1990 Fiat 126 BIS

[cider]

Hi
Yep still available but only in poland 

[Crusader]

Ok time for another little update.

The gearbox was leaking quite a substantial amount of oil from the driveshaft seals. Perhaps some of you might be able to tell me if this is common on these?

Anyway, I stripped the old seals off from the shafts. I had intended to remove the driveshafts themselves until I realised the strip down involved in removing them. So here's the stripped down outputs.

The seals didn't seem to give me an idea as to why they were leaking, it makes me wonder whether they habitually leak?

The flanges and sealing rings all cleaned up.

I also gave the exhaust silencer a coat of heat proof silver paint and the brackets a coat of black.

Also the inside of the drivers door looks like this around the top. It's all chipped the paint. I can only assume it's from the clasp on the seat belt buckle being thrown off when undone. Then the clasp has been striking the door. Does anybody else know of this problem?



All comments appreciated and welcomed. Thanks for looking.

[Crusader]

So time for another update.

Firstly I stripped down the carburettor which is a 30S2H model. You may remember I had a broken part that wouldn't allow the choke to work. It needs a strip down and refurb. So the first thing to do was separate the two main parts of the carb.
Here's the top part of the carb that contains the fuel float and also the choke butterflies which are not working.

Here's the main block of the carb with the fuel bowl and throttle butterflies. You can just about see the broken white plastic piece that was attached to the end of the choke butterfly shaft.

Here is a close up of the plastic part and also the shaft that it should be attached to. This is the reason the choke just isn't working at all.

I've been back on the takeaways again as you can see, this one contains the choke butterflies, shaft and screws.


Next up I took out both windscreen washer bottles. I've never seen a windscreen washer bottle that looks like a Catheter bag. However here they are. They were disgusting too. 10 years worth or screenwash. I'm sure I've probably caught Legionaries disease.

I stripped down under the bonnet (or boot) ready for a clean up and tidy. The wiring is missing insulation from the factory. I want to rectify this and bring it up to the standard it should've been. Looks untidy all separate.

I also stripped down all the front end, purely to give everything a good clean up. There isn't anything broken or in need of replacement but I just want everything to be thoroughly clean before rebuilding.

Next up I gave all the wheel arches a warm soapy bath and cleaned off all the dirt and grime. Then it was a nice new coat of underseal for them.



Then the biggest pain in the arse of today. I tried to give the braking system a well deserved fluid change as it was clearly old stuff. Just look at the colour.

All was going really well, I managed to happily unscrew all the bleed nipples no bother at all. However I had absolutely nothing coming out of any of the nipples when the brake pedal was being pumped. So next I decided to have a look at the master cylinder which is located under a plastic cover under the bonnet.

Even when I cracked the pipes off and pumped the pedal, nothing was coming out directly from the master cylinder. This poses me a very difficult dilema. The car had brakes when I parked it up, all I've done is jacked the car up. I first opened the brake system today when I cracked open the bleed nipples. So I've no idea why it's not pumping out, however I will crack on with figuring it out. It can't have lost the master cylinder just like that.

I did a quick search on here and it became clear that these are difficult to bleed from dry, however mine wasn't dry. It should have been a routine brake fluid exchange. I'm quite puzzled really as to why it's done this. Anyone else experienced it?

Anyway, thanks for looking and any advice greatly appreciated.

[Bambino126]

That's really coming on nicely.
What's that interesting looking Merc in picture 3?

[shielsy]

am at the same stage as you with 500 i have to replace inner drive seals but one ring is hammered waiting for one to come good job on the car hats of 

[Crusader]

So it's time for another update on the BIS.

Due to full time work commitments and other projects on the go I haven't been able to progress the 126 too far. The brakes still will not bleed even with power bleeding so I'm biting the bullet and going to replace the master cylinder.

However I've been doing a few little jobs. You may remember my washer bottle bags looking grubby and grimey. After a good clean with bleach and soaking, I think they have come up quite well.

However when I checked the pumps for operation, the black front pump worked well, the white rear pump wouldn't work. It just gave me that electrical motor burning smell. So I had a look at the pump itself and thought, that comes off the bag quite easy.

Which when I looked at it closer I thought two things.
1- Where the hell will I find a new one?
2- It's just an electric motor, it can be repairable.

So I carefully stripped the pump and motor down to its complete component pieces.

I cleaned up the brushes, the armature and all the bearings making sure to grease up any moving parts. Put it all back together and 'hey presto' it all works perfectly. Well happy with that. Personally it's doing jobs like that which keeps us retro/classic owners aside from any other owners. You can't buy it anymore so let's fix it.

Another little job completed was to refit the offiside headlamp and surround after everything was cleaned and polished. All refitted and it has its right eye back in place.

[Amateb8]

You are doing an amazing job!! I've got a Bis as well, so I am quite keen on your updates. Keep up the good work. I would love to see the finished product!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Crusader]

Amateb8 - Thank you very much buddy, I'm glad you're enjoying my build thread. Great to read comments like yours.

Ok,

Another update on the BIS. Today I decided to tackle a few more jobs. First I decided to replace the leaking driveshaft gaiters. If you compare the old one and the new one you can clearly see the difference and the reason that the old one was leaking. The old is on the left and the new on the right. It's a really poor design as the rotating shaft just wears out the boot.

So with a new boot, a fixing ring and plate it was time to fit them back on the gearbox.

