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What did you do Alfa related today?

1M views 16K replies 428 participants last post by  Alfisto Steve 
#1 · (Edited)
What did you do Alfa [and 164] related today?

I had a slow to go Alfa day today.

First off I worked on setting up my wife's future garden plot permiters with 4x4 eight foot posts. I tilled up part of the area yesterday with my neighbor's roto-tiller. I have to get more soil and compost trucked/trailered in before spring.

Did I mentioned we have been having a real heat wave this week. It has been tee shirt weather. Such a relief after 20-40 degree weather.

75 ° Partly CloudyFeels Like 75°
Relative Humidity 41%
Barometer 29.87(Steady)atm
Dew Point 50 °
Visibility 10.00 Miles
UV Index 1 Low
Wind Speed W 18 to 24mph

I did move two 164's today to get my truck and trailer out so I could take a load of Alfa parts to my storage unit.

With Sara wrecking her car and so much stuff already here, I got a bigger storage unit so I could move out some stuff before I start the salvage operation of it.

When part of your rear yard adjoins your neighbors front yard you have to be creative in your landscaping and be considerate.

Yes I will restore some green grass this year. There was a children's play house in the barren area that I took down but I must admit I killed the rest of side yard grass with my Alfas under the Old Oak tree project.

You can see how far in second tree dented in right side of her trunk lid.

I may use my spare Milano Verde rear wish bone to give her 164B new rear legs as it is now sitting on a wheel dolly.

I set up garden plot as a L-shaped plot so we can still get into back yard to store Alfa rescue projects behind rear gate.
 

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#13,982 ·
No luck with the muffler install. Installer claimed he could not bend pipes tight enough and does not have a mandrel bender. This muffler has the same center in-out as the stock and is the same dimension (body, not pipes) so should not be impossible if I get the right installer.
 
#13,987 ·
I'm in a rural area, close to urban but no one has a mandrel for pipe bending. Will be visiting a shop tomorrow morning to buy pre formed parts and will join them to get he best fit. These will be stainless and they will also make a connector from 2.25 inch (stock pipe) to 3 inc (new inlet). Will post before and after images later.
 
#13,984 ·
Spent some time looking up eBay parts for some things I want to accomplish on Rossa this year. Doing so required some numbers from the libretto or title documents. On 5 May of this year, Rossa turned 30. ciao, chris
 
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#13,985 ·
Preserved for future rebuild

Since they really are in pretty good shape and I am out of spares, I took apart, cleaned, honed and reassembled old slave and clutch master cylinders as I have rebuild kits for them.
 

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#13,989 · (Edited)
164 RPM/Timing Sensor 3-wire connector wiring

My friend Lee had the S29 RPM/Timing Sensor Bosch 3-wire connector break apart and the wires became separated.

Here is result of my research/verification of how the two sides of the Female and Male connector wires are to be reconnected should the black Bakelite connector become damaged/destroyed:

https://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/8419892-post376.html
 

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#13,990 ·
So after a good run today with the new bumper installed. After a bit of looking at the fog lights they dont look to terrible. Wonder if there is a connector anywhere to connect them. After a bit of running around and filling tank up, I got home and got ready for work. About 30 - 40 minutes of the car sitting in my driveway i had started it up and it was stumbling. Giving it some gas raised the rpm but the stumble was still there. After just a few seconds it slowly started to go away and then it was idling just fine like nothing happened. This has happened a few times before in the past after a few long runs like this and letting the car sit for no more than 40 minutes. It it sits for about 2 or more hours it's fine on initial start up.
 
#13,991 ·
The voltmeter in the 91S started reading a little low, maybe 13.5 volts instead of the normal 14.5, and at idle the needle would wobble a little until the engine is revved, returning to normal.

