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Aug 28, 2017 18:28:04 GMT
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Hello all, this is my first go at putting up a project so be gentle. So some back story, I have always had a fondness for fords and have had a few of them in my time, my first car being a mk3 zephyr. Now I still own this car, albeit she is in a sorry state now, but I have fallen out of love with cars recently as most of us do from time to time and I have had a bit of a lull in life. Ideas of selling her on and going all sensible and getting something practicable and reliable have been floating around but I currently also have a mk2 focus estate which I have done some tinkering with, so one option was to plough more money into this and make it into something I would be happy with, engine swaps and 'moar powweeer' came to mind. But then one day whilst browsing this very forum I found something that was on my doorstep and completely different from my norm. I got the all clear from 'MrsRustyDan', her words being "well if this sorts out what ever is wrong with you then go ahead" so I went to have a look and a few days later I was the new owner of this 20170715_192706 by poprod60, on Flickr So when I bought her she had a bu@£red gearbox but a replacement box came with the sale and I thought 'hey I changed the clutch and flywheel on my daily recently, that will be easy to sort.' Getting it home was fun as the gearbox was stuck in third but as it was still on the road I thought I would drive it back home with mrsRustyDan following just incase. It was interesting to say the least and I managed to craw home without stopping too many times, although it did smell a bit once it was on the drive. Now this is where she sat for about a month whilst I swore a lot at my daily whist I replaced the servo just in time for its MOT only for it to fail on a rear bush which has now resulted in me needing to replace the full rear suspension set up, but thats another story. So anyway I managed to get some time on the alfa last weekend and made a start...finally. Take one gearbox 20170721_165259 by poprod60, on Flickr and one Alfa GTV IMG-20170721-WA0007 by poprod60, on Flickr And say the magic word three times and hey presto its done..... yeah because thats how easy it is. It was challenging you could say, but I shall start that in the next post... Dan
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Aug 28, 2017 18:41:35 GMT
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I know a few people who had these and they died because the cost of replacing the clutch was too much for them!
Like the Focus.
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Aug 28, 2017 20:27:23 GMT
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Bookmarked. Love these, had a TS and V6 in the past. Look forward to progress.
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Aug 29, 2017 21:12:53 GMT
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If I ever buy an Alfa it would be a gtv
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Sept 12, 2017 22:15:23 GMT
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Thanks guys, I had never even noticed these before but thought what the 'hell' I know a few people who had these and they died because the cost of replacing the clutch was too much for them! Like the Focus. Thankfully she had recently had a new clutch, don't think an old one would have made it home on the maiden voyage. Right then were was I before modern life, being a grown up and parenting got in the way....Ah yes boxes of gears, head scratching and swear words. So to make life a little bit easier I thought I would start buy doing this 20170721_165308 by poprod60, on Flickr 20170721_165325 by poprod60, on Flickr Now putting a car on ramps is easy but I only had third gear remember so this actually took me nearly 10 mins to do and lots of strange smells. 20170721_165314 by poprod60, on Flickr Random engine, shot because thats what gets us going. So first step was something I learnt from this very site, I undid the drain and fill bolts on the new box, best to find out now if they are seized and not when its on the car already. New box shot 20170721_165259 by poprod60, on Flickr Nice easy start, then on to the current box in the car is where I came against problem number one, the first of many.. So the drain/fill bolts take a 12mm allen key, I don't have a 12mm allen key but I did find that a T60 (or 55 can't remember now) torx fits quite well (may have been a 50) so thought that'll do. Worked fine on the gear box in fresh air on the floor but when I got on the one in the car I was confronted with this 20170819_113144 by poprod60, on Flickr Thats the drain hole right next to the sub frame, now it looks like the is enough room there but there isn't. So I had to think outside the ''box'' a little bit and came up with this 20170819_130848 by poprod60, on Flickr 20170819_130824 by poprod60, on Flickr Next step was I needed to get the passenger side wheel off so I could get the drive shaft out the way later on and also for better access whilst working. So with the car on ramps I got my trusty old low entry, turbo high reach alloy jack out and set about getting the car on axel stands. I managed to get the car up just high enough to get one stand on and get the wheel off and set about getting some of the smaller things out of the way. I needed to reposition the axel stand a bit and got all set up, now when the jack made contact with the car it went no further! Bouncy balls! A deviation of works then ensued whist I stripped down the jack to find what its malfunction was. After a lot of faffing around it turned out that the release screw had threaded and because it was a costco jack, and murican, the thread would be some unknown size and I would have no chance of drilling and helicoiling it. Bye bye jack, you have served me well. 20170819_164357 by poprod60, on Flickr So a quick mad dash to the local motor factors and I had a nice shiny new jack, one of those generic sh*t ones, you know the type, and then this happened 20170819_164312 by poprod60, on Flickr Double bouncy balls! Now my original plan was to have the old