Going
Crazy Over Cars!
the on-line newsletter of the delaware valley alfa romeo owners' club
Going
Crazy Over Cars!Bob Brady
The DVAROC revived a tradition this year and made a pilgrimage to Car Crazy at 723 Montgomery Ave. in Narberth. Car Crazy (www.carcrazy.net) is a temple for those who worship the automobile. Inside you'll find a variety of fluids, ointments and creams to anoint your beloved vehicle. Right next to them, you'll find all the necessary tools required to administer them properly. And, if you're not schooled in the craft, you need only ask the resident high priest of detailing, Richard for advice on the sacred ceremonies of washing, waxing and polishing.
If your personal temple of internal combustion is looking tired, Car Crazy can help you there as well. On display were a variety of idols such as miniature TZs, GTAs and Giulias which are sure to make the gods show favor on your Alfa by keeping all fluids in their rightful places. Books, posters, signs and apparel were also available. In short, Car Crazy is Mecca for those baptized by gasoline.
Our host was most gracious, providing lunch and continuous race footage. In addition, there were plenty of toys for future Alfisti and their dads to enjoy. Unfortunately the BMW slot car ran circles around the Alfa 155 which was sidelined due to electrical problems (sound familiar?). A nice sized group of DVAROC members made it to the event, no doubt lured by the fabulous and unseasonable weather. Apparently Mother Nature was trying to make up for the rainy events in the months prior.
Dan
Scolaro looked dashing in his top-down 2600 as he navigated the
tree-lined Montgomery County arteries. Bill Conway brought his '94
Quadrafoligio, complete with window sticker. If he keeps taking it
out like this, he'll be heading for the first 5,000 mile service
before he knows it (Yes, that's 5000 miles, not a typo). Dave West
let his Giuletta Veloce see the light of day and got a much needed
dose of vitamin "AR." We were getting worried when he walked to the
rear of the car to check the oil. Before opening the trunk however,
he got his wits about him and noticed the serpent instead of the wolf
on the lid. Arthur Jones gave his Giulia some exercise as he and Mary
made the event part of their Sunday drive. We had another close call
with Arthur, as well. He was tempted to give the Honda S2000 out in
front a test fit. Fortunately, the owner demonstrated the anti-theft
device by remotely locking him in. That was sufficient to scare him
away from the Japanese wanna-be. In addition to the "testa un-fissas"
I brought the only Alfa with a roof, the Milano, as the GTV was still
sick at home. All in all, the little group of Italians made for quite
a show.
Editor's NotesBob Brady
While in the process of cleaning out my email files and office I came across a message from Dan Scolaro volunteering to help develop our web site. It was dated 2/24/99, not quite a year ago. Well, I'm very pleased to report that largely due to Dan's energy and technical support, we now have an official web site at: www.dvaroc.org. When you go there, you'll quickly notice that it's a work in progress, but you can bet that in the next few weeks it will blossom. In addition to Dan, I'd like to thank Howard Sacks, son of our own Fred Sacks, who is generously providing us with free hosting for the site, and Chris Shoemaker for his technical help in getting us going. I know that there are at least a couple of other members who volunteered to help with the site. Please don't feel offended that I didn't contact you as during the holiday fray I misplaced a number of phone messages. If you're still interested, please contact me again (215)428-9646 or mpbrady@bellatlantic.net.
Now that we have a web, we'd like to start an album of member's cars. If you have a photo or better yet a scanned image, let me know and we'll put it in. JPEG or GIF images can be sent directly to images@dvaroc.org please include a description. Classifieds can also be sent directly to our web, including photos, at: classifieds@dvaroc.org.
If you'd like to receive La Voce online, I need to have your email address. Currently we only have about 15 electronic members. Please send yours to: mpbrady@bellatlantic.net and we can inform you of upcoming events, recent web site additions, and/or send you electronic La Voces. Hint: If you haven't received a DVAROC notice from me in the last few weeks, I don't have your email address. Speaking of which, please note that my former email addresses, Robert_A_Brady@rohmhaas.com and najrab@rohmhaas.com are no longer valid. Use mpbrady@bellatlantic.net instead.
