azzurro's 1969 FIAT 125 Berlina

[azzurro]

Spent a few hours at home midweek fiddling with the car, so i can spend the weekend doing other stuff for a change.

doesnt look like that much, but there was a hell of a lot of messing around with the hundreds of little things required, but especially
- the top 2 engine/tranny bolts (1/6 of a turn at a time x about 1000000, lying on the engine with one arm jammed in to place the spanner, the other to turn it), repeat on tother side but kack handed
- the clutch cable (needed an extra spacer in the end?), will see when it runs
- starter (its hard enough to install with a single carb, I do not want to replace this one, even connecting the wiring was a pain!!)



after that filled the gbox and engine with oil, installed the radiator and fan filled that up, and lastly attached the carb linkages and adjusted them. That leaves up here:



pretty much just needs the dizzy timing set (there is very limited adjustment) and ill try to fire it up

I have run into an semi-unexpected issue tho, i have some K&N pancake filters that i wanted to run, , they dont fit as the outside bottom edge of the filter rubs on the fender.

I also have some ramflow ones as a backup I was kind expecting this problem (the round profile avoids the rubbing), BUT they wont fit either as the carbs are set too close together and the backing plates over lap! Bah!

As i have the backing plates should i use a foam type of thing? I have some springs for filter socks but I dont really want to pay $100 for some and i hear they are quite restrictive?.

Id prefer something like this:
http://www.sbdev.co....Air_Filters.htm
A blank plate cut to suit and a foam over meash type thing that would allow the rams to stay on (both the K&N and Ramflows require the rams to come off.

Any suggestions? This is how close the rams are (45mm) to the fender. BFH is an option but Id prefer not to do that to my fresh paint (shouda test fitted before Painting!).

[azzurro]

so i spent $15.60 for 12 'mesh filters', instead of about $30 for one

needed a bit of modification, (that is snap off crappy spot welds, invert the mesh round the other way) they even have a bell mouth shape and they even line up with the rams nicely too

the fitment method is hardly OEM but it is blue...

thell do for getting it started (!) anyway and hopefully keep small children and logs from getting sucked into the carbs

thats the only good news this weekend however, couldnt get the $%(#ing thing to start.

It did pop back though the carbs a couple of times early on but other than that not even a chuffle

nice looking fuel pump was a dud, so changed that out for the orignal one, but then the carbs leaked, tightended them up.

set timing about 3 times, 180'd the dissy, swapped leads, sparks, and dissy over, still nothing. multimeter checking all sorts, every thing seems to be getting power, everything seems to be int he right place, its just not catching.

there way a lot of this today.

I think its possibley

not enough spark to catch though all the fuel (voltage drop when cranking?)

not enough crank speed to atomise the fuel? (battery too flat/too far away)

Maybe those cams have too much overlap?

not enough compression to work no matter what (bent valves?)

I will get a compression tester as it is much easier to crank over than the oringial engine even with the sparkplugs in.

Maybe some starting spray as well to see if it fires?

Battery(s) are really struggling now esp from the boot, so ill try craking it on the jumpers from a runner tomorrow. Its always been a bit funny so it may be a drain on the secondary batter ive been using int he front closer to the starter?

If the compression test is ok ill try it with the old single carb, otherwise the entire old engine is going back in.

BAH! Goddamn car. :bomb:

Fingers crossed its just something silly

[azzurro]

tried the car on a jumper leads, and got a few more coughs and splutters, but nothing even close to running. Spak is good, fuel is good (flooding if anything), air is getting in, so only leaves compression...

Then borrowed my neighbors compression guage,

results are (average of 3 runs on the starter, cold engine (obv)):

1: 135psi

2: 132psi

3: 100psi

4: 110 psi (with a low of 90 and flicking - valve not sealing?)

they all seem fairly low to me (psi/14.7 = 9:1 CR max at sea level???, which is about right as stock these are 8.8CR) but the concern is 3 and 4

Then i checked the tappet gaps (they run a bucket and shim), I had previously assumed the gaps were sweet as there is still numbers in white pen in the cam boxes.

Cyl: Inlet: Exhaust:

Spec: 0.45mm : 0.5mm

(figures are the largest feeler i could get in in mm)

1: 0.18 : 0.15

2: 0! : 0.25

3: 0.15 : 0.33

4: 0! : 0! (ie could not get any sized feeler guage between tappet/shim and cam on In or Ex)

Thats what ya get for assuming someone else did a good job i suppose

My thinking is that If the valves had bent if they would not stick high up (i guess this could happen if they have been bent and then jammed up by the piston with the valve shaft jamming in the seals???)

I guess normally, bent valves would have oversized/bigger shim gaps due to the flat of the valve bending up and holding the end of the valve away from the tappet when the cam is not in action?

