Benny and the Jets

A whole bunch of stuff arrived today and I was most keen to try the new jets I’d orderd.  I’ve gone up one size for the primary and secondary main jets;  1.2 for the primary and 1.25 for the secondary and have half sizes to try as well (1.15 & 1.2).  The new idle screw and 'O' ring arrived along with new lock nuts for the air filter and 8mm spacers.

Installation is straight forward just be careful not to damage anything or drop anything down the carb venturi's!   A cloth stuffed down them helps.  The jets are accessed without having to remove anything other than the air filter...the factory fitted jets are 1.10 & 1.15 and both where a bit stubborn and refused to pull out of the emulsifier tubes initially but they gave way eventually with a little persuasion.  With the new ones installed I fitted the new idle screw and set it 1.75 turns out as previously.

I had to operate the choke manually due to the broken cable and BART fired up on a the first turn of the starter.

When he had warmed up I noted the idle was higher than before and the exhaust smelt a bit rich, I adjusted the idle screw and found the default factory setting of 1.5 turns was just about spot on.

Time for a test drive.  Ive written previously how well BART was now driving and willing to rev.  well things have just got a whole lot better.  To get BART to rev previously did require quite a large input from the throttle but now with the larger main jets the engine is much more responsive and eager even on small throttle openings...a slight press of the gas pedal now gets an eager response from the engine.  From 4K rpm opening up the secondary choke produces a real surge from the engine which was somewhat diluted before.  I'm not sure I'll need the half sized jets after this, I'll check the plugs after a few miles and see how they are holding up.  The car is now even more a joy to drive.

Next I need to play with the ignition timing, I've read that a little advance with the exhaust and increased jetting may bring benefits from the factory 5deg BTDC...

Addendum:
I tried tweaking the timing advancing to 10 and 15deg BTDC but didn't really notice any difference in performance, there may have been a bit of a loss in fact especially at 15deg but I wouldn't swear to it, however, what I did find was the engine seemed to run a little hot and I had to increase the idle mixture after a drive so it would idle cleanly...in the end I decided to set the car as Fiat intended at 5deg BTDC and 2 turns out on the idle screw.  This seemed to be the best setting so far.

Learn to leave things alone...

I broke BART. Curiosity got the better of me, I was reading some of the X19 forums about re-jetting the carburettor if any modifications had been done to the engine. BART has a custom high flow exhaust fitted and even though he runs a lot better than when I first drove him I had a suspicion he was running a bit too lean.

 I ordered up some larger main jets for the carb and a new idle screw and seal as I also have a suspicion the seal is damaged as the idle is not consistent. I also ordered a replacement air filter stud and nuts at the same time. So while waiting for these bits to arrive I thought it a good idea to check the plugs and have another go at setting the choke correctly.

First off though I removed the idle mixture screw, it was tight to unscrew and when it did free itself from the carb I found the seal had totally disintegrated. I then removed the plugs in turn and found them white in colour indicating a lean mixture, hmmm, going well so far, my hunches confirmed. The plugs where also not gapped correctly so I reset them to .7mm Ok now for that choke...

I re-adjusted the fast idle cam screw and took the slack out of the cable. I put a little grease on the cable & cam and operated the choke lever in the car a few times...ping, the sound of something snapping...no more choke movement. Blast!

Googling turned up no OEM cables available only some general fit choke cables of the right length. I'm hoping I only need the inner cable and I can re-use the outer but my main issue is how to gain access to the choke lever in the car as it is attached to the handbrake lever...which in turn is covered by the interior carpet. A call for help on the X19 owners forum revealed that I’ll need to remove the seats, seat belts and sill trim capping before I can peel the carpet back to get at the handbrake. Oh The Joy.

Set me straight please part 2.

With the new adjustable camber bolts from Eurosport UK installed I booked BART back into Blackboots (Chesham) for a follow up alignment session.

Having fitted the new electronic points the day before it was a good opportunity to see how BART ran.  I have to say that it was nothing short of a revelation, BART actually has some torque now!  He can now pull uphill in 4th where before I felt I needed to drop down to 3rd as the engine struggled.  The engine seems to be much more free reving the tacho needle spins around to 6K with ease and there is real urgency higher up the rev range as the second choke opens up.  Sure, its still no tarmac shredder(!) but it feels so much closer to my 1500 X1/9 now in terms of top end performance that I don’t miss the extra power of the 1500.  The difference it makes to the driving experience is a real plus and I’m finding myself seeking out the upper reaches of the rev range much more, it’s way more pleasurable and satisfying than before.  A great result.

