Roxanne - budget milano/75 track car

[AR4me]

Hey Gifford,
I called Autopower on Monday. The roll cage is in production and should be ready for pick-up Aug 18. That should give me enough time to get it in by Sep 3, IF I have finished all the current stuff

Tonight I took out the driveshaft, Dedion cross-member (exposes Dedion mount), and the transaxle mounts. I will rebuild the driveshaft (hopefully tomorrow evening) and then take it out for balancing.

By Sep 3 the car should be mechanically solid - we'll see. The goal of the current maintenance like work is mostly to get a reliable car.

The car will be 155 HP with a weight of around 2400 lbs at best - still no match for the 2 liter gtvs that are easily around 2100 lbs with 170+ HP... Of course, they are probably also in a higher class. Anyway, it will be fun

Jes

[AR4me]

An update:
I was planning to rebuild the driveshaft during the week and then have it ready for the weekend. Well... Don't you just hate when work gets in the way of your private life? Anyway, this morning, Saturday, I finally got an hour to finish rebuilding it. The only thing that slowed me down was the lack of a deep 32mm socket to take off the nuts holding the fork to the front half of the driveshaft at the center support. Got a hold of a 32mm deep socket and off it came. So, the driveshaft is complete and I will drop it off for balancing Monday morning. It has new couplings, center support and bearing. The old stuff actually wasn't that bad. Some cracks had started to develop, but nothing coming apart.
Below some pics of the rebuild driveshaft and the work in progress. Next item on the list is replace the Dedion bushing... Not sure I will get time this weekend - work...
Jes

[La Voce]

Drive on! Thanks for detailing your efforts and the detailed photos, this will help all of us some day as we work on our cars.

[Grant]

I don't remember having to use a 32 to take my driveshaft out!?

[AR4me]

Quote:

I don't remember having to use a 32 to take my driveshaft out!?

[Grant]

Ah, good call. Where did you get your center bearing from? I was afraid they'd be NLA.

[AR4me]

I used many different sources to piece together all the necessary parts for all the stuff I'm doing - this has become like a mechanical restoration of a milano... The center bearing, support, and "cups" (you can probably reuse old "cups"), may have come from Alfa Parts in Berkeley.
Jes

[DaveH]

Isn't the center brg a standard SKF item? As in, it doesn't have to be an Alfa part? Or is that the wheel brgs I am thinking about?

[AR4me]

...yes, I think so, but the center support is certainly an Alfa piece.
Jes

[DaveH]

Ah. Must be the wheel brgs then.

Enjoying your thread Jes. Mandatory reading for me these days.

[AR4me]

Dave,
What I meant was that, yes, I think the center bearing is SKF, but the center support is Alfa - sorry about the confusion.
Jes

[kredden]

I like the drip pan under the red & blue hot rod next to your drive shaft :-).

Kevin

[AR4me]

That's when my 3.5 year old comes out to work on his car when I'm working on the milano. He has a funnel and will be changing pretend oil (=water) etc., spark plugs, wash it, ... He borrows my jack, etc.
Jes

[Tomasz]

Jes,

Thanks a lot for this perfect coverage! I'm personally at the very begining of very similar porject (presently no interior and waits for engine and gearbox to be taken out). Like yours my car also has sunroof, and like you I don't need this heavy device. My question is what are your plans toward the whole in the roof?

[AR4me]

Quote:

My question is what are your plans toward the whole in the roof?