1985 Alfa Romeo GTV6 (my first Alfa)

Flight Service wrote: don't you just love tight tolerance slip fit? Or as I like to call them, never slip together right till you cuss plenty and go to sleep and come back to it fits?

Stuff like that has kept me up at night. I'll call it off to take a rest, only to find out I cant sleep until I get it together

Also, in regards to tic-tac-toe burns, holy crap this thing puts off some heat! You could have warned me!

It's unbelievably nice being able to see what I'm doing under the car (but maybe I shouldn't look around too much. This project has gone on long enough...)

Edit: 90% of what you see on the floor came out of the engine bay, and yeah I cleaned it up before I went under for the next post

Ballad of the shifting shifters...

A few pages ago (maybe 5 or 7?) I mentioned that it was real nice installing the new shifter I bought to replace the hacked short shifter that was currently installed. I may have said something along the lines of it feeling like a big landmark to me because instead of removing broken stuff, i was finally installing something new.

Well, that had to be removed yesterday...

Picture 1 shows what happened when I tried to hook the cars shift linkage (fork) to the newly installed shifter (eye socket)

Picture 2 shows how the fork looks with the OLD shifter

Picture 3 shows why I wanted to be rid of the old shifter

Picture 4 shows the comparison between the two (hack short shifter ftw!)

Everybody follow? Good

Now when I went to bed, I was ready to down a beer and verbally berate the engineers at Alfa again, but this morning after coffee I thought better of it. What we have here isn't "awful, needless, and overly complicated inconsistencies or unnecessary engineering revisions inside the manufacturing line". no no no no. What we actually have is "Spec Racing GOLD in action"

Allow me to explain:

See a couple years ago, in GRM's "Joes VS Pros" article, it mentioned that the "pro" had saved weight in his spec Miata by scraping off all the undercoating, where as the "Joe" was at a slight weight disadvantage because he didn't think of it. "GENIUS!" thought I.

What Alfa has done is executed a very similar plan straight from the factory!

Realizing that their shifter's eye socket was exactly .00000000000000000000000000000000000000001 micro-grams heavier than it absolutely needed to be, they made their latest GTV6 off the line more competitive than all its predecessors by installing the smaller, lighter, yet still just as effective, eye-bolt and shift linkage fork!

Doing so would ensure relevancy to the latest cars off the line throughout the entire GTV6 life-span should a Spec GTV6 class begin. NOW the person who bought the 1981 GTV6 would be at a slight weight disadvantage when challenging his 1986 driving rivals! If you want to be a winner in the proposed "Spec-GTV6" then you really DID need to get down to the factory and get the one rolling out the door RIGHT THIS VERY INSTANt or else you're just not going to be as competitive as the (literal) "next guy" in line.

This is just amazing forward thinking we're seeing here folks. You just don't get this sort of experience and innovation with any of the big manufacturers these days and I think that's just kind of sad.

Tomorrow: Shifter meets grinder.

Till then, good times

In reply to Hungary Bill:

I wasn't kidding about the tic tac toe burn scars, now the upside is in the winter you are toasty under the car.

I let it get a little too close to one of the tobacco bags hanging under the car and it got to smelling a bit "hot" Lesson learned

Hungary Bill if you want some I have a bunch of single row 8' T8 fluorescent fixtures and lamps that you can have. I have way more than I will use in my garage. Looks like about 6 of them would light up the space good. Don't offer to just anyone but since you are a Italian car brotheren I figure I could help out in someway since I have way to much on my plate to help wrench wise.

Brad: I'd love to take you up on your offer The hard part is going to be meeting. I work a swing shift at the moment, and don't travel north very often these days (man, when I was young I used to drive from Bothell to Auburn all the stinking time!)

Well, work is doing it's best to kill the cars momentum again. I really cant say I was getting used to working after work (it's brutal) but I was making it happen and then they sent me on a trip. I'd complain more, but it's Alaska and the beer is cold

Before I left the shifter FINALLY met the grinder:

(didn't get a picture, sorry)

Unfortunately when I went to install it, I learned that the linkage BELOW the mount was also LONGER and it's binding on a welded cross member in the transmission tunnel. Man, I didn't even think to check.

I thought briefly about a cut and weld, about trying to make my old shifter work (crappy weld and all), but eventually I sent an SOS to "Peter the parts guy" on the east coast. He's got an '83 he'll check for me. If that doesn't work out I'll hit up Alfa Parts Exchange in California.

Looking back at the picture in my last post, it's easy to see I was overlooking something simple (just unexpected). Chrome is old, black is new.

