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Brand new '81 262C Bertone Coupe . . .

Snake bit . . . .

Well . . . found another little problem when about a quart of coolant leaked out under the driver side carpet. Seems that the firewall heater manifold corroded through with a pin hole just large enough to make a mess.

Manifold Pin hole.

Bertone20Heater20Manifold.jpg


It could have corroded anywhere under the hoses and never leaked. It leaked only because it was right up against the mounting plate. I could easily use solder to fix this like a radiator repair but the interior shows signs of doing this again. Guess I am off to the 'Wanted' forum.
 
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BillyMaysHere said:
This? http://www.stsmachininginc.com/prod...rewall-port-303-stainless-steel-1975-1993-240
Click to expand...

Yes, that! Ordered and left on a 3 week walk-about.

Got the STS firewall manifold in and installed. The full stainless device came with 1/4" or 6mm bolts rather than the Philips screws used with the OEM unit. I was concerned that the holes in the firewall would have to be drilled out, which would have been very difficult, but that was not the case. Bolted right up.

240-heater-core-firewall-port-303-stainless-steel-1975-1993-240
 
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The carpet is OK but the foam backed pad soaked up a bit. Squeezed out most and dried in the sun.

Back to the running problem:

The ignition switch failure was what caused me to put it down a year ago. After replacement of the switch and the FP relay everything seemed to work but the fuel distributor metering valve stuck at the full throttle position and pumped one or more cylinders full of gas and locked up the engine. After blowing all that out, blasted the plugs and changing the gas/oil mixture in the crankcase discovered that the fuel distributer had a couple seepage leaks so I replace all the copper washers.

Fired right up but idling at 1500 rpm indicating a vacuum leak. Traced every hose out without finding anything amiss and quit for the day. I did get the CO dwell set but that will have to be redone at the correct 950 idle rpms.

Two different timing lights will not fire on the expensive shielded ignition wires. I rescued a spark plug wire from a local shop's trash can and will attempt to splice that in to trigger the light.

I have worked on cars and motorcycles for more than 50 years and this one has been the most frustrating one of all.
 
Continuation of the journey

Been off a month fighting the engine again. Starts, runs, bogs on throttle, will not fire the timing light.

Replaced just about everything in the ignition system from the distributor pick-up coil to the plugs.

http://www.turbobricks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=325826

At least it seems to run almost normally at the moment. Time to finish the interior reassembly.
 
Giant leap forward ! ! ! !

Did you hear about the lost nut? The steering wheel has been off for probably a year and a half. One would think that a reasonable person would put the completely unique 18mm 1.5 nylon lock nut holding the steering wheel back on the shaft or at least in a safe and secure place. Spent 3 hours over 2 days looking for it. Finally found it after ordering one from one of my forum friends.

October 2015

20151011_165012.jpg


November 2016

Volvo%20Berton%20Nov%202016.jpg


The difference being that the engine runs . . . at the moment, responds to throttle and seems to have some power.

Test run tomorrow . . . 5 . . 4 . . 3 . . 2 . . 1 . . . .

To be continued . . . .
 
At some time in past the ignition system went nuts on me. Probably associated with the fire that burned up a couple fuel lines and spark plug wires. Sometimes the engine would work fine, sometimes come and go and sometimes not at all. All through this the ignition system would not flash a timing light which I found strange since sometimes it ran.

The distributor tested good in a test stand but upon re-installation did not fire the plugs. In frustration I fired the parts cannon and replaced the spark plugs, the wires, distributor cap and rotor, the distributor pick up coil and the shielded lead from the distributor to the Ignition Control Unit. Now everything works. Best guess is that the shielded lead had a poor connection that could only be observed with the distributor in a vice and wiggling the wire. Sometimes I could make it fail, sometimes I could not.

After all that the idle was erratic in that sometimes it would idle at 1600 rpm, other times at the correct 950. That caused a complete disassembly and lubrication of the throttle system from the cable to the throttle body plates. Nothing specific found but that seemed to fix it.

