Someone kindly forwarded an image of this car he'd saved.
Andrew
Andrew
Bringing 1978 Spider back to life
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More progress today. Installed a good used actuator, and roughly set the pump gap. Tools of the Spica trade include as many dummy actuators as you have, plus a meat thermometer to test the water temp as you boil your actuator to test its extension. This one come out to about 31mm, so I used a brass sealing ring to shim it up shorter, in the 28/29mm range. Then adjusted the long rod, again roughly, to get a reasonable fast idle, not 2500 like before.
Monkeyed with the fuse box some more and got good power to the coil, so turning off the ignition actually shuts off the car, whereas before I was jumpering the coil off the starter, so the engine would keep running til the pump ran dry. Not the best setup.
After a fair amount of prodding (cold start still not hooked up), it fired and ran pretty well. Idled fine, plugs show reasonable color, not black with lots of tailpipe smoke as before. So I'm much more in the mixture ballpark now. Fuel cutoff is hooked up to bypass the microswitch, another item that needs looking into, but basically I just wanted to get it running tolerably.
No major leaks, so I backed it out, washed off the windshield, and drove it. All five gears and reverse work, clutch feels good, steering is very nice in spite of stone-age tires of several style and sizes, and brakes are great. It drive reasonably well around the neighborhood at the don't-tempt-the-cops-with-an-unregistered/uninsured-car speeds I went. No gauges work other than the mechanical ones (tach, speedo), but I'll try to jury-rig an oil gauge tomorrow.
Warm compression test showed 175-190 on all four. No bad mechanical sounds I can hear, so if the oil pressure checks out I've got my Berlina engine and trans, I think.
Here are a few pics, showing dummy actuators, views of the car, old and new actuator, view down the long lonesome highway. Another Alfa back doing what it's supposed to.
Andrew
Monkeyed with the fuse box some more and got good power to the coil, so turning off the ignition actually shuts off the car, whereas before I was jumpering the coil off the starter, so the engine would keep running til the pump ran dry. Not the best setup.
After a fair amount of prodding (cold start still not hooked up), it fired and ran pretty well. Idled fine, plugs show reasonable color, not black with lots of tailpipe smoke as before. So I'm much more in the mixture ballpark now. Fuel cutoff is hooked up to bypass the microswitch, another item that needs looking into, but basically I just wanted to get it running tolerably.
No major leaks, so I backed it out, washed off the windshield, and drove it. All five gears and reverse work, clutch feels good, steering is very nice in spite of stone-age tires of several style and sizes, and brakes are great. It drive reasonably well around the neighborhood at the don't-tempt-the-cops-with-an-unregistered/uninsured-car speeds I went. No gauges work other than the mechanical ones (tach, speedo), but I'll try to jury-rig an oil gauge tomorrow.
Warm compression test showed 175-190 on all four. No bad mechanical sounds I can hear, so if the oil pressure checks out I've got my Berlina engine and trans, I think.
Here are a few pics, showing dummy actuators, views of the car, old and new actuator, view down the long lonesome highway. Another Alfa back doing what it's supposed to.
Andrew
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Here a few of my pics also
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The BWAs, what all the fuss was about on this car in the first place. Love that top, eh?
Andrew
Andrew
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Hey at least the compression is good! I have another one coming at the end of this month Ill give you a call. I will also be over for that $100 
Great! Let's swap and I'll pay for all shipping charges.
No charge for the extra patina. Thanks. Shipping cross-country is not an issue if he has had good results. Probably a few places locally but I'd rather not take a chance with an unknown place that probably has not done BWAs before. The surface of the spokes are not flat but have fine, regularly spaced, radial machining(?) lines. Not looking for a highly polished look but original sans surface corrosion.
OK, with a friend's help, got the engine/trans combo out this afternoon. Came out without much trouble at all. However, with it on the ground, I noted that the bellhousing is cracked (not a big deal) and the block is cracked at the exhaust side lower corner (a big deal). I've seen plenty of broken bellhousings, usually on the starter side, but this is on the exhaust side right near the broken block. I don't know the cause, and have only seen this before on Jon Norman's race engine in his TA GTV, accustomed to much harder use than I'd expect this car to have seen.
So heck, this is not now a viable engine for my Berlina. I've got a 2000 sitting on the garage floor that needs assembly, so I guess I'll stop buying cars/engines and just build that one. Bummer.
The Spider is for sale if anyone is interested. Complete package, but obviously you'll have to sort out the engine and get a bellhousing. Includes everything to get it mobile except an actuator, and the ignition switch has no key. Blue Calif plates, lien papers, no title, not registered since 1996. Car drove reasonably well; engine, trans, brakes, clutch all work. No rust, but a few dents. Has front grille piece above the bumper, missing the V below the bumper. Front bumper good, rear bumper poor. Includes a potpourri of wheels and tires; I'm keeping the BWAs. Electrical system is not the greatest, but is fundamentally sound, and should be sortable without too much hassle.
Andrwe
So heck, this is not now a viable engine for my Berlina. I've got a 2000 sitting on the garage floor that needs assembly, so I guess I'll stop buying cars/engines and just build that one. Bummer.
The Spider is for sale if anyone is interested. Complete package, but obviously you'll have to sort out the engine and get a bellhousing. Includes everything to get it mobile except an actuator, and the ignition switch has no key. Blue Calif plates, lien papers, no title, not registered since 1996. Car drove reasonably well; engine, trans, brakes, clutch all work. No rust, but a few dents. Has front grille piece above the bumper, missing the V below the bumper. Front bumper good, rear bumper poor. Includes a potpourri of wheels and tires; I'm keeping the BWAs. Electrical system is not the greatest, but is fundamentally sound, and should be sortable without too much hassle.
Andrwe
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The crack runs almost to the rear main bearing. I consulted with Norman Racing, who said in theory it's possible to fix, but it's a lot of work requiring complete disassembly of the engine to weld. If this was a GTA or 8C block, maybe it'd be worth it. On a run of the mill 2000, not even close. So I'm looking at another engine.
See pic of the crack from the rear (it's a bit tough to see, and runs diagonally NW to SE, reaching almost to the lower right corner near the main bearing cap. Make sure you have alignment dowels, your engine/trans bolts are tight, and your flywheel bolts tight. Also, check out the wear on the front driveshaft bushing. That's got to have caused vibration galore, with the driveshaft that far off center of the trans output shaft. Used cars can really get used.
This car is headed for a new home, today I hope.
Andrew
See pic of the crack from the rear (it's a bit tough to see, and runs diagonally NW to SE, reaching almost to the lower right corner near the main bearing cap. Make sure you have alignment dowels, your engine/trans bolts are tight, and your flywheel bolts tight. Also, check out the wear on the front driveshaft bushing. That's got to have caused vibration galore, with the driveshaft that far off center of the trans output shaft. Used cars can really get used.
This car is headed for a new home, today I hope.
Andrew
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Just found this thread. Congrats on sending it on it's way.
My '71 spider did the same thing to its driveshaft. Not nearly that bad, and I caught it much earlier.
I'd say this car was lucky to be in Sacto. This is what you get when you leave an Alfetta outside for 15 years:
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All three 'fettas up here have engines, but I'm not touching any of them as I assume they're all rusted solid.
My '71 spider did the same thing to its driveshaft. Not nearly that bad, and I caught it much earlier.
I'd say this car was lucky to be in Sacto. This is what you get when you leave an Alfetta outside for 15 years:
All three 'fettas up here have engines, but I'm not touching any of them as I assume they're all rusted solid.
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