Roxanne - budget milano/75 track car

[AR4me]

So, this morning Colin came by and we unloaded the roll cage from the truck and started installation. After scratching our heads studying the parts we started mocking up the roll cage inside the car to see how everything goes together. It was actually quite simple once you have the pieces out. I'm very pleased and impressed with the cage. Quality is real good, fit excellent, and installation straightforward. I don't think you can beat this for the money - $750 for a complete roll cage Can you believe that? What amazes me the most is that someone actually has custom jigs for the milano - can't imagine it being a big seller, though I'm sure pleased they have it set up. Although we have some support tubes left to drill and cross-bolt, we were done with the basic install around 1 pm or so. Not bad for 8 am Saturday morning. We may weld some parts/joints for extra strength, but it is actually a true bolt-in. We also ended up priming support plates and painting the outer tubes for joints - small amounts of extra work.

Find below some pics:
1. Mocking up the rear section.
2. Another shot.
3. Colin studying the parts.
4. Drilling the floor pan.
5. One of the backing plates (wheel well).

Jes

[AR4me]

Before installing it we had all the pieces on the scale - a total of 121 lbs tough, knowing how much time and effort goes into removing 10 lbs... Though, the cage does provide two benefits:
1. Safety!!!
2. Stiffening the chassis.

Some more pics from the install:
1. The rear section all bolted in, though final tightning should wait until complete cage is in.
2. The front section in as well - very fast once the rear is in place.
3. Different angle.
4. Another...
5. Entire car. Note the rear ride height. This is with just one coil cut - looks pretty good once on the ground...

A few more cage pics in the following post.

Jes

[AR4me]

and, finally a few pic birds eye view pics through the space left by the missing sunroof panel, and a closer side shot of the front part.

Overall I'm very pleased with the Autopower cage - think it would be hard to beat for the $.

Jes

[geh458]

Just a silly question, but did you check to see if your seat fit in there before you drilled the holes to bolt the cage in? Looks like it might be kind of tight.

[AR4me]

Not silly at all - that was also one of my first thoughts. The main hoop is as far back as it can go. So, it is what it is. Though, it does look ok in terms of forward. However, the side I'm still not quite sure about, but again, it cannot go further to the side...

I'll try bolt the seat back in one of the next days.

Jes

[AR4me]

So, time for the engine mounts. I started with the rear one. It was totally collapsed. To get access undo all engine mounts and jack up the front of the engine so that the bell housing tilts down (pic 1). With a twist by hand the rod separated from the metal bushing sleeve. This is quite convenient as you can now simply press it out (picss 2 & 3). The bushing was obviously totally shot (pic 4). Although the rear engine mount is NLA from Alfa I was fortunate to locate one.
Jes

[AR4me]

Next putting in the new rear engine mount - with the experience of doing it on the 3.7 this was not something I was looking forward to. Particular with limited access and rolling around the garage floor. Also, since the new mount obviously has the rod I could not press it in the way I had pressed the old one out. So, the tricks of the freezer and filing the metal sleeve of the new bush were applied. Though, the filing (a bit) was what made it work!
1. "Honey, please store the Alfa parts in the garage."
2. The home of the rear engine mount.
3. Going, going,...
4. Going in...
Done.

For me the deciding trick was to file it a bit until it would slide it with firm tapping with a hammer & punch.

Jes

[AR4me]

Then it was on to the front engine mounts. This is really a 10 min job, unless you face the unexpected With all bolts undone lift the engine with a jack and grab the 17 mm to undo the single nut that holds the rubber sandwich to the engine. Out go the old ones, in go the new ones, and that's it. Lower down the engine and bolt the mounts to the chassis. The lower nuts are most easily accessed from under the car. Well, on Roxanne the right side lower stud for the engine mount was all messed up - could not get a nut on it, no way. No wonder there wasn't any when I unbolted the engine mounts Furthermore, the top bolt (to the chassis) was nowhere near close to being able to go in. The cut-out in the engine mount appeared totally off This was not a matter of moving the engine around as all 3 other fixing point of the engine mount lined up. That left me with no way to bolt the right engine mount to the chassis. I ended up lifting the engine, file away on the cut-out on the engine mount until the bolt could go though and line up with the thread on the chassis, and then I redid the thread on the lower stud. After that, all engines mounts are done

A few pics.
1. Lift the engine
2. Take out old engine mounts
3. Old ones were pretty cheesy
4. Put in new ones

Jes

[inhistoryclass]

so who is roxannne?

[junglejustice]

...she don't need to wear that dress tonight, she don't need to put on a red light - that track *****....

[geh458]

Well Jes, it's only a week and a day until you'd have to get up to Willow Springs for the school, I'm not counting next Friday as that would be a travel day.. Are you going to make it?

[AR4me]

I hope so. No, no, no, I WILL!

Application was sent some time ago so I MUST make it.

But work is interfering with my progress... Though, I did drop off the driveshaft for balancing yesterday, Tuesday, and I should be able to pick it up Friday the latest. About 70 miles each way to Van Nuys...
Jes

[Gilles]

Jes,

Out of curiosity, will the driveshaft be balanced as one complete assembly (front and rear sections)?
If so, the required jig that you had mentioned before is to hold the center mounting bracket?

Gilles

[AR4me]

Yes, it has to be one complete unit. Well, the jig/tooling is to interface the driveshaft to their machine: center support, front and rear "forks", I suppose.

He can spin it up to 3300 RPM. Has done many of them and even recognized it as similar to the one on the Alfetta. He named the Alfetta - good sign that he is familiar with Alfas. Anyway, he has the experience.

Jes

[AR4me]

So, the driveshaft is off to WENCO for balancing. Mike obviously knows his stuff. He calls me Thursday and says "You got the wrong center coupling on there, it is about 1/4" too thin. The swivel thing is buttoming out and it wobbles like crazy - loosen the bolts and relax it 1/4" so it is just off the buttom and it spins nicely". Now, when rebuilding the driveshaft I rebuild with identical couplings, go figure. Anyway, I know some Milanos came with the thin center coupling and some with the thicker, but to my knowledge it is much more than a 1/4" difference. I call up Centerline (unfortunately Joe isn't in) and have them overnight the alternative coupling. My attempts to get them to put a measuring tape on there to quote me an approximate difference is rejected - sigh... So, what can you do, I spend the $$$ and have them overnight it, hoping for the best, knowing I need to get it all back together this weekend, but with little confidence... (this is entirely my decision and not a fault of Centerline - they actually rushed to get it out as last shipment was about to leave!) Mike balances the driveshaft and recommends me to simply replace with appropriate coupling or space the thin one 1/4" - balance will be fine as long as I maintain orientation of all components. I pick up the driveshaft, receive the thick center coupling, and, as I feared, the thick one is much more than 1/4" thicker. So, the skinny is too thin, and the thick most likely too thick. Anyway, I will have to investigate further tomorrow morning, but I don't have high confidence in this... I wonder if the center swivel didn't engage properly...??? Could it be that simple?

So, what happened? Can anyone explain?

Oh well, you live and you learn.

Gifford, did you jinx Roxanne?

Jes