General Heated handbrake and other musings

[Bigvtwin996]

yours are 1970-80s wheels...

early wheels are 1 peice (lots of repros now)

you can get a round or fluted hub cap set often with a scorpion logo....

 

[grubscrew]

Mmmmm, likely likely !

 

[Bigvtwin996]

I wowed the Inner circle of the Fiat 5oo Club of Turin with my 4"x12 set of 5 CMR wheels
they didn't know of another set as CMR are as I said normally wide and used for racing hence why they are often referred to as Abarth wheels..
If peopel look carefully they turn up... I brought a set of late 60s CMR wheels for £100
and for those of a certain age.. I have a set of COSMIC wheels 98PCD but would need flared arches...

you can't beat original period wheels

 

[smart51]

The winter service spread itself out over about 8 weeks but now it's all done, today was test drive day. A short trip out to Clent. While I was taking this photo, I thought I'd check the oil level and was horrified to find the dipstick was clean. Cue a careful drive home with an eye glued to the oil pressure light. When I got home again, I realised there was oil on the dipstick, it was just clean oil. Dirty oil is easier to see.

 

[grubscrew]

Nice.
Love the wheels!

 

[Bounding Bambino]

early wheels are 1 peice (lots of repros now)

View attachment 435452
you can get a round or fluted hub cap set often with a scorpion logo....

Any chance you might have one spare floating around of the 1 pc 4.00x12 CMR's?
or know of a source?

The new 1 pcs i could find online have a different center cap fluting. and unfortunately im in need of one eventually.

 

[smart51]

Today was mild and sunny, so I went for a drive. Well, it was sunny for the first mile. Today is when I found that if I switch the wipers on and switch them off while it is still raining, they stay on for about a minute before going off. It's quite repeatable. Until I reverse into the garage. Then they switch on and off as expected. Any idea what might be going on?

 

[fiat500]

Today was mild and sunny, so I went for a drive. Well, it was sunny for the first mile. Today is when I found that if I switch the wipers on and switch them off while it is still raining, they stay on for about a minute before going off. It's quite repeatable. Until I reverse into the garage. Then they switch on and off as expected. Any idea what might be going on?

Although a few years ago, I stripped down the wiper motor in my car in order to give it intermittent function (still works), I still don't entirely understand its internal wiring in detail. But I do know that there is a permanent live feed in there, and a simple, cam-operated switch that allows it to connect to keep the motor turning after the dashboard switch is turned off; it then disengages that supply once the cam rotates far enough. There may be a problem with that internal switch, but I think it more likely to be related to the "shunt coil" or its conections. This is something that I clearly don't understand (if you read more of the linked thread), but that my much missed friend Tony explains with confidence. Effectively, there is an added brake to the rotation, in addition to the deactivation of power to the windings of the motor.

Intermittent wipers | FIAT 500 (Classic)

After reading Peter's comment regarding the fitment of an intermittent wiper facility to his 500, I dived into my filing system and found the information regarding the fitment of this facility for classic cars (with a self-parking system). The company making the 'add-on' kit is:--RETRONICS and...

www.fiatforum.com

 

[smart51]

Thanks for that Peter. So either the park switch or the dash switch isn't switching off when the car is in the rain. I suspect the park switch as the last time I used them, it parked the wipers a little bit up from the bottom of their travel. I'll take it off and have a look.

 

[smart51]

Had a drive out to Alcester today. A lovely old market town in Warwickshire. It was my first longish run out where everything worked as it should an nothing went wrong.

 

[smart51]

A nice day for it. This is Bartley Green Reservoir, where Birmingham's drinking water is sailed on first. I'm happy that that the engine is running reliably and that the car is ready for a longer run.

 

[smart51]

A nice run out to Tenbury Wells today to try the new carb jetting on a longer run. I've gone with 125 + 115 which the 594cc Fiat 126 had. I might yet switch to 120 + 200 which is very similar but gives a slightly better top speed. Anyway, Tenbury is a lovely old fashioned kind of town found all along the Welsh Marches. A nice place for a stroll.

