Whew! spendy stuff......I rarely use JB Weld, I usually just weld stuff! I've had this JB for probably 10 years.....hey, maybe that's the probem? It's just old? It does cure out hard as a rock tho, once it cures…..
That POR Puddy is good stuff and you can mold it, drill and tap it and paint it. No, it’s not cheap but it’s like clay steel once cured.
Got a little more done today, tho not as much as I had hoped - but then that's normal for any resto job. It always takes longer than you think it will and little problems always crop up. I got the heater core in so I decided to put the heater together, put some foam in to seal the core, bolted in the fan motor and assembled the box, but once I had it together I realized there was a small problem. The flap that controls where the air flow goes is held by some small notches in the front panel, the one that holds the flap so that you get air on your feet has been worn practically off, so it won't hold the flap in place. So I'll remove the front panel again and try to fix it. If I have to weld on it I'll only have to repaint the one panel, not the whole heater box. I bought a new fan switch as someone had JB Welded the wire onto the old one, but unfortunately, the Inno switch is different, so the new Mini one I bought won't fit. This one is still working so I'll go ahead and reuse it. I'm happy with how the turn signal switch turned out, I put a coat of paint on the parts I fixed and it's ready to go back into the car.
This morning I managed to get the pedal cluster installed, I had to remove the accelerator pedal assembly as the end didn't line up with where the cable comes thru the firewall, a quick trip to the vise and a little bend and all is good now. Next up was the steering column and the upper bracket - had to loosen the steering rack to get it all lined up properly, then it all went together as it should. I installed the column switch and stuck a late model steering wheel on it just for grins - it doesn't fit the turn signal switch so it's just sitting there. Dan found us a standard Hellbore steering wheel and hub assembly so it will all fit properly when we're done. I also trial fit the master cylinders - as you can see the new master is made for a right hand drive car - the pipes come out on the "wrong" side, so it will be interesting getting it all to work - I bought the special brake lines that have a metric fitting on one end and the English on the other but figuring out how to run them will be interesting - before I bend them. I've been using coat hangers to mock up how I'm going to run then, but without the carbs in there it's all just a guess. The clutch master will require a really tight bend in the line at the top then the other end has to work around the engine steady and heater hoses. More as it happens...….next up I'll mount the heater and run all the wiring to the steering column switch and remount the ignition switch. I'll also have to repair a few wires that the insulation has cracked on in several places - no idea what caused that - they're not burned like they shorted out, just cracked and broken insulation.
I decided while I had the dash all exposed to go ahead and start checking out the entire electrical system, so I installed the battery and turned a few things on.....uh-oh. Nothing smoked but some things are definitely not wired up correctly.....headlights only come on when I use the turn signal switch and....well I stopped there to look at the wiring diagram I have, but it doesn't seem to be quite right for this car. There is a relay on the left front inner fender that I think was for driving lights but the wires attached to it are for the fuel sender - according to the wiring diagram.....some more sleuthing is definitely in order. Also, there is no switch not being used, so I can't find what those wires and relay would be controlled by. I did find another wiring diagram that was posted just this month, I downloaded it to a thumb drive with the idea that I'd head over to Kinkos and have them print me out a BIG copy - but they're closed. There are also two unused wires that again, the diagram indicates are used for something completely not possible on that end of the car. God forbid I have to trace these wires one at a time and sort out what they do - that will take ages. Better now than when the car is all assembled tho…… Edit:I got a wiring diagram I can actually read!
Man better you than me. My old Indian only has lights generator and a brake lite and it took me three times to get it right! Good luck!
Minidave that looks like the road map of Milan. Good call on the large print edition. Can you imagine trouble shooting the wiring on a modern car.
Not only are modern cars far more complex, but the wiring diagrams are done in a whole different way. What a confusing mess......if you look at the first pic you can see some small colored dots - I (and the guy who wired it before me) assumed those were tu tell you which wire went where, so that's how he (and I subsequently) wired the switch up - but of course it did not work. So, I spent all morning trying to sort out what went where and why, and relate that to the wiring diagram, which was confusing but in the end I think accurate. Turns out he had the wires grouped together correctly, but on the wrong side of the switch. The first pic shows the dots, the second pic how it was wired when I took it apart. I mostly have it sorted out now, but still have one issue to figure out - when you turn on the new dash switch we got (that's supposed to turn on the dash lights) all it illuminates are the two turn signal arrows! Still have to sort that one out. I'll put up a pic of the final wiring once I get that last thing sorted.
Any car I have ever worked on where someone has supposedly fixed the wiring before was a complete pain in the arse to sort out. Have you found any lamp cord Or wire nuts yet?
Many times that is where the smoke leaks out. You are doing a fine job Dave. Once done it will be all worth it.
Yeah, I'm still not there.....I'm usually pretty good at sorting out wiring too but this one has me a bit flummoxed. The dash light switch is not in any way connected to the turn signals, yet it only lights the turn signal lights in the dash, and not the dash lights! The turn signals also don't work correctly - they light up but don't flash - that could just be a bad T/S flasher unit but I wonder......I may have to rig up some test lights and see what's going on here.....and the head lights still aren't working correctly - the left one seems to, but the right one doesn't light up on high beam - could be a bad bulb but I have a feeling I still have something wrong somewhere - like maybe the color coding on the wires is different between this car and the wiring diagram I have. All the same colors are there, but maybe they don't do what the diagram says they do.....
English - Italian quiz.....from the fuse box cover Luci Quadro R.M. Luci is lights, quaddro is 4, but R.M.? 4way flashers? Luci Posizione Lights - position? Parking lights? Anabb. Destro Goodle had this one - dipped right - low beam right side Anabb. Sin Same thing, left side Abb. Destro So I'm guessing high beams - right Abb. Sin Same, left Luci Direzione Elettroventil Ventil is valve, so I'm guessing lights, direction, valve - turn signal flasher relay Luci Arresto lights stop, so brake lights? Avv. Acustico accustico - noise or sound, so horn? Tergricristallo cristallo is glass, tergere is wipe so wipe glass, so wiper motor? Luci Interne interior light?
More progress. Having sorted what the various fuses do, turns out some of my light failures were due to corrosion on the fuses. I'm not surprised at this, my brother used to carry a can of WD40 in his Fiat 124 Spyder that used the same fuse panel, on damp or humid days he simply had to squirt his fuses and all his electrical stuff would start working again! One last mystery to sort, and it's a doozy. The dash lights that don't come on and the lights in both T/S in the instrument cluster that do. The turn signals now work correctly, and the lights illuminate with the signals as they should, but they should NOT come on when I turn on the dash lights. These two circuits are completely separate - no idea how they are getting power thru the dash light switch when there is no connection to it. I'm thinking I have a ground issue......
SORTED!!! I was right, a bad ground was causing the issue with the dash lights. Now everything works as it should. Result! as Edd would say!
Wow I should have thought about the fuses, it being Italian! When I worked on Fiats if we had an electric problem the first thing we would do was spin the fuses in their holders.