With my changing email address comes a job change which will likely give me less time to work on La Voce. So, here is my plea for the year 2000: please send me articles, photos, information, or any scraps that may be of interest to the DVAROC. I'll appreciate them greatly!! With that in mind, let me publicly thank John Jefferies for his continued contributions to this newsletter. They are treasures. - Bob
The
Restoration ShedJohn Jeffries
I am still working the grease from under my nails following two weeks' intense efforts on my GTV front suspension re-bushing project. Since I had performed this job on my beige car, I knew what I was in for, and made efforts to exercise greater prudence in terms of what parts to replace. Last time, for example, I replaced the complete upper control arms and realized later that only the inner bushing on each of those arms was worn; the ball joints were fine. So this time I replaced those upper control arm bushings, as well as the castor bushings, the lower wishbone bushings and all the sway bar bushings. As planned, I replaced the stock 1/2" rear sway bar with an aftermarket 5/8" bar.
The disassembly took about two hours. I kept all the right side stuff in one box, all the left side stuff in another. Since the car has short springs, I found it unnecessary to use a (rented) spring compressor to remove the front springs. A delicately operated floor jack can be used, although this probably represents bad advice.
The next step was to take all the stuff to the dealership at which I work and ask for the help of some real technicians. Pressing the control arm and wishbone bushings was easy enough for me to handle, but I needed help with the sway bars. I used an engraving tool to index the endlinks relative to the bars themselves. The Jaguar shop foreman did the front bar; his Volvo counterpart did the rear. The endlinks, into which the small bushings are pressed, would be easily damaged by an unskilled hand, being rather fragile and in the case of the rear links, unavailable. So the help offered by these professionals was much appreciated. The condition of the parts I removed was interesting: the lower wishbone bushings were totally beat, all loose and floppy; no wonder it was difficult to align last year. These cost $25 each, and there are four of them. But they play a critical role, and the rather notchy feel of my front end, particularly the somewhat edgy feeling communicated through the steering when pushing the car through a sharp corner, was what encouraged me to embark on this overhaul. The sway bar parts were perished and weak-looking, so replacing them was obvious.
I also spent a few hours using the company's Safety Kleen machines to clean up these parts and all their associated hardware. My car is mercifully rust free, and I often wonder to what degree that is a function of how it was originally under-coated. It's something I've had plenty of time to ponder, since who-ever under-coated the car back in 1974 coated more than it's underside; the engine compartment, the suspension.....all crusted with this unusually tough yet gooey gunge that takes hours to get off. Kerosene is about the best way to dissolve it, but it still takes tedious, prolonged effort. As it slowly melts away, one detects what looks like brass powder within the tar-like slime. The brand name of the under-coating on the rear window sticker (since removed) was Tuff Kote Dynol, (one of those horrible anti-spellings like Kripsy Kreme, or for that matter, Safety Kleen). Anyhow, it lives up to it's Tuff name.
What beautiful components the classic Alfa is made up off. Those forged steel lower wishbone halves, once liberated from their Tuff Kote-ing, were lovely to look at and handle. I painted them satin black and mentally prepared myself for the re-assembly process.
Our company took Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a company holiday, so I earmarked that day to put things back together. I hope MLK would approve. The day turned out to be bitterly cold, but I cranked up my anemic electric heater and set to work. Four or so hours later, it was back together, new cotter pins in the upper balljoint threads, everything lubed with anti seize or multi-purpose grease. I torqued the wheel lugs and warmed up the little beast for the obligatory test drive. It still needs an alignment, but feels infinitely better, more supple and demonstrating dramatically improved turn-in. The rear sway bar allows for more graceful exits from corners, allowing real input from the throttle to steer the line. Before it pushed and pushed and then snapped into dramatic oversteer, difficult for someone of my modest skill level to control with any grace. Now, it feels very nice, thank you.
