Hello from San Diego

[garageguy]

Hi Everyone,

Picked up a '74 Spider and am doing a mild restoration. Runs great, has a decent paint job, wheels, tires, etc. Already changed timing belt, vbelt, oil/filter, engine mounts.

Just rewrapped dash with new vinyl and restored wood dash. Took gauges apart and cleaned lenses. Just having a blast.

Glad to be on the forum!

Garageguy

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Welcome, Garageguy! I just changed the engine mounts in my '71 spider today, and while they were a pain to remove due to the lack of clearance for the axial bolts on either end, I eventually got the old ones out. Seems like the new ones went in easier, but perhaps that's just because they weren't all covered in grease. Any suggestions or tricks to replacing yours?

-Bryan

[garageguy]

Hi Bryan

Jacked up motor with floor jack and block of wood. Did one side at a time. For the driver's side it was a pinch but got it in. Used a dab of grease to hold lock washer from underneath. Short depth socket with nut inside and long extension through access hole on cross member....

Damon (aka garageguy)

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Thanks, Damon, and that's pretty much the same way I did it with a slight variation. Note that I had 2 washers on the bottom, a flat washer and a split lock washer. I put the nut and lockwasher in the 17 mm socket, and held the flat washer to the face of the socket with a piece of electrical tape wrapped around the washer and outside of the socket. I could then insert the whole thing up through the access hold onto the lower bolt, tighten the nut, and the tape just spins off the washer and then comes out with the socket.

One additional complication on mine was that I had to loosen the nuts holding the exhaust downpipe to the manifold. If I didn't do this, I couldn't raise the engine high enough as the horizontal part of the downpipe would hit against the floorpan in the passenger footwell.

-Bryan

[78SoCal]

Howdy there,

I'm in north San Diego, Carlsbad. I'm playing with my yellow 78 fuel injected in the garage now.