Project car - 1989 75 3.0 V6 [Updated 12 November 2021]

[shiny_car]

Here's photos, but the actual photos are less important than referring to the workshop manual Electrical System:
http://www.craig75.clutchout.com/group_40_electrical.zip

My horn relay is white. In the workshop manual, refer to page 75-40-10. You will see that it is a SPST 'dual 87' relay.



My brake fluid level switch relay is silver. In the workshop manual, refer to page 75-40-12. You will see that it is a SPDT relay.

[ARQ164 Shane]

thank you very muchly,
your brake f,level is the same as mine But the horn on mine is a metal top one .
All the white 'MP" relay are in the fuse box only.

[shiny_car]

This month's update...

I fixed the rusted area under the windscreen wipers. This photo was posted previously, but it's a reminder of the area I patched:



A paper template was cut and used to create the pieces of fibreglass used to patch the front of the air inlet aperture. The smaller pieces of fibreglass go directly over the rust holes, with the bigger pieces over the entire front of the aperture. The area was masked with tape and newspaper.





Q-Cel thickener was added to the polyester fibreglass resin; the thickened resin clings better to the rust holes and pools along the entire bottom of the drainage area.





Once the fibreglass had set, the sharp edges were whittled smooth with a utility knife. The whole area was then masked with tape and paper for painting. I used the aerosol of Alfa Red 130 for a few coats, followed by clear coat.







The aperture is now patched and painted, and the floor of the drainage area filled and smoothed with resin. I left the rough texture of the fibreglass, rather than smooth it over; the whole area is rather rough from the factory; you can see the bonding agent slopped around the side of the aperture, for example.



I happened to have a piece of galvanised mesh; no idea where it came from! It was the perfect material to fashion a grill over the air inlet aperture. I drilled two holes in the aperture (then painted with rust proofer), and riveted the grill in position.







I cleaned then refitted the drain outlet pipe. Instead of a rubber gasket, I liberally applied silicone sealant, and bolted the pipe in position.







The corrugated conduit covering the short wiring loom for the wiper motor, and oil pressure sender/sensor, was replaced using pvc tubing and heatshrink.







Clamps for the aircon hoses were cleaned and refitted.





I cleaned the surface grime off the auxiliary air valve (AAV). The AAV provides more air with a cold engine by means of an internal shutter. There is an inbuilt warming coil, and once warmed-up the shutter moves across to close off the air passage. I took photos of the open shutter (after having the AAV in the fridge) and closed (AAV from the oven!). With some trial and error, I adjusted the shutter to be completely closed when warm (this optimises performance); but results in a smaller opening when cold which can make cold starting harder.





Many groundwires bolt to the cam cover. Some are secured with a bolt holding the AAV, and others are secured by a cam cover bolt at the rear; I also needed to add the groundwire from the relay for the starter motor solenoid. I regrouped the wires into two bundles, both secured by the AAV bolts to the cam cover. Later, when all the engine hardware is in place, I will upgrade various ground points in the engine bay with additional wires.







From other photos you may have seen I figured out how to remove the windscreen wiper mechanism (by uncoupling one of the ball joints). This made it far easier to clean. Then I carefully refitted it to the car without scratching the cowl; and resprayed and refitted the black support bracket on the driver side. Finally, the wiper motor was bolted into position, using titanium bolts throughout.



[img width1024 height=682]https://i.imgur.com/KEWtOAil.jpg[/img]



Last job of the month was fitting a new coolant header tank (expansion bottle), including a new 0.7 bar pressure cap.





This was combined with a coolant bottle silicone hose kit from hiperformancestore.com . One difficult hose passes from the back of the L engine head to a T-piece that sits behind the R engine head. Coolant flows from the engine to the T-piece then either through the firewall to the cabin heater core or back to the header tank.





Because of corrosion, the original hose was firmly stuck and required splitting with a utility knife then peeling off the metal pipes. This is the T-piece; the hose from the engine head has been removed, so too the hose going to the head tank. The remaining hose is to the heater core, which hopefully never needs replacing! Note the corrosion. (Screwdriver only used for the photograph, to hold the T-piece in view.)



Original rubber hoses versus silicone hoses.



It was a little fiddly, but the new hoses were fitted, along with new stainless clamps. (Screwdriver only used for the photograph, to hold the hoses in view.)





The new header tank was screwed into position and all silicone hoses attached. There is an outlet hose passing from underneath, and another return hose from the radiator. A new metal P-clamp replaces a broken plastic hose clamp.



