A Leslie Wong Blog

Hank Jones is 89 years old today.

I finally started taking apart the transmission. The main shaft has over 50 parts rotating around it – 1st – 5th gears, synchro hubs, synchro sleeves, bearings, etc.

This is where doubt started whether this would actually work again.

Common Alfa transmission wisdom indicates gear lightening for better shifting response and as a cure for a crunching 1-2 shift. It makes, sense, having less rotating mass and the accompanying reduced intertia would wear the syncros less. Better acceleration too, but me losing 20 lbs. would increase the car’s performance more.

This is a close-up of 1st gear and the worn syncronizer ring.

That wear is the cause of the crunching gears in 1-2 upshifts in the Alfa. You can see the wear in the triangle shaped shiny areas on the synchro ring. A new synchro ring has a rough surface. To tell you the truth, I didn’t know what a synchro ring looked liked before I took this apart.
More pitures.

Yellowfin Tuna, Monterey Bay Aquarium. Nikon D70, 18-70 f3.5-f4.5, 27mm, f3.8, 1/10 sec, ISO 400. 7-23-07, 4:48:23 PM PDT.

In the process of replacing my Alfetta clutch, I also removed the transmission and final drive – it’s all one unit.

My idea was to just to reseal the case with Hylomar between the final drive, spacer and transmission. But I guess I have to clean up my bench and take a good look at the synchros and dogs.

We started after an accident, here. Thanks to Mitch Conard and Jim Stansfield and Spence at Mesa Performance Parts, we got a lot big and little parts to put it back together.

The paint was done six weeks ago. The Alfa was failing, so we took the BMW out of the body shop, missing some trim and some details, because we needed a drivable car. Now it’s almost finished.

I went out to take these pictures and noticed that the driver side rocker panel molding was hanging from the t-bolts at both ends.

I spent an 2 hours trying to get 35-year-old molding over new clips. I couldn’t do it. Now I am drinking big martinis.

If anyone has any ideas on how to put on the rocker panel molding, please leave your suggestion in a comment. I tried hammering it, using a heat gun to soften the rubber and swearing a lot.

We are probably in for US$ 9,000 for parts, body work and paint + US$ 3,500 insurance coverage. Plus my labor, swearing and drinking. I hate working on cars.

Homer: Oh, so they have Internet on computers now!

read more at blogzarro.com

scaryideas.com has a new tool that everyone should have.

via Engadget