'77 Fiat X1/9: This is all your fault GRM.

A small vial of Kuwaiti sand would be most welcome.

Trouble in Fiat paradise. I installed the shifter last night and couldn't get it to actually shift. Turns out if you put a bolt into one of the three lower motor mount holes that threads into the transmission case, you'll crack a thin spot in the casing and pinch against the shift shaft. One must install a stud in this position. Now all of this was clearly described to me in the installation notes from Steve Hoelscher, but I read them months before actually installing the trans and forgot. He very kindly and patiently explained my stupidity to me over the phone, and made me feel not as bad about it in the process. 

So I'm out here trying to unberkeley my berkeleyup. If I can't unberkeley this, our test cruises will all be limited to first gear.

waaaaaaiiiiiit a darn minute!

My alfa had "shifter" issues that stopped me from driving it after a similar push...  Could it be that Italian projects know when I'm expected in the vicinity and break their shifters accordingly?

If that's the case, man, I'm sorry.  You worked so hard and were so close!

All hope is not lost. After more remote diagnostics work with Steve, my issue is different but equally bizarre. I did indeed have the wrong bolt in place, but the shifter shaft still moves freely. So I didn't inadvertently pinch it in place.

Instead, it seems that the transmission is in gear (either first or second), but the shifter shaft isn't. The shifter shaft is in neutral. The transmission likely got dropped during shipping, and the inertia caused it to drop into gear, without taking the shifter fork(s) with it. Steve is in the process of reverse-engineering the issue so he can suggest a fix. Yikes.

Meanwhile, we're totally going to tear ass around the neighborhood in first gear.

Mezzanine said:

Meanwhile, we're totally going to tear ass around the neighborhood in first gear.

berkeley yes you are!

In reply to Mezzanine :

Equally bizarre? That's *epically* bizarre... Fingers crossed for a minimally invasive fix!

Hit the top with an equally sized hammer ot the drop? 

Good luck!!

Driveshafts cleaned and new CVs installed.

Assembled the suspension. Cleaned up some burrs on the left rear caliper that was always binding. We'll see if it's fixed finally. This looks like progress!

And then this happened:

Special guest star: my daughter. We did a happy dance when the car was on its wheels for the first time in forever. Lots of tuning work to do, and it's definitely stuck in first gear. Maybe second, but pretty sure it's first. Did a few laps around the yard, made a few adjustments to the map.

Ready for Hungary Bill's visit!

Woohoo! Running and driving! That's awesome!

On tonights episode!

Burrito measures a thing,

Mezzanine makes sparks,

and we go for a drive in the newly running Fiat!  

Great stuff- can't wait to see the onboard!

Mezzanine said:

A small vial of Kuwaiti sand would be most welcome.

 

Trouble in Fiat paradise. I installed the shifter last night and couldn't get it to actually shift. Turns out if you put a bolt into one of the three lower motor mount holes that threads into the transmission case, you'll crack a thin spot in the casing and pinch against the shift shaft. One must install a stud in this position. Now all of this was clearly described to me in the installation notes from Steve Hoelscher, but I read them months before actually installing the trans and forgot. He very kindly and patiently explained my stupidity to me over the phone, and made me feel not as bad about it in the process. 

So I'm out here trying to unberkeley my berkeleyup. If I can't unberkeley this, our test cruises will all be limited to first gear.

 

Steve built the engine and transmission in my old X, and in ten years of autocross and street use, they both worked great.  From what I understand, the current owner is still on the Hoelscher built pieces 20 years later.

Great progress by the way!

Lots to report out on in the last few days.

Hungary Bill and special guest Burrito crashed the Mezzanine shop Saturday morning. Burrito woke up extra early after a late shift at work and drove a long way to join the fun. Bill takes the cake with something like 30+ hours of travel time to get here from Kuwait.

After some talk we got to work fabricating a throttle linkage that would yield full travel. I made a little clevis to mate to the Jenvey arm, Burrito and Bill made an offset arm for the idler rod. That's what we're working on in the pics Bill posted above. Can I say how awesome it was to have two other people working away in my shop? It was magical. I absolutely loved seeing other people hard at work in there.

We ran out of time to finish connecting the two, so we ziptied a cable between the two parts so we could at least go for a little rip around the yard.

Everyone got a chance to drive. We made a lap across the yard, onto the street, and back into the driveway. In a car that's not tuned, with timing that needed more advance and falls on its face if you give it too much throttle, with a dragging brake caliper, and only one gear. For all that, there was nothing but big dumb grins on all our faces.

We loaded up and headed into Tacoma so Burrito and I could crash Hungary's family picnic. We ate their food and they never told us to leave! Second miracle of the day. Sunday morning I woke up to a 10 minute YouTube video from Steve Hoelscher describing the fix he reverse engineered for my transmission. This guy went WAY ABOVE AND BEYOND to help me out. Armed with his instructions, I went to work and drained the transmission, removed the fifth gear cover, fifth gear, the spacer plate, and fished around with a hook until I could pull the 1-2 selector rod into place where it belongs. Fix was easy and minimally invasive. He and I chatted a few times through the process and everything went just as he intended. Special bonus: the reverse engineering process led him to a way to secure the transmissions for shipment in the future that would prevent this from happening. My case was a total fluke and not his problem in the least...but he made sure I could get on the road in a timely fashion.

Once that was fixed, it was time for a shake down cruise. It worked! Now that I could actually drive the car, the high crankcase pressure we were seeing on Saturday with the gang here became even more pronounced. Seems I've got some rings that are sticking. This morning I poured some Seafoam into the cylinders and let it soak for the day. Fired it up this evening and I'm happy to report that this snake oil actually worked to free up the rings! Way less blow-by and I went for the first drive where I didn't end up covered in oil.