At Blackboots the guys set about connecting all the gear to BART and noted the newly installed camber bolts...they obviously needed adjustment and with a bit of faffing and effort as the bottom strut bolts where amazingly tight they got the camber more or less spot on.

Then they adjusted the rear toe in which was left alone in the first session and as a result this put the front toe out of spec.  Getting the rear toe set correctly is paramount before the front can be adjusted.  The rear toe sets an imaginary line down the centre of the car, if the toe is out and not equal this imaginary line won't be exactly in the centre and the front toe won't be able to be set correctly in relation to the rear.

Unfortunately these adjustments put the offside front camber out by 1deg.  Not having any more camber bolts of the correct size they managed to dial out the majority of the error by moving the front hub in relation to the strut and retightening the hub to strut bolts, there being just enough play in the bolt holes.

All in the guys took nearly two hours to get everything set just so and they even fixed the blowing exhaust joint!  Top work guys!

The journey back was even better than the drive out, the car didn't feel that much different to before as they had corrected the major alignment faults on the first visit but there was something just a bit more stable and secure about the handling than previously.  That, coupled with the improved engine performance resulted in a very pleasurable blast down some twisty country lanes.  Fantastic!

I need a little spark in my life...

When I bought my 1500 X1/9 one of the first things I looked into was electronic points replacement modules.  These modules retain the original coil and aim to replace the often troublesome points with a solid state switch, the cost is typically a lot less than a full on electronic ignition but provide better reliability than points alone.

Ignitioncarparts.co.uk seemed to have a compatible module for the Marelli S178 distributor fitted to my 1500...unfortunately, it wasn’t, it didn’t fit and after a number of emails to their support people I returned it for a refund and stuck with the original points.

Conventional points work well enough up to a, err.....point!  But they require regular adjustment to keep the car in tune which is not easy on some designs and they don’t provide consistent timing operation especially higher up the rev range.  They require a condenser (a high voltage capacitor) to stop them arcing in operation, arcing erodes and transfers material from one side of the points contact to the other; they end up with a hole on one contact and a lump on the other making adjustment with a feeler gauge impossible so the contacts need filing down or replacing....it gets to be a bit of a faff.

The heel of the points wears down over time closing the point gap taking the engine out of tune and the transition of the points from closed to open varies slightly each time.

Electronic points replacement units are a solid state switch, a sensor is placed where the old points would be in the distributor and a trigger piece is slid over the central distributor shaft.  There’s no physical switch or moving parts.  The Dwell angle (a measure of the points gap) is inbuilt to the sensor/trigger and remains consistent at all speeds giving a much more accurate spark and greater reliability.  The car remains in tune much longer.

BART runs a Marelli S135 distributor so I decided to give ignitioncarparts.co.uk another go and ordered a unit.  This time the unit fitted, although, not without some tweaks.

The distributor is buried at the back of the engine close to the bulkhead on the drivers side.  Fiat had obviously thought about this and provided an access panel in the engine bulkhead.  The spare wheel needs to be removed from behind the drivers seat and 4x 10mm securing nuts holding the panel in place.

The instructions call for the condenser to be removed and as access was still tight I elected to remove the distributor to make the job easier, noting the position of the distributor and the central cam...this was just as well as fitting required a bit of thought.  The first issue was the wires where too short to reach the coil, the coil didn’t have any spade terminals and the hole to be used for the exit wires in the distributor was too small!

I removed the condenser and the low tension (LT) wire and connection assembly to the points, then I made up some extension wires to reach the coil and enlarged the hole in the distributor where the LT assembly was as the spade connectors would not pass through.  Bullet connectors would be better here.

With the points removed I trial fitted the sensor and found the mounting screws where too short, so I sourced a longer M4x10mm screw and lock washer.  The sensor should have shipped with some heat sink compound but it didn’t, luckily I have a tube and smeared some on the bottom of the sensor mounting plate.  With the sensor mounted and the wires routed through the enlarged hole I pushed on the trigger ring over the central cam.  It was a tight fit and required some force to go on, I checked for a 1mm clearance between the trigger ring and sensor and remounted the distributor on the engine.