Thanks for reading! See you next month.

[ARQ164 Shane]

that art my friend I would be scared to drive it let alone park it in a public car park.

Don't O-ring on the heater tape. I did and now have to fit the green puddle maker.

[Sheldon McIntosh]

Nice work. 

How was it getting the silicon hose (from the head to the the T-piece) on?  I once replaced that with another rubber hose and it was a fre@k!n nightmare, I was ready to torch the car and buy a Toyota.  I'm planning on going the Greg Gordon silicon-hose route myself once the weather warms up a bit.

The remaining hose is to the heater core, which hopefully never needs replacing!

You shouldn't have said that!!

[ARQ164 Shane]

I have just replaced the heater core  hose clamp if you call it that :

[shiny_car]

Cheers guys.

I'm more worried about having to replace the whole heater core hose, not the clamp.

How was it getting the silicon hose (from the head to the the T-piece) on?  I once replaced that with another rubber hose and it was a fre@k!n nightmare, I was ready to torch the car and buy a Toyota.  I'm planning on going the Greg Gordon silicon-hose route myself once the weather warms up a bit.

It was moderately tricky; access is limited, and definitely easiest with the plenum off. My hands are pretty small, which helps. The kit comes with some grease to help slide the hoses on. That particularly one is pretty tight, so it took a few goes.

[Sheldon McIntosh]

It was moderately tricky; access is limited, and definitely easiest with the plenum off. My hands are pretty small, which helps. The kit comes with some grease to help slide the hoses on. That particularly one is pretty tight, so it took a few goes.

Thanks for that.  Just curious as to whether the silicon is easier than the rubber, I'm guessing and hoping yes (but still looks like a pretty decent stretch on your silicon hose there)

[shiny_car]

I'd say silicone is easier. The hoses are quite soft and very flexible.

[shiny_car]

Monthly update time!

I have completed all the major work on the driver/R side of the engine bay, and started on the passenger/L side.

Along the top edge of the front quarter panels are a row of hex head screw-type fasteners. In keeping with the Allen head bolt theme, I replaced these with titanium bolts. The original retaining tabs were surprisingly strong and difficult to remove; I ended up using brute force via a 7.5mm drill bit and drill, twisting them to the point of breaking. The opportunity arose to respray the panel edge red, plus clear coat, before fitting the new bolts with 6mm captive nuts (which are actually computer rack parts).

The bonnet hinge bolts were also replaced with new M8 Allen head versions.













With the AC compressor, I decided to replace all hex bolts with titanium Allen head versions. I also replaced one of the visible 10mm mounting bolts with a stainless steel version (bottom right of photo), and the 10mm bolt that secures a groundwire (wire not yet fitted; bolt is partially obscured, top left).





Moving to the passenger/L side of the engine bay...

The original engine mount was removed. The engine was supported from underneath with a hydraulic jack. Heat shield self-adhesive matting was applied over the area directly opposite the exhaust manifold in a similar fashion to the driver side.





The original mount was fairly cracked on the surface, and had sagged. For proper fitment, the new mount (from IAP, US) required some fettling with the angle grinder, more than the other side. Heat shielding was applied around the perimeter of the rubber. The new mounts hold the engine higher by about 10mm. This was apparent when later refitting the lower bolt for the alternator; previously, I had to jack the engine up to provide clearance to slide the bolt without hitting the front cross member; with the new mount in position, enough clearance exists.







The over-braided power steering hoses had faded, so I masked off the area and dusted them with black spray paint. Then painted the pump. It would have been a messy job to drain the fluid and do this out of the car, so it was all done still connected.









I removed the PS pump pulley to repaint separately.





This is the original vs refurbished alternators; the latter is meant to offer slightly more output though I'm unclear exactly how (might be rewound or magnets of closer tolerance, etc).





Whilst I liked the appearance of the zinc coated pulley, it didn't match the other engine pulleys, so I decided to prime and respray black.



I read a complaint about the cheap voltage regulator on these refurbished alternators. Unsure how true it is, or how short-lived they are, but I replaced it with a genuine Bosch item, and will keep the cheaper one as a spare. You can also see how worn the brushes were on the original Bosch regulator.

The alternator and PS pump will be refitted later.





Recently, I decided to relocate the battery from the engine bay to the boot, primarily for weight distribution purposes. It also helps declutter the engine bay, and will shorten the length of wiring to the stereo amplifiers, which are a relatively heavy burden on the electrical supply.