The car ran well, with just one fall from grace. It wouldn't fire when I tried to start it to come home. After a bit of persuasion it ran but wouldn't drive the car forwards much. After a few seconds of idling, it ran well all the way home. The other worrying thing was an occasional sulphurous smell in the cabin.

I parked it on the front when I got home and left it for an hour or two. Then when I came to put it in the garage, it barely tried to turn over. I pushed it into the garage and checked it over. 13.5v on the battery, which is is concerning in itself. But further attempts to engage the starter motor were met with a dead short and the generator light coming on. What starter motor failure mode are these symptoms of?

 

[Goldnrust]

Nice day for a run out. the roads to and from Tenbury are really quite pleasant. Tenbury - Bromyard - Worcester as a triangular route is one of my favourite local runs.

I’d have been out in mine this evening, had I not had my own starter issues (cable has come disconnected!)

How long had the car sat when it didn’t run right after restart? I’ve noticed my car will often have similar symptoms if it’s been driven hard and is good and hot when it stops, and is left for a short while. I believe it’s fuel vapourisation. 30 seconds if idling seems to clear it out, as enough cool air is sucked through the carb and fresh fuel pumped in. If I stop the car momentarily, just a minute or two, I guess the fuel in the carb doesn’t have time to get overly hot, and all is fine. If I leave the car for an hour or more then it’s all cooled down plenty and it’s not an issue. It seems to be most likely to happen if I leave the car for 20 mins or so.

The starter issue when you got home is a whole other problem though. Personally I’d start by checking that there’s a good strong engine ground from starter, through engine, through earth straps to body shell. And then from body to negative on the battery. Then check that the 12v feed to the starter is good and clean also.

After that you’ll need to remove the starter and investigate further on the bench. It’s a very simple device, there’s likely to be a simple solution.

 

[smart51]

The car was parked in Tenbury for 15 or 20 minutes at a guess. It had been driven up a few long steep hills in the hour or so it took to get there, so the engine would have been very hot I guess.

Given that the starter seems to be shorting the battery to ground, I'm guessing the ground is good. The first try, it sounded like an almost dead battery - very slow turn over for a second before stopping. I guess I need to remove the started and take a look.

 

[smart51]

I'm not the most observant of people, but I've had an uneasy feeling for a few days when working on the front of the car. Today, I realised what it was. Are headlamp bezels all much the same or am I best replacing both so they match?

 

[fiat500]

It might be that the one on the left in the image is set a bit deeper into the headlamp nacelle (pretentious description that lets me use a word that I like). That would be the adjuster screws missing or screwed in too far.
The lens on the left looks different, which might partly explain this.
I recommend that you get the aluminium bezels; not as blingy, but they can be polished up and obviously dont go rusty.

 

[smart51]

I had a lovely run out to Bridgnorth today. The car is running beautifully with its new tracking and new tyres.

Sadly there were no steam trains to take a photo with, so a diesel will have to do.

 

[smart51]

A longer trip today to Evesham. There was a market on so nowhere picturesque to park, so here's a picture in Sambourne on the way home.

There were some longer B roads with hills the car couldn't maintain 50MPH along before. It now will, with a bit to spare, which is what I wanted to achieve. I even did 1 junction along the motorway to prove that it would. I wouldn't want to do 60 MPH for long, but it will do it at a push.

 

[smart51]

Today is a birthday of sorts for my little Fiat. 80,000 km. Or 180,000. Here it is on a celebratory trip round the Clent hills.

 

[dragonwagon]

A long time ago an Italian gentleman showed me how to extract the most from a 500 by using the throttle as an on/off switch basically and using the clutchless gearchanging technique on the original crash box. It really was quite surprising what a 21bhp 500 Sport could achieve... speedo needle off the scale on even the slightest downhill. I hope my 652cc resto project will be able to match that car but I somehow doubt it.