Tightened the serp belt and all is fine. I guess I let it get a little loose. I do like to run it not nearly as tight as the manual calls for in order to protect the water pump and serp idler. Maybe about 60-70 lb tension according to the Gates Kriket doohicky. I generally set it so that on a cold start with the a/c turned on, it may give just a little squeak for a second or two, then be ok. I don't normally run the a/c anyway around here, but once the belt is warm, all is ok with the a/c, no slipping as would be indicated by the voltmeter.
 
#13,992 ·
Discovered some distressing news. As of this point we really don't have a simple option for replacing the bushings in the rear lateral arms. (#2 in photo)



So the theory was the bushings from the lolipop ends on the rear adjustable arms (#4/5 in photo) are the same, however I took some new ones and my arms to the machine shop to have the bushings pressed out of the lolipops and into my arms and found the bushing is ever so slightly smaller that it drops right through the hole. So at this point I thought I was screwed, however I managed to find 3 brand new complete arms (of which I bought 2 for for about $63 usd each) on a site called cloverbreakers.com in the UK. They still have 1 left.

That said these parts are otherwise impossible to find even used. One of mine was bent and I was trying to even get a used one and none of the usual suspects had it. This is a part that will likely need to be made custom going forward. Spitfire has been working to try and get a different bushing to fit, but its not as stiff as the stock Alfa ones, nor is it a perfect fit.
 
#13,993 ·
If I ended up with a bent one, I would straighten it back and then put a comparable rod or tube along side, held on with about four good band clamps. The thusly attached rod supplies the necessary bending strength so that the original but damaged strut will not buckle under compression load. Tension loads would not be a problem.

Agree that it might look cludgey but should do the job.

Seems like one might be able to make a strut from tubing with rod ends w/bushings, or just ball joints, kinda standard aerospace. And, there are companies which do make them, used a couple on a satellite I helped design years back.
 
#13,998 · (Edited)
The bent one wasn't so much a problem, after not finding one I decided I was going to have the machine shop just bend it back into shape and then take both with me next weekend to my next race and have my buddy box weld them on the spot. The ancient beat up bushings however were the issue, and there seems to be no replacement.

Tried to order 3rd one but no shipping option would come up for two addresses I tried. Did you have a good shipping option that worked for you?
You need to email them, they will figure out shipping and then add the option for you. It cost me $37.50 for DHL express which should get here in 3 or so days. They had a $7 cheaper shipping option that would take 5 to 30 days, but I'd rather have them sooner than later and the price difference was so small it didn't matter.

Take a look at McMaster Carr catalog, they have ball joint ends in right and left hand thread. I am not sure about metric threads, buy I wouldn't balk at using SAE threads down there, where nobody can see them. ;)

In SAE, it wouldn't be too hard to make up the center piece length to suit, hexagonal stock and taps are available at McM/C also.

If you must have them in soft suspension, like the original rubber, then surely it wouldn't be too hard to re-cast the originals in medium polyurethane. as Beeton did with his engine mounts. My 2 cents, FWIW.
I agree 100% this could pretty easily be made, you just need to worry about setting up for the proportioning valve actuator, so you'd need to weld on some appropriate studs on one end of each to hold it in place, and keep the bushings small enough for it to go around. I was thinking more box steel or tube steel with 2 ends on it. Heck there are even websites that will make them to order for you.
 
#13,994 ·
Tried to order 3rd one but no shipping option would come up for two addresses I tried. Did you have a good shipping option that worked for you?
 
#13,995 · (Edited)
Take a look at McMaster Carr catalog, they have ball joint ends in right and left hand thread. I am not sure about metric threads, buy I wouldn't balk at using SAE threads down there, where nobody can see them. ;)

In SAE, it wouldn't be too hard to make up the center piece length to suit, hexagonal stock and taps are available at McM/C also.

If you must have them in soft suspension, like the original rubber, then surely it wouldn't be too hard to re-cast the originals in medium polyurethane. as Beeton did with his engine mounts. My 2 cents, FWIW.
 
#13,996 ·
Went to cars and coffee at airport this morning and caught a 2019 Ferrari Portofino driver taking pix of my 164S.

He followed me over to my house for a show and tell with Mary Lee.