The battery tray was spot-welded to the chassis in many positions, some of which were difficult to visualise, and all in quite random locations. I drilled-out all the welds, though I drilled at least 3 holes where there wasn't a weld! A small amount of surface rust was found on the chassis under the tray.







The rust was buffed back to bare metal, then the area painted with Cold Gal Primer. The drill-holes were filled with globs of JB Weld (original holes were left open). Grinding this back as flat as possible still left the area looking worse for wear, so polyester resin (thickened with Q-Cel filler) was painted over the larger imperfections and sanded smooth. Another coat of Cold Gal Primer, then later finished with Alfa Rosso 130 paint (brushed + roller to create the same finish as the rest of the engine bay).









Whilst working in this area, I drilled bolt holes for the suspension caster rod ball joint, same as on the driver side. The caster rod was removed, and the mounting pocket was cleaned of grime. This revealed a small amount of surface rust.





The lower mounting hole was marked then drilled (pilot hole, then progressively upsizing to the final 8mm hole). From inside the engine bay, the mounting spacer was fitted as a template to mark and drill the upper hole. The mounting pocket was buffed clean to remove the surface rust, and any metal spurs filed away from around the new holes.







Similar to the driver side, the spacers and ball joint flange required minor work with the angle grinder to mate perfectly with the pocket. Once everything test-fitted properly, the pocket was painted with Cold Gal Primer, ready for the future suspension stages.









Whilst I had the drill out (!), I made a 25mm hole in the firewall to cater for new 0 gauge powerwire. From inside the cabin, passenger side, the cover panel was removed from the dash above the 'glove box' tray. Behind a piece of sound deadener, the 2 main wiring looms were seen, and plenty of vacant firewall to create a new hole. I drilled a small pilot hole then followed with the 25mm hole-saw.











The 0ga grommet is solid plastic, and clamps around the wire once tightened, providing a weather-proof seal. Test fitted, then removed to paint the exposed bare metal rim with Cold Gal Primer.





With all that noisy, messy work finalised, I moved onto the wiring looms and electrics. First, I cleaned the ignition module and replaced a split 7-pin rubber boot. The terminals/wires were unlocked from the plug to exchange the boots. In doing so, I discovered one of the terminals was poorly crimped and fell off the bare ends of wire. It says a lot for Alfa Romeo quality control in the '80s (!), but it's fortuitous to find this now rather than face a niggling 'electrical fault' in the future that could have been impossible to locate.







With the terminal recrimped then soldered, the plug was reassembled and reconnected to the ignition module.







The L side wiring looms comprise the engine management loom (which connects to the ignition module, ignition coil, and battery; on the R side it connects to various sensors, the distributor, air flow meter, and fuel injectors) and a loom for engine bay electricals (including headlight, parking light, indicator, horns, windscreen/headlight washer pumps). The engine management loom was already covered in smooth pvc tubing; the other main loom was covered with corrugated split conduit. My task was replacing the corrugated conduit with smooth pvc. A major side branch from the main loom had wires to the washer fluid motors and extra wires to the ignition coil. An original terminal board in the same location connected the alternator (this wire already removed and not shown in photo); from there, a wire supplied the horns and a (recharging) wire to the battery. A small alternator output level 'warning light' wire (feeds a warning light in the dash if the alternator fails and loses power output) also connected via the terminal board. Wires/plug for the oil level sensor in the engine block also feed to the loom.

My overhaul removes the terminal board altogether: the main alternator output wire will be upgraded (in thickness) and feed directly to a new distribution block, and a new wire will pass from this distribution block to the battery in the boot; the alternator output level wire will be integrated with the oil level sensor wires; and the power feed to the horns will come from the distribution block too.





I removed the split conduit and tape from the main loom. Then any redundant wires were located and removed or modified: I no longer wanted headlight washers, so the wires from the relay to the pump were located and discarded (these are separate wires/pump to the windscreen washers); two loops of wire (grey/black and orange) near the brake fluid level sensor were found to be superfluous extensions from the main loom (ie: each wire in the main loom passed out along this short branch, then back again to the main loom, then onwards to the front of the engine bay), so the loops were cut off and the wires rejoined to pass directly along the main loom; L foglight wires removed; (front left) 'brake pad wear' wires were also removed because the Ferodo pads I will be fitting do not incorporate a wear indicator.











