Hello, i have an 86' alfa spider veloce, and im looking to buy some shims. I haven't opened the valve cover yet to check, but that's because i can hear that one has tolerance, and i would like to do that when i have some in my possession. With this said, does anyone have like 10 shims they could let go of? With that many, im sure there will be the size i need. I noticed on centerline that they only sold two different sizes, and if thats all you have i will gladly send a paypal payment or whatever. The sizes do not have to be exact i can machine them to size. My zip is 33759 send me a pm.
I think you might be misreading the Centerline site. There are many sizes, in metric increments equivalent to .001." I have a ton, would be happy to sell dupes, but you might look at their site again, or better, call them. Maybe the two prices are for normal and extra thick? Or 750 (8mm) and later (9mm)?
Chances of getting the right sizes you need by getting just 10 random ones is pretty slim. Best bet is to figure out what you need and order those. I've got at least 100 and still found it tough to find the exact ones I needed when I last did my cams on my Verde!
I find it useful to have the size you've figured you need from measuring, plus one above and one below. Often the stack-up of measurement errors rounds you up or down. And sometimes, you're just miles off for whatever reason. Poor measuring, piece of grit in the way, etc. Having extras is not a bad thing if you plan to continue to own Alfas.
I can provide you with a set of shims, 1 each between 1.5 and 3mm in 0.025m steps and two each from a few more common ones between 1.950mm and 2.250mm (this would be 11 duplicates) - in total 80 shims.
It is fully doable, that is if one has patience, and I have done that too on my 101 Spider, although it is over twenty years ago now and I haven´t been driving the car enough to be able to evaluate that correctly now. The shims are however as tight and unchanged as than.....
Was mostly wondering if the shim surface is maybe hardened and I messed it up with the grinding.....
The shims are hardened. Back in the 70's at the Alfa dealer where I worked, we had a neat little grinder set-up with a fine grit wheel and a rod mounted on a hinge such that a shim could be stuck on the end of the rod, which was then rotated into place on the side of the grinding wheel. In this way the face of the shim was still square to the valve stem.
There's no problem with the hardening. Generally one grinds off no more than .001" or so.
My concern over grinding off too much from a shim, particularly if done by hand rather that using a jib, is the possibility of creating an angle with respect to the valve stem. Over time, this might dent and weaken the lifter will possibly catastrophic results.
Our dealership back then was owned and run by uber-enthusiasts (one had factory support to race his GTA in Transam), so getting the valve lash set perfectly was just assumed to be the minimum standard. My opinion is that full kits of shims is far cheaper than the aggravation and possible damage from doing it wrong.
How hard would it be to put some sandpaper on some glass and do it by hand? Obviously you wouldn't want to have to do too much that way! Should stay square but just a lot slower.
I did it exactly like that, sandpaper and grinding by hand, and like I mentioned earlier, much more then .001", on all of them and no problems. Ok, it took some time, but so what, if I didn´t like doing it, I wouldn´t, its my hobby.....I also have to add that at that time I had no clue where to get the required shims as internet wasn´t yet developed to the degree it is today, neither were the Alfa vendors as well as I was a rookie on Alfas too.....
The shims are hardened. You would eventually wear out your patience before you would remove much metal using the hand-lapping technique. Trust me. I've tried. Then again, I'm not all that patient.
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