I connected up the extension wires I’d made earlier and fitted some spade connectors to the coil.  It was then just a case of connecting  the red wire to the positive coil terminal and the black to the negative.  To my absolute astonishment BART started first time!

I warmed BART up a bit and attached my strobe light to check the timing, it was retarded way too much, I’m surprised it ran, rotating the distributor soon had it purring set to 5 deg BTDC at an idle of 900RPM.

Test drive to BlackBoots scheduled for tomorrow!

Can I have some support here please!

When I booked BART in to have his wheel alignment check I also asked BlackBoots to take a look at the custom CSC exhaust as one of the joints is blowing, as it is a custom design they didn't have a U bolt clamp of the correct size to hand so ordered one in for when I re-visit to finalise the alignment.

With that in process I turned my attention to replacing the failed bottom engine mount.  The engine mount was an aftermarket one sold through Eurosport UK a few years back.  It differs to the standard one by having an extended exhaust bracket built into the design, unfortunately they can no longer be obtained.

Having already sourced a standard replacement mount from DG_Rally on eBay without the extended support I needed to place another order with Claire  @ Eurosport UK for a separate exhaust extension arm!

Replacement is easy enough but needs some care.  Jack the rear of the car up or put the rear wheels on blocks/ramps.  Place a jack under the gearbox and raise it up to take the weight of the engine off the lower mount.  Undue the exhaust bolts and the three bolts securing the mount to the gearbox and then undue the two bolts holding the mount to the crossmember.  This is the old failed mount:

Old and new, new with additional support bracket:

Assembly is the reverse of disassembly...well not quite as I now found move evidence of poor workmanship from a previous life.  The mount needs to be aligned with the holes in the gearbox AND it also needs to be parallel with the gearbox.  Achieving this is done by loosening off the crossmember bolts so there is enough left to right twist to parallel the mount and not preload the rubber or stress the mounting bolts.

What seems to have happened previously is the mount had been bolted up to the gearbox at an angle stressing the rubber and putting strain on the three mounting bolts as they pulled everything into alignment.  The result is premature wear of the mount and partial thread stripping of the mounting holes!  Unbelievable!  With luck though there was just enough thread left for me to use a slightly longer bolt in one hole to secure the mount.  One other thread had slightly stripped but was still ok thankfully.  I placed some copper slip grease on the bolt threads and finger tightened them first before finally tightening them up.

With the mount installed the crossmember bolts could then be torqued up, thankfully this resulted in no more clonks and donks emanating from the rear of the car over bumps!

Set me straight please.

I arrived at Blackboots a touch early for my appointment and had to wait for 10mins while they finished off another customers car.  Once BART was on the ramp they quickly got to work setting up whilst I had another gander at his underparts!  The guys quickly noted a number of areas that needed work.

Firstly the front axle toe was way out, the wheels where toe'd out by nearly 2deg...this was the main cause of the car feeling uncertain and vague about the straight ahead position, it wanted to steer itself and follow uneven road surfaces.

Also, the front near side castor was out and they adjusted this by inserting a shim behind the radius arm mounting point.  The rear toe of an X19 is adjustable and BART was right on the limit of acceptable here and a decision was made to leave it for now and adjust later as a far more pressing issue needed to be resolved; the rear near side wheel had too much negative camber.  To adjust this I needed to get some offset cam bolts from Eurosport UK so another order was placed with Claire and they arrived the following day, great service!

These ingenious devices replace the upper suspension strut-to-hub bolt on both sides of the car.  The camber is adjusted by slackening of the lower strut-to-hub bolt and turning these with their offset cam to move the hub in relation to the strut outwards or inwards pivoting around the lower bolt.

So another trip will be required to Blackboots once I get the new bolts fitted.  The drive home was far more enjoyable though, despite the need to do more work the car felt so much better.  It felt planted on the road, no longer feeling nervous and vague and the steering feel was much improved, in other words it inspired confidence and I felt safe in exploring the limits of the car more through the corners...TBC

Hardened bushes, ooh painful!

During the initial look at the underbelly of BART I noticed the radius arm bushes where shot, not seeing anything listed on the old invoices I presumed they hadn't been changed in years which is odd considering they cost very little and replacement is straight forward.