The remaining wires were then divided into 3 smaller groups; small enough for the pvc tubing I had. 'Branch 1' was threaded through the new tubing, and has wires for the headlight, parking light/indicator, and various groundwires. The ends of the wires for the parking light/indicator were initially unlocked from the plug to facilitate passage through the tubing, then refitted to the plug; the wires for the low/high beam headlight have had the terminals cut off. Another modification will be feeding these to new relays, to control power fed directly from the new distribution block; a more robust power supply (ie: shorter, thicker wires) for brighter lights.







'Branch 2' has wires for the relays that fit at the front of the engine bay: brake circuit (fluid level, (redundant) pad wear circuit), wiper/headlight fluid motors, and horns. With all the wires unlocked from the relay sockets, they were passed through the pvc tubing. Shorter lengths of narrower pvc tubing plus heatshrink were used to cover the wires as they passed from the main tubing. I photographed all connections for reference before unlocking and refitting each wire to the relays, and cross-referenced with the wiring diagrams in the workshop manual (and found one mistake in the manual).

The relay for the brake circuit is a replacement; the original was too scratched/grotty for me! Also awaiting a replacement horn relay to match (ie: black); these are both secondhand, same brand as the others ('MP', made in Italy), ebay items, and both are slightly different (brake: SPDT; horn: double output SPST). The washer fluid relay is the original, and in good (cosmetic) condition. Note the red powerwire for the horn relay, which originally connected to the terminal board further back, but will now be redirected to the new distribution block.





'Branch 3' includes the two wires for the oil level sensor, and the green alternator output monitor wire. They all pass in the same direction down to the alternator and engine block via a short plug-in loom (which I will deal with next month). The green wire had connected via the discarded terminal board; in replacement, the three wires were combined into a new plug.

Two other wires in Branch 3 are from the main loom to the ignition coil. All these wires were covered with new pvc tubing and heatshrink.







In some photos above, you may have noticed the ignition coil refitted. Simple resistance testing with a multimeter for the primary and secondary coils suggest it's in fine condition, so I see no need to replace with a new one (unless someone can tell me otherwise; I don't believe these 'wear out' as such, and nor are there performance benefits to be gained from new ones). The original Bosch decal was gone and the casing scratched, so I gave it a clean, light sand, then resprayed black. The metal holder was cleaned and refitted to the car with new bolts. The coil was clamped in position. The ignition module also bolts to this holder, but I rotated the module 180 degrees so the wiring loom now passes on the far side of the coil (they will be cable-tied together later); this declutters the area infront. The wires to the coil were carefully passed up through the clamp from underneath. The main high tension output wire to the distributor is yet to be fitted.









This old photo reminds you of how the wiring used to pass to the module, coil, and washer fluid motors.



This is the new distribution block, and is test fitted in the old battery position. It is made by Stinger, a brand renowned for its high quality car audio components, and a brand I've favoured for years with my stereos; I use Stinger for power wiring, distribution blocks, fuses, battery terminals, RCA audio cables, speaker wiring, etc. This model is the SHD821, and features 2 input terminal holes for either 0ga or 4ga wiring, and 4 outputs for 4ga or 8ga; it holds 4 MIDI fuses.



This is a roll of Stinger Pro series 0ga Matt Red power wire. 0ga (0 American Wire Gauge is the equivalent of 50mm^2 wire, can handle current up to ~300A 'continuous', has an outer diameter of ~8mm for the wire, and total outer diameter of ~15mm including the jacket) will connect the battery to the distribution block.

I measured the length to pass from the distribution block to the area above the glovebox behind the firewall (where it will terminate in another distribution block). A length of heatshrink was slipped over the wire and shrunk down for a neat covering.







Push mount cable ties replace the factory ties to hold the wiring looms in position. I have yet to zip tightly and cut short; at this stage the looms and powerwire are loosely held until everything is in position.





The 0ga power wire follows the main looms to the front and arcs down to the distribution block, which has been bolted to the chassis.





That's it for this month! Thanks for looking. Wow, well over 7000 views of this topic - MUCH appreciated!

[Evan Bottcher]

Whoa.  Nice update.  Enjoying your work, and attention to the little details.

Thanks for taking the time to update the thread.

[gergory]

another great episode
when will the car make its debut?

[ARQ164 Shane]

I'm staying tuned for the next exciting chapter "same bat time same bat channel"

[shiny_car]

Thanks guys! 

when will the car make its debut?

Who knows! It's taking far longer than anticipated. Realistically, it could be 2015! 

[Duk]

Shiny, that is some damn impressive work you're doing! 
Not just the quality but the quantity! You've done what I thought was near on impossible, you've made the wiring look neat and tidy!

Very impressive and inspirational!