All this caused me to miss taking the Bertone to the Greenville, SC EuroFest. Maybe next year. But it was a good education on the ignition system. Anyone need help with an early '80's Bosch CIS fuel system or ignition system I will certainly have an opinion if not an answer.

The daughter thread, http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=325826 discusses the couple week exploration of the ignition issues.
 
It does ride but it also leaks oil. GUNKed and sprayed off late yesterday. May have to pull alternator to ID the problem but it is probably the valve cover which I have had off.

Another gift from Elroy. While exploring leak from bottom saw that one of the exhaust manifold bolts was broken off on the #4 cylinder. Never heard of one breaking without some removal effort.
 
Oil leak? :grrr: Sounds like the car was an automotive cadaver for a tech school. You're almost at the finish line and keep telling yourself the car is not going to Pebble Beach.;-) Have to stop somewhere.
 
Yeah, but close. We are surrounded by the 40k acres of the Cohutta Wilderness Area about 2/3rds of which have burned over the past month. Smoke is like the heaviest fog and ash falling. Hard to breath but otherwise OK. Too far away and too much development between here and there for serious personal property concern. Big problem with the Wilderness is just that; no vehicles of any kind even to fight fires. Fortunately, the news reports say that this is a ground cover fire (leaves and underbrush) and the very large hardwoods will survive. The largest Popular tree in the US is threatened. http://www.atlantatrails.com/hiking-trails/hiking-bear-creek-and-the-giant-gennett-poplar/ Hiked to see it, impressive. Bottom line is that when it is all over the area may be better off. Not going to be pretty for a few years but will come back.

Bertone update: After a couple efforts at cleaning the underside of the engine to locate the oil leak and discovering what I though was a broken exhaust manifold stud I found that it was just an open threaded bolt hole. There are only 3 bolts holding the manifold on. While under there and evaluating removing the alternator found that it was a Bosch re-manufactured unit. WTF. This car only has 25k miles on it. Elroy must have had multiple orgasms during his work on it. Previous owner paid him more than $2000 over most of a year.
 
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TestPoint said:
Yeah, but close. We are surrounded by the 40k acres of the Cohutta Wilderness Area about 2/3rds of which have burned over the past month. Smoke is like the heaviest fog and ash falling. Hard to breath but otherwise OK. Too far away and too much development between here and there for serious personal property concern. Big problem with the Wilderness is just that; no vehicles of any kind even to fight fires. Fortunately, the news reports say that this is a ground cover fire (leaves and underbrush) and the very large hardwoods will survive. The largest Popular tree in the US is threatened. Hiked to see it, impressive. Bottom line is that when it is all over the area may be better off. Not going to be pretty for a few years but will come back.

Bertone update: After a couple efforts at cleaning the underside of the engine to locate the oil leak and discovering what I though was a broken exhaust manifold stud I found that it was just an open threaded bolt hole. There are only 3 bolts holding the manifold on. While under there and evaluating removing the alternator found that it was a Bosch re-manufactured unit. WTF. This car only has 25k miles on it. Elroy must have had multiple orgasms during his work on it. Previous owner paid him more than $2000 over most of a year.
Click to expand...

I may still have the alternator off Nanci's Bertone? I can look if you want. Unsure if its original. Hope the fire is done soon!
 
Thanks Brad!

At the moment not trying for a concours level restoration so I am happy with a working charging system. Don't throw it away in case I feel the need to drive to Pebble Beach. Been there but not with a car to show.
 
TestPoint said:
Posted 6/14/12

Still cranks reliably but doesn't seem to have much power.
Click to expand...

All back together and cranks reliably but doesn't seem to have much power.

Timing is at 5 degrees BTDC at 950 rpm. Advances with throttle. Will rev to red line. It will pull my steep driveway but sputters a bit like its running rich. Maybe tomorrow for timing and dwell one more time.

Stopped for the day and have to get things put up for wind and hopefully rain overnight then below freezing. First time this Fall.

Found and fixed the oil leak. It was the O ring seal for the cam bearing cover at the front of the valve cover. Just couldn't handle being disturbed. A little hard and flat after 35 years.
 
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