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1979 Spider joins extended family

4K views 30 replies 11 participants last post by  Andrew 
#1 ·
I drove home in a 79 Spider today, though it's not for me, it's for my friend Chris. She wanted a cheap beater to learn how to drive stickshift, and this Spider fit the bill in a number of ways. I send her a lot of likely car ideas, and she bit on this one. Good deal.
One-owner 130K car from Marin County, has been in the Bay Area at least 20 years and perhaps longer. Original blue plates, no rust, runs well, just passed smog, good tires, great brakes, drives very nicely. One of the best shifting Alfas I've ever driven, which is important for Chris, as she'll need to learn shifting before she learns double-clutching. Top is faded and has one small hole in the window, but it basically keeps the weather out. Cheap seat covers, nice interior otherwise with only one small dash crack. One bad spot in the paint on the hood, which has been retouched, not well.
Was on SF CL for $1499, we drove away after Chris handed over $1200 cash to the seller. If Chris decides she doesn't like it, I'll buy it from her. It's at my house for a week while she's in New York and I'll check its condition, as Chris is not an Alfisti and needs the car to be reliable, not a source of aggravation.
I'm stunned no one beat us to it; it was on CL for days before I could even go look at it. Pics show Chris, proud new owner, and my daughter Emma. Chris's boyfriend lives around the corner from me, and he came over, went for a drive, and loves it as much as Chris does. Everyone's happy. A Spider on a nice day can do that for you. The drive from Marin was great, across the San Rafael Bridge.
Andrew
 

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#6 ·
I hope Chris enjoys it. A vintage Alfa can be a trying experience for someone not prepared for the ups and downs of Alfa ownership. But I've promised to keep it in tip-top nick for her at bargain labor rates, so I think we'll be OK. First step is to check fluids, timing, Spica setup, etc. and make sure it'll start and run for her when needed. But no issues at all in its first 35-mile drive.
Just amazes me what late Spica Spiders are not worth. A Berlina in this condition would have been double the cost, at least. And a GTV triple, quadruple, or more. Say it with me: It's rust-free.
Andrew
 
#8 ·
Yes, I think the fact of an Italian convertible will be a good motivator for Chris too. And her boyfriend loves it so much, he'll be inclined to help teach her to shift, so I don't have to.
This is not the first cheap Spider I've gotten; I've had many. Best deal of all was a black 85 Graduate from Pacific Grove CA for $160 (there's a thread on it here somewhere). A few cleaned relays and wires, got the throttle bellcrank unstuck, and it ran great. Best steering and brakes of any Alfa I've owned.
Andrew
 
#13 ·
Perhaps there was something wrong with the seller; I don't know. Seller's "guy" who we actually dealt with was a real winner too, but what the heck. The proof of the Alfa pudding is in the driving.
Changed the oil yesterday, started working through the regular maintenance items to ensure it'll be safe and fun for Chris. LF caliper has one frozen piston, so that's on the list to fix. Fan is broken in several places, and seller's guy claims no knowledge of how that could have happened, but I suspect the car had a pothole hit recently, as the pan guard is up agains the pan, and the fan shroud is missing some bits. No biggee, but the seller and his guy were not the people to get any useful info out of. The car will have to talk to me.
This car was literally two buildings away from Larry Buskirk's Alfa/Ferrari shop in Novato, so perhaps Larry worked on it; most of the work looks good. Brand new exhaust, a nice bonus.
My sense is this car has sat in a warehouse a lot for the last 10 years. But it remained smogged and registered each year, according to the DMV site, and it does have 137,000 miles on it.
Andrew
 
#14 ·
Fan is broken in several places, and seller's guy claims no knowledge of how that could have happened, but I suspect the car had a pothole hit recently, as the pan guard is up agains the pan, and the fan shroud is missing some bits.
That's a pretty good sign that the engine mounts are finished. The engine drops lower and the fan whacks the shroud and disintegrates. Also the reason why the guard is touching the pan. My mount broke completely and damaged the inner tie rods.

Not driven means all rubber has probably dried up. check the transmount and the cneter bearing support as well.

