Try www.francoluperini.com
Be warned though, the site is in Italian ....
Otherwise you may be able to source one from eBay.
The one I've got is for the injected cars with photocopies of the pages relevant to the carbies.
Chris

Off on holidays for a month - you bewdy .....

Currently at about $US25000. It'll be interesting to see what it finally sells for.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=180305186816&ih=008&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=

At least yours throws her old ones out ....


I'm happy to tackle most mechanical repairs, often out of necessity as I've owned a lot of old bombs over the years. I've also completed many TAFE courses, have a well equipped workshop and a good mate who is a superb mechanic. I've never tried my hand at panelbeating though. There must be plenty of people on this and other bulletin boards who've got the experience, the stories and the pictures.


I did - these add authenticity as well as sound ....
What make is it ?


I've never quite understood this either and on my GTV it only seems to be the front caliper pistons that need to be aligned at a certain angle. The ATE manual says it has to be done, but not why. When I did my brakes, I had the calipers professionally rebuilt by a local hydraulic expert. With the way I drive, I need good brakes.

As to your gear shift boots - I took my boot off and I also have a second. The inner boot seems to seal the hole in the transmission tunnel and prevents the ingress of water, dust and noise whilst the outer boot is a secondary seal that mounts on a large plastic screw down piece.
It's been ages since I've pulled a gearbox out of one of these cars and I guess I'd forgotten this level of detail.

Have a good weekend - don't spend it all under the car ......

Chris

The main instruments in these cars are mechanical and whilst not as accurate as their electronic counterparts, they have a great visual appeal. A bit like a beautiful mechanical movement watch. Alfa fitted either Jaeger or Veglia Borletti to the cars and which ever you have, despite being mechanical, they should operate smoothly. If either is jumping around the cable may be at fault - most likely intermittently binding so it does the twist-release thing a few times a second. The cables are available though a bit of a pig to fit. The easiest way is to replace them when, for whatever reason, you pull out the dash. Otherwise try to tie a piece of string or wire to one end when you pull the old one out so that you mark the track from the instrument through the firewall. You'll need to get on your back in the footwell to disconnect/connect from the back of the speedo/tacho. It's easier if you pull out the drivers seat though if you can get it back far enough you may be able to contort yourself enough to see and reach. I pulled my cables out a while ago when I had the dash out and tried to repair them with electrical tape and light machine oil, but they were rooted, so I bought two new ones. Both instruments now work perfectly though the speedo reads about 3mph fast at 60mph (mines' calibrated in mph) with correct tyres and the tacho seems to read about 150 to 200rpm over at 4500rpm when compared to an electronic tach. Not a problem really and I couldn't be bothered getting them recalibrated - part of the charm of the car. As they read on the conservative side, they may help protect me from the revenue raisers.

Not sure - never had that problem. I guess you can put a voltage across the gauge and see if it moves. If it's the sender it'll need to be replaced.

Not sure either - other members may be able to help, though every photo of RHD 2000GTVs that I've got does not show a hazard switch/light.

Can't help here either, sorry. It does seem a bit redundant. The centre console is still out of my car (awaiting new carpets) so I'll take off the boot and have a look.

Time for a stainless system .....

Replace only what you have to and restore the rest, otherwise it'll end up like my Dad's shovel - he's had it for nigh on 40 years and it's the best shovel he's ever owned - only had 6 new heads and 10 new handles

Keep up the good work and keep the photos coming. The 105/115 series Alfas are great cars and terrific fun to drive. They are well worth restoring and hanging onto for a long time. Mine used to be a daily driver but is now a garage queen and only used on fine days - my wife and I have other cars for day-to-day stuff. It's a bit of an indulgence I know, but sh*t, you only live once.

Regards,
Chris

PS: The brakes can be expensive to repair. The ATE calipers are easy to service with seal kits available. The rotors are also available as are the flexible couplings and pressure sensors. The expense comes with the boosters and master cylinder. While you're at the hydraulics, do the clutch ones too - all parts are available and not too scary. If you pull out the carpets, drop out the pedal box and clean it well. It's also worth sourcing a couple of new cleavus pins to take out some of the pedal play. The pedal rubbers, pedal floor rubber seal and metal floor bracket are also all available.

Gee - this car must have been standing for a while.

Glad to hear it finally started and ran. Sorry about the discrepancy with the picture - it was supposed to be a diagram of a DHLA Dell'Orto and from your photo it looked like those were the carbies fitted to your 2000GTV, at least, they would have been when new. Oh well, it's running now.