Images like these have been dancing in John Jefferies head...
Other
work recently completed involved the help of two other specialists: a
glass shop and a dent remover. As previously mentioned in this space,
my car had about 15 dents in its once elegant roof. They were of
truly immense ugliness. A skilled dent remover who visits our
dealership (there are lots of unskilled dent removers out there,
watch out), told me he could make my roof "much better", but that I
would have to remove the headliner for him to get at it. That means
removing front and rear windshields. So I went for it, despite the
job involving that work upon an old car that makes me most nervous:
trim. I removed the stainless steel trim inside the car, the interior
lights, the sun visors, the quarter windows. Then I drove it to the
glass shop. My front windshield was chipped and sandblasted so we had
a new one waiting (more to follow); it broke coming out (glued in,
always happens), and the rear one popped out easily (they told me). I
then drove the car, sans glass, to our facility and removed the
headliner, very gingerly.
My plan was to re-use it, despite the availability of new ones for $80. What sort of trimming and modification would a new headliner require? With my general loathing of trim work, it was not a question I wanted to answer. I figured the old headliner, if I could get it out in one piece, would have all the right folds and marks to show me how to get it back in the same way it came out.
It did come out in one piece, and the later the dent man used pry bars and hammers and dollies to make my roof "better". He spent an hour on it and apologized for the outcome. It was worse than he had thought, he said. I thought it looked bloody fantastic. It has a worked-on look, but is free of the dents that buckled when lightly touched, as before his work. It has restored the single-sheet-of-metal strength, and will make a great starting point for some finish bodywork whenever I can afford to have the car prepped and painted.
Back in went the headliner, with spray adhesive and uncharacteristic delicacy on my part....hope I never have to do that again. Then back to the glass shop. Much has been written about converting later 115 GTV, glue in windshields back to the rubber gasket, 105-series variety. Indeed, I did this on my beige car. The logic is that a glue-in glass, rigidly cemented to the body, will be more prone to crack as the car flexes, whereas the rubber gasket type sort of floats within the gasket, and has more "give", and therefore shouldn't crack. But if you've ever seen how difficult it is for a glass guy to install the gasket variety windshield, you start to see that it's a really tight fit, and that the actual edges of glass could easily be put under stresses of their own, if the car does indeed flex that much. The benefits seem somewhat spurious to my ill-educated mind, so I went for a glue-in windshield, held in with a thick bead of evil urethane adhesive, 1/2" or so wide, between glass and body. Two other motives: first, my car had perfect aluminum moldings for it's intended windshield that would not have fit a rubber gasket installation....I wanted to retain that look, and second, the glue-in glass was readily available through PPG and was really cheap.
The glass guys did not enjoy the job, by the way. Their replacement of the exterior surround molding was imperfect, despite hours of effort. But I'm quite happy with it.....Pebble Beach Concours is not a destination for this particular car. I got the car home and re-installed the rest of the interior, fortunately not mutilating any of the stainless steel pieces I was worrying about. The headliner looks OK, doesn't really announce to the onlooker that it was recently out. And a new windshield is a nice thing to look through.
Next: the alignment, installation of the rollbar (due in any day), then new brake rotors and pads all around, then - God, Mother Nature and the Fates willing, off to Watkins Glen, probably via the BMW club.
Alfa sedans make great track cars as any Super owner will
tell
Calling all Alfa Romeo Drivers: Let's Autocross with SCCA!Glenn Wasserman
Attention NY/NJ/PA Alfa drivers! If you are interested in driving your car the way it was meant to be driven, you should consider attending an Autocross. Autocrossing (officially known as SCCA "Solo II") is a great way to hone your driving skills, and enjoy your car in a new way.
