Alfa 147 fuel caps

[Cool Jesus]

Has anybody ever had issues with their locking fuel caps? Ours won't lock, pulled it apart and found the little cast locking barrel, with a little spiggot on end to move the locking arm was bent. Seems as though it came from the factory in this condition.

Reason I'm asking is that I'm looking for a used cap that someone may have laying around, or if someone has ever replace the lock barrel on these your insight would be phenominal.

As I only really need the locking/key barrel, I think a unit from another marque such as Fiat may be usable. Any thoughts?

[colcol]

If you could get a second hand 147 cap, and go to a locksmith and have the tumblers changed to suit your existing key, or you could take your existing locking barrel to a locksmith and have the barrel looked at, AFTER you see if you can straighten the locking arm, as if you break it, you will have to get another one, hate to think what a new one would be priced at from Alfa Romeo Australia, Colin.

[Cool Jesus]

Thanks Col, the lock mechanism is very simple. I've pulled it all apart, fairly straight forward, however the little pin to move the lock mechanism back and forth was bent and just turned in a piroet style manouvre, so of no use. Being cast alloy the moment I gave it any pressure it snapped off...

Seems I may have solved my dillema anyways, I bauked at $25 for a second hand unit so spent $600 on a '05 147 Ti wreck, go figure. Less than 25k travelled, comes with engine, all suspension, hubs, brakes, 25% of the interior left with Ti leather seats, glass and most mechanicals. Oh yeah, and a petrol cap, hah... Locksmiths could do nothing for me as far as fixing the barrel. I'll post a little DIY should anybody else find themselves in this predicament as I've not come across anything in researching it.

[colcol]

Thats the sort of solution i  like, need another petrol cap, then buy one with a 147 attached to it!, if a second hand petrol cap works ok then thats great, i got the tumblers changed in my cap, because it was the same as one of the main keys, and i didn't want to have another key on the ring, Colin.

[Cool Jesus]

That's exactly why I'm chasing down another barrel, I hate carrying excess keys...

[Cool Jesus]

We'll managed to get a hold of a second 147 locking fuel cap and thought I'd share this very easy DIY to change the locking mechanism in order to make the cap lock with your original key. Not sure what the trades would charge for the lock smithing service however I'd suspect you could save yourself a fair bit, better still there's the satisfaction of fixing something on your Alfa if your not that mechanically minded.

Tools required are basic, a couple of fine flat head screwdrivers and maybe some small long nose pliers or even tweezers, lastly a 'working' fuel cap to transplant the mechanism. It's also only about a 20 – 30 minute operation.

The Fix;
1. To separate the cap you'll find a few of the retaining clips around the inner edge (circled red in fig. 2). Having two screwdrivers or similar is useful to firstly pry one clip away, hold it pried open and then use the second screwdriver to pry a neighbouring clip. Once you get the second the rest come off one after another. Just be mindful of the pressure being used against the plastic, you only need enough force to push it out of the way. Having two prying instruments helps as you will find that you can certainly have one clip pried open, however as soon as you start on the next clip the first just clips itself back on.

[Cool Jesus]

2. Anyhow, with the two halves pulled apart you'll next need to remove the circlip as pictured in fig. 4. I pushed the two legs (fig. 5) a little so as to get my screwdriver behind the circlip where the little black tab is in the red circle of fig. 4. Cup your hand over the impending removal and carefully pull the clip out. The reason for the hand (or other catching method) is that the clip will come out flying. You don't want to lose it as this is what holds the key barrel in place.

[Cool Jesus]

3. Once the clip is removed the barrel can be pulled out. I carefully used my screwdriver fig. 6. Just be careful to not damage the lock cover plate by kinking it. The barrel may be a little stiff to pull out, only because of a sealing/holding rubber ring as pictured in fig. 7, it will come it though.

