Dwights Comments on Fiat books

[Duncan Simpson <SimpsonD@domain.elided>]

Hi Dwight and everyone else,

(Longish post)

Dwight wrote:
The twin cam engine did not come into being with a plastic belt cover.
It 
was aluminum for many years, first bare, then painted yellow (plastic 
debuting with the 2 litre, I believe).
>>>

I don't know that much about the Spiders, but the Coupe's I've seen, and
including my own 1608cc BC Coupe, have (or did at sometime before the
owner went "coverless") yellow plastic cam belt covers.  This includes
the photos of cars I've seen from elsewhere in New Zealand, Australia,
and I think from memory also some UK models.

My Coupe was imported into New Zealand from the Jersey Islands in 1974
with supposedly only a few hundred miles on the clock, but it is
identical to all other 71 BC Coupe's I've seen here, apart from the
distributor and cap.  Who knows where it came from before then, or if it
was indeed purchased new there.  It has been registered in New Zealand
since 1974 as a 71 124 Coupe.  

The VIN codes on the car present some interesting info.  The chasis is
stamped 124CC1, and the id plate is stamped 124BC.  Now as you know
these are supposed to match.  The chasis numbers after those characters
do not match - no suprises there.  The car is definetly a BC Coupe.

I don't have the info handy, but from memory, when I looked up the
chasis numbers in Phil Wards book I've apparently got a CC Coupe from
somewhere between 74 and 78.  I can't remember what years the BC number
matched.
Again from memory if I apply the numbering from a (supposedly original
FIAT) chart I found on the web last year (I think it was
www.mirafiori.com)  I've got a BC Coupe which was produced during the
crossover between the BC and CC Coupes supposedly 73/74.

This leads me to guess that my car is one of the last BC Coupes produced
at the start of the CC Coupe production run.  I can only guess that this
was to meet sales orders for the BC at the time.  Who knows.

The point I'm trying to make is that FIAT produced many variations of
the same cars for all sorts of global markets, and didn't keep very good
records at all.  So trying to accurately document this data now would be
a mamoth task, with many possible outcomes.

On the topic of the remote shifter :
I have had two gearboxes in my car. I know the one I recently removed
was not the original (I was shown what was apparently the original in
parts on the PO's garage floor with a badly cracked casing - he had
tried to jump start it while reversing down his driveway...) but it had
a much shorter stick than the one I replaced it with. The top part of
the stick which pulls off is 100% identical on both boxes - it's the
vertical shaft coming out of the rear of the box which is shorter and
don't have a bend in it.  This is part of what is refered to in the
Haynes (questionable accuracy taken into account) manual as the 'remote
shift linkage', which is identical between the two boxes as far as I've
looked.  The shorter version was much nicer to drive (but the box had a
stuffed 4th and worn synchro's on 2nd which is why I replaced it), as it
was positioned further forward (no bend in the lower part), and made for
less movement when changing gears.  However because the part which makes
the difference is part of the box I'll have to wait until next time (if
there is one) I have the box out to swap the 'remote shift linkage'. 
Alternatively I could hack off some of the top part, but then it'd still
have the bend in the lower part.

Rambling finished now.

Cheers

Duncan Simpson
124 BC Coupe
FOCNZ