Without the driveline back in, and the transmission bolted up I really don't want to move the car to start the body work but I figured that didn't have to stop me. See, my old hood was so bad I decided to buy a new one from a guy who was cleaning out his warehouse somewhere in the mid west (cant remember where at the moment)

Old vs new

Bondo and dents aside, the old hood had HUGE holes drilled in it for the Zender hood bulge so I figured this would be a great practice/sacrificial panel to learn on before I take the tig to the side of my car (the pictures above also give a great idea of what proper "Alfa red" looks like compared to "crap orange peel")

I got everything set up to start the practice session(s) and that's when duty called me away:

Before I left though, some weird things were beginning to happen around the Hungary house with the Hungarlings... Not sure what to make of it

Good times

Figures I've been off for the last 6 months and could have ran them down to you no problems. Just started back to work today and looks to be one of those nice fast track jobs. Guess they make VR goggles or something like that so they just throw money at the place to get it done. Sometimes it felt like a 10 lb box trying to fit into a 5 lb box with all the people working there today. Seems like they may even start a swing shift.

I'll see how things go this or next weekend. I could possibly talk the wife into a nice drive south.

Nothing to add other than I'm subscribing to your newsletter.

Brad: Isn't that how it always works? :P

Daewoo: Welcome to the party! Loved the Nubria man

I'm still away for work, but I got a text from Mrs. Hungary. The house behind us just sold, and apparently this moved in:

This may be really bad or really good.

Great until he tries to drift it in the neighborhood.

So now that I'm back in town the plot with the neighbor thickens. So far I've seen:

• 2ea Cressidas

• 1ea Evo

• A fore mentioned FD

• AMX

• 2ea chevy pickups

and apparently there's more. He only keeps a few at his house (two cressidas, FD, and Evo), the others he rotates through by way of his brother's place and his parents house. He's a master tech at a Nissan dealership just north of here. Seems like a nice guy.

We'll see how this works out

I'd like to title this post "Dear Alfa. It'd be a lot easier on the both of us if you'd just cooperate the first time".

I win. Because I can melt metal with electric fire

Good times

Im not sure how my neighbors feel about me, but if there was an HOA here i wouldn't have even considered it.

Nice shifter!

What's your neighbour's GRM username? That's quite the harem he's got there.

The neighbor (Adam) say's he's familiar with GRM, but no forum handle (yet). I'll break him down, don't worry. His brother showed up yesterday with what I think is a RHD Toyota Mark II (see Chasing Midnight, Might Car Mods)

So lots going on in the garage, not much of it Alfa related. I'm doing a death-cool flush on the wife's Saab, and I picked up another rig for some family four-wheeling this summer:

But other than that, progress with the Alfa has been sloooooow. I blame night shift. It's hard to work on the car in the last hour of your day. Lucky for me I got yanked back to day shift! (yay) aaaaaand promptly got sent to Canada for a week (boooooooo).

I'm back now but I've got 2-weeks until my next Canada trip. My goal is going to be to get that darn driveshaft in (seriously, what's taking so long!!!!???), do a practice fill or two on that practice hood with my tig, and move the car in position for bodywork/paint. After that, I can leave for a week feeling like I did something.

Begin:

Cleaning up old messes, I needed the shifter boot off the old shifter.

I could have taken the assembly apart, much in the way I did with the new shifter, but going at it with an abrasive blade on the chop saw was way more fun! (and loud)

I hear fables on Alfabb of people installing driveshafts in one piece...

But pry as I might, I'm not one of them. Back in two it goes

Of those two, I got one half laid into position:

Like an old sparring partner, I'm starting to learn her moves. The trick is to take how much you want to do in an hour, divide it by 20, and that's how much you're going to get done in a day.

For instance: Tomorrow I want to bolt up the carrier bearing, join the two shafts, tighten those bolts down, and then start jacking the transmission back into place with the hopes I can at least get it into position, if not installed completely.

Going by my rule, I'll get one bolt installed on the carrier bearing. But don't worry, I'll take 5-pictures and somehow turn it into a 10-paragraph post

It's good to be back in the garage

Hungary Bill wrote: Like an old sparring partner, I'm starting to learn her moves. The trick is to take how much you want to do in an hour, divide it by 20, and that's how much you're going to get done in a day.

1/20th of expectations? At least you have a yardstick to plan against! HA!

Hungary Bill wrote: Going by my rule, I'll get one bolt installed on the carrier bearing. But don't worry, I'll take 5-pictures and somehow turn it into a 10-paragraph post

Sounds like my build threads! "Look, I removed an old nail from the wall. Here are 20 photos of the process."