costco jack under the box, unbolt it and slide it out whilst lowering it, as I had previously done on my focus. But now I had a problem, and the only thing I had that would reach and make contact with the car was a bottle jack, which of course has no wheels. So some more head scratching and thinking laterally and I had this 20170819_205340 by poprod60, on Flickr 20170819_205356 by poprod60, on Flickr One old chopping board and some ikea castors and I had a moveable bed that I could put things on, like immovable bottle jacks. I carried on with getting the car ready to remove the gearbox. Disconnected gear linkages 20170819_114006 by poprod60, on Flickr 20170819_121545 by poprod60, on Flickr Removed rear gearbox/engine mount 20170819_133451 by poprod60, on Flickr Unbolted starter 20170819_140006 by poprod60, on Flickr This is a lot tighter than it looks and one bolt is completely blind and only accessed from the top through here (excuse the potato phone pic) 20170821_191407 by poprod60, on Flickr You have to reach around under the throttle body through here to get to it 20170821_191351 by poprod60, on Flickr You can just about make out my tiny wrench in the centre of the pic. So once all of that was done and all bolts in the bell housing had been removed I set about pulling the old box off. After about 30mins of swearing, braying my hands left right and centre, using many pry bars and generally kicking the car I was presented with this 20170820_000100 by poprod60, on Flickr 20170820_000124 by poprod60, on Flickr 20170820_000111 by poprod60, on Flickr Ooo shiny new clutch. To get the drive shaft out the way far enough I had to completely unbolt my wishbone as I didn't have the correct sized socket for the drive shaft nut and could I hell get the ball joint out without mullering it. Anyway once that was done the hold up on the box 'just' sliding out was the fact that it kept fouling on the subframe, there must have only been about 5mm clearance to get it out, whilst pulling it, lifting and then lowering it, and rotating it, on your own, at 11pm. As a result there wasn't many pictures taken at this point. It was time for a cup of tea and sleep by this point. The previous day I did find the most perfect keyring for the Ugly Duckling so snapped it up 20170818_175939 by poprod60, on Flickr Well why wouldn't you at that price! Anyway stay tuned for more antics and hopefully I won't take so long to post again. Dan
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"Anyway stay tuned for more antics and hopefully I won't take so long post again." Well the was a lie and a half as that was nearly 2 months ago! I even had to reread my own thread to see where I was up too! So there I was all refreshed after sleep and a hard days work ( It might be worth me pointing out that although I am dragging this out for theatrical effect, it infact only took me one Saturday and a Monday and Tuesday evening to complete this task, ( Sunday is a day of rest don't you know ) when I thought I would just chuck the new box straight back on and she would be done. So because of the death of Jack, my jack, I got my thinking cap on and came up with a plan to get the new box into a position to just 'push it on'. So the plan was, 1 : Push new gearbox under car. 2 : Lift gearbox up with makeshift hoist (of sorts). 3 : Place gearbox on upturned beer crate on top of chopping board creeper. 4 : Adjust height of engine with bottle jack to line up and push box on. Easy peasy lemon squeezey Step 1 and 2 20170820_181216 by poprod60, on Flickr Step 3 20170820_181226 by poprod60, on Flickr It took a special king of gangly leg to push the beer crate creeper under the car whilst lifting the box up with the steel bar but i got there in the end. Once I had finished swearing a lot and inflicting pain upon my self getting gearbox past the bloody subframe again it was just a case of wriggling and kicking until she popped into place and just required bolting back together. So in went the bell housing bolts. On went the front and rear gearbox mounts. Back on with the drive shafts. Wishbone all back in place and tightened up. That chuffing starter to bolt back on.. 20170821_191447 by poprod60, on Flickr Yes that one. And finally gearbox linkages and clutch slave all back in place and we have this 20170822_172217 by poprod60, on Flickr And then we have this (clickity click) 20170821_193956_001 by poprod60, on Flickr Ah ha success! It was just a case of putting all the smaller bits back on and firing her up and 'Reversing' her off the ramps. 20170823_182227 by poprod60, on Flickr 20170823_182218 by poprod60, on Flickr 20170823_182242 by poprod60, on Flickr 20170823_182254 by poprod60, on Flickr It was now just a case of taking her out for a spin and making sure nothing fell off. But the repair work hadn't finished there, the eyelet on the key was damaged so I couldn't use my snazzy new keyring I had purchased. So this ensued 20170823_172943 by poprod60, on Flickr It was now done and time to enjoy the driving experience. Except, now how do I go about doing this? hmmmm 2017-08-23__18.55.09 by poprod60, on Flickr Dan
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nigxl
Part of things
Posts: 786
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Just got myself a 916 spider project. Have you checked under your plastic sills for rust?
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Apr 10, 2018 21:03:19 GMT
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Just got myself a 916 spider project. Have you checked under your plastic sills for rust? No I haven't, I'm scared too haha I know I should take them off as it looks like it could be a nice location for the rust mites to hide. Haven't updated in a while but will try and see if I can soon as I have been ploding on with her here and there.
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nigxl
Part of things
Posts: 786
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Apr 13, 2018 18:40:26 GMT
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Yeah keep posting, it may give me some incentive to carry on with mine. Took my sill covers off last week expecting the worst but didn't have a spot of rust, well chuffed.
