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500 (Classic) "Sophia's" Restoration

Introduction

I have finally begun the process to start the restoration on my wife's cinquecento "Sophia"

Original Introduction Thread

She is a 1966 F with a 650 motor that has a synchro gearbox, electronic ignition and a dynamo.

When I purchased the car from Bring A Trailer it looked to be in much better condition than when she showed up at our home in December. I knew that I was going to have to do some work to get her to where we wanted to be with the car, but I didn't expect to need to "fix" so much. I'm not necessarily mad about this, as I will be able to learn more about the car as I go through it.
The car was originally blue, but was repainted to green at some point. We plan to bring her back to blue, but not for a few years. I'm certainly in over my head on this, but that's part of the fun!

When I started to look her over, I noticed that the exhaust was severely cracked, the seller stated it was "new"

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Here's how the engine looked after the first test drive. You'll note that the engine is covered in oil, as it turns out, the car has a major oil leak that sprayed over the whole engine from the belt and pullies. I thought we had a fire with all the smoke!

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The wiring is also quite a mess, with lots of splices and things not working as they should. I ordered a new loom and will be rewiring the whole car.

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Gas tank out to begin the wiring removal process. I think I'll repaint it with the colors of the Italian flag

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And now the process of removing the bits from the engine in preparation to pull it out to fix the oil leak, paint shrouds, swap oil pan and rebuild carburetor. I'll be replacing the bonnet, starter and accelerator cables as well.

Interesting "fix" for a shorter starter cable...

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The accelerator cable just runs without a housing for the full length of the car

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Electronic Ignition. If anyone can give pointers on how this needs to be wired into the loom, it would be greatly appreciated.

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Can anyone tell me what this is? Voltage Regulator?

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Air intake hose needs to be replaced...having a hard time finding this part, any leads?

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And here's how she sits for now

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The dynamo does not appear to be working, so I will need to rebuild it. I have a spare so I may send it off for refurbishment.
Is this something that should be replaced? It looks larger than the stock ones. Maybe something to do with the electronic ignition?

It's a Nosso-brand voltage regulator. They make replacement VRs for a ton of different makes. You can probably test it the same way you can the OEM one. There's a thread on here somewhere about it. It shouldn't have any bearing on the electronic ignition, but may be the fault in your dynamo not working analysis.

As for the ignition... does that have 3 wires (Red, Black, Blue) or 4 (..and yellow)? Several forum members have that style 123ignition, so they should be able to chime in. I had the 2-wire style with a traditional distributor cap, so I can't speak to the extra wire(s).
 
One option for all your flexible hosing is:---"flexible silicon hosing" if you can get it big enough it can be used (anf probably cheaper than the offering from"Mr Fiat"). I have used it on all 4 sections of the air passage hosing around the dash---still have the original 'big' hoses fo the engine.
 
A dynamo on a '650' engine? I must admit, I thought that ALL the 126 '650' engines used alternators. Looking at some of the bodges on your car, I wonder if the person who fitted the '650' engine used some of the original 500 parts.
 
A dynamo on a '650' engine? I must admit, I thought that ALL the 126 '650' engines used alternators. Looking at some of the bodges on your car, I wonder if the person who fitted the '650' engine used some of the original 500 parts.
Being that my dynamo is shot, does it make sense for me to just go the alternator route? Or is it not worth it
 
If you can lay your hands on a '126'alternator Ryan, it is definately worth it. Check the pulleys---they are slightly different dynamo/alternator, although whoever fitted the dynamo to your engine MAY have used the alternator pulleys
Matt (Jumpjet) has done this conversion and being that he is not too far from you, it might be worthwhile having a chat with him.
PLEASE---remove that filter between the pump and the carb!
 
If you can lay your hands on a '126'alternator Ryan, it is definately worth it. Check the pulleys---they are slightly different dynamo/alternator, although whoever fitted the dynamo to your engine MAY have used the alternator pulleys
Matt (Jumpjet) has done this conversion and being that he is not too far from you, it might be worthwhile having a chat with him.
PLEASE---remove that filter between the pump and the carb!

No worries Tom, it won’t be going back on. It was the first thing I removed from the engine!!
 
A dynamo on a '650' engine? I must admit, I thought that ALL the 126 '650' engines used alternators. Looking at some of the bodges on your car, I wonder if the person who fitted the '650' engine used some of the original 500 parts.

I was told that many of the earlier Polish 126s were fitted with dynamos. In fact the Polish manual I have here , published in 1983 , only shows a Dynamo.
 

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I was told that many of the earlier Polish 126s were fitted with dynamos. In fact the Polish manual I have here , published in 1983 , only shows a Dynamo.

Early ones had the 594cc lump I think. Hence Dynamo. I've got this lump in my 1975 500 R.
 
Sorry "lump" being equal to "Engine" in English slang.


I'm not sure re: Polish build but some kind soul on here will be able to advise.
 
126A1 denotes that it IS a 652cc engine Ryan----8006455 is the ACTUAL engine number. Both my '650'engine have engine numbers in the late 46,000 and early 47,000 so your engine could possible be quite a late engine.
Looking at the pictures of your wiring, I am not surprised that you want to re-wire the car!
 
126A1 denotes that it IS a 652cc engine Ryan----8006455 is the ACTUAL engine number. Both my '650'engine have engine numbers in the late 46,000 and early 47,000 so your engine could possible be quite a late engine.
Looking at the pictures of your wiring, I am not surprised that you want to re-wire the car!

It was splices to splices and so many redundant grounds
 
You asked about wiring for the 123 ignition. I took a picture of the diagram in the manual if you can make it out as it is only about an inch long.
 

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Thanks Toshi! That should help out.

Took off the old sun roof today, why do people do stuff like this???

I need to fill the extra hole (bondo?) and learn how to use a rivnut as recommended by The Hobbler
 

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