1974 Fiat 128 Sedan for the Bride of Burrito.

Ok, so before setting out on the maiden voyage, I had to tighten the top strut nut up front. Naturally, I made something with a split collar...

An allen wrench through the center and away we go. It worked swimmingly and the socket remains unmodified. Neat.

After doing a little nutting and bolting to make sure I hadn't over looked anything that could kill me if it came apart at 13mph, I set off.

The car did surprisingly excellent. There's a hesitation when you tip into the throttle, but once she catches up she scoots right along (I haven't touched the carb, so no real surprises there). The brakes need to be bled some more, but they haul the car to a stop in a straight line and in a timely manner, so that's half the battle won. It's got a nice exhaust note and makes all sorts of wonderful pops and burbles on decel. All in all it was a very successful first (and second) trip around the block for the first time since 1995.

We also have a name. The Fiat 128 Sedan for the Bride of Burrito shall henceforth be known as Lucca.

...Brazzi sleeps with the fishes.

Sounds like it does need a tune up, even the lowly Yugo motor took off like a chainsaw when I had it working correctly. From memory that was just a desmog, distributor on port vacuum, and timing bumped 2 degrees.

In reply to Kenny_McCormic:

It's definitely going to need a thorough tuneup. The cap, rotor, plugs, and plug wires have been on the car since at least 1995. I would have been 7, playing Earthworm Jim, and eating Bagel Bites...

The car definitely ran much stronger on its second outing last night; Hopefully this trend will continue. John, the previous owner, upgraded to a 2 barrel carb and the factory 4-2-1 "header", so it should scoot a little better than a stock 1.3l 128.

Tonight is timing belt, more brake bleeding and e-brake adjustments.

Burrito is slightly younger than me, my life is over. Now I'll never catch up in skill

I guess it would help if I had hit the garage during my wedding prep more than once in four weeks.

Awesome that it's running and driving. Did John also do that... interesting... front license plate mount?

Also is that your strut brace that holds the socket in place for the tophat bolt, or did you make up a custom tool to hold onto an unmodified socket? Because it would be way cool to make the strut brace also hold the strut top nut in place for easy tightening.

...maybe other people swap struts out less often than I do.

I trust there is Loctite in lieu of lockwashers for the strut mount?

When you do the timing belt make sure the tensioner plunger is moving freely and well lubricated(some grease). Mine was seized up good enough I ended up just buying a good used one. A new tensioner bearing is also recommended.

In reply to NOHOME:

Not currently, no. Since the E30 mounts are very much temporary, I neglected to do either (really, I just didn't feel like digging through the bolt bucket again). I bet the total distance traveled with these strut mounts will be under 1 mile. When the new mounts go in, you can expect to see lock washers under the nuts.

In reply to Kenny_McCormic

Noted. I haven't sourced the tensioner bearing as of yet. The counter guy at my local parts store promised me a big box of 128 and 850 parts that they pulled off the shelf years ago, but didn't have the heart to toss out. He remembers there being tune-up parts and timing belt kits in there. The belts themselves are likely aged out junk, but the bearings should be salvageable. Free is free, and I'm willing to wait a few weeks to save a few bucks.

I'll take a good look at the tensioner and bearing, but I'll be doing the belt at this time regardless of their condition.

Yeah, any belt from the 90s is definitely junk. This was one of the first belt drive engines and as such it's hard on them, I'd only go 3yr/36k on one. Gates still makes the belt so they're easy enough to order anywhere for cheap and it's probably the easiest timing belt job ever.

Didn't get as much done as I had hoped to, but we got a later start than we usually do. I blame Lupito the Cat.

Anyways, the car is now wearing a shiny new Gates timing belt and everything is timed back up all proper and done up tight.

There was a comedy of errors, though. I had DaveBob put the car in 4th gear and stand on the brakes so I could break the crank pulley loose. He left it in gear and the front tires were juuuuust barely touching the ground. So, I make sure everything is still on its appropriate mark, slap the new belt on and tension it up. I go to spin the engine over by hand and it's locked up solid. I can rotate it maybe 10 degrees total, maybe less. I figure we berkeleyed something up and a valve is trying to coexist with a piston. So we pull the belt off and double check all our marks. Reassemble and it's the same thing. We did this 2 times before realized our error. I blame beer; don't beer and timing belt, kiddos. Or, do and blame your buddy.

Memory could be fuzzy here, or maybe the genuine Fiat motor differs, but I don't recall having to remove the crank pulley.

Ehh. You could probably do it without if you were crafty and took your time. I berkeleyed up a rabbit timing belt in my youth trying to force it on, so I generally tend to make it as easy as possible to slip the belt back on, even if that means sacrificing some time and energy. I read the Timing Belt 101 article on XWeb before I left work and loosely followed what it had to say, including crank pulley removal. Who knows, maybe the X motor is slightly different or thats just a 1500 thing.

I am glad we did remove the pulley, though. It couldn't have taken more than 15ft/lbs to break it loose. Certainly far from the 101ft/lbs the manual called for.

Burrito wrote: I am glad we did remove the pulley, though. It couldn't have taken more than 15ft/lbs to break it loose. Certainly far from the 101ft/lbs the manual called for.

Sounds good. I just dug out and checked my old* 128 Haynes Manual, covers 1116 and 1290, they seem to think the pulley doesn't need to come off. Also, they state a 36k belt interval and to reset the tension every 12k.

*Old enough it has a slightly condescending page devoted to translation between British and American english.

Wheel #1 is in the oven preheating.

The moment of truth in T-Minus 30...

Weeeeee.

Inside:

And outside:

This is the exact desired effect. Classy, subtle, and a little different. It's so glossy my brain tells me to not touch it, because it's obviously still wet.

It kinda reminds me of a Biturbo wheel, which is a good thing.

Nice! I'd love a similar wheel for my SX4 in the right size & offset. I can't remember if you said; is the car staying yellow or changing color?

In reply to pres589:

Staying yellow, but not the stock color. We are going with the more different "Chrome Yellow".

That yellow with those beautiful wheels......wow. Did you align the timning belt with cylinder number 4 at TDC or cylinder number 1?

Cylinder 4 at TDC, plus the timing mark on the crank pulley, plus the dimple on the flywheel. It's funny that they give you 3 ways to positively identify the crankshaft position, but the cam position is located by one very vague mark over an inch away from the pulley.

Holy wow, those wheels are simply stunning. It's going to be the perfect colour/wheel combo.

Yeah, I'm still a bit blown away by how well that wheel came out. I kept looking at the picture on my phone while at work today.

Today's update is a small one with no pictures. The other 3 wheels are sandblasted and are ready for some polishing before it is powder coating time. I'm hoping to get them all done this weekend so I can drop them off at my favorite Russian low rider tire shop early next week (only half-way kidding, they lean more towards the Stance side of things).

Burrito wrote: Cylinder 4 at TDC, plus the timing mark on the crank pulley, plus the dimple on the flywheel. It's funny that they give you 3 ways to positively identify the crankshaft position, but the cam position is located by one very vague mark over an inch away from the pulley.

Ha, sounds like the fun of a diesel rabbit.... Those wheels are great, BiTurbo look indeed!

Awesome thread! Carry on....

All 4 wheels are powder coated and are ready for tires. My phone was dead, so I made my lovely wife come down and shoot the car with her dslr.

To say I'm pleased is an understatement.