Car Projects

For the last 10 years or so I have had a FIAT 850 Sedan Idroconvert. The Idroconvert is a little known automatic transmission option that fiat offered from 1967 till 1971. I'm unsure how many came in to this country, but driving one is too cool. The only visual differences between my car and a normal sedan would be a badge in the back and it is missing the clutch pedal. Yes, although this is an automatic it still has a stick shift. The bulk of the difference is a semi-automatic device fitted to the rear of a conventional gearbox, in place of the normal clutch drive. You can think of it as having an automatic clutch. The way it works is every time you grab the stick shift a switch in the shifter electronically engages the clutch. This system is sillier to the VW automatic stick shift from the 70's.

Hey, A frenchie made a page about em'

So for the past five or six years my Idroconvert, lovingly named Peewee, has sat on the sidelines waiting to fly free. This was due to my youthful exuberance and ignorance. When first driving Peewee I made the mistake of not reading the manual. I have one too. Funny that. In the manual it says that I should be leaving stop signs in 2nd gear. After about 60,000 miles of use the flex plate broke. The bolts that hold the torque converter to the flex plate tore through. Too much torque caused by me lighting up the rear wheels around cornets in first gear.

So there Peewee sat for several years. I asked everyone I know where I could get a replacement flex plate. I asked every week at the club meetings. I followed up on every lead to no avail. Until one day I found another Idroconvert on ebay. What joy. I won the car and proceeded to disassemble it. Much to my dismay the crankshaft was frozen. This made it nearly impossible to remove the flex plate retaining bolts. I spent several days removing every part I could to get better access. Then, in a moment of terror, with the drive train up on blocks and the last bolt nearly out….. The crankshaft broke free. Causing the trans mission to shift and the last bolt to tear the flex plate. I was devastated. Peewee sat for another 2 years.

Then last week I found it. Listed on, where else, ebay. "FIAT 850 Idroconvert FLYWHEEL RARE". I won the bid for $29.99. I didn't even need to buy a full car.

I won the flex plate I needed to animate it again. This fabulous ebay find was only $29.99 plus shipping. I waited and patiently every day. Examining in my mind every nuance of re-building and eventually driving my beloved Peewee. The day came. It was here. I opened the box and found a broken Idroconvert flex plate. Yes, broken. Now you might be saying to yourself, how can that be? And this was exactly what I was thinking. Well, I had written an email prior to placing my bid asking if this flex plate was cracked. The email I got back said it was fine.

After sending an email explaining the problem and enclosing my letter my all my money was refunded. This left me in a strange place. I now have three cracked flex plates. It makes me feel lucky to have three of these. Most people I have meet don't even know they exist. But back to the problem at hand, I need a flexplate.

Well now that I have several to work with an attempt will be made to make do. A flex plate is especially a pie pan with a ring gear for the starter and several holes to hold it to things. I cant remember if it was Lalo who suggested it, but an idea was put forth to rotate the thing several degrees and drill new holes. I'll be doing this very thing in the next few weeks and will let you all know how it goes.