I figure I Have a few options

1. pulling the head off to have a look, and then ill know what ups (but ill need to replace the head gasket and do # 2 anyway)

2. just doing the tappets (need a box of shims and that special tool!), or

3. tidying up the original engine quickly and chucking that back in (with most of the stuff ive bolted onto the engine in there now) just to get it running before xmas and do 1 and 2 anyway.

sigh.

[azzurro]

Big thanks to Chris (Abarth) who came over Saturday morning and had a tutuu and got her to run! Yus

dizzy was 180 deg out (doh!) and gave the carbs a basic balance as well.

had to leave it at that with heaps of other stuff on over the weekend, but spent the day on it today and she runs and starts good now, except for a few pops out the carbs from the tight tapppets/shims.

- alternator needed to come out, the brushes had popped out of position so the already crap battery couldnt run it alone.

- ran it up to hot a few times tap in side of the block not done up - woops!

- bled the brakes, including the master, now seem to catch nice and high on the the pedal work better than ever and no leaks, yet.

- took trumpets off (tape already melting off from petrol) and fitted ramflow filters, much quieter might get socks just for the noise

- fixed wiper park position

- put bonnet and new catch on

- steelies back on for new tyres/no rubs wof

- and fittened the ramflows after some 'adjustement':

just a final fettle tomorrow before getting a new battery and going to the wof shop if it aint raining

Edit: photos

-

[azzurro]

Got a new battery today, nice big sucker, aheapsa volts.

I was also hoping to go for a test run and final tighten & tidy up before going for a warrant,

BUT

i stalled it and it wouldnt restart

Seemed so sudden (running ok, then nothin)I suspected electrics and swapped all the dissy and leads over (again) to the other set. No.

While fiddling around I also retested the compression while it was warm - 130psi all round, so nice and consistent (better than preior cold/unstarted test), and a good sign of no damage.

Turned out it had skipped a tooth on the timing belt >.< so that wrote the rest of the afternoon off.

Just got it going again, seems to start and run ok, if slightly tappier, so fingers crossed for a test run tomorrow and BF after that!

[azzurro]

Woke up this morning hoping to fire her up, back up the ramps, fit the battery tray, test drive and pootle into town for a WoF, and then onto the Burger Fuel meet this evening.

Best laid plans and all...

Got the bigger battery tray in OK with plenty of help from my small assistant who fits in the boot, but hang on, whats this:

(the big patch on the mat is the brake fluid from sitting overnight, the puddle next to it is from taking the wheel off and getting the camera!)

My old calipers that i put back in fingers crossed have bitten me right on the ass.

These have been leaking out the piston.

This is how much fluid leaked, overnight, just sitting - yep, pretty much all of it faaark!:

Somehow they have got worse.

The reason i didnt replace the leaky calipers and put my spare calipers in the first time (like 2 months ago) is this broken bleeder screw:

I thought i was toast, but of course there is nothing that cant be fixed or improved with a few blobs of weld:

And after two or three attempts (the easyout i broke off in there some months ago came out first!) got it out:

Swapped all the innards over, cleaned off most of the crap and they are in and bled now, and hopefully no leaks. Ive left the wheels off andput a towel down to check for leaks over night.

So, no Burger Fuel for me tonight, but I think that should just about be it, pending any further catastrophic failures.

WoF tomorrow maybe

[azzurro]

well a much better day today.

Woke up and checked my brake fluid leak checking paper towelTM on the passenger side - nothing , check the drivers - totally soaked

Swapped out the piston and seal for another, and tested by bleeding it and then putting a bit of wood between the piston and the arms, then pressing on the pedal and it seemed to be ok. Excellent.

Wheels on, and then FINALLY!!! a bit of this :

and then into town for this:

This also happened somewhere along the way

Is there such a thing as too much Doooooorrrrt?

and this one because WoF:

Merry xmas everyone

[azzurro]

more media than im allowed to! what?

Video 1:

Video 2:

[azzurro]

yay christmas/time off!

New front component speakers ive had for a while installed, woofers in the kick panel and tweeters in the old centre dash

Music sounds awesome now but, I think while driving it might not get used so much

Also tidied up a bunch of wiring, and moved the amp to under the seat.

Didnt swap my uncraked dash in or even look at the heater while i was there.

These photos also show how much that front carpet needs replacing

Scored a pretty much NOS Momo Montecarlo steering wheel off Ridal of this very website

had to swap bits and pieces between the various horn 'buttons' and logos around to get a working 'momo' logoed one, but worked out sweet.

This is the momo logo awaiting modification to fit in the delogoed sportline button, and the completed momo to sportline 'holefiller'.

I was a bit hohum about its modern design but after using it even for a little while it its definitly staying

The Momo logo fell off the horn button immediately after this photo

Need some foam stickies.

This is the previous wooden Sportline, which I never quite liked the look or feel of for some reason, that will be for sale soon

And some blue filter socks so i can put the rams on, as well as some spare filter stuff for the ramflows to justify the postage.

