Hey all, new to the forum. Ive got a 66 500 Giardiniere at work im gonna be doing some work to. Mainly electrical work and I have a few questions.

This car has a steering lock thats broken and an ignition switch in the center of the dash, which one is correct? When did they start using steering locks with the switch in them?

Dash has a panel light switch, headlighting switch, and wiper switch..all seems correct.

ANd the tail lights, the plastic sockets for the tail lamps are broken and pretty trashed. From a little research the housings and lenses are specific to the 500 Giardiniere and all I can find new are the lenses. Are the sockets shared with any other 500 models?? Any info is greatly appreciated, thanks!!

Somebody anybody haha

autocomman said:

Somebody anybody haha

Click to expand...

Hi and welcome.

I can't comment on the ignition switch as I am not familiar with the Giardiniera.

Axel Gerstl in Germany sell rear lights for the Giardiniera including bulb holders but they are quite expensive. Looking at the picture of them compared to a 500 saloon they look different so I don't suppose they are compatible.

Others in the US have purchased from Axel Gerstl before and I believe their shipping charges and delivery time is reasonable. Plus I think you save the 19% tax as well? But others in the US would be in a better position to comment.

https://webshop.fiat500126.com/katalog/artikelinfo/1075/tail-lamp-left

Tony

The rear lights on the Giardy are unique to that model. With regard to your ignition/steering lock question I would suggest that if the steering-lock is broken (and therefore not locking the steering?) that this is the original part, and somebody has then, as they were not able to find the correct replacement, fitting an ignition switch on the dash. A detail to remember is that quite a bit of the suspension parts, brakes and wheels (with 98pcd wheel-bolt spacing) are 600 parts on the Giardy.
If you decide to up-rate the engine, you can go up to 652cc AND NO MORE! Tuning parts for the Giardy are available from Torsten Hanenkamp at:--- www.ilmotore.de in Germany. Being that he specialises in Giardy's, he might be able to locate 2nd hand light for you. If you do have to purchase 'pattern parts', retain the old lights, because they will most probably have the original style METAL bulb holders in them. Most of the pattern parts do not.
All the bets with your 'gardener's car', they are surprisingly practical little runabouts, and with the rear seats folded down, you will be amazed what you can get into them.

Awesome, good info! We are going to replace the ignition lock as it seems Ive found a few places that have replacements. I assume they are a pretty standard part across the 500 models...

The rear lights, the bulb contacts that screw onto the back are plastic and they are trashed. The lenses and housings are in good shape actually...so then im curious if there any interchangeable parts in another model for the bulb contacts or am I stuck attempting to repair what I have.

I am curious about your upgrading the engine comment...is this due to a power handling issue with the CV's or the transaxle? The capacity in terms of power actually and/or weakness of the transaxle is something I will need to know because of the potential plans for this car...of which I cant really say. But what should I be careful of with the original trans and CV's, weak gear such as 2 or 3, etc etc

If the 'bulb-holder' sections of your rear lights are plastic, then it is more than likely that, sadly, they are already 'pattern' parts.
The reason that you can't take a Giardy engine above 652cc is simple engineering. In order to fit bigger barrels the crank-case has to be machined out. There is a gasket (sometimes a very thin copper one) between the barrels ('Jugs' in your parlance) and the crank-case, and this gasket sits on a cast (and then machined) 'land'. If you machine the crank-case out any further than that required for 652cc barrels, you will remove that 'land' which makes extremely difficult to seal the barrels against the crank-case. I can assure you, a well tuned 652cc Giardy will go appreciably faster than the standard 500cc version! The camshaft and carb are specific to the Giardy. The gearbox/drive-train will take the extra power, and with the 600 brakes (standard) you will have no problem stopping under normal circumstances.
With a nice set of 'alloys' and slightly lowered, you could re-paint it as a 'Servicio Abarth' vehicle!

Awesome, thanks for all the info. My rear bulb housings are metal, And I was able to clean dn save the plastic contact parts, they were not too bad. I do have one more question...the wires to the rear view mirror for the interior lamp, I know the cover is missing on the car to hold the wires up from the mirror, but how do the wires route? Is there a hold im missing to fish them through the A-pillar? Or is it much more simple and they are supposed to be held on with some kind of clip going down the A-pillar

Pardon the quality of the photos, they were taken as I was stripping my RHD car. The first shows how the mirror was mounted and where the wires went through the arm. The second shows the black wire disappearing through a hole in the dash. I believe there is a similar hole on the other side of the dash.

I think what I did was put the screen in. mount the mirror and then run the wires under the edge of the windscreen rubber (where the rubber meets the steel, one wire going left and one going right). Eventually you push them through the little holes in the dash. (pic 2)

For a RHD car the black wire goes to the right, down the pillar and then back across the bottom of the screen (through the hole in the dash) and eventually exits just above the top hinge to the door switch.

The other wire (purple for me) goes to the left, down the pillar and then back across the bottom of the screen (through the hole in the dash) and ends up at the fuse box.

Please note that in pic 2, their is no screen rubber to hold the black wire in place and this is why it is hanging down rather than going around.

I have made this as confusing as I can, it's like a test......



Regards

Joe R

Perfect, the holes were half hidden by the window rubber. Thanks so much! Its always refreshing to join a forum and have knowledgeable people answer questions in a straight forward way, with pictures haha. :slayer: