New 105 1750GTV Owner (photos)

[lhodgo]

Hi All,

I just thought I would post a quick message to show off my new toy. I was wondering if anyone would know of a good mechanic and auto electrician in Brisbane?

Also does anyone know what electronic ignition suits my model.

Enjoy the pics.

lhodgo (Lucas)

[Colin Byrne]

Hi Lucus ther is some talk about electronic ignitions here
http://www.alfaclubvic.org.au/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,68/topic,1156.0/

Car looks great, love the colour 

One thing i thought i'd mention, i used to have an engine bay that looked identical to that, nice and clean and well organised, that was before all those sock style filters cought on fire!! i've never been so happy we have to have fire extinguishers for sprint days!, I would definitely recommend finding the original airbox setup as I would hate to see the same thing happen to you

cheers

[Scott Farquharson]

Same thing happened to me on the grp s car - they catch fire very easily!

[Jekyll and Hyde]

Same thing happened to me on the grp s car - they catch fire very easily!

I'd heard that rumor, 'tis why I ended up with paper element pods.... which are probably only slightly better 

[Dave_S]

Looks absolutely fantastic.  It's exactly what I'd love to own.  Enjoy!!

I just ordered Tipler's book on these cars.  If I can't have one, at least I can learn a bit about them.

[1750GTV]

Hi Lucas,
Welcome to the list and my compliments on your choice of Alfa - the 105s are lovely old cars. Mine, also a 1750GTV, has been running an electronic ignition for about a year now with no problems. There are two aspects to the conversion.
The first and probably the most useful is to replace the points with one of the after market Hall effect devices. I used a Hot Spark conversion that fits easily inside the standard Bosch distributor. Once set up, no more point changing - the only time you need to access the distributor is to replace the cap/rotor every 20 years or so The Hot Spark unit came from the US and cost about $A50.00.
The second is the fitting of the real electronic ignition - that is, the box that takes the heavy current load through the coil primary. This is worth installing as the switching unit in the distributor will be a lot cooler because the current load through it is much smaller. The unit in my car is a Dick Smith kit that I assembled It was simple and cheap and works very well. Sometime I might replace it with one that lets me taylor some of the ignition parameters.
I've attached a couple of photos.
Regards,
Chris

PS: I'm not sure about the 'testa rossa' look. It was a spare cam cover that I had powder coated bright red. The electronic ignition module is the box with the Weber sticker on it.

[Jack]

Hey there 1750
Sorry to hijack the thread guys but, 1750, could you please tell me more about the Dick Smith box
that helps the distributor run cooler.
What is it called? What does it do exactly?
I might be suffering some heat effects with my Hot Spark system.
Cheers
Jack

[1750GTV]

Hi Jack,
I guess I should explain a little more. The reason I changed from points to Hall effect was because I seemed to be changing the points quite regularly. They would pit and then mis-time and the distributor would get quite hot. Basically I got sick of pulling the distributor out of the car to reset or replace the points as the timing drifted. There seemed to be nothing physically wrong with the distributor. At that stage I was getting about 11.5V at the +ve coil terminal (~3500rpm) and with a coil primary resistance of about 2.6 ohms, I had a fair bit of current running around the circuit being switched by highish resistance points - hence the heat. I probably could have solved it all by using an external resistor (which I ended up fitting anyway), but I took the opportunity to upgrade the system to something more modern. First I fitted the Hot Spark conversion and ran the car for about a month or so with no problems. The distributor seemed cooler and the car ran very well. This is maybe all you need to do. I went a little further by installing an electronic ignition 'black box' which will also run if you have standard points. These systems use the points, or whatever you have in your distributor, as a switching device only, that is, the current load through the them is markedly reduced. The heavy current load goes around the black box/coil loop and not through the points/hall effect. The upshot, for me at least, was that the distributor cooled off, but the coil warmed up. Both the coil and black box are mounted where they can get a bit of air, on the inlet side of the engine.
When people talk of 'electronic ignition' they may be talking about either or both of these systems. I fitted both (hall effect device & electronic switching) but you can fit any combination. If you like points (!!) just fit the electronic box - your points will last longer though the rubbing block will eventually wear out, or just replace the points and leave the rest of the system as is, or like me, replace the lot. The modern systems get rid of the distributor all together and switch electronically, timed off the crank, to individual 'coils' for each cylinder.
My car starts easily and runs very smoothly. I carry a couple of bypass wires in the glovebox in case the black box craps itself, but it's never happened. To my mind, it's an easy conversion that modernises the ignition system without corrupting the visual appeal. You don't have to butcher the distributor to fit the Hot Spark conversion and if, in future, you want to go back to points the reconversion is easy.
I used a kit because I like soldering these sort of things together, but there are many pre-assembled units around. I got it from Dick Smith and the catalogue number is K3305 (Universal High-Energy Electronic Ignition System). It is really quite sophisticated for a DIY system, though at present mine is set up in basic 'hall effect' mode.
In summary, your system may be quite OK. If you are using the hall effect device to carry the bulk of the current load (can be up to 4 amps) then your distributor will get fairly warm. If it's getting really hot, check your supply voltages and primary coil resistance. You may need to fit a ballast resistor, I did - it is the grey thing above the coil in the picture. The resistors are cheap and go in series between the +ve lead and the +ve coil terminal. If the current through the Hot Spark system is much above 4 amps, it'll eventually fail.
Hope all of this makes some sense.
Regards,
Chris

[AlexM]

Hi Lucas,
Looking at your car makes me green (maybe red) with envy .... I've only just come back from a decade away from Alfa's and it's what I'd love to driving.
Can I ask how long it took you to find the car, and would it be too imposing to ask what sort of price I might expect for something similar?
Happy cruising
Alex

[lhodgo]

Hi Alex,

They are a great car.

I was looking for 4 years on and off, ever since I regrettably sold my 1600GT Junior. But I was really seriously looking for about a month. I gave myself a strict budget of $10K to buy myself a straight honest 105 coupe. I knew that this wouldn't get me a concors car and i soon began to think that I was dreaming. Most cars seemed to be $12-$15K for a tidy example. Lucky me, I looked on this website and found mine for $9K and bargained down to $8.25K.

Good luck with the hunt, its well worth it.

Lucas.