Enough write-up - it's all summarized in the following video: 

OK, so here's the current state:

• Need to drive it a little to see if the oil leaks and blowby are getting better. The engine has been sitting for a long time, so gunk and carbon are expected. The Seafoam actually worked and made a big difference - I might pour a little more in the cylinders just to be thorough. Meanwhile I get to clean oil spray off of the formerly pristine engine bay, engine, and harness. Gross.
• Driver's rear caliper is dragging. It's not the silly sliding wedges that's causing it, it's tired seals or the mechanical e-brake mechanism. It gets hot enough to smoke, so that's not good. I'm going to order a new caliper and be done with it.
• Coolant fans aren't cycling, but this is easy - the power connection at the fuse box is crap and I need to come up with a better solution. I need to add relays for the lights, so I might just add a set for the fans at that time. Car isn't overheating. Just no fans.
• Need to finish up the throttle linkage - another clevis to make and then a rod to connect the two together.
• Continued tuning work needed. The Drive-2-Tune function on the PE3 is pretty nice and gives lots of control to get my maps fleshed out. It's certainly running well enough now to drive to a dyno...but I need to make sure I'm not leaking all over their dyno first.

TLDR: car runs and drives in all gears. Watch the video for proof.

Awesome.  

That's kick ass.

Can I suggest a lot more driving around before the dyno?  That will get the fuel so much closer you can really focus on the spark calibration. 

Im really interested in how you think the calibration robustness is with the port throttles, as I have a plan to put EFI on my Alfa so that I can add a catalyst. 

Hi friends! Just checking into say the car has been resting while I shift focus back to the kitchen for a little while. Current to-do list just to help me remember:

• Replace driver's rear brake caliper. Nothing I could do would stop it from dragging, so a new one is here in the shop
• Replace all brake lines with new SS lines. Since I'm cracking into the brake lines to replace the caliper, I might as well not have to crack a line anytime soon. The old hoses were dry and aged anyway.
• Re-wire the alternator with switched power for both reference and field inputs. It's staying energized now even with the key off.
• Mount the vacuum log and oil catch can to the firewall access panel.
• Drive it more, turn the closed loop O2 control on and get some fine-tuning done on the maps before hitting the dyno. Thanks for the advice alfadriver.
• Get back on the paint and body work bandwagon. Get this done and you can reassemble the car for real and even make it street legal!

For now, the car starts right up. The smoking seems to have died down to a more normal level thanks to the seafoam treatment. I love this little car and can't wait to be able to just drive it, but lots more work until then.

Hey, Mezzanine - What's the status with the X, anything happening? I unselfishly speak for all the hive here, of course.  :)

Imagine my surprise finding this up on the first page! 

The X is alive and well, but partly stalled as y'all can imagine. I've distracted myself with a new job and the rediscovery of motorcycles, but this project is not dead at all. Here's the list: 

• DONE: Replace driver's rear brake caliper. Nothing I could do would stop it from dragging, so a new one is here in the shop
• DONE: Replace all brake lines with new SS lines. Since I'm cracking into the brake lines to replace the caliper, I might as well not have to crack a line anytime soon. The old hoses were dry and aged anyway.
• Re-wire the alternator with switched power for both reference and field inputs. It's staying energized now even with the key off. New alternator in hand; just need to install. 
• Mount the vacuum log and oil catch can to the firewall access panel.
• Drive it more, turn the closed loop O2 control on and get some fine-tuning done on the maps before hitting the dyno. Thanks for the advice alfadriver.
• Add relays for the lights and cooling fans
• Finish up the throttle linkage 
• Get back on the paint and body work bandwagon. Get this done and you can reassemble the car for real and even make it street legal! Watching Java230 work on the Travelall has been inspiring me...I actually picked up the sanding block this week and sanded for a few minutes. I'm starting to like the idea of farming out paint just to get this going. I'd really like to drive the car and I don't have enough free time to dedicate to it. 

See, look: I didn't even have to dig it out from under a bunch of junk! It's so awesome having a small car as a project: it leaves room for motorcycles. 

The yellow is staying, right?

A girl in high school had an early, small bumper X1/9 in yellow. Ratty, but ran. In a lot of ways, it's the only proper color for one of these in my opinion.

Good stuff.

Oh, and I also added some isolation mounts to the fuel pump mount to quiet it down a bit. And one of the tires had a slow leak, that I let go too long until the bead broke. I reseated the bead just this weekend using the flammable explosive method, which is always good for getting your heart rate up. 

I should add that the car fires right to life whenever you ask, even after sitting for months. I'm pretty pleased with that. 

In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) (Forum Supporter) :

Yes, but it'll be a more bold yellow (same as the engine bay). I agree: I think yellow was just right on this car. I've seen other colors that did well on X1/9, but this is the flagship color in my mind. 

I now realize I mostly knew this from your engine paint pictures, but still.

I may be biased, but I think yellow is the best color also.  Below is my old '74.  If I remember correctly, the factory yellow is called chrome yellow or electric yellow or something similar.

New expectations have been set, you know what to do 

Mezzanine said:

Magic knock sensor bolt is finished. Both of my dies showed up today, so I cut threads and also machined two flats with the Atlas Shaper.

 

In situ, solid metal to metal contact all the way around:

hey - did you get a chance to listen to this yet? Thinking of trying to copy your idea for mine.