As to the stuck clutch - I've only had to deal with this once before on an old Torana I owned years ago. From memory we warmed the engine with the car in neutral, push started it down a hill in 3rd or 4th and then when it fired, drove it intermittently jamming the brakes on and off with the clutch pedal depressed. It took a while, and all the neighbours came out to give advice, but it finally freed up. Once free, I splipped it for a while to get rid of the remaining rust and crud. God knows what the flywheel looked like after that, but the car ran for another year or so before finally succumbing to metastatic tinworm. I did hear of someone with limited space jacking up the rear wheels and chocking the front wheels then doing much the same thing. Might be a bit tricky, especially if the car leapt off the jacks, and the diff might not like being run unloaded like that.

The final trick for these sorts of problems, and I use it sparingly because of its tremendous power, is to use your credit card. Strip out as much of the interior trim as is necessary, maybe even take out the gearbox and deliver the car to your favourite local mechanic along with your credit card. Last resort, but it usually works well. The car will be returned in a functional state, though your card may be severely bent, or even broken for a while. You fix the last problem by swapping some of your life for money, rather than swapping it for satisfaction if you'd done the job yourself.

Got any photos of the beast? You should probably nick name it Lazarus or Phoenix or something like that, as it does seem to be slowly rising from the dead.

Regards on a slow eastcoast Sunday,
Chris

PS: It's a nice day here and the surf's up. Might jump on a few waves this afternoon.

PPS: Agree about the Webers. My Alfa has DCOEs and they are fantastic - set and forget - though Dell'Ortos are just as good.

Tim,
I found a picture, but unfortunately no legend to go with it. It may be of some help - especially when you have little bits like ball-bearing #51 ....
Gotta agree about the soaking - I use standard thinner and leave the carby in it for about 48 hours. Works wonders.
I've also attached a photo of the service kit available from www.dellorto.co.uk
Regards,
Chris

I've rebuilt many sidedraught Webers but have never tackled Dell'Ortos which you have on your car. I would think that the principles would be similar once you've removed them from the car. You'll need a very clean area, the usual tools, spray on and liquid degreaser and a compressed air supply. A book detailing the procedure would also help and will be a handy resource in future - eg: Des Hammill's "How to build and power tune Weber and Dellorto ...." (ISBN 1903706750 and about $30.00). You'll need a gasket kit as well - I get all of my carby bits from Nardek (www.nardek.com.au), though I don't know if they stock Dell'Orto parts. If they don't they should be able to tell you where they are available.

Setting them up when you've finished is a task in itself. They need to be balanced so that each throat is drawing the same volume of air, the idle screws need to be set so each cylinder is running correctly and finally the engine idle needs to be adjusted. The procedure is often repeated until everything is right and the engine is purring.

Having said all of this, personally I wouldn't fiddle too much with the carbies unless there is an obvious problem - leaking fuel, jammed butterflies or obvious bad corrosion when you look at the fuel bowls. Dell'Ortos are good carbies and usually very robust - even if they are not set up perfectly, the engine should still run. At the moment I'd be concentrating on the fuel supply, the electrics from the coil to the distributor and out to the plugs and the timing. Replace the points and condensor, check the cap and rotor, maybe replace the coil, check the leads and put in new plugs. Check the static timing. Make sure you've got fuel flow. As a last resort contact the previous owner to find out when it was running last and whether there were any problems - eg: a badly blown head gasket or a warped head from overheating will make an engine very hard, if not impossible, to start.

I know you've probably already done a lot of this, and I mention it for my own completeness more than anything else, but it's still worth stepping through it logically.

Hope I haven't scared you off. Keep at it and keep us informed. The local WA AROC should be able to help as well.

Failing all, just buy back the 308GTB

Chris

That is a fairly ugly tank.

The timing marks on my car consist of a single vertical score, |, across the crankshaft pulley for the fixed advance and a double mark, ||, for the maximum advance. Though the manual says that there is also an "F" (or "P" !) and an "M" scored on the pulley, I've never found these on mine.

The pulley can be fairly grubby with all of the oil, dirt and general sh*t that accumulates over time so it pays to clean it well. This is easiest done by spraying it with a reasonable jet of degreaser, giving a scrub with a toothbrush and hosing it off carefully. Rotate the engine to get to all parts of the pulley and clean it as you go.

Once clean and dry, find the timing marks and use some white chalk to mark them rubbing off the excess so that the scored marks are now white - makes them easier to see with a strobelight. Position the pulley by rotating the engine by hand so that the single score is opposite the marker fixed to the water pump. This now has cylinder #1 at TDC on the compression stroke. The distributor rotor should be pointing at the HT lead going to the #1 cylinder.