If you are new to autocrossing, here's a description: Autocrossing is a test of driver skill. While it is a timed event and speed is obviously of major importance, precision is also key. Autocrossing is very well suited for cars that are well-balanced, handle well, and do not have overpowering large engines - like our Alfas! The event organizers simply lay out a course of cones in a large parking lot and time drivers as they go through the cones. A typical day at an autocross will involve 4-8 runs of about a minute (depending on which group or region is running the event). Plan on taking the whole day, starting bright and early at the site (generally about 8:30 AM) and ending in late afternoon. Requirements are that your car is safe and healthy; drivers are required to wear a helmet, but most locations will lend a helmet if necessary. Cost for the day is usually between $20 and $30. And if you are worried about wear on your car, don't - these events are short enough to not overheat brakes or kill engines (as long as they are healthy - check those timing belts!). The only real stress on the car will be on the tires - you will be cornering in your Alfa much harder than you ever have a chance to on the street. Your car (and your self) is very unlikely to get damaged in these events, since a misstep generally involves hitting one or more cones - harmless! I am attempting to get some local Alfa drivers together to attend the SCCA Philadelphia Region Autox events. I've gone to a few myself, and have been the only Alfa Romeo at each one. The Philadelphia Region runs during the wintertime on Sundays in Camden, and at Nazareth Speedway during the warmer months. The schedule is posted at www.intac.com/~autoxcsp/phillysolo.htm. While we would not get any special classifications (we would just be a bunch of people attending the same event), we could at least gauge our skills against each other. If you are interested in attending (perhaps we can get a group together), please email me at glennwa@microsoft.com.
On The Bob Brady
While
many Alfa owners put their prides and joys inside for a winter rest,
some of us enjoy ours year round, even if that means snow. Some loath
the thought of driving in the snow, I look forward to it. For me,
snow is an opportunity to improve my car control skills and
smoothness. Not only does it make me a safer driver, but it also
helps me reduce my lap times. Everyone can benefit from some wheel
time in the white stuff.
The Fear Factor: The first problem that many have with snow is fear. While fear is an important instinct, it does not generally translate into better vehicle control. I've personally witnessed this a number of times. Once, I awoke to a tractor trailer wheel inches from my passenger window as my co-driver struggled to stop my spinning Civic. Another time was when my wife had her first experienced ice while driving across Texas from her former home in California. When faced with the sudden loss of traction, she panicked. Fortunately the median provided a soft rest. In both of those instances, the driver could have easily kept or regained control had they not been focusing on the fear of impending death.
Conquering the fear of sliding can be done in many ways. Driver schools such as Skip Barber and BSR have programs that introduce students to loss of traction in a controlled environment, usually a skid pad. Another less expensive but less controlled approach is to take advantage of what winter wrought and find an unobstructed snow covered parking lot. The skills needed to drive in snow compliment those needed to be successful on the track. Lets look at braking first.
Learning to Stop: Once on that snow-covered lot, drive about 10 mph and then try to stop fast. In any car, it will take farther to stop. The difference between ABS and non-ABS equipped cars is that the former lets you steer while braking, which is an important advantage. Because ABS prevents the tires from skidding, the car can be steered even though the brakes are fully applied. To get the most out of anti-lock brakes, the driver should apply them and let the system do its job. Letting off the brake pedal because it starts pulsating will only increase your stopping distances. If you drive an ABS car but haven't felt the sensation of them working, you should before you experience it in an emergency. Stopping a non-ABS car in the snow, or track is a little different.
ABS can shorten stopping distances because it lets the tires achieve maximum traction. It applies braking pressure until the limit of friction is exceeded, i.e. the tire locks up, and then reduces pressure to get it rolling again. The same technique can be used on non-ABS cars, it is called "threshold braking."
Back on the parking lot, feel the sensation of the car skidding when braking. Now, try stopping again, but this time when the tires start slipping on the snow, gently let off the brake until you stop sliding. Once rolling again, apply pressure until you slide. After some practice, you'll be able to sense the impending lock-up and compensate accordingly by reducing brake pressure. It's called "threshold braking" because you are stopping at the threshold of the tire's traction. This is not the same as pumping the brakes, a technique many were taught to use in the snow. Being smooth with the brake pedal will also reduce the tendency to lock.