[Cool Jesus]

4. So once done you should have; the barrel, the circlip, the locking/ratcheting spigot and its spring. The plastic locking spigot only goes in one way so don't fuss over its orientation, fig. 5. When in the unlocked position it ratchets against those raised vertical sections as pictured in fig. 3 to let you know it's locked onto the fuel neck. Then when you turn your key the ratcheting spigot is pulled into the white housing and hence the cap just spins, not allowing its removal, aka the cap is now locked by key.

5. Figure 9 shows the issue I had with my cap. These are made in a fail safe method. Should your cap break the little projection at the end of the barrel, as mind did, it's constructed in such a way that it will always be removal for fuelling. The only issue is it can be locked to stop any unauthorised access to your fuel. I found it interesting too that the replacement barrel's projection seemed bent, although not as much as mine was before I snapped it off. It needs to turn in an arc in order to move the locking/ratcheting spigot in and out of its white housing; mine was bent in such a manner that it no longer had this arc and spun on an axis instead.

[Cool Jesus]

6. The barrel (or cam) then has a cover plate staked on, simple unstake the plate and remove it, the key hole flap, and its spring mechanism. In figure 10 I only have the barrel back in the cap for the photo; however you'll see circled a flat rod which holds the lock pins in place. Withdraw the pin holder from your barrels and set them down, fig. 11. Now it's simply a matter of replacing the pins to the same slot for each barrel. Just remove the pins from the barrel to which you are going to keep, then with your pliers or tweezers move the pins across to your new barrel into the same locating slots. Be mindful of the little springs. Once moved across, slide the flat retaining bar back in place. And then check for proper operation, just in case you are interrupted, as I was, or your pins get mixed up for some reason. To check, when the key is inserted, all the pins should not protrude out of the barrel/cam, letting the barrel spin within the lock as pictured in fig. 13

[Cool Jesus]

7. Almost done, we just need to replace the lock cover plate. Again, here the very small spring goes in with one arm beside the flat bar. There's a small recess, circled in fig. 14, there for the spring arm to go into. I have the small rod removed just for the photo; however you'd have the spring on the rod here, slide the arm into the recess whilst the other end is hanging in the air over the key slot.

8. Figures 15 and 16 show how the key slot flap should look when ready to replace the cover plate. Place the cover plate back onto the barrel and before staking it back on, check the operation of the flap to be sure its working as it should. I had to have a second go on this as the flap must have jumped out of its recessed section. Anyhow, if the key goes in and out, and the flap opens and closes as it should, stake the cover plate back on.

[Cool Jesus]

9. Re-install the barrel with the key in it. Don't forget the rubber ring at the top of the barrel (if you took it off). Place the lock ratchet spigot and spring back into its hole. Then with one hand, hold down the spigot whilst with the other hand you replace the lock barrel (with key inserted) back into the cap. The barrel only goes in one way, just spin it until it bottoms out, you should not need to use force, if you are, something is not quite right. Once the barrel is in, release the spigot you were holding in and turn the key back and forth to see it operate the ratcheting spigot as it should. If it does, hooray. All that's required now is to replace the circlip and clip the two halves of the cap back together. You may possibly, as I did, break the little black tab in fig 4. I took a gamble and figured the circlip would not move out far enough when the two halves of the cap are replaced to cause the barrel to come loose. If it ever did start to or you just wanted to be sure, you could hot glue it with a small dollop where the broken tab was. I don't think tape would be wise with fuel fumes, it would think it will eventually come unstuck and foul the internal ratcheting mechanism.

Figure 17 is just me showing off with my recently purchased toy, being a metal buffing wheel, I've been polishing all sorts with it and gave the cover plate a go too, had the old one for comparison. I even did the red plastic key for my '98 Spider, looks brand new with a mirror finish and so easy at that.

[wankski]

great work!

nice write up... never knew the 147 had a locked cap.... 156 doesn't...learn something new everyday!

[colcol]

And the 156 doesn't have a locking cap and it has a lug that you can hang the cap on so it doesn't hang down and scratch the bumper bar while you are refueling, discovered that last week!, great work Cool Jesus, thats the kind of info we need on this forum, Colin.

[pasey25]

the 147 also has a lug to hang the cap from while filling.