Mondial driving coast to coast…

Great trip! Have fun. Brake pull can be from alignment.. if tires have uneven wear that's a give away. If alignment I would not worry about it. If the car brakes straight-ish with medium low speed braking then the system is acceptable to get you home. A long trip tech inspection is all visual. You can use a track day tech form like this as a checklist. Obviously helmet and stuff is N/A. Odd wear visually on brake pads denotes a possible pull problem. Even wear implies ok brakes.

Old AC is always suspect but pretty easy to charge in a motel parking lot. Check you got tools to change a flat. Many have missing tools.

https://www.speedventures.com/events/tech.pdf

 

Possible. You might try to push pistons in and then re establish contact to disc. Might free it up.

The mayor here on fchat is in vegas. Ping him he knows mechanic in vegas.

 

Vegas, you are in luck. There is a Ferrari garage with an old mechanic who knows EVERYTHING about Mondi's.
https://www.italyservice.com/
No affiliation...I'm in Houston TX area.
Very helpful and very reasonable...if he even bothers to charge you.
If you can't find him, let me know and I'll find him for you.

 

Hey Mark, you are probably the first Ferrari owner to check into a Motel6 You also have some balls for buying a car at auction and driving it across country, I admire that! If your travels take you through Phoenix, give us FChatters here a shout. BTW, you may consider staying at Resorts World in Vegas at the Crockford, guests in that section of the hotel get secure gated parking right in front of the check-in desk.

Best of luck on your adventure!

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We bought a Mondi QV vert in Portland, OR, thru BaT a few yrs ago, and drove it down west coast Hwy 1 to LA, then across to Vegas, ABQ NM, then Dallas -- where it broke down at 2AM (fuse board burn out at the fuel pump).
Stopped at the aforementioned Ferrari mechanic in Vegas to fix the AC. The old mechanic was a revered Ferrai guru!
Ended up trailering the car from Dallas to Houston, BUT THE TRIP OVERALL WAS FANTASTIC!
Top down most of the way. Glorious West coast!
Hope you'll have a similar trip (without breakdown).

 

This is a thread worth watching. Good luck. Keep us posted.

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Joe

 

This thread is going to be awesome!

 

Prior to, did a dash light go off?

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Maybe one of the Mods can move this to Silver.

 

More pictures. Or pictures at all. Should be a fun adventure!!

 

I believe a Mondial 3.2 has "floating' calipers. (Pistons on one side of the caliper only.)

I had a similar issue with my 328, back in '99, where a caliper didn't "float" freely.
It would pull under hard braking, but then I'd hear the pads scraping on the rotor as the caliper remained with the non-piston side pressed against the rotor.
A shop in MA was able to clean that up without even having to disconnect the hydraulics (which would have required bleeding the lines).

If your car pulls to the left, the issue might be the right side caliper.
(Right brake not as effective as the left.)

 

Yikes! Fiat Spider technology there!

 

Hey Mark sounds like a fun trip. Drove my 512TR home from Boston to Grand Junction Co a few years back. I had a great trip; you should have fun with this adventure. If you need anything, if are in my area, I’m 500 miles east of Las Vegas (to Grand Junction)on interstate 70, PM me if want my phone number.

 

Floating calipers are used on most cars.

But the old Fiat Spyders had pistons that had to be screwed in, not just pressed in, when changing pads.
(Found that out the hard way on my '71 124.)
Wound up running a rallye with metal-on-metal rear brakes, because I couldn't retract the piston to change the pads.
(Won the rallye, anyway ... maybe from not being able to slow down. Course workers all commented on the noise. )

 

I bought my GTV-6 in south Jersey and drove it back to MA.

But I bought it from one of the east coast's best Alfa shops, at the time.
But even the top mechanic there was surprised what good gas mileage it got on that trip.
(30 MPG from a 2.5L SOHC V6.)

 

Even when well-sorted (was that even possible?), I recall stopping as decidedly not one of the Fiat’s strengths. Maybe mostly the fault of the perpetually-leaky rear brake compensator.

 

When I upgraded from the Fiat to an Alfa Spider, I was originally impressed by the better brakes on the '79 Alfa.

But, after driving newer machines, the Alfa's braking distances are scary.
But then, the rotors on my EVO are larger than the Alfa's rims.

I don't think i can fit larger calipers under the classic Alfa rims.
But I'm hoping that replacing 45 year old brake lines with steel braid lines might firm it up a bit.
(Now I just need to find a local shop, in the land of pickups and Nissans, that can restore an old Alfa.)

 

I love the old hard top mondi’s..

 

I had exactly the same initial impression when I sold the ‘80 Fiat Spider and bought a ‘93 Alfa Spider. Wow! Brakes!

I did prefer the Fiat’s transmission feel to the Alfa’s, though. Replacing the OEM rubbery shift “knob” helped, but I just loved that notchy Fiat transmission. I assume you had a proper wood knob in your older Alfa.

 

Without a sunroof?

 

The new hip term is a "slicktop'! ie coupe w/o a sunroof.

 

Reminds me of buying an '89 Mondial Cab from a magazine ad in Autoweek. Flew my mechanic out with me from NY to Chicago, and drove it home; an all nighter on I-90. About 3AM we crossed that Indian Reservation between Jamestown and Buffalo. The Indians had been blocking the Interstate and setting fires and we were not sure what was going to happen. Things had settled down when we got there, but it was a cause for concern.

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