Remember from high school physics, the coefficient of static friction is greater than that of dynamic friction. When the tire is rolling against the road, static friction rules (the tire contact patch and the road are not in relative motion with each other). When it starts sliding, dynamic friction rules (the tire is sliding along the road surface). That's why a skidding car takes a farther to stop than a rolling car. Threshold braking allows you to operate at the maximum level of static friction. You can't make your car stop any faster than that, ABS or not.
Newton was no Fool: Now that you've gotten used to stopping without skidding, it's time to try to make the car skid. When a car's brakes lock, the car can behave in different ways. If only the front brakes lock, you'll find yourself going in a straight line. Steering does no good. Remember that an object traveling in a direction won't change direction unless it is acted on by a force? Well, normally the front tires provide the force needed to change direction, except when they lose grip. If only the rear brakes lock, you'll likely find the back end of your car wanting to go first, i.e. you'll start a spin. While it may seem counter-intuitive, when rear wheels lock, they induce a spin. Why? Well, the front brakes are forcing the car to slow down, but the rear of the car is not slowing as fast due to the tires sliding, remember dynamic versus static friction? Picture your car being made up of two blocks joined by a chain in the center. If the front block is slowing down faster than the rear, the rear wants to pass the front. If the car is pointed perfectly down the road, the rear may stay in line. In real world situations, however, the rear will likely come around. Because rear wheel lockup causes spins, and because manufacturers try to save costs, many pick-up trucks come with ABS only in the rear.
While rear wheels can lock under braking, rear wheel drive cars can also experience the same phenomenon during poorly executed downshifts. Again, it all comes down to driving smoothly. When you downshift, you should blip the throttle so that when you engage the lower gear, there won't be any jerking from the engine having to rev up to match the speed of the lower gear. If the engine needs to catch up, it will cause the driven wheels to resist forward motion, effectively making them act like they've had their brakes applied.
In a Spin...: So you've locked your brakes and the rear end is trying to swap places with the front, now what? When your car starts to challenge your control you have several options: panic, try to minimize the damage or try to regain control. The first option is all too often applied and with unpleasant results. The second option has its place, particularly when high speeds are involved or when the spin is beyond recovery. This is the "in a spin, both feet in" technique. The both feet refer to the clutch and the brake, not the gas! The idea is to stop the car as quickly as possible. I can attest that it does work. If you use this option, remember to always look where you want to go. If you're spinning and want to be back on the road, keep your eyes pointed towards the road. Your natural tendency will be to steer in that direction. Don't focus on the wall or tree you are about to hit as your mind will steer you towards them! The last option is recovery. This can be done quite successfully, particularly in a brake induced spin.
Recovering from a brake induced spin is quite simple, as long as you do it early enough: let off the brakes. Remember, the only reason why the tail is choosing to lead is because the front tires are still gripping and the rears are not. So, simply letting off the brakes allows the rear to regain traction and will let your car roll straight again. Again, the key for this to work is to detect the spin early enough. Depending on the car, spin recovery can be very easy, like our 4WD Subaru wagon. In others it is very difficult, as any 911 owner will say. If the car is allowed to go too far sideways, you'll need to do a little more than just let off the brakes If that is the case, your best option may be "both feet in."
On rear drive cars, sudden downshifts can cause the same effect as locking up the rear brakes. If you don't blip the throttle properly before you engage the lower gear, you'll find your driven wheels trying to speed up the engine and acting like brakes. Snow is a great time to learn how to downshift smoothly. Missing a downshift at triple digit speeds is not.
Brake-induced spins are fairly straightforward. Spins due to loss of traction under acceleration or from losing grip in a turn can be a bit more complicated to deal with. In either case, spins can be either scary or fun. Your attitude about spins is largely determined by your ability to control them, and the presence of immovable objects in your path.