If you wish you can also remove the cam cover and make sure that the cam lobes for #1 are pointing outward. The fronts of the cams and the front cam journal bearing caps are also scored and these marks should also line up.

Pull the distributor out and check the points and the gap. Check that the plug leads follow the firing sequence (1 3 4 2). Replace the condensor if it looks suspect - probably replace it anyway.

It may also be worth getting a torch and mirror and having a look down the carby throats while you push on the throttle linkage. You should see the butterflies open and a squirt of fuel come from the accelerating pump jet.

If you're getting a decent spark at the right time in the cycle and you've got fuel and air in an approximately stoichiometric mixture, it should start and run even if it is rough as bags.

It's difficult trying to help from the other side of the nation but give this a go and let us know how you get on.

I don't know how much literature you have, so I've attached a couple of photos from the users manual.
Don't give up, it's just a mechanical device with problems that can be solved - it will start eventually and then the real fun will begin.

Regards,
Chris

Tim,
From one of the other bulletin boards and posted by a fellow Australian -

"The original seal is made of rubber, hence the deterioration.

I replaced mine with closed-cell Neoprene strip. You can buy it from hardware stores and rubber suppliers. You buy it by length, so you'll need to run a tape measure around your tank first.

The advantage of closed-cell Neoprene is that it is water proof and air tight, and if it's a good quality one it should be acid and oil (fuel) proof too.

The Neoprene strip usually comes with adhesive on one side. The adhesive is a little weak and mine kept letting go when I put the tank in, so I ended up brushing on some contact adhesive first to hold the seal firmly in place."

Post some photos sometime.
I, and many others no doubt, would like to see the car and the restoration.
Chris

Tim,
As Colin wrote, when the carby needle valves are closed by the floats, the output from the pump is zero.
Because the carby equipped fuel pumps are low pressure devices (unlike the Spica injected ones), when the outlet is occluded the diaphragm should have enough play in it to oscillate up and down without drawing fuel in from the tank or expelling it out to the filter. If the pump is not working, the diaphragm may be torn. I'm not sure whether these are available as a rebuild kit, but you should be able to get a whole new pump without much trouble - the UK suppliers list them at about $AUD45.00 plus postage so they should be available locally in Australia.
I've appended a photo of the common mechanical fuel pump used by Alfa.
Chris

Tim,
I've attached a photo of the 1750 fuel filter assembly, it is the same as the one on the 2000. The only user replaceable bit is the filter, or at least it's the only bit I've ever replaced. I've never pulled the filter head apart.
According to one of the books I have it says - "The filter is mounted on the right hand side of the engine compartment. This filter has a built-in fuel pressure regulator, controlling the fuel flow to the carburettors. Every 8000 miles (12000 km) it is recommended to clean the filter or renew the filter element if necessary."
Hope this helps,
Chris

Gary,
I've always liked the 4R Zagatos though I doubt that I could afford it at present. Despite what is said about them, they are real Alfas and a legitimate part of both the mid-60s model range and the history of the marque. They were, I believe, very well built and great fun to drive and this one is even more interesting in that it is 1 of about 10 or so RHD cars constructed in a total production run of 92.
If I find a lazy $65K or so lying around I'll give you a call.
Regards,
Chris

Does anyone know whether this car is still for sale? It looks interesting.
Chris

Tim,
I think the last time I turned the motor using a socket was when I had the radiator out - gives you a lot more room that way. Sorry, I probably should have mentioned that 
It is quite safe to do it using the fan particularly if you grip the blades close to the centre and tension the belt with your thumb.
Let me know how you get on,
Chris

Tim,
I bleed the M/C first. Once no more air is present in the M/C I then move on to the wheel calipers. Traditionally you bleed the one furtherest from the M/C first (LHS rear) working your way through them until you get to the one nearest the M/C (RHS front), so on RHD cars it goes LHS rear, RHS rear, LHS front, RHS front. Having done this once, and particularly with 105 Alfas, I normally leave the car overnight, start it and run it the next morning to test the brakes and repeat the entire process. It always surprises me how much more air comes out second time around - particularly after the boosters have been activated by starting the engine and applying vacuum. Usually by the end of the second bleeding I've got a real firm pedal.
When I change the brake fluid (about annually) I only go through the process once, unless I've inadvertently let in some air.

As to turning the motor by hand, the easiest way is to remove the spark plugs, put it in neutral and gently rotate the fan. If you're concerned about snapping off a fan blade, put a socket (I think it's a 36mm but check) on the crank pulley and turn it using a T-bar or rachet.

Hope this helps,
Chris