500 (Classic) Noah's "Ark"ive

[Noah500]

@Toshi 975 ok, I've ordered some. Which way up do they fit?

 

[the hobbler]

@Toshi 975 ok, I've ordered some. Which way up do they fit?

When you fit the plug-lead covers/grommets onto the ignition lead you will notice that one side is lower than the other---the low side tucks under the shrouding and the high side tucks under the edge of the cylinder head.

 

[Noah500]

Hi @Toshi 975 - my rubber grommets have arrived but I can't see how they fit, because there are sheaths on the spark plug leads which are way too big to fit through the holes in the grommets, and if the grommets are pushed down on the plugs it pulls the grommets through to below the shroud... Could you post a pic or w of what they look like when fitted?

Cheers,

Simon

 

[fiat500]

Hi @Toshi 975 - my rubber grommets have arrived but I can't see how they fit, because there are sheaths on the spark plug leads which are way too big to fit through the holes in the grommets, and if the grommets are pushed down on the plugs it pulls the grommets through to below the shroud... Could you post a pic or w of what they look like when fitted?

Cheers,

Simon

Simon, I think you need a pair of the original plug extenders. You remove the threaded nipple from the plug and these things screw on in place of them, extending to slightly above the hole in the shroud. Then the rubber cover fits neatly over the top and finally, the plug leads fit on the top of the extenders.

 

[Noah500]

Ah, OK... never heard of those, either - I'll look for some

 

[Toshi 975]

Hi @Toshi 975 - my rubber grommets have arrived but I can't see how they fit, because there are sheaths on the spark plug leads which are way too big to fit through the holes in the grommets, and if the grommets are pushed down on the plugs it pulls the grommets through to below the shroud... Could you post a pic or w of what they look like when fitted?

Cheers,

Simon

When working with HT leads and associated rubber boots etc a little squirt of WD40 really helps the parts slide. I also have a special tool that helps as well.

 

[Noah500]

Looks worth a try

 

[Noah500]

Job done - rather than trying to stretch the covers over the HT lead rubbers, I made the holes in the covers bigger by putting them over the end of a piece of metal tubing of suitable size and bashing with a hammer to make a nice neat hole. Now they just slip over the HT ends with a slight grip, so ideal!

Thanks for the tips!

 

[Noah500]

I realised that I haven;t updated my Ark'ive recently.

In October I replaced the corroded door-mounted (with screws) bullet mirrors with some flat style ones. The best deal I could find was from Auto Bella, though they came with the door edge mounts that grip the edge of the door in front of the quarterlight. Since my doors already had the screw holes in them, I dismantled old and new mirrors and fitted the new mirrors on the old mounts. Luckily, it was only the mirror bodies themselves that were corroded; the bases were OK.

I can't find any close-up pics but here's a couple after they were fitted.

 

[Noah500]

In January I finally got round to cleaning the oil filter (remembering to change the O-ring too). More info in this thread but here's a summary in pictures:

 

[Noah500]

Most recently, I bought and fitted a 3.5 litre Motobambino-supplied 'Abarth' alloy sump. Fitted with new stainless caphead bolts/flat washers/spring washers. Extra BHP by painting the Abarth logo red

While doing that, I found that the gearbox mounts were shot, so they've been replaced so that now the new sump actually sits level-ish More info here.

 

[Noah500]

Anotehr small job done today - I like the 'I' sticker on the engine cover but over the past 18 months it has shrunk and bubbled from the heat. I just bought a new one and made a plate the right size with some aluminium plate, bent and fixed to the bumper with a stainless bolt, washer and nyloc. To get the right size for the plate I peeled off the bit of the sticker round the oval sticker itself, stuck that carefully onto some ali and cut it out with a jigsaw. A bit of deburring with a file and rubbing round the edge to smooth the curve and job's a good'un! I also peeled off the old sticker and cleaned up the engine lid.

I realise that it's fairly near to the exhaust but it's further away from the engine than it was and in 'open' air... let's see how it goes!

 

[Noah500]

I finally got round to fixing the 'loose door hinge pin' problem. Even though the door hinges were tightly bolted in, the play in the hinge pins meant you could lift the doors up a bit so that it nearly always took 2 slams to shut them.

I started with the passenger (RH) door - to get it off I pinched the retaining stay with mole grips to release it, then undid the 4 bolts and lifted the door off. The pins were a bit loose but not too bad, so I just bashed the top and bottom of each pin with a hammer and replaced the whole lot... with a delay because I allowed the stay to fall into the inside of the door . I may replace the pins later if I need to.

