Hello.. My First Post

[Batlcry]

Greetings All,
This is my first login so a tiny bit of background. I live in eastern Canada and bought my 1981 Spider 2000 in June of this year. Love the car and feel lucky to have found it. Had a great time this summer but now she is put away until probably April.
Anyway I plan to do some needed maintenance over the course of the winter. One problem I have is that when I start out in 1st gear I get a jumping in the engine or transmission. Strangely it does not happen all the time.. it seems to come and go. I figure that the motor or transmission mounts must be getting bad so am thinking about replacing them all. Does this sound like a reasonable assumption/solution?
Another issue is that when I want to start the engine I get a "click" noise from the engine but it won't turn over. I try again and maybe another "click" but she always eventually starts with a few tries. It does seem to be getting worse, more frequent. Is this a solenoid problem?
I have a nice garage and am somewhat handy so would like to tackle these issues as well as some cosmetic upgrades to help pass the winter months.
Any feedback that might help me solve these issues would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.. Lon.

[courtenay]

Welcome to the site. All kinds of great help available here. For your starting problem, there's a red wire running to the solenoid that has a bullet connector down new the alternator (there's a brown wire beside it as well). Pull the connections apart and clean them up. May solve your problem. It did mine.

[4uall]

Hello & welcome to the greatest place on earth

What city?

[RRoller123]

Welcome aboard! You will find plenty of knowledgeable and friendly people here.

Post some pictures! They help a great deal when trying to help diagnose problems, inquiries, etc that you may have.

Here is a thread on how to post pictures directly to the forum:

http://www.fiatspider.com/f15/viewtopic ... 13&t=32169

And here is another picture-posting thread:

http://www.fiatspider.com/f15/viewtopic ... 12&t=23084

This short instruction covers how to resize pictures so that they don’t get cut off at the right side:

http://www.fiatspider.com/f15/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=30441

And here is a link to a map of Spider owner’s locations. Many forum members have listed their locations.

https://www.zeemaps.com/map?group=191825


Pete

[RRoller123]

Check the first connector downstream from the ignition switch, C31 on the newer cars. It may look ok, but it causes what I affectionately refer to as the "click of death", symptom of which is a random "click" with no start, when using a known good battery, and then it magically starts. The whole thing gets progressively worse until finally it won't start at all. The contacts get bad in the housing, and the housing is a non-locking type and eventually separates slightly. My solution was to eliminate the C31 connector housing and join the wires directly to each other. The problem was 100% solved by doing this.

I did a post of this that you can find by searching on the term: "click of death" (a very silly term, but it gets the point across, I suppose.)

Pete

[4uall]

http://www.fiatspider.com/f15/viewtopic ... th#p260713

[baltobernie]

I figure that the motor or transmission mounts must be getting bad so am thinking about replacing them all.

Hello and Welcome!

In these cars, the transmission is attached to the drive shaft via a rubber "donut". Italians call it a "guibo", and although it can last a long time, any petroleum products leaking upon it will drastically reduce its life. Ditto the transmission mount; the rubber component in the assembly turns to goo under the effects of engine and gear oil. Lastly, the drive shaft is supported by a bearing in a rubber carrier. Yep, you guessed it, these go bad, too. The difficulty with this part is accurate diagnosis, which is guesswork without removing the drive shaft.

With unknown provenance, it might be wise to replace all of these items; they are not expensive. Removal/installation of the center drive shaft bearing, however, requires a press. The timing belt is also an item to replace regardless of appearance, unless you know it has been done so within the recommended age/mileage spec.

[Batlcry]

Wow!! What a lot of great responses and info in a day! Thanks to everyone who responded.. much appreciated and I have lots of good info to work with..
To the question about what city, I live in Rothesay, New Brunswick which is about 10 minutes east of Saint John.. work in the Port of Saint John.
Cheers and Thanks Again.
Best..
Lon.

[narfire]

Hi there, Glad you clarified regarding eastern Canada... for us westerners "Eastern Canada" is anything east of the Rockies..
Clicking....make sure connections on the battery are tight as well.

[KevAndAndi]

Failure of the giubo can be pretty catastrophic. I agree that you ought to check it and the center support bearing bushing. It's easier to determine if the latter is bad, because it's thin and will rip open all the way around the bearing. Before you remove the shaft, mark each segment of the whole drive line from the transmission to the differential with a white grease pencil or something similar. It must be put back together in the same orientation. If you take the shaft to a machine shop to press on a new center support bearing, have them replace the u-joints, as well. I think Autoricambi sells a kit that includes all the items you need. When you reinstall, put in a new giubo, and you will have done three relatively easy but important maintenance items in one go. Make sure the machine shop greases the u-joints unless you intend to do it yourself.

I also believe that every new FI Spider owner should take a close look at the AFM, because that is the heart of the FI system and can be the source of many woes. How many miles are on your car? Are you aware that the AFM has ever been serviced or replaced? When we acquired our car, it was running terribly. I sent the AFM off for refurbishment to Fuel Injection Corp. in California. When I got the AFM back, not only did it look new, but it transformed the way the car ran. Best $200 I ever spent. I'm a broken record on this subject here in the forum, but I do think that any FI owner should make it a priority to scrutinize and perhaps refurbish the AFM.

If you turn your key to the pre-start position and the fuel pump starts running, that's a clue that the AFM has at least one problem. There's an actuation arm inside that should prevent the fuel pump from energizing until the engine starts and there's actually air moving through the AFM.

[Batlcry]

Hi Back,
narfire, to us Maritimers, eastern Canada only refers to..east of Quebec!!
Yeah, tightening the battery connections was the first thing I tried.. things were ok for a while but getting progressively worse now.
KevAndAndi.. think I'll follow your advice and replace all components of the drive train.
My car shows 39,000+ km but the odometer only has 5 digits so it could have rolled over and with 35 years I expect it has.
Kind of showing my ignorance here, but what is the AFM.. I assume it is part of the fuel system?
Cheers,
Lon.

[4uall]

error post

[4uall]

Hey Lon, this might help



http://www.fiatspider.com/f15/viewtopic.php?t=27531

http://www.fiatspider.com/f15/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=20792

[Batlcry]

Right On Jay.. thanks for the pic!
Now I know where it is, just not sure What it is!!
I'll try googling it..
Cheers,
Lon.

[aj81spider]

The AFM measures the amount of air being pulled into the engine. This is used by the CPU to help calculate how much gas is needed and create the timing pulse for the fuel injectors.

On the Fiat the AFM does that measurement with a flap that is pushed further open the more air that is getting pulled in. The flap is connected to an arm that swipes along a resistive track. The location on the track of the arm creates a resistance that changes with position and that can be measured. That measurement is what gets sent to the CPU.