(G) Uno turbo info wanted

a few questions i have , all MK1 related not MK2

does the clock in the mk1 turbo light up so it can be seen in the dark?

can the ignition timing be advanced or retarded in anyway or is it controled by the other ecu and cannot be changed?

can the front discs and calipers be changed to punto gt? or any other car? not too big though,

how do you wire in the boost guage on the digital dash?

Thanks

Mark

1. clock does light up, in red

2. yes

3. yeah, u can upratre the calipers and discs. theres sometimes a set on ebay, about £370 i think, fits under 15s. or u could just fit uprated UT pads and discs from somewhere like ebc

hope this helps

Dunc

what should the ignition timing be set to as standard? and how do you adjust it?

mine splutters in 5th at about 5000rpm and i think the timing is a little too advance,

dunc do you have a standard MK1 parcel shelf with no 6x9 holes in? or know where i can get one

Cool! Mk1's rock Mark!

There are two types of clock fitted to the mk1 Uno Turbo (and SX), all fitted in the rear view mirror/ map reading light unit.

The earlier clock uses red LED's (three buttons on the clock), and also incorporates a chronograph (or stopwatch in laymans terms ) This is always lit up, though the intensity of the LED's changes depending on whether the lights are switched on or not. With the lights off, the clock will be in bright mode, and with the lights on it will go into dim mode. The idea being that at night the display doesn't need to be so bright, whereas in daylight it does so it can be seen better.

However, there is a fault in the design that occurs after a few years. The fault causes the clock to overheat and reset itself when in bright mode. One of the components inside the clock gets very hot and breaks down - I had my first one repaired and it worked fine for a few months then started resetting itself again. Both my clock units did this. I got round the problem by re-wiring the clock so that it is always on in dim mode. No more resetting, though in bright sunlight it can be a little difficult to read the display.

The LED clocks are quite rare now, and were superceeded by the later LCD clock (no stopwatch, only two buttons). The ones I've seen, and I have one in my spares, use black LED's and are backlit in green. I think they also have a dim and bright mode depending on whether the lights are on or not. They are backlit by a small bulb that is soldered into the circuit board, and after a few years these bulbs burn out. You need to take the clock apart, unsolder the old bulb (I think it has three joints), then find an electronics store (Maplins?) and buy a replacement. Solder it back in and you should have a backlit clock once again.

From what I gather, the analogue dash takes a boost pressure vacuum pipe from the engine bay straight to the back of the instrument cluster, whereas the digital dash has no provision for a vacuum pipe. I 'think' the digital dash uses an electronic sender instead of a pipe. Someone else was looking for this a while back too , and I know Louie was going to have a look on his mk1 sleeper turbo to find out as from what I remember his also has a digital dash.

I recall having a look in the Haynes manual wiring diagrams but couldn't find anything about a sender for the turbo boost gauge. By the sounds of it you'll need to find someone who has a working digital dash and see how it gets the boost gauge connected. Maybe Louie did find out and can let you know?

By the way, attached is a picture of the earlier mk1 roof clock in all its red LED glory

yeah mines the 2 button clock and it doesnt light up at all

the digital dash in mine all works apart from the boost guage which i would really like to be all wired up and working,

dont know if you lot know but i've got bushboys old MK1 turbo now

anyone got a parcel shelf with no holes in it?

Mark.

yeah i remember reading about hte digital dash problem somwhere, and they general consensos is you cant do it sorry

Take it apart, unsolder bulb and get new bulb soldered in. Sorted

Have a look at your analogue dash, and trace the vacuum pipe from the instruments to the engine bay. If it goes to the ECU unit then you might be lucky, in that the ECU is reading the boost pressure. In that case there could well be a pin free on the ECU connector that sends the electrical signal to the instrument cluster. You'll just have to work out which pin to use if there is more than one free.

If it goes straight to the turbo charger, I'm not sure. Again, you need to find someone with a turbo with a fully working digital dash and see whether there are any extra wires or vacuum pipes.

How come you bought another turbo? I thought you only just sold one recently! Bushboy's turbo was quite a good one compared with some that are around. Needs a bit of fettling, but the short trip that Chris took me for in showed that the engine is a good one

Yes, but the lip is slightly damaged and I'm keeping it. Sorry

However, you could always rebuild the one you have and recover it? Not that difficult to do, and you could probably do it to a higher standard than the original Fiat item They weren't exactly high quality to start with...

