The 90 project

BradGTV · June 25, 2012, 06:19:26 PM

what is the 4.3 crown and pinion out of?

Mat Francis · June 25, 2012, 10:05:04 PM

I believe a very late alfetta gearbox? It was in the gearbox that was in my '83 model when we got it, however don't think this was original. Pretty rare I believe.

Got the rest of the rear end sorted tonight. The emery paper on the iso linkage did the trick, and also made a suitable taper on the roll pin

Bled the brakes, no issues, as expected.

The clutch, as seems to be the case for others at the moment as well, did prove a bit of a struggle. In the end the trick that worked for us was for me to be on the bleed nipple, a brick on the clutch pedal to keep the system open, and dad pressurizing the reservoir with the air compressor, by use of a special made cap for such occasions. A fine line between the right amount and over pressurizing the reservoir, but a very handy trick. This got the worst of the air out, and when fluid started to flow semi consistently, we went back to the traditional pump, hold, open etc. Little bit of fiddling around but all is well in the end.

Before I tightened everything up, checked I had all gears, no issues, and ran the car up to 4k without any vibrations (which would have been very obvious while it's balancing on stands). Another one of my big fears has likely been overcome!

Dropped it back onto the ground and tightened up all the suspension, so it's now getting very close to drivable

pep105 · June 25, 2012, 11:01:18 PM

Hey Mat,

Nice progress and like how you re fitted the assembled A frame, ahh the joys of being young and having time to muck around in
the garage.

The 4.3 ratio was in Aus spec Alfetta GCLs as opposed to the taller diff ran with the injected motor in other markets. Late 2 litre GTV
and Guilietta had this ratio as well as Im led to believe.

Can't wait to see this thing going

Nice work
Cheers
Pep

Mat Francis · June 27, 2012, 07:42:39 PM

Cheers Pep, good info to have.

IT HAS BEEN DRIVEN

Just a quick "inconspicuous" lap round the block, it's a bit loud with nothing but headers on it

I'll be booking it in to have an exhaust made up for it next week at some stage, which will be a whole lot better.

The good news is that there is no unsavory clunks, bangs or vibrations.

The bad, but not really unexpected, is that the clutch could do with a bit more bleeding, and that it has a huge miss and no doubt related hesitation. First suspect is number 3 injector, which I didn't repeatedly zap with the battery like the others. I will also get my hands on some injector cleaner. I mixed about 500ml of metho in with the 20L of petrol I put in it, so hopefully the combination of all that will sort it out.

Finally, here's some crappy photos of it emerging from hibernation!

enzo1891 · June 27, 2012, 08:33:23 PM

hey mat
i have a wynns on car injector cleaner you can borrow for a weekend
just need to mix 400 ml of petrol and 400 ml of injector cleaner
works excellently on the v6 alfa
just disconeect the fuel line and coneect
need to run with compressor

Mat Francis · June 27, 2012, 08:49:10 PM

Thank you very much, I may have to take you up on that offer! Compressor won't be an issue, the biggest thing is my limited time frame. I'll see how I go sorting it out over this weekend then be in contact

Evan Bottcher · June 27, 2012, 09:22:53 PM

Quote from: Mat Francis on June 27, 2012, 07:42:39 PM
Finally, here's some crappy photos of it emerging from hibernation!

That's a nice looking shed! (not the car)

Mat Francis · June 28, 2012, 10:52:11 AM

Ha, yes, thanks Evan. It's a good thing when their isn't an eyesore parked in there, leaving fluids all over the floor!

Mat Francis · July 01, 2012, 06:56:16 PM

This weekend I managed to motivate myself to finally tackle my biggest concern and hurdle for this car- the headlights. After a bit of measuring and stuffing around, I decided that the best way to go about it was a set of 75 lights I already had. Whilst quad round lights would have been much better, I decided it was just going to be too much work to justify at this stage, time is too limited.

So, after about 20 hours of fitting, cutting, welding, swearing and bending, I present to you the alfa 82.5! (not quite a 75, not quite a 90).

Not the prettiest thing ever, but I personally don't think its too much worse than standard. If I wanted a pretty car I wouldn't be tooling around with a 90, this is all about cheap thrills!

If there is interest I have quite a few photos of the process and will explain them.

Evan Bottcher · July 02, 2012, 11:01:14 PM

You'll have to have a badge made up 82.5. You can tell people that it was a special model made in Central America.