Yawing, Understeering and Oversteering: Before I talk about spin control and recovery, I'd like to introduce some terms. When a vehicle travels in a path that's not parallel with the direction in which it's pointed, it is said to be yawing. A car traveling down a path sideways is doing some serious yawing; think circle track racing. The more crooked it travels, the greater the yaw angle, which is the angle between its path and the direction its pointing. When a car is pointed in a path around a turn but tuns less than desired, it's understeering; the front of the car is sliding. When the opposite is true, it's oversteering and the rear is sliding. Vocabulary lesson over.
Spin Control for Fun and Profit: Snow is a great chance to experience yaw, understeer, and oversteer at speeds slow enough for you to learn how to deal with them. We've already covered how yaw can occur when braking and how to deal with it. Yaw can also happen with rear wheel spin. In that case, the solution is also simple, let off the gas and keep the car pointed in the direction you want to go. As you might guess, FWD cars are not prone to throttle-induced yaw.
In a turn, loss of traction at the rear leads to oversteer. For many, oversteer is frightening and is why most modern cars have been tuned to understeer. The key to controlling oversteer is to detect it early. Once your car exceeds a certain yaw angle, it's time to put both feet in. If you feel the rear of the car losing grip, it can be corrected by steering into the spin and letting off the throttle. In a turn, this means turning in the opposite direction of the turn. The purpose of this maneuver is to get the rear wheels rolling again instead of sliding. Whatever you do, don't hit the brakes. Although many find this instinctual, hitting the brakes while oversteering transfers weight away from the rear wheels, causing them to have even less grip, making the rear want to swap positions with the front even more. In some situations, even letting off the gas can turn a mild oversteer condition into a spin. This is especially true of rear engined cars. I learned to drive with my parent's VW beetle; ask me how I know.
Controlling oversteer can be practiced in that same snow covered parking lot. Just start driving in circles. In a rear wheel drive car, accelerating will break the rear wheels loose. Once your yawing, modulate the accelerator and correct the slide by steering in the opposite direction. After some practice, you'll be able to drive around in circles going sideways just like the dirt track pros.
Front wheel drive cars are less fun because the gas can't be used as easily to keep the rear end out. Also, when a front drive car accelerates weight is transferred off of the driven wheels, so it naturally tends to throttle-induced understeer.
Most modern cars are tuned to understeer. This is probably because it's thought to be a safer condition than oversteer. And, if the driver panics and either hits the brakes or lets off the gas quickly, the car will naturally tend to get back in line instead of spin. Personally, I find understeer more scary as you have little option for recovery other than hold on.
Despite this driver induced yaw, transaxle Alfas
are
a joy in the snow because of their great weight balance
The
easiest way to stop an understeer is to let off the gas, regardless
of the type of car; front or rear drive. A car understeering will
scrub off speed by the sliding front tires and eventually get its
grip back. In snow, "eventually" can be a long time. There are a
couple of other ways of playing with understeer that have been
developed, mostly by rally drivers.
Front drive cars can be pulled out of understeer in two ways. The most likely method is steering in the opposite direction of the turn to let the front wheels start rolling again. The more difficult and less likely to work technique is to steer into the turn more and accelerate. The second technique relies on the car's rear wheels losing some grip in order for it to work. It's a method that's probably best left for the rally circuit. Should you want to play with technique #2 however, you might find it useful to either use the brakes or better yet, the emergency brake to momentarily get the rear to lose traction and slide. The idea is to counter understeer with some oversteer. This isn't for the faint of heart but can be way fun.
This rally Alfetta shows the proper correction for
overstee
r
A rear wheel drive car can best eliminate understeer by backing off the throttle. Like the FWD car though, it can use oversteer to counteract understeer. In the snow, this is easily done by accelerating until the rear brakes loose. On the race track, this is not so easy, unless you've got plenty of power to overcome the tires' grip.
I won't cover four wheel drive cars because they behave differently depending on the system and front/rear torque split. I will say however, that they have an entertaining feature of being able to seeming step out completely sideways under hard acceleration. Parallel parking was never so easy.