I haven't got anything to add on the clock-related and boost-gauge-related questions...

The rear shelf can be rebuilt successfully with a fibreglass repair kit - the type with the matting and the resin. You mix up the resin, place some matting over the underside of the shelf, and stipple the resin into the matting with a brush (don't expect to ever use the brush for anything else!) Then lay on another layer of matting. The 'valley' around the edge (with the shelf upside down) can literally be filled with resin, and it makes the shelf wonderfully strong (better than new).

In my case, the resin soaked through the shelf and the carpet, and into the concrete I was working on. Lifting the shelf off pulled off a piece of the concrete - that's how strong fibreglass resin can be! You can then re-cover the shelf if necessary using black speaker box carpet (from a car stereo shop?) This will give you a better result than new, though of course it is probably more cost in materials than buying a good second-hand shelf. Your decision!

The ignition timing? Not normally adjustable - in theory you could reposition the crank angle sensor, in practice this should not be necessary. Have you checked it with a timing light? (I haven't! ) The Haynes manual gives 'maps' of the appropriate timing - you will of course be referring to a 'non-boost' map with the engine idling.

Unless you are getting pre-ignition ('pinking', a tinkling sound) I doubt that the timing is wrong if you are describing a 'splutter' at relatively high revs. I suspect instead that you should carefully check the spark plugs, spark plug leads, distributor rotor arm, and distributor cap - it sounds like a loss of spark energy to me.

-Alex

i havent actually got a parcel shelf at all!

the engine in the turbo is ok but its burning a bit of oil, i sold that other uno because it was not road worthy at all.

I think you might be correct with the loss of spark as it only happens in 5th gear at high speed with the juddering, think i will change the dizzy cap and the rotor arm as the plugs and leads have just been changed

one last thing does anyone know anything about a uno turbo having a trip counter which shows MPG??

theres a picture of it in a booklet which i have but have never seen one

you can adjust the timing with a vernier pulley, this allows advance and retarding of the timing very acuratly, best set up on rolling road, there is one available for the Uno http://www.pipercams.co.uk/NewPiperW...CamFrames.html

Aaron.

Ummm - I'm not sure if we were talking about cam timing or ignition timing... Even though the Mk1 Uno Turbo's distributor is on the camshaft, adjusting the cam timing will not affect the ignition timing, as the ignition is triggered off the sensor near the cam pulley (I think - the other sensor at the flywheel is the engine speed sensor if I remember correctly?)

The Trip Master is one of those wonderful things that you never see in real life... some Uno models (probably the range-topping Mk1 70SX that I've never seen) would have left the factory with it. According to Haynes, the 1100SL and 1300SL (whatever they were, the 70SL models I've seen did not have the trip master). I'm not sure that the Uno Turbo came with it (the two illustrations of the Uno Turbo instrument panel show the check panel and non-check panel versions).

Actually, I think we should start a whole new thread...

-Alex

Are you sure? I thought they were all on the front of the engine block?

The mk1 SX never had a trip master (cue the funky extra switches to fill in the blanks in the switch pods!), and I've never seen one fitted to the turbo either. Come to think of it, I've never seen it fitted to a Uno ever! I suspect it was only available on some European spec Unos

Not sure how good it would be, as mid 80's Italian electrics weren't exactly reliable as standard without adding more bits to go wrong Earlier mk1 S and SX models had an 'ideogram' in the instrument pod, which was really just an elaborate check panel. They never worked very well from new, and gave warnings that the lights weren't working when they were, the brake pads were worn when they weren't and that the doors were open when they were closed! All those little fragile sensors soon gave up the ghost and gave all sorts of incorrect warnings to the check panel. No surprise that Fiat stopped fitting it shortly after they were introduced

I'm sticking to my standard SX instruments (minus ideogram and with the added luxury of an econometer!)

Chas

Mmmm... I remember this discussion from before, where you were proved right about the distributor of the Mk2 being on the block, but the distributor of the Mk1 is definitely on the camshaft (I have one, remember )

-Alex

I was talking about the ignition timing not the cam timing,