500 (Classic) Noah's "Ark"ive

[Noah500]

Tweak in the engine bay: I treated the exhaust to new brass nuts, stainless split washers and copper-faced gaskets (Auto Bella "HIGHEST QUALITY"). This time round I loosened one of the elbows so I could get a good tight joint on the pipe further inside the engine bay. Hopefully now my chronic blowing will be cured

 

[Noah500]

... and inside the ca I replaced the old black plastic gear knob (c. 38mm diameter) with a new black plastic gear knob (c. 45mm diameter). Not sue f the old one was a standard Fiat 500 one but I found it a bit small in my hand. The new one is supposedly for a 500R but it goes on OK (M10 standard 1.5 thread but per Auto Bella's advice I just screwed it onto the M10 1.25 gear lever and it is fine.

From and to pics:

 

[Noah500]

After thinking my starter was fixed, I found that the car wouldn't start again - see here

To copy the last post from that thread:

OK, touch wood it now seems to be OK. I got the new brushes and also picked up the secondhand starter from my friend Vittorio which had the same model number (though some parts wee slightly different). Looking again at the problem with the old one, I think it may be something to do with the commutator end getting stuck in position, thus causing the very worn brushes to stick in one place and not turn... maybe not enough washers on the shaft at that end? In any case, I decided to make a new start from the best bits of my old one and the secondhand one donated by Vittorio. I ended up with:

From my original starter:

• flywheel end piece (which I had already put a new bush in) including brand new Bendix and lever
• switch which was in much better condition generally, though with the cable post from the donated one
• commutator end closing ring - better condition

From the donated one:

• central body - sanded and repainted in black
• shaft with washers
• switch cable post
• actuation lever rubber boot
• commutator end with brush holders and bush
• long bolts with insulation - mine had cracked insulation on one bolt

+ some new stainless nylocs and washers.

The secondhand one, the Frankenstein new one and the remaining parts put back together for future spares, etc.:

Aaaargh! I really hope this is the last time that I have to remove/rebuild/refit a starter motor. After the above I went for a drive to see Vittorio, the friend who had given me the secondhand starter motor. Leaving his house, the engine wouldn't start, though the starter motor was turning. I rolled down the hill to bump start it and went on my way. Long story short, I took the starter motor out again and could see that the Bendix was destroyed - c. 5mm of teeth were stripped and the cog itself had been ripped away from the main body of the Bendix.

The only thing I can think is that I had attached the pull cable too tight so the starter was actually partially engaged even after starting the engine, then the flywheel did the damage (flywheel looks OK btw) - the cabin lever only moved about half way when pulled, so I think this may have been it. So... the latest iteration is to use the flywheel end of the secondhand motor, complete with actuation lever etc. so the only parts left from my old one are most of the switch and the end closing ring. This time I attached the cable on the loosest hole of the clevis pin rather than the centre one. Now, the cabin lever moves the full travel to engage the starter. I've started the car 10 times with this setup and it worked first time every time, so fingers crossed. I'll go out later, park at the top of a hill just in case, and switch off the engine to see if it restarts OK...

 

[Noah500]

Adjusted the clutch cable - c 2cm of slack to take up

 

[Noah500]

Old (original?) fuel hose replaced with nice new ethanol-resistant hose and stainless clamps. A bit of a faff to feed the hose through the tunnel (1 seat out, carpet up, front air vent/tunnel cover removed, open and pinch shut the various mounting clips) but worth it. I'll feel happier with standard unleaded now (I was using super unleaded for lower ethanol content). It took a few seconds cranking before the fuel fed through the empty hose but started fine. I took a quick run out and no leaks at the joints! The old plasticky hose looks a bit manky though it had no actual cracks or leaks that I could see.

Btw, I read in various threads that the fuel hose goes through the top left hole in the rear of the tunnel but on my car the old fuel hose was in the same hole as the brake pipe, with the clutch cable in top left, so I put the new one through the same as before to avoid potential chafing.

