I'm new here and really haven't found my way around good. I recently bought an 82 Spider 2000 that is going to need a lot of work. With that being said, I'm going to need to learn this vehicle because I will be doing, learning, my way through it.
I'm having a couple of issues that are predominate.
* I have a cooling issue that I believe has to do with air in the system. From what I understand this can cause the thermostat to not operate right therefore causing the overheating. How on Gods green earth do I remedy this? I've pressed on hoses till I'm blue in the face.
* 4th gear is out. If I am just sitting there, engine off and put the shifter in the 4th gear position, it goes in fine but engine on it doesn't. It will grind if you attempt to shift into 4th. No other gears do this.

This is just the start of what I hope to be a great experience but I would like to know that when I leave the house the car will make it back! LOL

Any and all help is truly appreciated.

Getting all the air out of the cooling system (called 'bleeding the cooling system') is usually straightforward.

Turn the heater full on ( push lever beside the red arrow to the wide end of the arrow).

Remove the caps on the radiator and on the coolant expansion bottle.

Top up radiator, don't bother just yet with the expansion bottle.

Start engine and warm up, keep an eye on the water temperature gauge on the dashboard. Keeping topping up the radiator as required.

When the engine gets hot, the electric cooling fan on the radiator should switch on (I can't remember at which gauge reading this should happen but it's before the right hand end of the scale).

If the fan doesn't cut in, you've got a problem with the fan motor, it's thermostatic switch (this is in the bottom tank of the radiator - to test :-joining the 2 wires that go to this switch should cause the fan to run with the ignition 'on') or it's power supply.

You can blip the throttle a few times, you should see the level in the radiator drop and then fill up again as the revs drop, don't worry if it overflows, just top it up.

When the fan cuts in or the temp gauge reads v.hot, pour coolant into the expansion bottle until it starts running into the radiator. With the radiator full, refit the radiator cap, then top up the expansion bottle to the full mark or just over halfway (if no level mark) and refit it's cap.

If the above doesn't solve the problem you have other issues.

Let us know how you get on, also whether your thermostat is in the cylinder head or is the 'bypass type' fitted between the water pump and the bottom rad. hose?

Al.

The problem with 4th gear sounds like an internal problem, possibly a faulty synchromesh unit on 4th gear. There is no external adjustment or anything that can be done to fix it. Sounds like a gearbox out and strip down will be needed.

The synchromesh units match the speed of the gear being selected to allow it to engage quietly. Obviously something has gone wrong with the one on your 4th gear.

You could try getting the car on a downwards slope, put the car in 4th gear with the engine off, then start the engine with the clutch pedal down (clutch disengaged) and see if you can get the car to move in 4th gear. It may simply jump out of gear or it may not, depending on what is damaged. If it stays in and drives in 4th gear, then it's only a synchromesh ring problem, if it jumps out, then the problem is bigger, probably needing replacement of 4th gear, it's synchro. ring and the 3rd/4th synchro sleeve, possibly also the 3rd/4th selector fork.
Could also have some worn bearings etc.

Some of these Fiat transmissions have a cover plate under the trans., held on by many 10mm nuts (6mm thread size). If so, you could drain the trans. oil, remove this cover plate, engage 3rd gear (this moves the synchro. sleeve way from 4th gear) and see if you can see anything wrong with the 4th gear synchromesh unit/synchro. ring (aka 'blocker ring'), - this will be the 1st synchro. unit at the front end of the trans, next to the bellhousing)

But I doubt you'll be able to see much of anything wrong without removing and stripping the trans. There's 2 bearings that can wear in these gearboxes that initially result in jumping out of 4th gear, then fatally damage it's synchromesh ring. There's also a couple of circlips (snap rings?) that can become displaced if the 'box has been apart before and they haven't been correctly refitted. These circlips effectively control endfloat in the gears/shafts, their jumping out of position can result in 1 or more gears jumping out of engagement. 4th gear is usually the 1st one to be affected.

Sorry I don't have better news.

If you do a search on this forum, you may find some very long posts I've made to help others in the U.S. with trans. problems incl. tips on stripping these transmissions - they're not bad to work on, apart from those pesky circlips (snap rings). :bang:

Al.

Thanks for the reply. I'll give it a shot and see what happens and let you know. It does have the external thermostat and looks like it has been replaced.

Ouch! I was afraid of that. Thank you.