Mezzanine wrote:

Hungary Bill wrote: Like an old sparring partner, I'm starting to learn her moves. The trick is to take how much you want to do in an hour, divide it by 20, and that's how much you're going to get done in a day.

1/20th of expectations? At least you have a yardstick to plan against! HA!

I'm tellin ya! It usually goes something like this:

Ok, Alfa. Lets bolt up that carrier bearing

Well, shoot. That wasn't so bad. I mean they put a cross member under ya in such a way I had to use a combination wrench for one of the bolts, I had trouble with that friction fit again, but really that was pretty easy.

Except wait... Now how am I going to get to the bolts on the rubber damper?

Darn. That cross member is REALLY in the way now...

I may have to unbolt that damper and push that driveshaft forward a bit to get at those with a wrench...

unless I can fandangle some friction on the head of the bolt like this...

Hey, that worked! Boy, I hope I don't have to undo those. Since we're on a roll, lets jack that transmission up and keep this ball rollin

And that's where everything bound...

At this point I figured it was best to just go inside and get a cup of coffee. I'll go at it again tomorrow.

The driveshaft's got another friction fit bearing doo-dad that I've got to make come together at an angle while the jack lifts the transmission into place, there's also tabs on this guibo that fit into slots on the driveshaft (I got one of three on my last attempt). Should be interesting...

I may have to undo everything I did today to get this in place. Right now I'm thinking I may have to get the engine hoist back out, unbolt the engine mounts and carrier bearing bolts to shift everything forward, jack the trans up to make things level, and push everything back into position then bolt everything back up. Damn.

But it IS good to be back out in the garage.

That reminds me. Can a pessimist be disappointed?

Hmmmmm, no idea if it is the same as old bmw bavaria's... but I seem to remember those rubber joints needs circumference compression to fit??????

Oldskewl: Not completely necessary, but helpful. Squeezing the circumference makes the bolts slide in the holes easier but I can push on the metal tabs one at a time with a screwdriver handle and get roughly the same effect (see below)

Today I was two-jacking it. With one jack doing all the lifting, the transmission would list to one side a little

With that I was able to get the transmission crossmember bolts threaded in (but not completely tightened). There was still a little gap on the guibo but when I had the crossmember bolts snugged up a bit (6-total) it looked like it all squeezed together ok:

And that's where I found today's trouble.

There's a bolt dead-center on the crossmember that goes into the nose of the clutch housing (front of the transmission). I'm 99% positive NOW it didn't need to be removed to do what I needed to do, but back when I was removing everything I didn't know any better. Now I cant get it to line back up

I ran out of time this morning before I could mess with it too much, but I'm hoping some creativity with jacks and a long handled punch will get hole where it needs to be.

In the back of my mind lurks the possibility that the press-fit bearing (mentioned in my last post) is pushing the transmission back and that's what's causing the alignment problems. (wish me luck)

Good times

Keep up the good work!

Thanks

Sooooo, I guess I'll start this by saying I'm a scaredy cat when it comes to getting under a vehicle even while it's on stands. Before I work up the nerve to crawl under the Alfa every morning I give it a good bump and shake, check my jack stands etc.

Well yesterday I was in kind of a rush when I left the garage and didn't notice this had happened:

(I wont even pretend I didn't have to change my pants)

I was using the DeDion tube as a hold point since the area I'm working in would have been obstructed by putting a stand at the rear jacking point. Plus the front and rear jacking points are between the front and back wheels so the foot print (to me) seemed kind of "short".

My solution was to add 2-more jack stands

On a slightly more positive note, I did get that bolt to line up! It turns out that it has less to do with transmission location (like I previously thought) and MORE to do with DeDion location whiiiiiich explains the jack stand issue in the previous post...

Unfortunately the bottom I was waiting to fall out, finally fell out (I knew things were going WAY too well when the Alfa only tried to kill me). For the LIFE of me, I could not get the transmission cross member bolts to start on the drivers side...

Everything was lined up, they were the longest bolts of the batch, etc, etc, etc, but no matter WHAT they'd bottom themselves out before grabbing threads. I feared the worst and my fears were quickly confirmed when I used my camera like a poor-mans borescope:

It appears rust has eaten its way around the rear-most anchor nut and is allowing it to move/free spin. I was out of time (and patients) this morning, but I think I'm going to look for a way to go at it from the top. Maybe I can find a way to hold it from above and thread it in from below.

Otherwise, everything comes back out

Good times

Even with all of the "fun" you are having I still miss my 6 and I am afraid that by the time I am in a position to get another one they will be too expensive.

On a side note, I was able to get the DS in and out in one piece. It was a pain in the butt but it can be done.