge as the tiny bulbs dont seem to be particularly available, so I filed the hole a bit bigger for a bigger holder/bulb of which I had spares. This worked out ok surprisingly.

 

Ill tune it up in the weekend then see what else breaks

 

[ThePog]

So far no issues, and I gave it the fullest of full beans over the hill to Moutere today.

The tyres are IRL pretty shit at anything over 80km/h, I may investigate finding something with actual sidewall stiffness.

And here is an *action shot* that at least proves my wiring is legit.

 

[ThePog]

Ah man I have been on a rim finding mission so I can go to a 14" or 15" rim and improve the sidewall situation, but as the PCD is 4x98mm things are difficult.

I did find this pic which has me boned up, those are Maserati BiTurbo 14" rims, oof

 

But as you can Imagine they are not super common.

All I can hope for is that Barry has a set in his shed left over after the rest of the car has disintegrated and will flick them on to me..

I will take further suggestions...