Family drive to a picnic today didnt go well, started running on 3 that some itialian tuning on the throttle didnt fix. Luckily we still were pretty much around the corner to nurse it home getting progressivly worse and stall on the driveway. I suspect carboned up plugs from rich running and/or crap in the carbs from that crappy filter material that was in the ramflos.

[azzurro]

Took this for a shakedown hoon a couple weekends back to a Fiat club fun run at Hampton Downs, Fiat Nationals racing was on the sunday, this was the low key Saturday.

Line Up:

Fave Car:

These are a few of my favourite things:

On the fun run, having fun following directions

Action Shot (photo by Myte128)

Driving to and from the Nationals the car went pretty well, burning about 500ml of oil, ~40l of premium and a set of plugs over 300km, but it also highlighted that there are a few issues still. However im pretty confident that they are issues of (my own) adjustment/setup and not mechanical failure.

- carbs/running - still a bit funny, definitly running rich, dropping cylinders esp at idle (fouled plugs?) and have hard starting and hot idle problems. My neighbour came over yesterday for a fiddle, and we had a play around and tested a few things. The brand new hotter plugs (BP7ES instead of the usual BP6ES) were quite fouled from the 300km drive! Reset the idle mix to only 1 1/4 screws out each which usually would be very lean, but the carbs are emissions ones that already have been modified with oversized idle mix jets (58 instead of a usual 35-40) to address the typical lean progression phase with these carbs. Seems to idle much better now (i think the plugs were periodically flooding/fouling?), but i will take it to Weber Specialties to properly tune & balance, after...

- tappets and timing - still have not got the tappets sorted out, but hopfully this week. Setting up the timing is also a bit of an issue due to the very limited rotation with the position of the manifold and carbs, tho i think ive got it pretty much on now. I think the leading carb should/could be moved about 3-5mm rearwards which will mean tigging and redrilling the mount bolts, but would improve dissy clearance significnatly. Will ask Murray about this.

- random oil pressure drop! happended a couple times on the cruise on the way back and not on any particular bendy bits, - OMFG code brown!!! idiot light on, also guage v low, but no noise or rev changes, and then just as randomly is fine again. I think a baffled sump might be in order, though to be fair oil was a wee bit low (like 1/2 to 1/4 below full). Could have been an odd air bubble in the filter take off (where both the factory light and my oild guage are connected?)

- seats - current high back ones have a few springs poking in annoying palces and are not that comfortable on longer drives as we found, so thats a bit of motivation to crack on with fitting the blue velour Corona GT ones i have.

[azzurro]

ive made a wee bit of progress on my list in the post above.

I have topped up the oil, and purchased some BP5EY plugs which are a bit hotter and have a fancy v cut in the electrod and it defintily etter, still dropping cylinder 4 at idle.

Pretty sure its compression related but will also check for vacuum leaks and improve the engine and battery/chassis earthing tomorrow.

Other than that i hanvt touched the engine since returning from Nationals.

I have however teed up an exFIAT mechanic and race guy to check out the shims at some point and am pondering getting some vernier camwheels first to properly dial the cams in at the same time.

These engines the factory camwheels are only adjustable in relation to each other and the crank by skipping a tooth on the belt which is way too much.

Will go these if i do. Sooo shiney and billety...

http://www.millersmu...y-aluminum.html

I have however installed the seats i had lined up for it which ended up being simpler to do than i thought. Still took almost 2 days tho! (Whole day for the first one, less than half for the second)

They are from a 80's Corona GT Coupe (a luxo version of the Celica) so are the peak of Japanese over engineering.

While they may be a bit 'new' they are a gazillion times more comfortable and supportive, and i have the blue faux-sheepskin covers to hide them with if anyone is offended

Surprisingly they are also quite a bit heavier than the high backs, not surprising when this is the seat tilt adjust mechanism!

Turned out pretty good and required only a couple of bits 'remanufacturing' to fit to allow for the 125's stupid 50mm mount height difference (inside to outside rails) and the Toyotas slightly narrower rail 'guage'. I have basically rotated the Toyota mounts 90 degrees to line up with the Fiat captive nuts, the inner is fitted as per Fiat mountings. I will probably improve the outer rail mounts eventally by getting some steel plate bent up into a long 'Z' shape, 50mm in overall height, one for each seat.

That should also allow fitment of almost any OEM or aftermarket seat in the future.

Interior only needs the dash swapped out (heater box too) im seriously procrastinating on this job!) for my better spare and some new carpert and that should be that.

Mrs Azzurro and I are running the Volt Espresso (http://voltespresso.co.nz/#/home) coffee cart at the Kumeu Hot Rod Show again this year, which is on this weekend. Should be another doozy.

Pop in and say hello (by the swap meet/bouncy castles) if you are attending, free coffee for all OSers that say hi!