Also FYI I've seen posts which say 2 metres of hose is sufficient ... I did rough measurements (from the top of the fuel tank to the hard pipe just behind the rear of the tunnel) before ordering and decided on 3 metres to be on the safe side. I've just measured the offcut and it's about 65cm, so a 2 metre length wouldn't have been enough!

 

[Noah500]

...
Btw, I read in various threads that the fuel hose goes through the top left hole in the rear of the tunnel but on my car the old fuel hose was in the same hole as the brake pipe, with the clutch cable in top left, so I put the new one through the same as before to avoid potential chafing../

Actually, I think it may be the Speedo cable...

 

[fiat500]

Actually, I think it may be the Speedo cable...

You're right on both counts; the image is my car before anything had been disturbed.

 

[Noah500]

'Sweating' old brake fluid reservoir to master cylinder hose replaced with new hose and brakes bled. Another little job that I had been meaning to get round to, and finally did

 

[Noah500]

I went to put the rear wheels back on after bleeding the brakes and one of the wheel bolts sheared off, with no thread showing After googling bolt/stud extractors and finding that most of them had mixed reviews, I decided to try a lo-tech solution. I drilled out the centre of the bolt, first with a 2.5mm bit, then 3.5mm. Then I bashed the end of a small screwdriver into the hole with a mallet and managed to unbolt the stub of bolt without damaging any of the bolt hole threads - result

 

[Goldnrust]

Nice save there! The screwdriver trick worked well.

Those bolt extractors are fine for jobs like the on you have there, where the broken portion of the bolt is still comparatively free to turn, normal then the bolt shears during tightening.

When they come unstuck is when people try to use them on bolts that have heard when trying to undo them. The remaining portion of the bolt will be stuck in the threads and need a torque in excess of that which sheared the original head off in order to remove it, so the extractor is fighting an uphill battle. In that situation normally building up the bolt with weld till you can weld a bigger nut on to it is the order of the day. The added bonus is the weld heats up the remaining section of the bolt which can help break the bond of corrosion.

Also, much better the shear it on the driveway, that have the wheel come off! I would suggest checking all your other wheel bolts, I found 2/3rd of mine had clear stretching to the threads, so I replaced them all. The torque figure for the wheels is about half that of most modern cars, would be easy to over torque them, especially if the wheels are being fitted with a rattle gun at a tyre shop/garage.

 

[Noah500]

Thanks... after the bolt sheared I checked the torque rating in the Haynes manual (32.5-40 lbft!). My torque wrench was at about 50 but I think that specific bolt must have been a bit dodgy before

 

[Goldnrust]

I think the 50lb/ft must have just been the straw that broke the camels back, not massively over the recommended 40bls/ft. A tyre shop with a rattle gun set to 100lb/ft or someone who just likes to do the wheels up 'nice and tight' and gets a bit carried away with a breaker bar, now thats the sort of over torquing that will damage the bolts

 

[Noah500]

I took everything out again (including both seats, both seatbelts and the whole carpet this time) to check out the lingering petrol smell in the cabin after changing the hose. I may need to replace it with something else but in the mean time I decided to check out the accelerator pedal which appeared to have a lot of play in it, meaning that even with the pedal to the metal it didn't seem to be going down as far as it ought to be able to. Once I had removed it I found 2 sources for the play:

1. The rod going through the nylon mount was very loose (not sure of down to wear on the nylon, or on the rod, or both), meaning that the pedal mechanism was wobbly

2. The lever on the other end of the rod was not tightly fixed, meaning that pushing the pedal would move it a bit before any force was transferred to the lever and therefore the cable.

I've just ordered a new accelerator pedal. After installing that, I'll put 1 seat and 1 seat belt in, and take it for a drive. If the petrol smell's gone, fine; if not, looks like I'll be going for an alternative hose, or the Ricambio hard fuel pipe solution.