For the driver's (LH) door, I took it off the same way. This time i put a cable tie round the stay to keep it pinched and also prevent it from falling into the door. The hinge pins on this side were much worse so I ground off the top of the pins with an angle grinder and tapped them out. I then removed the nylon bushes. The hinges were very rusty and all of the nylon bushes had rubbed through on one side, so it was small wonder that the door was wobbly. I fitted new pins and bushes (kit from fiat500spareparts on ebay). Before fitting them, I hammered the tops of the pins with a club hammer and cold chisel so they wouldn't slip through. A video I found on YouTube did tops and bottoms but I thought I would try just the tops as it looked like a bit of a mission to balance the door on a bench on top of a vice... One of the pins only just reaches the bottom of the hinge but I'll see how it goes - if there is any slippage upward and it loosens off, I can redo it with one of the other spare pins.

Doors back on, stays pushed back into place and the cable tie cut, a bit of jiggling of the fixing bolts to adjust the positioning of the door in the door opening, and now I can close each door with a single 'light slam'

Enjoy your weekends, everyone!

Simon

 

[Noah500]

I went out for a short drive today, stopping off at a couple of places. It may be coincidence but since putting on the alloy sump with bigger capacity and replacing the gearbox mounts, the engine seems to restart when hot a lot better, and there is subjectively less noise inside. I took a short video of the engine running when I came home - it's wobbling a bit but it appears to be a bit smoother than before. As an aside, one of the rubber spark plug seals had worked its way proud of the hole (I pushed it back before taking the video) and there was quite a bit of air gusting out so they are definitely doing their job - thanks for the previous recommendations

 

[Noah500]

I was out on Sunday morning at a classic car meeting... only a few as the weather was fairly crap and it's still only March (and the clocks went forward!). Anyway, it was local to me in Basingstoke so I went along. There was another 500 there with Jenny and Vittorio of the Fiat 500 Enthusiasts' club, plus another 'owner but the car is not yet ready for Spring'. We were checking out engines and I noticed that the joint between the downpipe and the silencer had broken - it had previously broken and been welded but it was time to get a new one. Having rejected the 'sports' versions on the basis of lack of a tuned engine and price, I plumped for Auto-Bella's standard 'CLASSIC FIAT 500 F L EXHAUST FOR 499cc. ENGINE' - a bargain at £56.31 including VAT and UK delivery.

The new exhaust appears to be good quality so touch wood it works as well as it looks.

I had some high temperature paint in the garage so I cleaned the new exhaust and gave it a couple of coats, which may help keep the evil tinworm at bay.

CLASSIC FIAT 500 F L EXHAUST FOR 499cc. ENGINE - Made in Italy - High

CLASSIC FIAT 500 F L EXHAUST ***BRAND NEW*** Commonly replaced during a restoration or as a major service (due to wear and tear) Suitable for all Fiat 500 with 499cc engine. Good quality product. Purchase with confidence. We also stock many other Fiat and Alfa Romeo parts - please do not...

autobellaparts.com

While it was drying I took off the old exhaust - no big problems. then this morning, after the second coat of paint had dried, fitted the new one. Again no problems. This time I put beads of Permatex Ultra Copper round the faces of the exhaust mounting gaskets. I'll leave that to cure overnight and give it a try tomorrow.

 

[Toshi 975]

I like that dip stick retaining clip

 

[Noah500]

Thanks! I shamelessly copied someone else's idea from this site

 

[Noah500]

Idea shamelessly copied from a fellow 500er at the Basingstoke Festival of Transport on Sunday: edge trim round the sunroof hole to protect the sharp edges. His was from Ricambio (search for 'sunroof aperture seal'), mine was a bit cheaper from themetalhouse2012 on eBay and is called 'Dark Red Car Protective Edge Seal Trim - 1-3mm'). I got 2 metres and had to cut off a few inches. Different colours are available .

 

[Toshi 975]

Idea shamelessly copied from a fellow 500er at the Basingstoke Festival of Transport on Sunday: edge trim round the sunroof hole to protect the sharp edges. His was from Ricambio (search for 'sunroof aperture seal'), mine was a bit cheaper from themetalhouse2012 on eBay and is called 'Dark Red Car Protective Edge Seal Trim - 1-3mm'). I got 2 metres and had to cut off a few inches. Different colours are available .

Good idea to do that, Fiat thought so too as they made the seal standard on the 126 DeVille models

 

[the hobbler]

OK: fuel pump removed along with the 2 pieces of hose (one end of which was partially cracked, the other end of which was pushed onto the metal pipe with no clip at all) and the jubilee clips which were not fully tightened. Replaced with a single piece of modern fuel hose and proper fuel hose clamps. I cut off the top of the filter to have a look inside and it looked pretty clean, so hopefully missing out the filter will not be a problem

I did a very similar thing some time ago---used item number '304 Titanfast' from the "Woolies" catalogue. I think that they only do it in black (matched my car's colour which is burgundy), but I got enough so that I could not only the sun-roof 'lip', but also the edge of the up-stand round the edge of the spare-wheel compartment--and it was very reasonably priced.