Pog’s X1/9

[ThePog]

5 hours ago, VitesseEFI said:

That windscreen surround is giving me flashbacks…… to the horrifically rusty one I  owned briefly in the late 80s. Was an early 1300 made in ‘79 so barely 10 years old at the time.  Galloping rot was only one of the many issues afflicting that car.

Your repairs look good though 

Apparently a lot of the NZ ones came through the UK due to the RHD'ness etc, which is potentially a bad situation. However I was told that by the 80s the Italians had started a cursory program of rust prevention on these, and it is more solid than you would expect so maybe this is true.

But there is also a lot of veeeery thin steel to weld to, there has been a certain amount of hole chasing on this...

[VitesseEFI]

1 hour ago, ThePog said:

But there is also a lot of veeeery thin steel to weld to, there has been a certain amount of hole chasing on this...

That sounds familiar!

Mine was proper rotten. Passenger footwell was filling with water, which turned out to because the wheel tub was in fact nothing but two layers of rubbery under-seal with bran-flakes between…. And a moderately heavy landing after a hump-backed bridge partially detached the front LH suspension turret leading to a lop-sided stance and very odd handling. 
 

Fixed that and flogged it on quick!

Keep up the good work!

[VitesseEFI]

That wiring brings back more (dubious) memories. Mine was bought very cheap (though not nearly cheap enough as it turned out) because it had had a small loom fire under the dash - though one caused by careless welding than an electrical fault. Just at the point where front and rear loom plug together. Ended finding a used front loom locally and repairing the short section of the rear. I carefully removed the font loom, snipping the wires to leave colours visible so I could just swap the replacement in. Trouble was, old and new looms were completely different colours and the Haynes book of lies was different from both of them . This led to about a week of very long evenings puzzling it out. When I finally (very gingerly) connected a battery, literally the only thing that happened was one of the headlight pods winding up and down… continuously. Which led to several more long evenings.

That Uno turbo motor…….. my early 1300 could certainly have used some extra grunt. It was desperately slow. Waaaay slower than the Herald 1200 (with 1500 Spitfire running gear) I was mostly using at the time. Lent the Herald to a mate then attempted to keep up with him in the Fiat. It was hopeless. He blew past me on the first straight and next time I saw him, 22 twisty miles later, he’d already got the tea made. 

[ThePog]

Yea there was so much fuckery going on that there was no way I could work with it. However I may have overreached my abilities.

[governorsam]

there are diodes on the back of the headlight motors that blow or vibrate off.

https://www.visualimpressions.ca/fiat/diodes.htm

 

[ThePog]

14 minutes ago, governorsam said:

there are diodes on the back of the headlight motors that blow or vibrate off.

https://www.visualimpressions.ca/fiat/diodes.htm

 

Na i have solved it. I misunderstood that what appeared to be an earth wire was actually a signal return from the diode/switching gubbins. I need an extra relay for each side and a bit of loom jiggery pokery, but its all sorted.

[Goat]

Im really enjoying this build.

Awesome work!

[ThePog]

5 minutes ago, Goat said:

Im really enjoying this build.

Awesome work!

Cheers man.

Things will slow down a bit now that it's time to get back to work, but shouldnt be to far away from done.

[VitesseEFI]

Liked for the car content, not your health problems….  
 

Get well soon & don’t overdo it in the meantime!

[Alfashark]

What flavour box is it? Would a clutch from something like a Punto turbo work? I imagine that'd be a bit higher rated than one from an NA combo.

[ThePog]

1 minute ago, Alfashark said:

What flavour box is it? Would a clutch from something like a Punto turbo work? I imagine that'd be a bit higher rated than one from an NA combo.

I have had a look and its pretty specific to 1500cc fiats. The Uno Turbo 1300 ones are the same but possibly higher rated, but not enough to worry.

Midwest Bayless do staged kits but they are proper money...

[Alfashark]

Ahh true, I'm not well versed in transverse setup Italian cars. I thought there would be a bit more plug and play Latin Lego going on.

[ThePog]

Unfortunately no lego

Some boys have grafted a Fiat 500 6 speed box on to get a nicer box and better power handling, but it needs the chassis rail cut for clearance and quite a lot of gear selector fuckery.

[Alfashark]

Stab in the dark, but a povo-spec 147/156 box won't fit?

[ThePog]

I haven't found anything with anyone using that sort of thing but i will look.

All i need is another 20 or 25% clutch and it will be mint tho. The box has synchromesh weaknesses but is basically fit for purpose..

[GregT]

If you're limited for space and a better pressure plate, what about twin-plating it ?  Same pressure more torque capacity.

[ThePog]

2 minutes ago, GregT said:

If you're limited for space and a better pressure plate, what about twin-plating it ?  Same pressure more torque capacity.

How does that work?

[Alfashark]

The usual italian crunch on upshift to 2nd?

I got very good at splitting scavenged 33 boxes to find good synchro rings, or just taking the one from 5th and slipping it into 2nd. 

[ThePog]

I have another box sitting there if the problematic 3rd gear syncho is being a shit

[h4nd]

31 minutes ago, ThePog said:

How does that work?

Big bike clutch:

many plates sandwich, with alternate plates toothed inward VS outward.