Being Smoooth: By now, I hope you've got the point that the key to controlling a car is keeping the wheels rolling. The best way to prevent losses of grip or unexpected responses is to be smooth. That doesn't mean you need drive slowly. Jackie Stewart was famous for his smoothness. Not only did it lead to championships, but it also kept his race cars from failing due to wear and tear. To become a smooth driver, concentrate on every shift and input. Picture your car as a beam balancing from a pin. Your goal to keeping you from losing control in the snow, and to faster lap times, is to keep the bar balanced. Brake too hard and it will fall on its nose, taking needed weight off the rear tires. Toss it into a turn violently, and it will tilt on one side, leaving the inside tires with no weight for traction. Obviously, you can't keep the bar balanced always. But, if you work to keep it balanced, your car will behave more predictably and help you stay in control. As you hone your skills, the speed will come. Like many race instructors say: " to go faster, you must slow down."
Use Your Head: While I've tried to be entertaining in the above paragraphs, I must give some very serious cautions. First, if you want to use the snow to practice driving techniques, please do it in a controlled area free of traffic and immovable objects. It's all too easy to get carried away and do something stupid. Ask me how I know that as well. Also, be aware that the road surface can have very different levels of grip. This is particularly important in snow conditions where bare spots can give you an unexpected, immediate grip that can send you and your vehicle in directions unplanned. Worse, if you find yourself sliding sideways and all of the sudden hit a grippy spot, you can flip, particularly in a Jeep. Even on the track, drivers are instructed not to correct a spin that goes off the racing surface. Too often, when the tire re-connects with the road, the car darts across the track into other racers or worse. Finally, read up on driving or better yet take a course. What I've covered only touches the surface and there are many books and instructors out there that can do the topic much more justice than I.
In The Garage....Bob Brady
In the last La Voce, my GTV was left sitting in the garage (on top of its Oriental rug) after a troublesome ride home from Lime Rock. At that time, I attributed its rough running to a failing field repair of a lever on the SPICA fuel pump. After it sat forlornly in it's space for too long, I finally gave it some attention. First on the "to do" list was to replace that lever.
When I removed the re-brazed lever, I was surprised to see that it looked intact. Despite that, I transplanted a spare lever from my cache of SPICA parts. No owner of a SPICA Alfa should be without a couple complete spare injection systems. While it didn't look functionally different than the one I removed, at least it looked prettier. After starting the little red GTV, it was time to congratulate my handiwork with a test drive, or so I thought. Within a block from home it was obvious that all was still not well. It ran better and didn't stumble off the line as it had done on the NJ parkway, but it was clearly down a lot on power. It felt like it was missing a cylinder. After a few not-so-quick runs up and down River Road to confirm my impressions, I pulled it back in the garage to look for potential suspects.
In time, I've learned that successful troubleshooting relies on discipline and a focus on the fundamentals. For an internal combustion engine, the fundamentals are spark, fuel, and timing. Many people only include spark and fuel. However, all the spark in the world won't make an engine run if it doesn't occur at the right instant. Just ask anyone who's installed a distributor 180 degrees out of phase. In typical fashion, I ignored the troubleshooting rules and let my emotions take over
I flew open the hood and started looking for mal-adjustments of the fuel injection and checked compression. I also ignored another time-proven rule: once adjusted, most things stay that way. In other words, chasing after lost power by assuming that something miraculously re-adjusted itself is a waste of time. After an hour or so of checking settings and ruling them out, it occurred to me to eye up the e spark plugs.
Spark plugs are a wonderful source of information. When everything is fine, they should have a light tan color and clean electrodes. Mine weren't even close. All of them were damp and black. There are only two reasons for black plugs; either you're running way too rich, or your ignition is weak. After looking over the SPICA system I was pretty sure that there was no reason to suspect that I was running rich. So, I did a spark test. "Ahaaa," I said to myself, "Weak spark is the problem." The troubleshooting was about to get interesting.
