General Questions from a newbie...

[kidscruff]

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening!

I've recently had the fortune to become an owner of a well-loved 500;

eBay item no: 190668659857
(I didn't pay quite that much)

He (Max is his name) has had numerous tweaks to the engine/drivetrain prior to import: (namely a 650cc's engine bored out to 82mm, cylinder head flycut to achieve 10:1 compression etc. Lovely stuff (apart from the tablespoon of sand the garage removed from the carb yesterday!)

I've got a couple of questions, which, having scoured the rest of the forum, I couldn't find any answers to. Apologies if these are standard newbie questions.

A) He's got a dynamo fitted, which I gather may or may not be a Good Thing. I ask because the red light flickers if I drive in the dark with headlights on and wipers running. If this is normal, then I won't worry, but if it's a sign that I'm not getting enough juice to the battery, would an alternator be a wise move?

B) My speedo light is a duffer. The Haynes manual draws a blank on how to remove the speedo cover (it's the rectangular kind) - is it just the gentle poking of the two metal tabs underneath the plastic surround and the coaxing out that is required, or will I need to disconnect the speedo cable/wiring under the bonnet beforehand?

C) Can anyone explain the Abarth provenance to me? I've searched the web but am none the wiser. The lady who sold it told me that he's had enough performance tweaks to be badged as an Abarth (which he currently is) but I don't understand quite what makes an Abarth an Arbath. I'd rather badge him properly (All signs point to a 500L)

Thanks in advance for your shared wealth of knowledge!

Xander

 

[kidscruff]

Oh, and one more question – it's a LHD (being driven in the UK) and the right-hand-drive mirror (the most important one!) doesn't angle anywhere near "in" enough to be of any use at all – I need to shift my head over to the position of the front passenger's to see traffic behing in it. Anyone else have this problem?

 

[disgusted]

Hey, there's nothing wrong with bolting on a few goodies to "Abarth-ise" a car. It wouldn't be a real one though.

It's fun to let the Abarth anoraks get hot under the collar about it.

It may be a good plan not to see behind you, as you may become embarrassed by the queue building up.

Enjoy!

 

[disgusted]

& if you paid less than that, I reckon you've got a fair buy.

You can keep it for years & get all of your money back when you sell it.

 

[jimboy]

Basically, Abarth was an Italian house/company that designed & dealt in racing cars. Fiat purchased them in the early 70's Some real sports cars were developed by this partnership in the start. present day really sees Badge motoring,although some luke warm hatches have been produced.

 

[oopsadaisy]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

It looks like you bought at the right price - OK so bodywork is a bit iffy in places but I've seen far worse for that kind of money.

Looking at the Ebay pictures of the engine bay I would comment that it looks like you have an alternator - not a dynamo, and this would be consistent with the 126 engine.

If this is the case, it is unusual that the charge light should flicker - it may be worth putting an ammeter on the battery lead the check the charge rate.

It also appears you have a 123 electronic ignition system - definitely to be recommended.

Speedo light - can't remember off the top of my head, but I did remove the whole unit on our car and whilst it was off replaced all the bulbs in there.

I seem to recall I did have to disconnect the speedo cable, and I think the wiring loom to the unit is a single plug.

On the Abarth matter, Ok it will never be a true Abarth, but interesting modifications anyway.

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[oopsadaisy]

Oh, and by the way, yes - it is a 500L and to look right should really have the chrome nudge bars back and front!

 

[kidscruff]

Hi All,

Many thanks for your advice and input. I'm intending on using him as a commute/runaround for the time being, with the intention to eventually do a full respray / nuts-and-bolts rebuild.

It's had a rust-proof plastic-y coating applied to the underside and the interior footwells/arches/sills etc. This is starting to flake in places underneath, but the body shows minimal corrosion – there are some 2-4mm pinholes in the front footwells that I'll be keeping an eye on.

I fiddled with the wiring plug at the back of the speedo, and bingo - the light now works. How temporary this fix is remains to be seen!

I think I'll be replacing the Abarth shield for the time being – it doesn't bother me massively. I may well rebadge him to correct provenance if I end up fully restoring, but as he's mechanically a bit of a frankenstein anyway, I don't see the harm in the badge.

I also removed the offending wing mirror, filed down the mount and tightened the clamp angle, so now all three mirrors are in working order.

Will be attempting to fettle in some newer bulbs to get the most out of the puny headlights, replacing the leaky and shrunken sunroof (the long-missing centre bar is about 6cm too long for the canvas) replacing plastic with chrome and addressing rust bubbles as best as possible.

Thanks again for your help – What a welcoming forum!

 

[kidscruff]

Well, I've done some more tinkering, namely replacing cracked lights, new sunroof, replacing quarter light rubbers and so forth.

I'm wondering how to go about increasing power at the top end – the engine seems to flatten out at higher revs, seemingly before it should.

I've checked sparks (a bit black from carbon deposits, but nothing major) and aim to replace them. As far as I can tell, the 123 ignition is doing it's job properly, as it starts well both cold and hot. The carb has been cleaned recently and idle set appropriately.

The lady I bought it off mentioned that it used to have a single-throat Dell'Orto carb, but that it was too thirsty, so she replaced it with a Weber 28 IMB. The list of engine tweaks that I received mention that the intake valves have been widened out to 36mm, so I'm hoping that replacing the Weber 28 with a slightly chunkier carb might help to increase power at the top end – would an electrical fuel push pump by the tank also help with this, and if so, how would one wire it in?

Any advice gratefully received!