Newbie

[Frank S]

I just purchased a 74 spider and in the process of getting it certified.

I noticed that the interior lights(doors, guages and rear nite lights) are not working. Turn signals, head lights and brake lights work fine. Any ideas what this could be and cost to fix.

I also noticed on the right side front hood near windshield, the metal part that covers the wipers assmebly. The gap between the part and the fender seems to be much wider then the left side. I can place my whole finger in the gap. Is this normal can it be fixed?

Car seems to run rough, ahrd to start at times.

Any advise for this new alfa fan.

Thanks
Frank

[Alfacliff]

Congratulations on the 74. I love mine. on my spider, the only interior light is in the rear view mirror. if your having light problems, check the fuses, near your right knee when driving, possibly under a cover. the fuses have conical ends that fit the holders, and probably hve corroded. clean the fuses and holder with a pencil eraser to restore contact. the metal piece in fornt of the windshield is called the cowl, and unless proper maintenence has been done by the previous owner, it should be removed to clean the drain hoses. the hoses drain the air intake for the vents and heater. if plugged up, you will get a wet lap when it rains. there are 4 screws under the rubber flap in front of the cowl, and some metal clips under the chrome strip at the bottom of the windshield. you will also have to remove the wiper arms to get the cowl off. there is more detail on the board if you search "cowl drains"
for the rough running, it would be a good idea to let us know if it has the SPICA injection, or has carbs.
cliff

[ghnl]

Welcome to the BB. How's about a few photos of your car? We likes photos!

Scroll down in the main BB page and find the 'Carbs & FI' section for some good reading material that might help sort out the running of your car.

The interior lights (except the gauges) should be controlled by switches that interupt the ground connection in the door jambs. They often get corroded or full of crud and prevent the switch from making contact. Cleaning or replacing them might fix the interior lights.

I believe the gauges might have a dimmer (rheostat) to control their light output. If the dimmer is turned all the way to 'dim' they'll really be 'off'. If that ain't it, try checking or replacing the fuses. The bullet fuses in our cars can look OK but still fail to pass electrons - especially when they get old.

The cowl panel is secured by a few screws hidden under the rubber strip near the hood latch. It may as simple as loosening those screws and adjusting the cowl panel's position.

[lowmileage]

As electrical guru Cliff said clean the fuse contacts. FWIW, I'd replace all the fuses - I read that "somewhere" and did it with mine last year. Note if any are blown upon removal and if your replacements blow also, then you have to track down a short issue (I guess , I hate electrical problems).

[Frank S]

Thanks for the info. I did check the fuses and they are good. The light on the rear view works, the little red lights on the doors don't. Dimmer tried it and nothing.

I have a spica system.

When I looked under the rubber flap for screws and found no screws bout the holes were line up.

[Alfacliff]

I have the red things on the doors too, and after replacing a door panel a few years ago, I found they are reflectors. no wireing to them at all.
cliff

[lowmileage]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frank S I have a spica system. "Car seems to run rough, hard to start at times."

[Alfacliff]

also for the hard to start, check the wireing in the ignition, also the points and condenser. corrosion is pretty bad after 30 something years. on mine, the wire form the starter solenoid to the coil corroded, it bypasses the ballast resistor when starting to give a hotter spark. the wire form the coil to the distributor had a problem with corrosion also.
it seems that nearly everytime I think it is an ignition problem, it turns out to be the carbs,(put on by previous owner) and evrytime I think it is fuel, it is ignition.
these cars are real simple compared to whats on the market today, so dont be too worried about fixing it.
cliff

[lgbalfa]

congratulations!

please post some pictures.

[garwood1]

You will also find excellent wiring diagrams here on the BB. Find yours, get a good pair of reading glasses and a cup of coffee, and have a sit and study the diagram, to get to know your electrical system - it makes fault finding so much easier when you know 'the lay of the land'. If your schematic is not listed, then contact Papajam - he's the man when it comes to things electric.
All fuses should be 8amp by the way. Arm yourself with a few spare packs before embarking on electrical faultfindings ! A good multimeter is cheap and makes diagnosis a helluva lot easier as well.
And best of luck with your Spider !

[Roadtrip]

Hi Frank. Welcome to the BB. All too often these older cars have been abused by previous owners who did a lot of non-standard wiring and let other stuff go into complete neglect. It's your job to correct all that abuse.

That said, there's no real substitute for correcting electrical problems other than chasing down wires, cleaning connections and ensure all grounds are clean and tight. Bad grounds are very common problems on these old cars. The other electrical buggaboo is corrosion. Since convertibles are prone to getting water inside the passenger compartment, often times the interior wiring, fusebox connections, etc. will corrode and develop bad and intermittent connections that drive you crazy. However, fortunately, the wiring on Alfa's is very simple and basic. It's just a matter of taking the time to study the wiring diagram, then clean all connections and replace any spade terminals that have fatigued (won't hold tight anymore). This sounds complicated, but it's really just time consuming. On my car, I found it simplier to just remove the dashboard (also pretty simple) to gain access to all the dash wiring. That made cleaning everything up (including years of settled dust and dead bugs) easy. I checked every wire and every connection including wire-brushing all terminals with a dremel tool and replacing a couple of weak terminals.

With regards to the Spica system, that also an area that has traditionally been neglected and abused by less-than-fastidious previous owners. If you have some mechanical aptitude and want to learn to tune and maintain your own system, drop me a PM and I'll send you a bunch of tech material.

Contact "Papajam" for a copy of your year's wire diagram.

Also start by reading these threads:

Pre-Purchase Inspection of a SPICA Injected Alfa

SPICA FI Pump Maintenance

Advice for New Owners

Supplier List

[davidteachey]

'74 was a GOOD Spider year, Frank...congratulations on your purchase. Welcome to our Board!

David