[azzurro]

Did the non-obvious thing and richened up the idle mix considerably and seems to be both going and idling much better (if a bit fast - 1500-2000rpm), and maybe the total advance is a bit too much, static could maybe come back a bit now that the carbs seem to be dialed in a bit better, and i also think it may be a bit lean on the mains as it runs/accellerates in all gears better on less than 1/2 throttle (progression phase incl a bit from teh idle mix curcuit) than on WOT (mains only), but is particulalry noticable in 4th.

Yet to have the valve clearances checked/shims done or book in withWeber Specialties.

Also put the meshies back on with some awesome near new Direzza tyres i got from Sambo, and also painted them a bit darker grey (after this photo)

My closed road testing suggests handling is improved.

Went to the Kumeu Classic Car and Hot Rod Show over the weekend, we run Mrs Azzurros boss's coffee cart as a bit of an annual thing, so this is pretty much the only photo i took there, we did quite nicely on the coffees too:

Had plenty of piners and "I/my brother/mate had one of those back in the day and it was bloody awesome" as well as a few "wha' the fark is that", and plenty of "dont see many of these any more" as well as a couple of offers to buy

Here is an 'after' shot back at Volt HQ with the van:

[azzurro]

Have not had much time for this lately but with nationals coming up and along drive pending Ive been thinking and ordering bits.

I had a couple packages arrive from england (dellorto.co.uk) even with shipping this stuff was much much cheaper than local suppliers, which is a shame.

some new jets, a malpassi regulator with filter/bowl and a rebuild kit for my DHLAs:

and a carbtune thing for both intial setting up and also constant fiddling:

the new jets are 60 idle jets (up from 58) and 200 main air correctors (down from 240).

These should richen the idle and progression phase ever so slightly, and will also richen the main phase mixture (less air) but without adding more gas, as the main jets are already 145 which is big for a 1600. These are emmissions carbs wiith the very lean .11 tubes and unnumbered idle holders and these minor changes will *hopefully* fix the over rich (too much adjustement - beyond 4 turns) idle mix but nice progression phase, with a lean to the point of slowing down main phase issues.

Hard to find info about these carbs on the net as most people bung the usual non-emissions jets and emulsion tubes in to 'fix' the lean settings and wonder why they run worse (hence the poor reputation), but these are the penultimate evolution of Mr E Weber's orignal sidedraft carb design and have slightly different operating principles to the 'performance' ones. The super 'lean' emusion tubes actually reverse flow and 'self tune' the main phase and work along with the many progression holes, so changing out the 'special' tubes for normal ones will make them run worse.

It may also be that the original fuel pump couldnt keep up on WOT but it is so throttle position sensitive i doubt it. Tthe extra reservoir in the fule bowl of the regulator should act as a bit of a surge tank, and if that seems to drain too quick, i have a Facet to try as well.

I popped the jets in along with a couple of easily accessible gaskets and o-rings from the rebuild kit, connected the Carbtune and fiddeled away. Seems to idle much nicer now, but interestingly barrel 3 has considerably less vacuum than all the rest (could this be choking on the fender???) and 4 needs serious air correcting (rich) to bring it back to 3 and the idle mix on either barrel on the rear carb made little difference to vacuum readings. I think the rear carb needs pulling off for a good lookover, as it may have the dreaded 'dellorto drip' as the fuel bowl drains overnight and the idle mix thing is all wierd, whereas the front carb balanced up super nice just on the idle mix screws and stays full of gas. No test drive as yet tho to see if the proof is in the pudding with my jetting. Has a bit more of a crackle on overrun now too which suggests a lean condition, despite the richer jettings and the exhaust is not as stingy on the eyes!

Also popped the Malpassi on the scuttle, bolted right onto a couple of handy factory bolts in the firewall (parcel tray holder ) and seems to have smoothed the idle a bit more too. Looks the part as well i think.

I also made a start to declutter the passenger side of the engine bay to smooth airflow to the carbs as there is all sorts of stuff on that fender, (coil, dizzy, relays, radiator bottle etc) and almost nothing on the drivers side fender (just the exhaust and brake master).

The radiator is also offset towards the passenger side as well, making a perfect cut out and heaps of room for a cold airfeed, but on the wrong/exhaust side

Its like the car was desinged for the carbs to be on the other side.

I only have these two small holes for air and not a lot of much more room even with cutting which im not keen on between the rad (which also blows hot air to the carbs when the fan is on ) and the lights.

Moving the radiator over a bit would be the best solution but requires major surgery. The rad overflow bottle seems big and in the way but doesnt really block any potential airflow, but i may try reversing the radiator (I need to get a new one or a flush/leaks fixed anyway) to put the hoses and etc towards the other side of the car.

So only moved the 'colostomy bag' wiper reservoir over (which was blocking even those two small holes, and also resulting in a much shorter hose routing too!), with the coil and relays to still to swap positions and that is about all i can do i think.

Im also expecting another package this time from the states with an electronic ignition conversion amonst other stuff, so she should be running top top soon.

