My flickr photos of my Alfa Romeo Alfetta Sprint Veloce giubos, driveshaft and rear engine mount
Alfetta Driveline Photos
I’m Starting to Hate My Car
My Alfa Romeo.
Been Up So Long, Looks Like Down
I took the Alfa off the jack stands today, after several months. It’s been up there so long, that the car looks very low to me now. The top of the roof is about chest high.
Back in July, I put it up on jack stands to replace the three flex discs (Giubos) in the driveshaft and the clutch – probably a seven hour job at the shop. I ended up getting the gears in the transmission lightened too.
I also replaced the three engine mounts, replaced the front and rear stabilizer bushings with polyurethane bushings, changed the oil, replaced the oil filter, replaced the Spica oil filter, bled the clutch, replaced the rear brake discs, replaced the rear brake pads, replaced the brake booster, bled the brakes, replaced the top radiator hose, replaced the short radiator hose, replaced the bottom radiator hose, replaced the water pump hose, had the radiator flushed, replaced the driveshaft center support and bearing, replaced the second gear synchro, changed the transmission and final drive oil, replaced the clutch shaft bearings and replaced a heater hose. Don’t ask me why it took so long…I didn’t have anywhere to go anyway.
Alfetta Transmission, Part 3
Russ Neely, Brian Shorey and Stevan Thomas, people that I’ve known for years only through the Alfa Digest, all recommended that I get the gears lightened on my Alfetta’s transmission.
I’ve had the transmission apart for a while (to replace the clutch) and finally got around to having the work done.
Two people were recommended, Tom Sahines and Merrit Carden. Tom Sahines was too busy and he gave me Merrit’s number. I sent my gears and input shaft to Merrit at the end of July and went to pick them up 10 days later.
Merrit’s house is in sort of a cul-de-sac. There was a front-ended Kia in the driveway – his son’s car, waiting for an insurance adjuster.
His garage was his machine shop. It was packed with junk in addition to a (if I remember correctly, and old Bridgeport) mill, drill press, hydraulic press, etc. It was one of those shops where the owner knows where everything is, but if you moved one thing two feet, it would take him a month to find it.
I picked the gears up at the beginning of August. Merrit carefully unwrapped each gear to show me his work. In some cases, the gears were not only drilled for lightness but the walls were also machined – all this on hardened steel. The quality of the work was clearly apparent. Look at the photographs – they speak for Merrit’s beautiful work. More pitures here.
To contact Merrit Carden:
7475 Shady Hollow Dr
Newark, Ca 94560
(510) 797-2446
Alfetta Transmission, Part 2
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 inertia 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 synchronizer 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.