[SportSedanGuy]

I wrote a three-part essay about how I tried repair my Alfa (replace my failed coolant pump) against the advice of my mechanic. I had a Haynes manual, the support of Car Twitter, and no skills or experience...and barely any tools. Chapter two of the trilogy is now live. It's called "My God, What Have I Done?" That might tell you all you need to know about what you're in for (and what I was in for)...

(AlfaBB gets a mention.)

Fixing My Weird Vintage Car with a Haynes Manual, Car Twitter, and No Skills or Experience (Pt2)

PART 2 MY GOD, WHAT HAVE I DONE? As you may remember from Part I, the situation was this: the water pump on my 1979 Alfa Romeo “Alfetta” Sport Sedan

hooniverse.com

 

[VabeneGTV]

Welcome to the club, good for you for having the sac to give it a whirl. You will learn the parts ID rather quickly and you will also find that with this kind of work comes a lot if blood, sweat and tears, and typically in that exact order. Just remember its only metal and we are smarter then metal, unless we are talking spring steel, which I'm told has a memory and possibly could be smarter then most of us. It's a learning experience, probably the most important lesson is, to not to do it again, but we never learn. Don't let that mutha beat you!

 

[alfaloco]

That's a real chin-stroker, alright. Now put just half the effort into perusing the Alfa BB and learning from it, that you put into that diatribe, and you might learn enough to avoid the heartache the next time. "Car twitter" ??? Really?

Good grief Charlie Brown...

 

[SportSedanGuy]

That's a real chin-stroker, alright. Now put just half the effort into perusing the Alfa BB and learning from it, that you put into that diatribe, and you might learn enough to avoid the heartache the next time. "Car twitter" ??? Really?

Good grief Charlie Brown...

I don't understand what this means (diatribe?), but hopefully you get that my piece is a humorous one.

 

[Anto9931]

PM sent.

 

[Alfasteve91]

David, we are laughing with you, not at you! Almost every one of us have, once in their lives, had these moments. Doesn’t matter whether it‘s an Alfa, Triumph, VW or Skoda. We all live by the Hanes manual, and it helps to first realize it’s a British publication. Do you know the have a different word for nearly all of ours? I took a BA flight to the UK one time, and they handed out an “English to English” dictionary. Hilarious.
See, now I’ve helped out. Now grab your spanner and give that Pulley Damper a good thrashing!

 

[SportSedanGuy]

David, we are laughing with you, not at you! Almost every one of us have, once in their lives, had these moments. Doesn’t matter whether it‘s an Alfa, Triumph, VW or Skoda. We all live by the Hanes manual, and it helps to first realize it’s a British publication. Do you know the have a different word for nearly all of ours? I took a BA flight to the UK one time, and they handed out an “English to English” dictionary. Hilarious.
See, now I’ve helped out. Now grab your spanner and give that Pulley Damper a good thrashing!

I would love to get a hold of that BA English to English dictionary! That sounds great. Well, I can't wait for you to read Part 3. Appreciate you reading the others. Also, I am a bit of a masochist because in addition to wanting a Peugeot 505, I'd also love to get a Skoda. Clearly I have a real appetite for wrenching, even if I have no idea how to do it!

 

[Mark_toro]

Your story reminds me of the first car I rebuilt. 66 Bonneville convertible. $300 and baby poop gold. Spent three days trying to get the freshly rebuilt engine (yep I went that far) to start. crank the engine, sputter, sorta-run, poof! 2 foot flames out of the carburetor. Over and over. We tried everything our teenage minds knew to do. On Sunday, the old guy who lived up the street, and who would poke his head in every now and then to make sure the "kids" weren't killing themselves, came down. Looks at the engine for about 30 seconds and says "you got the distributor wired backwards". Swapped the the plug wires and two minutes later we were "breaking in the cam" with the engine running well.

That car also taught me how to change a valve spring in a parking lot with a shoe string - of course 500 miles from home!

Life should always be full of adventure. Adversity makes for good stories!

 

[SportSedanGuy]

Your story reminds me of the first car I rebuilt. 66 Bonneville convertible. $300 and baby poop gold. Spent three days trying to get the freshly rebuilt engine (yep I went that far) to start. crank the engine, sputter, sorta-run, poof! 2 foot flames out of the carburetor. Over and over. We tried everything our teenage minds knew to do. On Sunday, the old guy who lived up the street, and who would poke his head in every now and then to make sure the "kids" weren't killing themselves, came down. Looks at the engine for about 30 seconds and says "you got the distributor wired backwards". Swapped the the plug wires and two minutes later we were "breaking in the cam" with the engine running well.

That car also taught me how to change a valve spring in a parking lot with a shoe string - of course 500 miles from home!

Life should always be full of adventure. Adversity makes for good stories!

I LOVE THIS STORY!!!!!

 

[6alfas]

Most of us weren't born with a silver wrench in our hands, and unless someone taught us, we all made mistakes along the way. Anti-freeze all over the floor? Check. Wrong socket for the pulley nut? Check. Can't get the pulley nut off even with the right socket? Check. Not understanding what the manual is trying to tell you to do? Check. It's great that you're willing to attempt these tasks and hope to see your Fetta at the next big car show if you're still in Denver.