126's and summer weather

[Chris Lakin]

I am interested to know how everyones 126 is performing in this heat?

My BIS doesnt seemt to be bothered by it at all, one thing you should do on the bis is make sre the airfilter container has the flap switch to summer driving i.e. open to bring cool air in and not air from the engine.

any mods tips for summer driving, especialy for long journeys?

Chris

[126dave]

BIS ok,and aircooled runs flip up rear panel and oil cooler etc.....no bother here,temp hitting 34c wednesday...............

[paul harbinson.]

Mines runnin like a wee mouse chewin paper....great :wink:

[fiatfsm]

mines been fine too

[Chris Lakin]

since it rained quite heavily where i am, the car has started slightly less well.

are you suposed to tweak the carb/timing settings for better performance during winter or summer?

Chris

[PaulB]

I have been told and read (the that doesn't make it true) that fuel companies alter fuel during the seasons, so if that is true the a tweak of the timing is in order. I tend to reset the valves and timing 2-3 times a year anway.

[ill_dawg]

I just drove mine from Poland through czech and austria to the south end of Croatia in the scorching heat, then back through Hungary and Slovakia through Poland to the Baltic. It runs like a dream, as long as you keep the back open. The only problem was I had to get the points adjusted twice.  I've heard it's easy to do, and it only ever took the mechanics a couple of minutes, but I've never adjusted the points on any car I've ever owned.  If someone could explain the process to me, that would be wicked cool.

Cheers,

-=ADAM=-

[Chris Lakin]

blimey Adam! Sounds like you had fun! I take my hat off too you for driving that distance!

Points are easy to adjust, you need a set of feeler gauges, £3.50 from halfords, and a flat head screw driver. You look up the thickness gap needed between the points. You unscrew the locking screw (C) then widen the gap or close the gap accordingly between the gap (B) on the diagram. the 126 BIS gap should be 0.52 i think it is, you just select the appropriate feeler gauges to make up the gap needed. Then tighten the screw back up. I'm not good at explaining,



you can tell that the image shown is of a distributor and points for a 4 cylinder car as the cam(E) has 4 apex's the 126 has only 2 as when the cam spins off the engine it opens the points and allows the spark to "arch" across.

I hope someone else will elaborate. Its  really good thing to know, so well done for asking!


When the 126 first came out the car was driven for 7 days solid around Isle of man and only the points needed adjusting during the testing.


regards

Chris

[126dave]

Adam,how is your back panel opened??,mine is cut at the top of the rear lights,and hinged at the top with a power ram to open and close

[PaulB]

Points - just to add, the gap is set at about .5mm for the aircooler too.

Also.... a few bits missed out:

Turn the engine by hand (grabbing the pulley) so the cam (E) has opened the points as far as they will go.

Now set the points by loosening the screw (C) and sliding a 0.5mm feeler into the gap to set the gap and tighten the screw.

Now double check the gap - the feeler should rub against the points but not move them. The next size up shouldn't fit.

However... if the face of the points is lumpy (often the case if they've been used for a while) the points will need taking out and flattening off on some wet and dry paper before trying to set the gap.

Whenever the points are adjusted, the timing is thrown out and needs resetting - a two minute job.

[ill_dawg]

All of the 126p's here in poland seem to have the rear hatch the same way, it's hinged at the bottom near the lights, and there's a metal rod with a latch on the end that can be hooked onto the top of the engine compartment to keep the engine bay open about six inches.  I always assumed it was for driving the aircooled in the city in hot weather, where the engine wouldn't get adequate ventillation through the intake because of the slow speeds.

-=ADAM=-

btw, @paulb, is there an easy way to reset the timing w/o a timing light, i.e. just playing it by ear or something, b/c mine is still in America. . .

[PaulB]

Adam, I often end up resetting the timing by ear after setting it at 10 degree advance etc and still not being happy with it - I run it a little more advanced. Only problem is its easy to set it too advanced - seems to purr at idle but then there's flat spots at higher revs and can be a pain to restart hot, so now I use a timing light.

Once I worked out to use the power from the number plate light, it became the quickest way to set timing and know exactly how advanced it was - helpful when trying to find that magic spot. Only problem is getting the revs right as I use a twin coil which seems to throw out the timing light's rev counter (a basic on/off light).