90 repair/ tidy up.

[bteoh]

Hi Andrew,

You've done really well on your 90 and I have also enjoyed reading your post. Nice panel work as well........ I can see a lot of hours gone into the car too
Just a quick query, the wiper on my 75 seems to stop midway on the windscreen when I switch it off. Do you think it could be the motor needing a clean and grease or something else? I swapped the intermittent relay with another one and it still does the same thing. Anything else I should be looking for?

Cheers,
Brian

[Typhoon90]

There are contacts in the wiper motor gearbox that actually control where the wiper arms stop. The large gear in the wiper motor has contact tracks on it, I suspect either the contact tracks are broken (unlikely) or the contact arm is losing contact with the track at some stage. Should be a matter of bending the arm, it will be obvious when you take the cover off.
As an aside, I need a new front windscreen now.

Regards, Andrew.

[bteoh]

Hey Andrew,

Sorry to hear that your windscreen broke

You were right in that the gearbox in the wiper motor had hard caked on grease. Cleaned it all out and put new grease in there.....All perfect now

Cheers,
Brian

[wetprickles]

Hi Andrew.

Great reading your post and congratulations on your progress. Good to see you getting stuck into your 90, they deserve a bit of tender loving care.  Wish I could muster up some of your enthusiasm. Did read with interest that you've noticed some smoking at idle. Quote;

Whilst the car has been sitting, it's developed a new trick, it's started to smoke when idling hot. It's oil smoke, I hope it's just a sticking ring or similar.   I don't think it's too bad, it wasn't doing it before it was laid up and it's only been idle for six weeks so far. Probably just needs a good blast round the block.

I too have noticed this same problem with my car and a good blast doesn't seem to help. So I'll be keeping  an eye on your posts to see if you come up with a fix.

Keep up the great work

Leon

[Typhoon90]

Well, I am trying the old kerosene trick with the car, around 250ml of kerosene into the engine oil, run and let it sit. The longer it sits, the better. It helps clean up ring grooves and sticking rings. I also cleaned the PCV system. Smoke has reduced but is still there. Oddly, it is worst when warming up, but not cold and just about disappears when the engine is hot. I don't know what that implies....
As for enthusiasm, it's more a matter of knowing what needs to be done and devoting time to keep moving forward.
Brian, glad the grease worked for you!

Regards, Andrew.

Hi Andrew.

Great reading your post and congratulations on your progress. Good to see you getting stuck into your 90, they deserve a bit of tender loving care.  Wish I could muster up some of your enthusiasm. Did read with interest that you've noticed some smoking at idle. Quote;

Whilst the car has been sitting, it's developed a new trick, it's started to smoke when idling hot. It's oil smoke, I hope it's just a sticking ring or similar.   I don't think it's too bad, it wasn't doing it before it was laid up and it's only been idle for six weeks so far. Probably just needs a good blast round the block.

I too have noticed this same problem with my car and a good blast doesn't seem to help. So I'll be keeping  an eye on your posts to see if you come up with a fix.

Keep up the great work

Leon

[Typhoon90]

Big day today, got some primer on the car. Removed the front windscreen yesterday, much easier when you don't care about saving the glass!
I'm glad I pulled the front screen, I know for sure there's no rust and it allows me to tidy up the front of the headliner.
I've also degreased the engine/engine bay and found that there was indeed an engine in there! Oh, and so much for Alfas being unreliable, I SOAKED he engine and engine bay with 2 litres of degreaser then spent a good 10 mins hosing the whole lot down. Then it started immediately when soaked! I think the only unreliable thing about most old Alfas is the owners....but I digress.
I've also ordered some cheapie adjustable shocks, if they work O.K, great, but if not, they'll give me time to save for some Konis or similar. Also had to order some radius rod bushes, one of the rubber ones is trying to escape from it's home, that also explains why the car was darting left on any pot holes or bumps on the freeway trip home.
The upholstery has also been removed from the seats, resewn, washed and re fitted. It's still faded but entirely serviceable, the material Alfa used on the 90's is very rugged. The way it is woven, the sun can't get past the knap into the actual woven part of the material, so it keeps it's strength.
The car looks pretty fair on all the repairs, the old wet paint shows up ANY mistakes, and it looked good (thankfully!). It'll never be concours, but it was never intended to be.


Guess what I'm doing next weekend?  

Regards, Andrew.

[Typhoon90]

Paint it done! Yes, there are some runs, yes, they'll rub out! I haven't painted anything larger than a motorcycle fuel tank in 10 years, I forgot a few tricks!




Also degreased and pressure blasted the undercarriage yesterday, will be much easier to work on, plus rego inspection will be happier with no oil stains.

Regards, Andrew.

[Typhoon90]

Sometimes, I can't believe this car is the same POS I started with!
Been busy reassembling the car. Polished the tail lights before reassembly, ensured the gaskets were clean and used lots of sealer on them.

Also buffed the whole car up, paint on the passenger's side is very average, but will pass for a while. I guess I'll be painting that side next.

These little plastic vents sit under the C pillar covers and provide trough flow ventilation to the car. One of them on my car had a failed gasket, allowing water into the boot. It was the side that had been painted before, the vent had been installed poorly, causing more rust than fixing it repaired! No chance of it leaking now, slathered with butyl sealer on assembly.

I'm excited to see the car coming back together!

Regards, Andrew.

[alfagtv152]

Hi Andrew,
Looking very nice,good job.
Cheers
Andrew

[Typhoon90]

Interestingly, the whole turret shakes at a high frequency when the engine is idling rough when cold, it's amazing what two windows bonded into a can add as far as torsional rigidity goes, and always an interesting thing to see.
I wonder if I twisted the car jacking it up on one corner with the windscreens out? Could explain it being high on the side that was jacked up, I might jack the opposite side up and see what happens.

Regards, Andrew.

[Rocco166]

Jeez Andrew,

that 90 is coming together really nicely, it's given me some ideas for some preventative measures to make sure that my own car does not develop any rust...

Can't wait to see it finished and out on the road 

[Typhoon90]

My lovely fiancee helped me bond the front windscreen in this evening. I am waiting for a third brake light for the rear window before I install that, you can't have too many brake lights in traffic these days.

Regards, Andrew.

[Typhoon90]

Whadda ya know, the bootlid still fits!

I'm pretty excited, all that's left cosmetically is the C pillar trim, gutter moulds and figure out a way to keep teh rocker/sill panel moulds on the car. mechanically I think it's sorted, rear rotors may be suspect, but I'll wing it for rego.


Regards, Andrew.

[lombardi]

VERY VERY IMPRESSIVE- I salute u.

[Typhoon90]

The 90 passed registration inspection yesterday and is now registered in NSW!
At times I didn't think I'd make the deadline or actually find the wherewithall to finish it, but there you go, it's done. The Ass*#*e that did the rego inspection managed to rip the turn signal/light combination stalk right out of the column, I guess he thought pulling back flashed high beam, and pulling back harder when that didn't work would fix it.
Now I have to fix those little things I forgor about, like the left front caliper not doing much when braking, or the lack of power the engine seems to have. Other than that, it drives really nicely, the urethane radius rod bushes have really sharpened the front end up. Still needs a performance alignment though.
I have some nice rotors on the way from the US, no one wanted to take my money for what I wanted over here, so again, suck it up Australian aftermarket. Supply what people want or lose sales.

Regards, Andrew.