Still an amazing deal. That stuff is easy to fix and cheap.
 
#15 ·
I'm not touching anything on the driveline. The car is smooth and stable at speed; no vibrations or weirdness whatsoever. You may be technically right, but on a car that's vibration-free, I'm not inclined to mess with it. More than once I've made a car worse by such changes.
If the fan shroud hits the new fan, I'll trim away a bit of the bottom of the shroud, as it's far from perfect in any case. I had to do this recently on my 74 Berlina, even with new motor mounts, so sometimes it all just doesn't line up quite right, in my experience.
Andrew
 
#16 ·
Great little car.
When I saw the photo, I thought someone had stolen my car!
Mine is a 1981, but from the side moulding to the mirrors and Avorio color, our cars are, outwardly, twins.

The motor, and transmission mounts are cheap to purchase, and installation is straight forward.

Here is a link to my transmission removal, rebuild and installation:
http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/spider-1966-up/122124-steel-vs-aluminum-flywheel-weight.html

When I replaced my motor mounts, I had to do it blind, only able to 'feel' my way through the job. I could not see what I was doing, eventually figuring out the right size wrench and where to place my fingers, hands and arms to do the job. It is a simple, but slow process.

A jack and the right wrench, plus patience is all you really need for the black rubber motor mounts. It was all reached from the top of the engine bay in my car.

The transmission mount is easy to work on, only because you can see what you are doing! But, that job requires you to press-out the old bushing and press-in the new one.

Tools needed includes 4 good jack stands, a jack, a way to press the old steel and rubber mount out of the transmission, and a couple of wrenches. I used an enormous socket, block of wood and a steel and rubber mallet. Your mileage may vary.

It is a time consuming, but simple job.

The transmission cross brace, exhaust and heat shielding may have to be jockeyed around a bit too, requiring a couple of other tools. I bought a transmission jack (Harbor Freight $79.99 - Transmission Jack - 450 Lb. Capacity ) and that helped a great deal!

Please, do not be tempted to buy/install the Yellow Transmission Mount Reinforcements, unless you only intend on only using the enormous yellow side washers that are included in the kit. The washers are GREAT!
This is experience talking.

Just install the new steel and black rubber transmission mount.

The yellow reinforcements puts the transmission too tall and the shifter interferes with the console clearance. Plus it buzzes more with the reinforcements.

Here are some photos so you can see what I'm talking about...

Good luck, and I hope she enjoys her little beater. :)
 

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#21 ·
Andrew,

I always enjoy your project threads. I find them instructive and inspirational. Your projects also generate extra pieces that you offer at reasonable prices!

I think that the 1976 - 1981 models are not as popular because they have the least horsepower/torque of the 105/115 Spiders and the bumper style tends to turn people off. I also think that tuning a SPICA-equipped engine to pass the California smog inspection is a concern for some.
 
#22 ·
Agreed, 75-81 Spiders are the nadir, due to performance, need for smogs in a lot of states, and jury-rigged emissions systems (air pump, EGR, etc.) before Bosch came in in 1982. The more I see about this car the more I think its smog report was the result of the sniffer being up another car's tailpipe, but we'll see. For intance, it doesn't have the idler/adjuster pulley for the air pump belt, so how could the air pump have been turning? Maybe some have-axed setup, which may be what broke the fan, don't know. But the smog numbers on the report were really good (HC about half the standard, CO at zero, NOx very low), and I'm having trouble believing from what I see of the car that it could have run that cleanly.
Put in a good hard day of fixes and upgrades Saturday. Changed the oil and filters, looked at the plugs, set the timing and points, put on a new fan, a couple new radiator hoses, one heater hose. Looked at the brakes, whose pads were largely down to the backing plates, so I replaced those. Two calipers each have one stuck piston, so round two will involved two rebuilt calipers.
Both rubber shift boots were torn, so I replace those, and topped up the trans and diff at the same time.
Unexpected was in pulling off the cam cover to find the #1 exhaust cam lobe trashed, and of course the tappet with it, with a deep groove worn into it. This is a 10520... cam, and luckily I had a good used one on the shelf with matching tappets, pulled out of some engine a couple years ago. So I popped that one in and set the valves, which were all uniformly tight be a couple thou, but not bad. Buttoned it up and the engine mechanically sounds much better. I can't see how it passed smog with this lobe so bad, but maybe?
Discovered late in the day the charging system is not doing its job. Alternator light setup to the tach appears to be OK, so I pulled out the alt and will get it tested today. I hope it's that simple, that it just needs a rebuild, brushes, something.
As always with an unknown old car, in spite of its functioning well and looking good, once you dig into it, there are a million things that need attention. Chris's $1200 car can become a $2000 car pretty quickly, so I'm trying to prioritize the jobs and parts, and am working very cheaply, since I got her into this in the first place. I'm donating used parts (cam, good used shift boots, etc.), but anything I have to buy, she'll have to pay for. Cars do take repair and maintenance, there's no question.
Andrwe
 