The gearbox has been thoroughly cleaned and the driveshafts and top plate painted black.

The driveshaft flange thoroughly cleaned and ready for the new boot.

New driveshaft boots fitted on both sides, tightened down the mounting plate so hopefully these will stop the leak from the gearbox.


I also needed to replace the driveshaft flange small rubber boots, as you can see here they literally fell apart.

New rubber boots and flange fitted on the driveshaft.

Then I didn't want to leave the driveshafts sagging down and making the new rubber boots form in the wrong position. So i tied them up either side with some wire as the gearbox won't be going back in just yet.


Next job on the cards is one that I've been putting off. I'm really not quite sure how this happened with such low mileage. However I'm guessing that someone cross threaded the original sump plug and this was a bodge to repair it. I don't think this is the original BIS sump plug? The only way it sealed before was lashings of silicon sealer.


I thought about drilling it out in situ and then fitting a helicoil however I was worried that I'd never be able to be totally confident that all the swarf was out of the sump. This could seriously damage the engine in the future so there was nothing else for it.

Off came the sump, it wasn't all bad as I was able to check for any play in the big end bearings and clean out any swarf and gunk.

In this picture of the sump plug on the bench, you can really see just how pitched the thread is.

So that will be getting drilled and helicoiled soon to have a new sump plug.

Next up, it was time for a tidy up. I fitted my newly cleaned and refurbished rear washer bottle bag.

However, I don't like the fact that the loom is open as it is. Looks a bit untidy to me and like it's not finished. I guess that's what kept the costs down on a BIS, the lack of proper finishing. So armed with my trusted insulation tape I tried to tidy up the loom. It came out much better in my opinion. I'll definitely extend this through the rest of the car.


Well thanks for looking and hopefully some more updates to come. All comments welcome and appreciated.

[Gadge]

Excellent work there the drive shaft boots are a weak spot on thees cars (I believe some pandas and 127s used the same ones) I rebuilt a gearbox once and did the same thing that you did - stand it up on its end - but what I didn't do was tie the driveshaft up so over the course of two years in storage they perished and split. DOH 

Not sure what to say about the sump plug over than I bought a new crankcase cover (complete with sump plug) for around £50 off a member in Poland called piotross. Give him a try as the price of machining may well exceed that anyway

Keep up the good work!

[poxxxy]

I had to say bye to my washer bags that were full of luminous green bacteria and the pumps were compeltely seized solid. Unfortunately the motor was unsaveable on either of them! . Good work though.

[Crusader]

Gadge - Cheers buddy, I don't intend to pay for the repair on the sump. Going to do it at my mates shop hopefully. The boots definitely seem a weak spot. I can't imagine they will last very long at all.

Poxxxy - Where did you find new bags? I didn't think they would be still available, or the pump.

Another little update on the BIS.

I sent the spare wheel off to be blasted and powder coated. On its return this is how it looked. It'll be clearly visible under the bonnet so really wanted it to look the part.

Then it was time to wrap some new Hankook rubber around it.


As always, all comments welcomed and appreciated.

[mintex]

Great work as normal, its looking good 

[poxxxy]

Looks like a good job on the powdercoating . Look lovely!

I haven't replaced the rear washer bag yet but my dad had been keeping a washer bag in his shed for years complete with pump and it finally came in useful.

[Crusader]

Mintex - Thanks buddy. It's coming together now.

Poxxxy - Thanks pal, seen your thread and your wheels look fantastic too. You never know when a Fiat 126 washer bag will come in handy. 


Anyway it's time for another update and I'm really pleased that I've finally sorted the braking issue I had with the car not bleeding.

I decided that even though the brakes were fine before bleeding, there must be a fault on the master cylinder. So I ordered up a replacement master cylinder since they are so bloody cheap! £19.99.

So it was then onto removing the old cylinder. Out from this handy little inspection hole from the chassis. Nice and easy to access.

So here is the old cylinder out from the car. Let's have a closer look.

I had a good look at the old one and immediately I spotted the fault. Look here, this is where the rod from the brake pedal goes in to the master cylinder and operates the plunger.

It's not over clear from that picture. But if you look at the same place on the new one it might become clearer.

The plunger on the old one is stuck inside the cylinder. When I tried to bleed it the very first time we pushed the pedal down further than it had gone for a long time it must have jammed and not returned. Hence no pedal feel at all.

Here is the little plunger that goes from the brake pedal to the master cylinder. Just a small amount of cleaning and greasing required here.

Then it was a matter of fitting the new master cylinder, no problems here. New jubilees for the feed pipes.

Next, out came the Easy bleeder and once I'd been round the car 3 times I managed to get a rock solid brake pedal. Here is the nice clean fresh brake fluid reservoir, you may remember how black and dirty the fluid was before.

I then went to put the inspection cover plastic plate back on. However I wasn't happy with the finish quality so I will be giving this a clean and a paint.


Finally I decided to strip down the old master cylinder to see if it is salvageable. The seals and the housing really didn't want to part company as there was a lot of rust and general dirt build up in there. I just need to find a seal kit and get the housing completely cleaned out.


As usual, thank you for looking and all comments welcomed and greatly appreciated.

[Henmiester]

Nice write up. Ive still got mine to do. Seeing this now reminds me to get mine done as the new part is gathering dust. Enjoy reading your progress. Simon.