Sheldon McIntosh · July 02, 2012, 11:11:55 PM

If I'd known you were going to do that I could have done you a very good price on some 90 headlights Mat. Jeesh.

Ah well, at least it will be unique.

Mat Francis · July 03, 2012, 05:01:45 PM

Quote from: Evan Bottcher on July 02, 2012, 11:01:14 PM
You'll have to have a badge made up 82.5. You can tell people that it was a special model made in Central America.

Could also be a good excuse ~~when~~ if it proves itself unreliable. hmmmm.

It's all reversible with about an hours work Sheldon. The only part of the car I touched was the central headlight mounts. Used my spare set of 90 guards and a set of spare 75 guards for the donor brackets. All the bits I used were spares. I'll keep that in mind if I ever crash it though! Cheers

Mat Francis · July 10, 2012, 07:59:39 PM

I am just about ready to torch this thing.

The short version. Booked it in to have an exhaust made last Thursday. Drove it onto the trailer Wednesday night no issue at all. Always starts without issue.

Got it to Croydon Thursday morning, and as you would expect, it just would not start. Battery died after a few tries, had to borrow a battery from friendly local auto store. Finally got it started, left it running, returned battery, backed it off trailer. Total time running is about 3 minutes up to this point. Gets just off the end of the trailer and stalls. Will not start again, battery dies soon after. Called the old man, who left work and brought down a full toolkit. After much jump starting and stuffing around, car will run for 3 seconds then die. Classic start then stall syndrome. Not a CSI problem, as I disconnected this very early on in the symptom, car clearly running off normal injectors.

Exhaust man needs to be able to move car around on his own, so I manage to get the car back onto the trailer within the 3 seconds of running and take it home for trouble shooting.

Once car is at home, exactly the same. Start, stall. Repeat.

More stuffing around, and im out of ideas. I go and visit Hugh and the boys at Monza, who are kind enough to lend me a spare one of everything that could possibly be causing this. (a HUGE shout out for all their support, definitely wouldn't of made it this far without them!)

When I get home, the car won't start at all - no fuel pump. I have two good known relays, tried both, they are not the issue. Absolutely drowned the AFM in contact cleaner, open the flap, bingo. Fuel pump. Start car, runs perfectly. Keeps running up to temperature, revs cleanly to near enough to redline, all seems spot on again. (This is Sunday afternoon by now).

Ran the car multiple times since then, again no issues, does not stall etc.

Re-booked the exhaust for tomorrow. Back the car out of the garage and down the driveway, car stalls again. Starts, dies. Does not seem to like any sort of load on the engine (out of the garage and down the driveway is all down hill, very little load at all on the engine, but obviously more than just sitting there revving). If left for a few minutes it will start again for a brief period of time, measured in seconds that could be counted on fingers. Smells strongly of unburnt fuel - all of the above would to me indicate it is flooding.

Any ideas as to what I'm missing here? I'm really getting fed up with this. One way or another it's getting an exhaust made up tomorrow (I've only got the cast iron manifolds on it at the moment). The neighbors are getting stroppy at me, I've melted the lino in the garage and I'm fed up with suffocating in fumes!

I've tried/checked a lot more than I've written here, but will add that if needed.

Any thoughts?

scott.venables · July 10, 2012, 11:44:41 PM

I'm guessing you've tried swapping over the combo relay? and an AFM? Or maybe a bad fuel pump?

I had an ignition module fail a while back. How it happened was the car died while under light load on the road. It was not far from home and it was late so Dad and I managed to push it home. Left it in the street and in the morning it started up perfectly but died again around 20 mins later(while on the road). It happened a few more times and the time it would last before dying decreased until it wouldn't start at all. I was glad because it's hard to troubleshoot an intermittent problem and tracked it down to the module after I swapped around some spares I had.

Not sure that's of much help but it might support the fuel smell you've got.

If you want to try some bits I've got let me know

Mat Francis · July 11, 2012, 08:59:05 AM

Thanks Scott, some good food for thought. I've tried a different relay and afm, but not a fuel pump yet. Managed to get it off the trailer to get the exhaust done, so at least it will be easier when I'm not going deaf and choking.

I should have a spare ignition module (the 6ish pin block that sits below the coil yes?) , so I'll swap that tonight. I've also got another known good fuel pump, but I'll try the easier things first.

thanks again!