If I can get my cell phone pix to download I will post pix of it. He drove it over from Orlando dealership.
 

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#13,997 ·
Here in the Seattle area, there are sooo many Ferraris, and the like, no thanks to all the tech millionaires and billionaires, they don't tend to acknowledge mundane cars like Alfas, IMO (well, I suppose they appreciate very valuable vintage Alfas, lol).

I remember that years ago the owner of the local Ferrari dealership mentioned at a car show in town that he had sold ~80 Ferraris that year, and none were on paper, all cash. The reporter was agape (the mouth wide open, especially with surprise or wonder) at that comment.
 
#13,999 ·
Just got out of the pool after early morning swim and ordered that new "3rd" rear suspension link from Clover Breakers UK. Email was the answer to get shipping link set up.

You know my motto. "You can't have to many spare parts."
 
#14,001 ·
Glad you got it worked out. When I emailed them originally they said their normal shipping calculator only works for US for very small parts. I guess these are big and heavy enough to trigger that not to work. Still overall it was very reasonable. With shipping it cost me less than the 4 lolipops I bought to salvage the bushings from.
 
#14,000 · (Edited)
Yes, you cannot have too many spare parts. That's what I tell my wife when she looks in the garage with all the Alfa parts sitting around on the shelves, all tagged with appropriate info, and then shakes her head. Of course, I hope to never use most of them.

But then again, she has far more gardening supplies and books than I, so I guess all is fair.
 
#14,003 ·
Did a wax on wax off today to both BB2 and JGC Overland.
 

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#14,004 ·
RC got a battery today. About 80 bones at the local battery emporium. RC has been relegated to parking spot guard for the last 4 months or so. Life's gotten in the way. I am pretty sure he's going in for paint work at summers end but have not nailed down the deets as of yet. Life is good, ciao, chris
 
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#14,007 ·
Pretty good on both the 164, Giulia and the one remaining Block Buster store.

Considering Fiat built over 270,000 164s worldwide it still has to be a pretty good Alfa me thinks.
 
#14,006 ·
Sorta Alfa related today

Annual termite inspection day today. Willy the Termite Inspector Tech, originally from NYC, Boston and Miami and is now living near here in Central FL, turns out to be an Ex-Milano owner as well as a Jeep Grand Cherokee owner. Between him touring our house inside and out, crawling the attic and the crawl space still had time to talk Alfa stuff.

He just made it out of here just moments before our afternoon thunder boomer and cloud burst.

It has already dropped to a cooler 88F from 97 in just a few minutes. Thank goodness for A/C.

I had to add to can of R134a to BB2 yesterday to bring back the chill factor but is was a cool ride today to Rec Ctr, Wally World and the bank.

Did I ever tell ya'll how great retirement can be?
 
#14,010 ·
Im not sure I agree Del. They finish by saying neither car disappoints in any way and that both are driver’s cars. The 164 is an old car now, so it is not going to be the same as a modern one. Having owned 14 Alfas, including two 164s though, I can say they are all different technologically, but are all driver’s cars like no others, which is borne out in that article.
 
#14,011 · (Edited)
Well, they certainly didn't like the overall styling, and they didn't think it was a good sports sedan.

However, I will give you this:

"nothing the modern car can do is as exciting as engaging the 164's heavy clutch and shifting from fifth to third to hear its naturally aspirated V-6 sing"

Exactly. That's why I do not own a new Giulia. That and the excessive (IMHO) electronic doodads and systems. But that's just my wife and I talking, being familiar with both cars.
 
#14,012 ·
I’ve always liked the 164 styling. There is nothing else quite like it and as a result, it will always look good.
 
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#14,013 ·
There's something about a 164 AND the love angle



You got that right! I'm not sure what it was first that caused my wife's love affair with me, the 164 or me? Since we have been married 27 years and we still drive an Alfa 164 it must have been something in the overall design of it. How's it go - horse and carriage go together like love and marriage? That maybe backerds but either way will work for us.
 
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