[azzurro]

Aaaaand I got some more stuff too, this time from autoricambi.us:

1. 78deg themostat fan switch for radiator (cool runnin's)

2. Ignition switch. I had a wee chuckle at getting a russian-made part from good ol' US of A.

Current switch is an 850 style one, and despite cutting my own key from a blank to make it work after the locksmith gave up, and having it apart more than once its innards now require the odd jiggle to make connections even just to trigger the relays ive got to take the load off it it, and the ACC position has been bypassed. Anyway, Lada switch it is.

3. Choke cable (to replace the snapped & just-too-short hand throttle cable, and so save my pinkie toe from resting on the acellerator and nursing the throttle when cold (not connecting the chokes on the sideys!) - will try change over the knob for the nice smooth, small and cool OEM one, this one is ugly, big and has a modern style surfacing and poor finish - probalby another Russian sourced part - was only $10 so not complaining, just sayin).

4. Pertronix ignitor electronic ignition kit. No more breaker points for me

The pertronix kit is remarkably simple and small, just a sensor, a fitting plate and some fitting gubbins.

Came with a page of instructions, and fitting is no problem, but they are a bit unclear on a couple of points WRT to the wiring.

They basically say "black to - on coil, red to + terminal on coil" which seems simple enough.

BUT it doent mention anything about the condensor.

I guess the red is to power whatever is in the little black box, and the black is the trigger to replace the breaker points, yeah.

So, can i just connect it as per the points (ie to the condensor?) Isnt that a permanent ground? Do i leave the condensor connected? Do i still need it?

Suggestions welcomed.

While waiting for this to arrive I was also pondering how the Pertonix works - obv. it works much as any other electronic ignition does and senses the lobes on the cam in the dizzy as they spin past.

This is an Uno electrinic dizzy (the shaft is ...just... too short to engage or i would have saved my pennies ) with an electronic dizzy rotor. Note the lobe design, made to create strongly differentiated wave forms in the sensor.

However, This is an early 124B dizzy of the kind i have fitted, and has a 1" cam lobe. However the flats are only 1/16" less in diameter than the lobes. (all the other, later MM Fiat dizzies I have have a much smaller diameter cam with consequently even less min/max diameter difference).

Given the lobes are very shallow and unpronounced they would not lend themselves to a creating a distinct waveform, i imagine it will have some trouble sensing (accurately) the lobes spinning past at engine RPM? So the benifit is less fiddling with points but still lack of precise timing? (or am i just inventing problems??)

I was pondering trying to exaggerate the lobes by removing material (cant do because of rebate in base, oh, and a lack of any sort of precision tools) or somehow fitting an electronic style cam. Any suggestions?

The other option would be to cut and shut the shaft on the Uno one with a bit from one of my twin cam ones, but again, no precision tools will likley mean wobbles.

Or just fit the damn thing and stop thinking so much!

[azzurro]

Woopsie forgoto this one from 2 weeks ago:

Since last update Ive done nothing I bothered to take photos of, but still plenty of fiddly jobs, and with a bit of a Nats push to get them done.

I oringinally got the car from Palmy on Anzac Day (25th) 2010, which is nearly 3 years ago, so hopefully I will be finally driving a 125 back from there too!

Ive trailered 3 125s from there now and thats enough of that!

OIL - topped up the oil again, drops oil only when the engine is running, a little out of a few spots but a lot out of the area between the back of the engine and the gearbox. Rear Crank Seal i bet, Not terminal, but annoying esp with a new clutch

BRAKES - fixed leaking rear passenger side caliper (replaced seal - i have 3 types, 124 ones that are way too small and some 125/132 ones, but i had a look though my spares and the new ones i put in are maybe 2mm larger in ID/OD and were not tight fit on the piston. I chucked in the smaller ones and they work better, i think was the fix i used on the other side too.

SHOCKS - while i had the car in the air doing the rear brakes i pulled the Koni Reds from the rear. THey were on full soft which was a bit too soft and baggy. They have 2 1/4 turns so i did one full turn and put them back in. Wow! so much tighter in the back, the rear lets go a bit too easy now (honestly officer)! perhaps a bit too stiff, but they are such a pain to pull out and adjust ill leave them for now.

PERTRONIX - installed Pertronix, and timed up, seems to run more or less as before, (points etc were near new anyway, in the boot now for just in case), hard to test high rpm differences as car didnt run so well at high before anyway!

IGNITION SWTCH - installed the Lada Ignition switch, results are not as anticipated. I think my relays prevent some sort of weird back feeding that the original wiring require to work properly. Anyway, ive wired it up so ive no ACC much as before, and soldered to the pins with a molex plug between the switch and the relay feeds for easy hotwiring . Much less wavering on the volts and lights now so thats better i guess. Fills the hole in the srround better too and much more secure.

