1985 Alfa Romeo GTV6 (my first Alfa)

Opps! Your going to have nearly made the tank yourself when your done!

Hey, I think I figured out why my speed-o isn't working I'm willing to bet my reverse lights don't work either

Is it wrong that I'm afraid to hook those up right now because I'm not the one who disconnected them?

good times

Not much going on lately (sick kiddos, busy weekends. It's that time of year)

For our Saturdate we changed the oil in the transaxle

And then ran around the garage playing Star Wars (I was a stormtrooper)

Yesterday it was the youngest's turn to be sick so I decided to bring the inertia switch inside for a gander.

Poor guy, he looks afraid but I promise he was having a good time (well, he wasn't screaming...). It's a pretty simple little device, and I'm glad I took it apart (it answered a lot of questions I had). Basically that steel marble is held in place by a magnet. When it leaves its base it pushes the plunger up and opens the circuit. I'll run it for now, but if it gives me lip I wont hesitate to remove it

After that the eldest wanted to help me test out the new center section of the exhaust.

Checked good!

CSC has a center section that has no muffler (just straight pipes). I'm going to toss some flanges on this baby, and if all goes well maybe I'll make my own center pipe down the road.

Good times.

java230 wrote: Opps! Your going to have nearly made the tank yourself when your done!

Man, we aren't far off are we

The cap and flange arrived. Now I just need to hit a hardware store for some threaded barb connections and then go bug/bribe Mezzanine for the use of his TIG.

Shoot, I might even need to get a tap set for those barbs....

You know. Now that I'm thinking about it, the tank I'm making is getting pretty darn close to costing as much as the correct tack does

Good times

Now that you mention that.... I need some aluminum welded....

XLR99 wrote: Sweet, it's nice to have the hero guy in the next town. I have one of those near me, but I haven't even tried to con him into bailing me out of my stupidity yet.

We were talking about this the last time he was over. I honestly think he might be the first friend I've ever let touch one of my projects.

I don't think I ever planned it that way, it just happened to be that I needed an extra set of hands and he happened to be in the area that day. (and I didn't even get pictures)

Crazy...

java230 wrote: Now that you mention that.... I need some aluminum welded....

I like where this is going

Hi Used to have a Alfetta, the shifter you modded looked like my old one. I live in tri-cities and a car guy had a rust free alfetta on a flatbed next to twin cities metal. The body is the same as your GTV aka panels to be had.

Best,

Charles

I wonder if maybe the speedo sensor and reverse switch came with a 'new' transmission and they just never plugged them in after swapping the trans?

Be interesting to see what it does.

selrahc360 wrote: Hi Used to have a Alfetta, the shifter you modded looked like my old one. I live in tri-cities and a car guy had a rust free alfetta on a flatbed next to twin cities metal. The body is the same as your GTV aka panels to be had. Best, Charles

Charles,

Posts like that are going to get you on Mrs. Hungary's ban list real fast. First though, how are the passes looking this time of year? I may need to check this one out! Do you know the people at all? I may be able to use the tail lights and rear bumper if they'd part with them for a reasonable price (read: real cheap as my budget is dwindling these days)

Cheers! -Bill

ssswitch wrote: I wonder if maybe the speedo sensor and reverse switch came with a 'new' transmission and they just never plugged them in after swapping the trans? Be interesting to see what it does.

Hey. Maybe I'll get real lucky and it'll be a Milano Gold transaxle with LSD

Hungary Bill wrote:

java230 wrote: Opps! Your going to have nearly made the tank yourself when your done!

Man, we aren't far off are we The cap and flange arrived. Now I just need to hit a hardware store for some threaded barb connections and then go bug/bribe Mezzanine for the use of his TIG. Shoot, I might even need to get a tap set for those barbs.... You know. Now that I'm thinking about it, the tank I'm making is getting pretty darn close to costing as much as the correct tack does Good times

Man, I'm feeling some love in here. Or is that pressure?

We can easily turn some aluminum stock down to make our own barbs on my lathe and weld them on. Might be easier than welding up a pad, drilling, tapping, etc.

Sounds like I need to practice my aluminum welding.

Squirrel!

The exhaust center section is sitting underneath the car with the aforementioned flanges (1/4"thick steel flanges from e-bay. Advertised for rollbar mounts?) waiting for me to work on it, and true to my auto ADD I went on to a completely different section of the car:

Here's my "Electric to manual window conversion" attempt.

When I got the car the passenger window didn't work, I hated the switch location, and the driver's side window would only work when you assisted it back up. Add in, the electric windows seemed to be an "after thought" by Alfa, their install just seemed half-assed, and while dealing with all the other electrical issues with this car I decided my confidence level was high enough that I could just ditch all the electric window wiring and sort it all out later.

Well, now is "later"

I ordered some manual window regulators from ebay ("fits Alfa Romeo GTV") along with some handles made for an Alfa Spider. I figured the GTV and GTV6 doors and mounting points couldn't be THAT much different so why not spend the near $200 and have things my way?

Well, as far as the doors being different I was kind of right

For those who don't know, Alfa uses some sort of cable/pulley system to roll their windows up and down. The Roller-downer handle (or electric motor) connects to a spool that feeds cable out one end and in the other to roll the window up or down depending on which way you're turning it.