#24 ·
I forgot to elaborate. What seems to me the most reasonable currently accepted thesis is that modern oils, needing to be very clean for current emissions systems, have greatly reduced the zinc level in most oils. Roller hydraulic tappets and other modern non-flat tappet surface don't need the zinc; flat tappets like Alfas have do. There's lots of talk about this and you can research/believe what you will.

A few oils retail zinc for older engines' needs, including a new Royal Purple, and Brad Penn Racing oil. Or you can add Comp Cams or other aftermarket zinc additives. I'm guessing, but don't know, that this lobe failed for that reason. I've had two others do this over the past two/three years. I'll take a picture to show what the damage looks like. Flat tappets and lobes have a rough life no matter what, and this is a 32-year-old cam, so maybe it just wore out from use. I know the V6 cams were noted for wearing out, even before the oil makers started to phase out the zinc. My friend Chris who works at Roger's in Oakland has changed innumerable wore cams in Milanos and GTV6s over the years.

Andrew
 
#25 ·
Although I've read about the zinc issue, it didn't occur to me. I guess my thinking didn't get past the only-one-lobe thing. I also wasn't thinking in terms of a 32-year-old cam. That's probably enough time for some manufacturing inconsistency (or maintenance inconsistency for that matter) to show itself in uneven wear.

I'm looking forward to the pictures.
 
#26 ·
My experience has been one lobe goes, rarely more than one. Can't say if that's typical. Once the lobe goes, the tappet is wiped out immediately, and vice versa. They quickly ruin each other. As you suggest, could just be manufacturing differences; some lobes got better material, hardening, machining, whatever, than others. So one's going to fail first.

Flat-tappet cams have a really hard life, especially if an engine sits, allowing the lubricant to drain off, then you have basically a dry start on the lobes and tappets. Luckily Alfa designed a bathtub around the tappets so some oil sits there and gets picked up by the cam lobe. But still, it takes a revolution or two to get the lube between the tappet and the lobe.

On my Twin Cam MGA, which I rebuilt 20 years ago, two tappets got old-age or poor-casting cracks in them, and quickly wiped out the associated cam lobes. So it can be either one initiating the destroying.

The American V8 guys say if you don't have cam assembly lube, good oil, and keep the revs (oil flow) up on a fresh start of a new engine, you can ruin the camshaft and tappets pretty much immediately. Alfa, with the bathtubs around the tappets, is better situated lube-wise than a center-cam V8, but you get the idea.

Andrew
 
#27 · (Edited by Moderator)
on the zink issue.. i think it is more importand on the ohv v8 cars, when you put a bigger cam in or try to raise he rev limit, you put really heavy valve springs in the car, and those tapped get one hell of a workout, in contrast, our alfa motor carry a lot less spring pressure ..i have seen flat tappets on my freinds racing rabbit( he uses beehive valve spring so the seat pressure is only 90 pounds) and his tappets are just fine.and my tappets on a 175000 mile motor are ok, no worries here.. but looking around the p&p lot at flat tappets cars, vw,some japanese cars, i see no wear problems on those tappets, when i take the valve covers off..
 
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