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I like Alfa's but I always thought that front looked like a Honda Integra I like the shopped version. Airbags??
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Apr 14, 2018 18:49:49 GMT
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Dan, that’s a great looking car and good work you have done, I had to put a new gearbox in my Alfa 155 last weekend, similar to yours except the subframe has to be removed, getting that back in when there is just me makes getting the box back in look easy ( I used a car skate with a scaffold plank ramp on) The belts on twinsparks need doing every 3 years or 36k and some just burn oil. My current spider is my 9th gtv/spider.
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Bicycle x1 Alfa Giulietta (now wife's) Alfa 156 BMW 630i Honda rc36
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nigxl
Part of things
Posts: 786
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Apr 16, 2018 17:06:05 GMT
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Apr 16, 2018 18:16:27 GMT
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Will try and update tonight chaps, no promises. 'But why don't you update now?' I hear you ask, well I am on my phone as I type and need the computer to upload images so have faith, I shall return
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adi
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,426
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Apr 16, 2018 20:03:05 GMT
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Click desktop version right at the bottom, do quick reply, then at the bottom you can add pics straight off your phone 😉
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Apr 17, 2018 11:19:48 GMT
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You might need to be careful with the lows. A mate of mine had a standard one and still ripped the sump off on a cobbled street...
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67 VW Split bus 69 Beetle Cab 96 Jeep Cherokee XJ Sport
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nigxl
Part of things
Posts: 786
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Apr 17, 2018 12:01:51 GMT
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I was thinking that too. I need to change the springs on mine and considered Eibach -20mm but thought otherwise.
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Apr 19, 2018 20:11:19 GMT
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So then, update time finally. Once all the fun and games of gearbox wrestling was all done with it was the boring task driving the damn thing, and what a pleasure it was. I used it for general hooning around and any excuse to go buy milk from the shops, I just loved driving it and all I heard about the "driving experience" was true. Even though she hated the thing and said it was ugly I often came home from work and found it had moved or was missing! She never admitted it but she loved driving it too and then her daily festurd went kaput so it was pressed into daily service which it did faultlessly(I know a reliable alfa right!) I even found out, weeks later I might add, that she had gone to Cragside House* in it but had decided to follow her sat nav and ended up down farm roads and through fords with the old girl and still she ploughed on like a trooper. * A national trust house near Rothbury in Northumberland that was the first to have hydroelectricity, awesome place with trees that make you feel like an ant, go check it out. So once I had fixed her festurd I thought I would start addressing some running maintenance. So when I got the car I noticed this 20180123_195416 by poprod60, on Flickr When I looked some more about 50% of the cooling fins were missing, but she never over heated, and she had a small drinking problem. The coolant reservoir needed topping up every now and again so new rad time then. Some funny sheets of plastic with a ladies face on later I had this 20180123_195354 by poprod60, on Flickr And so the night time antics started again. Stripped out the old 20180123_203131 by poprod60, on Flickr 20180123_204207 by poprod60, on Flickr Pretty sure these aren't meant to be that shape 20180123_204222 by poprod60, on Flickr 20180123_204302 by poprod60, on Flickr So at some point she took a whack to the rad support and as a result I guess developed a leak on the bottom corner of the rad. So whilst I was there I straightened every thing out, took the rad fan surround off, sanded off the thick and got them all blasted by a good friend for free and painted it all back up ready for the refit 20180123_213147 by poprod60, on Flickr 20180123_213202 by poprod60, on Flickr 20180123_214124 by poprod60, on Flickr IMG-20180125-WA0003 by poprod60, on Flickr 20180127_173727 by poprod60, on Flickr 20180130_210924 by poprod60, on Flickr 20180131_204943 by poprod60, on Flickr 20180131_204953 by poprod60, on Flickr 20180131_205003 by poprod60, on Flickr Excuse the potato Phone 4000 pictures, it was late when I got to work on the car and it was winter, and *insert poor excuse here* So that was that, chucked some more cool juice in and promptly returned to hooning around ready to start the next thing to tackle on the list.
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Apr 19, 2018 20:18:05 GMT
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I like Alfa's but I always thought that front looked like a Honda Integra I like the shopped version. Airbags?? Yeah I see where you are coming from, If the Integra had a slightly chubbier less attractive sister but you still would.. I would love to bag the old girl, those arch gaps are just horrid to look at, but it was just meant to be a quick fling but think I am falling in lover with her now. May have to chuck the old boot (my zephyr) that I am never going to get round to starting for this younger fancy bit on the side.
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nigxl
Part of things
Posts: 786
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Apr 19, 2018 20:37:21 GMT
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Hope you had more luck with your rad than I did. Paid the grand price of £48.50 for my new rad on ebay only for it to leak like a sieve as soon as it pressured up. New Valeo rad on the way at 3 times the price. Nice job on the fan shroud.
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Apr 19, 2018 20:55:07 GMT
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Sure mine was around the same price from the bay of flea's, but she's been good so far, had to wait 7days for it to turn up even though the company that makes them is only a 15min drive from mine!
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