There are a number of reasons why spark can become weak. Surprisingly though, it really doesn't take much spark to make an engine go. In addition, rarely does an ignition system fail rapidly and still provide enough spark for the car to run. Since I have a Marelli-Plex system on the GTV, there are no adjust-ments, unlike points ignition cars. Note that unlike cars with electronic ignitions, points vehicles' performance can degrade quickly if the gap becomes too small, or non-existent. But that's another tale. In this case, I couldn't blame the points. So, I resorted to the tried and true strategy employed by many a professional mechanic, I started swapping parts. First the plugs were replaced, then the rotor, cap, then wires, all to no avail. Sure, I convinced myself a couple of times that the car really did run better, but timed runs from 3000-5000 rpm in fourth gear were still far too long. I was running out of options and praying that I wouldn't have to replace the expensive and hard to find Plex. Then, I came to my senses and started applying discipline.
Centerline is kind enough to provide a troubleshooting section for Marelli-Plex ignitions in their catalog. It's an excellent resource. After employing my trusty DVM, the measurements indicated that only the coil was out of spec, and only slightly at that. The only component left that could be the cause was the ignition module, which wouldn't you know it, can't be tested. Frustrated once again, I turned to the Alfa Digest for help.
For those of you unfamiliar with it, the Alfa Digest is a wonderful online discussion group for Alfisti. You can sign on at: www.digest.net/alfa/ . Many AROC and ARA technical contacts subscribe along with the masses. As is typical, I received a barrage of useful replies to my email of woe. By far the best of those was from an NEAROC member who offered me his spare Marelli-Plex to swap out. I took him up on his offer and impatiently awaited the package.
As soon as the Plex arrived, I dashed out to the garage. Knowing the only suspect parts were the coil and module, I swapped both at once opting to solve the problem rather than identify the cause. Turning the key, the little twin cam that could fired instantly. It already sounded better. Another run up and down my test track confirmed my suspicions. My GTV was back. At least, that's what I told myself. I knew it was still slower than it should have been, but I was in denial and didn't use my stopwatch. Back home, the two plugs I pulled looked great. The problem was fixed. Or was it?
During the following week, I located a new Marelli coil at Bruce's Parts Bin in Vineland. These are not easy items to locate unless you want to pay twice the price for a complete ignition unit which includes coil, heat sink and module. I also picked up a new ignition module. Marelli was kind enough to use a GM module in their Plex ignition. These are cheap and readily available. I was advised, that they can fail without warning and leave you with no spark. So, I considered it cheap insurance. With the shiny new components installed and the loaner Plex on its way back to New England, I proceeded to take a celebratory test drive.
There was no denying it. The car was running well, but was still down on power. Completely frustrated at this point, I pulled back into the garage, opened the hood, and pulled all the plugs. While most looked fine as before, the #3 plug was wet and black. All the subsequent testing and parts swapping were for naught. That plug just wouldn't come out clean. At that point, I turned to the door and started heading inside for a long conversation with Chianti bottle. I almost made it in, but my stubborn nature just wouldn't let me give up. In a last ditch effort, I swapped out the #3 fuel injector with a spare. As I pulled out of my driveway, everything seemed the same. But, as I accelerated though first gear it bucked, coughed, and then took off like a prancing horse. My little baby was back and better than before!
Not your typical SPICA pump, this one fits a Montreal
Epilogue: When I pulled apart the bad injector, I found that the internal plunger had broken in two. Fuel was just pouring out of it instead exiting in a fine spray. I spoke to Wes Ingram, SPICA guru, about this. He assured me that he has seen very few injector failures and that despite their 25 years plus age, they should remain reliable. I guess I'll see.
I've rarely had multiple failures in a car before. Certainly the injector was bad. But also, the ignition was going south from the condition of the other plugs and the visual appearance of the spark before and after replacing components. Perhaps my seat of the pants impressions were correct when I remarked at Lime Rock that my GTV felt slower. At any rate, she's now back in good form, waiting for the spring thaw. Maybe she just wanted some attention.