HAND THROTTLE - went to replace the hand throttle cable with the new one, what a mission! From getting the clip off the handle to fedding the cable back behind the dash, it battled me the whole way. Ended up reusing the original one, a fitting on the cable on the inside of the firewall grommet was preventing me from extending it. Used an old needle valve as a stopper in the firewall for the cable sheath and extended the cable to the carbs. Might have to take a photo of that one. Works great

Only 2 jobs i want to before going to Palmy. Get the carbs sorted so it FINALLY runs properly, and get the exhaust adjusted so it doesnt clatter on the bloddy diff going around corners (like a told the guy it would). I may even get the big centre muffler swapped out for a smaller one as it doesnt 'crackle' as it should and this is also whats causeing the rubbing.

CARBS! - new jets seem to work better to a point, but i need to pay a guy to get the rear most carb fixed.

Been reading up a lot, on 'dellorto drip' as its called and my syptoms are typical:

- wildly different balance on barrels at idle - check

- idle mix makes little or no differnce to vacuum - check

- fuel bowl drains quickly when not running - check

- driving is good/ok on idle and progression cicuits but 'flat' on mains, can sometimes feather through to higher rpm but WOT? - Check

What happens is the press fit lead plugs to seal some of the inner drilling passages can be knocked/blown or corrode out, letting unmetered fuel from the bowl into the main and/or idle jet stacks.

Here is a DRLA that somebody chopped up to show what happens.

Im sure barell 4 has this in the main and maybe barrel 1 a smaller leak in the idle circuit.

Fix is to pull the lead plugs and either tap the holes and replace with grub screws, or epoxy or amalgam.

[azzurro]

Since the last update I have been in touch with Murray @ Weber Specialties to drop the DHLA carbs off asap for him to have a look at.

I was hoping to avoid being upsold a new set of Webers, but hes been good the couple of times ive used him, and other potentially? good places including a couple that were reccomended are not handy for me to get to. All the other places i emailed didnt respond either, so, whatevs.

Anyway, In prep for doing this ive swapped back in my old twin throat Weber 34DMS.

I have always had trouble with it before i put on the sideys, (flatspots, missing under load etc), so i gave it a quick clean up, and took all the jets out and putting it back to early base model ones back in from my wee collection.

Then took it for a test drive, went very well, esp when the secondary open up! revs smooth and strong to 6000 before hitting a wall, but it sings along now from 3500 to 5500 especially, but still a bit of a halt when moving from cruise to full throttle but nothing im going to try to 'tune' out.

Highlights how much the issues with getting the sideys right are holding the car back, the dells have the definite edge in the midrange, but splutter and bog the car ones the main circuit comes on because of the internal leaks i guess. The dells have much more tourque down low, but the single Weber revs better! Surely thats the wrong way around!

Im really happy to finally have the car running something like it should, damn carbs!

If the dellortos can be sorted to deliver what they are capable of ill be super happy.

It may or may not loose traction very easily, but predicably if you drop it into second (and sometimes 3rd) on gravel, with Slayer turned up

[Guest azzurro]

What i did in my Holidays, by Azzurro Frigid MacGain-Tony

Just got back from a super awesome week and a half away in the 125, put on about 2000km,

basically from Muriwai to Pahongina for OS Nats, a couple days visiting mates in PN,

then back to Auckland, then on the ferry to Waiheke Island for a few days for my cousins wedding and a family holiday.

Phew!

Car went ok (when it wasnt being 'maintained', well better than Toms 124, and slightly better than the Lada, but not as good as the Alfa), and ive a big list of stuff to fix now.

Great fun tho.

Ill go through it in a bit of a timeline.

OS NATIONALS PART I

Tuesday Get mrs to drive car to work for wheel alignment (finally!). Is much much better but the steering lock is bung going right (ie not much!)

She mentiones the handbrake doesnt really work, which i forgot to adust properly last time i was under there.

Wednesday

Finish work a bit early to pick up my sideys from Weber Specs, they have finally had a visual inspection, and have replaced the idle mix screws which were a bit worn,

+ abit of a balance, and pronounce as 'they look pretty good, jetting is spot on, and they should be ok',

but they did not check the internal plugs (as have to remove some that looked ok to access the problem ones) despite my incessant going on about it.

I leave hopeful of dorrty doorts. No time to fit them tho.

Thursday 12pm All packed up for a week away camping doing car stuff and hopefully getting a surf in as well. Final checks and underway - lucky im travelling alone!:

leave Muriwai for rendevous at BP Solar for drive to Feilding with Snoozin, bigfoot, and beachlander all heading to Friday Track day at Manfield.

While at BP I check my recently aligned wheelbolts - two on rear wind off - the stupid screw in wheel studs must have backed out when the wheel nuts were changed but were not tighened before the wheels & nuts were put back on :!:

Tighten all the rest. Luck my spare wheel bolts were slightly longer ones, but 3 threads is better than none.

Make it to Feilding around 10pm well enough, with plenty of pleasing road tunes. Will sit on a (reported) 80mph all day long at 4k rpm, and wound it out to 90mph before i chickend out.