Because I had the whole carpet out I was able to get the front air vent feed tube completely off the front of the tunnel. Overall, the floor looks to be in pretty good condition. The only bit which had some flaky loose rust - which doesn't seem to have gone through the whole panel - was the front part of the tunnel and the floor going up from there to the dashboard. I wirebrushed the offending sections, hoovered out all the loose stuff, treated with Kurust and put on a quick couple of coats of satin black to protect it. Hopefully should be good for another few years.

One final thing - before removing the inertia reel seat belts I put kitchen bag clips on the webbing to keep the belt in the right position for refitting - last time I took out a seat belt it took a while to refit because I had to keep pulling the belt out of the reel bit by bit.

 

[Noah500]

New accelerator pedal arrived this morning. Amazing how much better it is with no play in the bushing or the pivot. Now fitted, with new split pins

 

[Noah500]

Also, the other day I replaced the bent paper clip that was holding the clutch pedal on with an actual split pin...

 

[Noah500]

I installed a front boot carpet/mat today, to replace the piece of floor vinyl that had been fitted by a previous owner... From Ricambio, seems pretty good quality, though the pre slot for the oil reservoir hose is in the wrong place...

 

[Noah500]

Petrol smell problem now solved by replacing all the new hose with 6mm OD copper pipe (about 2.4m from just outside the back of the tunnel to the top of the tank). Just 2 small sections of hose, to connect the new pipe to the tank atbthe front and the existing hard pipe just behind the tunnel (I could have replaced that existing pipe as well but a) it looked a bit awkward to get at, b) it is not currently causing any problems and c) I didn't have enough new pipe).

Fairly straightforward - I laid the pipe out straight on the floor, slipped on pieces of hose to prevent rubbing in the pipe clips and at a couple of points where the pipe is in contact with other things (e.g. cables). I did buy a pipe bender but it wasn't possible to easily get in to make the bends and the pipe was easy enough to bend manually with a big enough radius.

I laid the pipe out straight on the floor, covered the end with the little plastic cap it came with so as not to get dirt in it, then fed it through from the rear of the tunnel, adding the pieces of hose protection just before the pipe reached the relevant point (taking off the plastic cap each time - maybe unnecessary). Once I got to just in front of the gear lever I gently bent the hose in a big curve and fed through some more pipe until just a little bit was left sticking out the back of the tunnel. Once enough was through I fed the end through the hole in the bulkhead to the boot and then bent the pipe to fit in the clips at the front of the footwell, starting with the one closest to the tunnel. Finally, before refitting the tunnel covers, carpets, etc. I bent the clips into place. Pieces of connecting hose clamped in place, then a quick startup test to check for leaks

*** LHD, by the way - RHD cars may be different? ***

Tunnel tinware, carpets, seatbelts, console etc. back in place, and I also swapped the seats round so now I've got decent padding on the driver's side instead of the passenger side

 

[Noah500]

After two years of owning my 500 I finally got round to replacing the front seat covers... the old ones were generally sound but had several areas with bad damage from (I assume) seat belt tongues and buckles. The new ones are from Ricambio and are a good colour match (though the photo shows them a bit lighter than the rest because I used the flash). Fairly easy to fit, though I will see how they are in practice - may need to tighten up the bases a bit more

 

[Noah500]

What to do with the leftover old seat covers? Well, from the two fronts of the backrests I made a custom rear parcel shelf cover.

No single piece of vinyl was big enough, so I joined two of the fluted bits end to end, put a return on and stuck some 3mm craft foam sheet on the back of the top-facing part for some support (the old foam backing had pretty much completely perished to powder, so I removed the rest).

I tucked over the existing shelf cover (stiffish vinyl + insulation continued up from the bulkhead) and voilà!

It bulges up slightly because the original is quite distorted, but for now I am fairly pleased. If I get too irritated by it I may take it off and try to flatten the original (hairdryer, maybe?)

 

[Noah500]

Well, that didn't last long... Now looking much better with the addition of a thin plywood former to slip inside the cover on top of the original vinyl/insulation plus judicious use of some double sided tape. It's now sitting flat, or flattish anyway!