slow degradation -alfetta sedan

[sudsy]

Bit of a boring post however maybe good maintenance juice.
My 79 used to run as sweet as a newby.
Easy starts, quick steady idle and ready to go

Slowly slowly slowly this degraded to when I thought cranky was normal

Fast forward and after major heat wave (45C) then also hail storm major humidity..
The old girl ran subtly worse and gradually more so to the point where it was obvious.

At the time it seemed like it was a incidental failure, yet in hindsight was the system being unable to go on.

Tried to rev the motor through it, and that seemed to work a bit.
But alas things just went downstream.
Thought I may have had a fuel jet blockage..etc etc ..she was baulking  like a baulk thing.

Time to investigate..

A suspicious white ring around the coil/coil lead immediately took me to it.

Not only was the main contact surfaces blue/green with corrosion, but the central lead wire of the coil had displaced and was in limbo.
To the Alfa's credit, I am surprised that it ran at all in this condition.
To it discredit, how do these things only happen to Alfas.?
My Mazdas and Saabs were somehow immune to climate extremes.. Same coil/points based cars !!

Very odd and yet also deeply satisfying to repair very simply, and then remember how lovely the motor was just a few months ago..

No more rattles that I was putting down to valves/timing chain.
The motor was simply gradually struggling more and more with less and less spark..

PS Don't panic, the solution is usually quite simple and satisfying..