The electric windows have holes cut in the door cards for an "emergency roll down" tool so I figured that'd be a good spot to try to place the manual roller-downer thingy.

So far I got one of the three mounting points to the manual regulator to fit in one the holes of the electric regulator (its footprint is just a bit smaller), the spline for the handle hit right where I wanted it to, and I'll have to drill a hole in the door for the top stud (I'll probably make it a "slot" in an effort to get some cable tension adjustablity. The bottom stud (just below the bottom slot) falls under a bulge in the door skin so even if I did drill a hole for it, it isn't long enough to poke through.

If you look real close though, you'll see a length of cable running out of the bottom of the door. This manual regulator had a LOT more cable on it than the electric version one did. I'll have to cut and swage that to length, but I'm hoping the manual versions didn't have more pulleys or something that reduced the effort necessary to roll the windows up and down (i mean, that would explain all the extra cable that came with this beast).

Fingers crossed this'll work because I don't think there's going to be any going back now

Good times

Mezzanine wrote:

Hungary Bill wrote:

java230 wrote: Opps! Your going to have nearly made the tank yourself when your done!

Man, we aren't far off are we The cap and flange arrived. Now I just need to hit a hardware store for some threaded barb connections and then go bug/bribe Mezzanine for the use of his TIG. Shoot, I might even need to get a tap set for those barbs.... You know. Now that I'm thinking about it, the tank I'm making is getting pretty darn close to costing as much as the correct tack does Good times

Man, I'm feeling some love in here. Or is that pressure? We can easily turn some aluminum stock down to make our own barbs on my lathe and weld them on. Might be easier than welding up a pad, drilling, tapping, etc. Sounds like I need to practice my aluminum welding.

First you have to decide what we're drinking. THEN we'll plan on how to go about things.

I should have figured that even Mazda couldn't come up with the idea of a failure prone cable-driven manual window on their own.

In reply to ssswitch:

Ha! Well, on the positive side I can see some weight benefits and some "ease in design" benefits (ie: cable goes up, window goes up...) but otherwise I'm not a big fan

ok, Manual window conversion round 2!

We start with another hitch in the giddyup: The way I have the regulator positioned, the cable will rub on one of the supports:

Ideally, I'd be able to position it like this but I couldnt get it to where two bolts would poke through the door skin (below)

This was my solution. It's not perfect, but it seems to be working well enough (if I'm not careful with my install, the cable will slip between the bracket and the drum. However, once installed it seems to stay on the drum just fine)

for the second mount I needed to drill I just made a few small holes...

and made them bigger! (6mm drill bit if you were interested)

Then I cut the end off the cable and pulled about 3 feet out

(blue glove from the eldest. This was part of our Saturdate)

Then I made a small swage from some big ones I had (cut in half to make it "single barrel" then cut again to half the length)

and this is how it will look! (that hole where the handle is? it was already there! There's a tool that Alfa gives you in case you have to "emergency roll down" your windows so I didn't have to do anything but remove the plug from the door card).

The down side? The window only rolls down this far

Otherwise, great success! I'm pretty happy with the results

(of course, the process was repeated for the passenger side but I figured one set of pictures was enough)

Good times

One more picture from Saturday just for giggles:

Op check of sunroof complied with.

Good times

You ok with the window rolling down just that far? It would be fine with me. I'm curious what is keeping it from going down any further. Is it a limitation of cable travel or placement of mechanism?

Yeah, if the spool had one more "wrap around" of cable it'd go all the way. I was thinking about pulling the cable and I cut out of its hole in the spool and wrapping it around once but wasn't sure I could reinsert the end back into its place as the end gets slightly frayed when I cut em.

I'm perfectly fine with it though. I think of it as an opposite Subaru svx window

still gonna be done before Alfa gets the Giulia to the US...

I always thought it was the most adorable thing that Alfa had so much confidence in their windows, they included the 'emergency hole' you mentioned, along with a special tool to use in it, as part of the original owner's manual kit. Adorable in the 'Bless their hearts, they are doin' the best they can' kind of way. I mean, reliable power windows were a thing in the US since what, 1965?

RedGT wrote: I always thought it was the most adorable thing that Alfa had so much confidence in their windows, they included the 'emergency hole' you mentioned, along with a special tool to use in it, as part of the original owner's manual kit. Adorable in the 'Bless their hearts, they are doin' the best they can' kind of way. I mean, reliable power windows were a thing in the US since what, 1965?

In the US, perhaps. We are talking Italy here. Magnetti Marelli is Italian for Lucas.

RedGT wrote: I always thought it was the most adorable thing that Alfa had so much confidence in their windows, they included the 'emergency hole' you mentioned, along with a special tool to use in it, as part of the original owner's manual kit. Adorable in the 'Bless their hearts, they are doin' the best they can' kind of way. I mean, reliable power windows were a thing in the US since what, 1965?

Didn't e30 and similar vintage BMWs have that, too?

I ways thought that was good for thought on the manufactures part, as thing do fail, and I rather be able to raise the window than be exposed to rain, ice, or freezing temps.

I had a window fall in the door when the temp was 5, but it was the plastic part that connects to the window, not a dead motor. But it was a fun story....