Went sweet as, but the car starts making a bit of a shudder and noise from rear end just as we drop into Feilding. I suspect wheel bolts/studs/nuts coming loose (again)

Friday

In the morning, Father-in-law mentions that its looks like its got a bit of an oil leak - I suspect he means a few drips from the engine and finish my coffee.

Well, that happened too, but actually the whole rear end is covered in oil mist and the tow bar has massive gloopy drips as does the entire boot floor.

Turns out the diff head bolts were working loose and the oil was the entire contents of the diff

The shudder of course being the diff head knocking around in the housing.

So, head to Repco for some GL5 and a hand pump, wake up the sister-in-law to use her houses pit to sort it out, top up the gearbox and check and tighten a few other bolts while im there as well. But I forget (again) to tighten the handbrake cable adjustment while im there or adjust the wheel lock stop.

Seems to be no lasting damage (diff works anyway!), but pretty lucky really.

Make it to Manfeild later than i expected, but Im just there for for a watch of the trackday, and also to fit the sideys while im there. (may as well aye!)

PLenty of lols while fitting them up in the wee stables, and watching the racing, eventually done and they fire up to everyones amazement.

They defintily idle much much better than they did, and i reckon im winning.

However on the drive to Ashurst its obvious that the main issues with them are not resolved, and i pretty much use a 1/2 tank of gas over the 30km to the camp site.

They are flooding really badly on the main circuit which is obvious from the black smoke, soot and bogging.

I pull over about 10 times between manfield, the supermarket and our camping place in the Pahongina Valley to fiddle withte mixtures hoping it might to solve it, but no. Thanks heaps to all the GCs who stopped and asked if i was ok and offered advice.

Its a bit embarresing for FIAT as Toms (Testament) 124 has blown a head gasket (after blowing a radiator hose)

on the way down from Taupo thurdsay night for track day as well and is eventually towed back to base after he pulls over to give me a hand.

I put up my tent in the dark and then hit the hall to drown our sorrows/party on/forgetaboudit.

Saturday

Up bright and early (relative to everyone else anyway!) to this:

and set up a 'car tent' to undo all yesterdays work . Maybe thats why the bonnets open that way?

Them manifold bolts at least i dint drop any on the grass!

[Guest azzurro]

OS NATS - PART II

Saturday Continued:

Single carb is fitted in time to leave for the Cruise on some sweet roads to Apiti Pub for lunch:

And caught as per, oblivious to the indicator having been on for miles and holding up traffic.

After lunch back around to Palmy for an impromptu park up in the Square in the middle of town, and i find that the Radiator Fan seems to have decided to run constantly, irrespective of temp. Better than not working a guess, so i leave it alone. Mainfold gasket for the single is a resused one and it is now leaking a bit of coolant (the std fannymould has a water passage built into it).

Then back to Camp for another night of moah beer!

This is the man cave of my sweet canvas bedroom. Its not camping unless you take car parts.

Sunday

GRASSKHANA! OMFG I LOVE IT!

Car went well, was super fun, and surprised a few people (had 4 up at one point!) inlcuding me with its love of skids.

Then back to camp for AGM and More Beaaaarrrrr

Monday & Tuesday

Pack up and hometime.

I head to PN for a couple more days, helping a mate (mattliggins.com) to set up an exhibition, car does great running errands and ferrying paintings around PN.

This is up in the hills checking out a house he designed:

Wednesday

Time to head home. Top up fluds and pack stuff and hit the road.

Pull into Feilding to pick up my boards and wetsuit bin (that i hanvt used!) and to investigate why the radiator fan noise has suddenly stopped and now does not seem to work at all.

Rewire the curcuit to bypass the thermoswitch (i have a replacement at home) so the Fan relay is always on.

Anyway, giving it the beans though to Vinegar Hill and smell burning oil and see smoke coming from under the bonnet.

FAAAARRRK. Pull over asap.

but engine was pulling great, gauges all reading fine.

Whats this? Oil everywhere:

No.

I said Ev-Er-RyWhere:

Mop that shit up and engine still starts and runs fine, oil level is obv down a bit but still just over max (reccomended to run about a quart over full in these engines due to the cam housings) - I guess must have over-overfilled it, combined with too many revs and probalby heaps of blowby, must have over pressurised the cam housings /exceeded the PCV valves crankcase ventilation, and the cam-cover gasket and oil cap were blown out?

It was mostly on the exhaust side and I cant think of nay other location on that side of the engine for such high pressure oil spurting.

I decide to take it easy the rest of the way home, do another mop up at the next servo and check again at almost every one after that (its pissing down by now too) but seems to be a oncer. I Take it pretty easy anyway

Make it back to Ellerslie Burger Fuel meet at about 8.30 for a deserved burger, and home by about 11pm.

Yay time for bed!

