Hey all. I have a 1979 Spider, and I’m trying to convert the old carburetor and intake manifold to a new Weber 32/36 and 1800 manifold. I’m completely new to car restoration as well as Fiats, so please excuse my ignorance on a lot of this stuff, ha ha.
I’ve already removed the old carb and manifold and am sort of stuck at where to put it all back. I’m looking at a lot of tubes and not a lot of places to reconnect them. Obviously I can scrap some stuff, but as to what I need to keep I could use a little guidance. I’ve taken pictures of where I’m at and hope someone out there can make some sense of it. I’ve labeled the hoses in the engine bay with letters and the connections on the manifold and carb with letters. Maybe just a quick match game will be easiest?

Here’s what I’m looking at in the engine bay:




A: the other end of this hose goes to the top of the charcoal canister.
B: the other end of this hose is connected to that valve just south of it in the picture.
C: the other end of this hose connects to a fuel line going into the firewall.
D: the other end of this hose connects to the bottom of the charcoal canister
E: this connects to the brake booster
F: this connects with the fuel filter (as seen) and fuel pump
G: this is the breather hose that connected to the old air filter. Do I just cap this? I read about what I think was a filter you can put in it or something?

Now here’s the connections labeled on the new manifold and carb.




Like I said, hopefully it’s easier to maybe match the letters and numbers than writing a whole set of instructions for the slow new guy, ha ha. One last thing: All those vacuum hoses from the old manifold seemed to be connected to these valves in the picture below. Can I just scrap all this stuff since I don’t see anywhere to put in on the new set up?



Sorry for the long post, but I’m anxious to get her started and enjoy the remaining days of summer with the top down. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hi Flare,
you might not be in the best place to ask these question, as this is a UK based forum and the Spider was never sold here. US models have a lot of additional emmisions equipment the european models didn't have too. So we aren't on particularly firm ground here but I'll help as far as I can.

I'll describe what you typically have in the way of connections and you might be able to work it out from there.

Your manifold has a vacuum connection for the brake servo (connection 3). This connects to the brake servo which occupies the bottom right of your engine bay picture via a reinforced hose. Possibly pipe E but the picture isn't clear.

Conection 4 or 5 is likely to be the Positive Crankcase Ventilation pipe that should connect to the air filter where the breather pipe fits. You should not block the breather pipe otherwise you'll get pressure build up in the crankcase which will make the oils seals leak and rob you of power Ideally you would fit a catch tank and retain the PCV pipe.

1 & 2 appear to be some sort of vacuum valve, probably emmision related, I have never seen one in the flesh over here. The spare one of 4 & 5 is probably emmisions related too.

No. 7 on your carb is likely to be the vaccum advance pipe that goes to the distributer.

No 6 is the fuel connection. this should be a filtered supply from the pump. Pipe F. There is typically a return pipe to the tank that would connect to the carb close to No. 6. If you don't have a return outlet on your carb this will be redundant.

Emmisions equiped cars also often have a vacuum pipe back to the tank from the air filter, designed to ingest any fumes evaporated from the tank. You mention a charcoal canister? Could be that?

If you have vacuum/breather pipes coming from the tank, think carefully before blanking them all. Emmision equiped cars probably have a sealed fuel system that can't vent to atmosphere. If you plug all the pipes then air can't get into the tank which means fuel can't get out.

Have fun.

Thanks! Your response helped alot. I appreciate your time. I'll get to sorting hoses!