A quick order into Claire at Eurosport UK and I had a set of replacement bushes and nylock nuts the following day.  Replacement took about 45 mins. and I immediately booked the car into Blackboots  in Chesham for a 4 wheel alignment check.  These guys know their onions, I've used them multiple times before, it's well worth making the journey to let them fine tune the suspension settings.  Old and new:

Replacement is just a case of removing the radius arm 19mm securing nut and undoing the three bolts that hold the front support bracket to the car body.  The bushes simply slide of the arm in sequence, it is important to not this sequence and also the number of shims that set the front castor, don't forget to replace them!

Phew! Is it me or is it hot in here?

As reported in the introduction BART had a temperature which caused us to abandon our first test drive.  With the engine now running well I started to investigate...driving around the local roads ~30 to 40mph the radiator fan would kick in after about 5 miles.  The temperature would then keep rising slowly getting into the danger zone on the temp. gauge.

The first thing I tried was to bleed the system correctly, this involves pointing the nose of the car down a bit in relation to the engine and opening up the bleed nipple on the front mounted radiator.  Coolant should flow out of the bleed nipple when all the air had been bled.  With this done you need to set the heater valve inside the car to open, top up the expansion tank if needed in the engine bay and run the car up to temperature with the expansion cap off to bleed out any remains air.

I did this and managed to bleed some air from the system but it didn't cure the overheating, there was some improvement but it still wasn't right.  Having experienced a similar issue with my 1500 X19 I checked if the whole of the radiator was getting hot...lo and behold only the top third was hot, the rest was cold to the touch.

There was nothing else for it; I had to drop the radiator and try to flush it out or at worst replace it.  It's quite easy to drop the radiator out on an X19 but its a messy job!  With the radiator out I set about flushing it forward and backwards with a hose pipe and in-between picking it up and sloshing the water around inside, the amount of rust and debris that came out was quite an eye opener!  This is just a sample of the hard lumps that came out as well as rust:

I also mixed up 500ml of caustic soda and sloshed that around inside the radiator, this removed additional crud that flushing alone didn't touch.  As an added precaution I flushed the long transfer pipes that run underneath the car from the engine to the radiator, a surprising amount of debris came out.  With the rad back in the car and bled correctly as before the whole of it now got hot to the touch and the temperature needle stayed just below half way throughout my follow up test drive...result!

Congratulations, you have a baby boy! Err, What's that smell?

Delivery was arranged and BART arrived as planned 6 days after purchase on August 30th, intact and working - just. "She's a bit difficult to start and keeps bogging down" So said the delivery driver.  He managed to persuade BART to climb the small slope to our driveway and turned him off.  A visual inspection and all seemed ok, paper worked signed and handed over.

We chatted to the driver for a bit and after he left I took a closer look at BART and noted a strong smell of petrol.  Hmmm, I’d not noticed that before at Junction59...I promptly removed the air filter and pipe work to see what was what.  A pool of petrol was slowly expanding underneath the carb. and every time the throttle was opened it got a bit larger.  The accelerator diaphragm was leaking, luckily I had an old but intact spare to hand, 5 mins later and the leak was cured.

At the same time I thought it best to check the carb over thoroughly...I found the carb was loose on its studs, the carb hadn't been tightened down properly after Junction59 had replaced the head gasket, an air filter stud was missing and the rubber gasket for the air filter housing hadn't been installed correctly!  Good grief.

I decided to go the whole hog and took the top plate assembly off the carb.  I adjusted the float level, they where set too low by ~2mm and removed all the jets and cleaned out all the fuel galleries.  There was quite a lot of debris in the float chamber also seen when I replaced the accelerator pump diaphragm.

I bolted everything back together and adjusted the choke so it operated correctly and fired the engine up.  BART coughed into life and ran nicely at a fast idle on the choke.  After he'd warmed up a bit I noted the idle was a little rough, I checked the ignition timing and found it a few degrees out but the dwell angle (points gap) was OK.  With the timing set correctly I adjusted the mixture as it was clearly set too lean, this picked the revs up and the engine smoothed out.  Phew!

Unable to resist a quick test drive 'round the block I found the engine now pulled correctly and wanted to rev.  It's a lovely little engine and comes on song around 4000 RPM especially when the secondary choke kicks in, its no power house but it sounds lovely.  Even with the blowing exhaust!