[Guest azzurro]

PART III - WAIHEKE

Thursday to Sunday

Wake up, tell my lovely that the car has been sweet and it will be fine to take to Waiheke for 4 days. I leave my tools and oil in the boot and hope for the best.

Loaded up again this time with family stuff we head to Half Moon Bay and onto the ferry.

Bit too close to the salty acid of the sea for my liking!

We were there for 4 days, a wedding on the Friday and then 3 days doing whatever. PLenty of people looking and asking about the car.

no surf on the Rock either

and found a great place for some olive oil as well:

MAde it home fine Sunday Night, mrs and boy thought it went great, and it did, so stoked.

Drove it to work Monday (cbf moving all the other cars around and to give it a wash on the way home) and its finally back in bed in the man cave.

Aftermath

Obviously a vigourous thashing or two and a week of daily driving has dicovered unknown weak points in the car, and highlighted some old ones.

- Oil leaks - I will probably strip down the original engine and refresh the gaskets and pop that in to do the same to this one once its pulled out. The end main seal has always been a problem but now its gushing. The high pressure oil blow out in Vinegar Hill was countered by the opposite problem, a oil pressure warning light on moment just as i was coming into muriwai (probably due to low oil level from leaking) dunno i havnt looked.

- Diff - has started to make noise and shunt when on overrun. I think ive probably killed it. Ive a spare so ill just swap the nose over.

- Sideys - stupid bloody things. I wish people would do what I ask/what they say they will. Wasted a heap of time swappping them back on and a heap of gas finding that the problem has not been fixed or even found. Thogh they do idle much better.

- Wheel bolts - on a similar note, need to sort these out ptoperly but should not have this problem if people did their actual jobs properly.

- Radiator thermoswitch - put my low temp one in so the fan turns on when needed.

- Exhaust - take it in to stock the knocking on the driveshaft/make more fiaty rasp in the process of fixing it. Again a job i paid a business whos business is pretty much only exhausts for that is just not properly done.

- Wheel lock - increase so i can turn right without doing 3 point turns, left hand lock is much better

- Hand brake - adjust so it works

- LH front indicator - sort dodgy connection

- Windows - 3 of 4 wind themselves down about 10mm from driving vibration, need to tighten the wires, but thats a door lining out job.

- Ride height - car handles really well but i cant help but think its too nose high/reverse rake The sill is actually level (unloaded) but loaded up the rear goes lower, and the cars design exacerbates this impression. There are two options - raise the rear or lower the front. The first is easy (raise the shackle bolts up to the original holes) and will maintain the handling, or lower the front more which is more difficult, and will reduce the handling but more visually pleasing. A dillema indeed.

Anyways, plenty of work after all that fun.

[azzurro]

]so since getting back from Nats and that i havnt really done too much.

 

It was kinda pissing me off that the sideys didnt work properly + oil spurting/low pressure and coolant fan issues, so it has been in disgrace.

But I have been getting back into it

Ive removed and swapped over a combined 'new' light assesmbly to fix the LF indicator (Copper 'spring to mildsteel male plug was not so good), im goint to have to do the other side now! Not to meany photo of that, but its heaps better, Cleand out the lenses too. So that is one job from the long list: Indicator fixed.


also, swpped the diff  back overto the original part (the diff in there is from the green dream and the housing had come slightly apart from the nose while I was away.lost all the oil  and had started making a bad noise and shunting on overrun) 0-my own faulkt (probably) for ot tigtening up properly i suppose.

Anyway (you will need to fogive me, i got a new camera so ive been taking photos all over the shop):
Picked up the sapre and pulled apart - in need of a clean up on the outside:


Inside looks nice, 41/10 = 4.1 ratio, same as the current/old diff, but stamping style is differerent (but the ratio is 125 standard - 124s had a few different ratios over the years, so scweet - apprears to have not been apart before either which is not the case with the 'old' one - crap is just cheap cloths and splatter from wire brushing the housing (woops!)


mmm nice - gun bluing and precision engineering


all the shafts and housing bits cleaned and ready for reassembly (i only cleaned and painted the diff nose, no idea about how to measure backlash and etc, looked nice and clan so fingers crossed!)

Pigs head! Cannot be unseen!




All the bits from the 'old' diff swapped over, Leaf springs all painted up, discs/spacers, and tinware swapped and diff  ready for installation;


So that is thediff fixed... hopefully. Also tightended the shit out of th ehandbrake adjustment so im corssing that off the list too handbrake fixed

This is the 'old' diff - it looked like the 'new'one. like 2 months ago:


I also fitted the Wards for a change, (also 1 peice wheel bolts...) looked real nice in the afternoon sun -
they are going to rub, so  i may need to remove the spacer on one side,but i like them:



Next job, some rust coming through on the drivers wheel arch (i never did it properly the first time), and fill the wobbles that are apparrent in those photos, shave a bit off the front passenger door so it can fit properly, and adjust the left turning wheel lock.

Drivers rear caliper is also leaking (!!!!) and engine is a sieve.