From: Trevor Allen <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 27 Mar 1996 15:27:19 GMT+1100
Subject: Re: Koni Shocks
Someone asked about koni shocks in a Spider, whether it was ok putting red's on the front and yellows on the rear. Here in oz there are red (normal) and yellow (sport) koni's available for both front and rear alfa 105's. I'm certainly no shocker expert but I was advised by two people in the business to use yellows (sport) on the front and reds (normal) on the rear of my 2000 GTV, which has about 20% firmer springs all round. Alternatives were: red both front and rear (standard
suspension), or yellow both front and rear (firmer suspension). But
having red koni's on the front and the yellow sport koni's (=firmer?)
on the rear doesn't sound like a good idea, it would seem likely you'd
end up with some nasty handling traits.
The idea of course is to get the shock rate to 'match' the spring rate,
and the front springs on a 105 have HEAPS more poundage than the rears,
more so than the average car. Any shock experts out there???
Trevor
------------------------------------------------------------
From: [email protected] (Les Singh)
Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1996 00:01:25 GMT
Subject: Koni Shocks
The preferred setup when using a mix of red (standard adjustable) and yellow
(sport adjustable) Konis is to put the sports in the front and the red in
the back. The yellow sports on max hard are so stiff that it requires a huge
effort to extend them from the closed adjusting position to put the rubber
and plastic dodackies back in.
I run the yellow (sports) all round, set up fairly soft in the rear and
fairly hard fronts. Springs are original Alfa (Berlina, Giulia Super)
selected by perusing the datasheets to get the best ride-height, stiffness
and rates. I don't like using non-Alfa bits on the Green GTV. There isn't a
single Jap part on the car - not even a screw or filter.
Bet this starts some discussion!
Les Singh - Real Alfas Rule
------------------------------
From: [email protected] (Robert A Brady)
Date: Thu, 4 Apr 1996 06:57:39 -0500
Subject: Spax shocks
I bought my '73 gtv with spax adjustable shocks, and shankle springs and sway
bars. Compared to the '74 gtv, stock suspension and spica shocks, it handles
like a go-kart and doesn't suffer TOO much in ride comfort. The spax are set
at #2 out of 7 hardness settings. I drove a friend's beautiful '73 gtv, in
houston. He had the same shankle suspension, but had konis. I couldn't feel
any big differences between the spax or konis.... but I didn't do a side by
side comparison. The one thing that was VERY obvious was how tight his front
suspension was. He had done a lot of work up their (i.e. new ball joints,
bushings, etc...), and it really felt that way. This car felt like a new B**
325i (heresy!!) in terms of responsiveness and tightness, but was WAY more
fun to drive. My only issue with the shankle suspension is that it seems
less balanced than the stock (i.e. tends towards oversteer....fun, but not
the fastest way around a corner). Maybe I just need to do some suspension
tuning to make it more neutral.......
'73 GTV (possible vintage racer??? winter beater???)
'74 GTV (daily driver)
------------------------------------------------------------
From: [email protected] (Les Singh)
Date: Fri, 8 Mar 1996 02:43:10 GMT
Subject: Rigid Bushes on 105 Trailing Arms
Jan Ben thought that welding washers in place of the bushes would work ok.
My advice is DON'T DO IT! Rigid bushes can be dangerous on the trailing arms
which need to accommodate some twisting movement.
Some time ago I tried bushes machined out of nylatron MS (rigid =
non-deformable) as supplied by a "technical" guy who worked for the Alfa
importers (and still does, I think) and had about the only failure ever on
the suspension. The rigid bushes caused one of the trailing arms to crack
and then break completely. Luckily my wife, who was driving, was only
tootling along in 2nd gear down the mountain goat track which passes for the
road we live on, when it broke and the car came to a grinding halt. Imagine
if it had happened on the motorway!
Inspection showed that the other arm was also cracked. I replaced the arms
and fitted urethane bushes which we machined from stock in them this time.
End of problems and excellent control. Moral of the story is - talk to
people who work on race cars and know their materials rather than some
self-styled expert.
Les Singh
105 Series GTV
-----------------------------------------------------------
P.S. Just got the rear suspension sorted out on the weekend, the rear end is now much tighter and more well behaved over the bumps, feels a lot better. The critical thing with 105's seems to be the mount between the trunion arm and the diff, it had urethane bushes there but the bolt holding them in wasn't done up tight!!!!
The other change is the urethane bushes now in the trailing arms, top trunion arm bushes were like new so we left them alone. Unfortunately it rained here most of the weekend, the car is now even *more* tail-happy in the wet (less 'give' in the back), still very controllable (thanks to the 509's) but have to be careful with the right foot, i certainly wouldn't let mum drive it in the rain!!!
From: Jack Chesley <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 1996 19:08:56 -0500
Subject: Tire info web site
A co-worker used to work for the US rubber manufacturer's association and
pointed
me here...
http://www.tmn.com/tisc/index.html
when I asked about tires.
- - jack (yeah, I shop for tilres at my junkyard... no-one else has the sizes
and price
selection for my old cars) chesley
------------------------------------------------------------
From: [email protected] (Les Singh)
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 1996 21:11:05 GMT
Subject: GTV Tyres (Tires in North America)
Dana Loomis asked about tyres and mentioned that his GTV doesn't handle
quite right with 185-70 x14s on the narrow 5" wheels. Incidentally, all of
the 1750 and 2000 GTVs came with 5.5" wheels as stock, the earlier ones with
165 x 14 tyres and the later ones with 185-70 x 14s.
Tyre choice does make a huge different to the driveability of these cars. I
have used everything from the original 165s through the 185-70s, 205-70s,
195-65, and 195-60 in 14 inch, and 195-60 in 15" diameter. While one should
always compare apples with apples, let me say that although of different
makes, the tyres were always a minimum of H rated reputable brands - Pirelli
P6 and P600, Michelin XAS and XVS(Yuk!), Goodyear NCT, and BFG Comp T/A.
My preference:
Outright best size 195-60 x14: the 60% profile gives nice
stability and the slightly lower diameter results in better acceleration -
more fun to drive out of bends. Steering is lighter with this wider tyre and
thus manouevering out of tight places becomes easier, something that needs
to be considered when driving this not-so-easy-to-park machine. The 195 mm
nominal width is not standard across the various makes; in BFG you get the
equivalent of a 205, whereas some European tyres don't even make the 195 mm
but are more like 193 max (measured on the same wheel).
I would not go back to an antiquated 80+% profile or 70% profile tyre and do
the car a great disservice. If someone wants to retain something near the
original diameter for whatever reason, the 195-65 x14 tyre is available as a
compromise. In my opinion the GTV was way ahead of its time when produced
and if the modern high performance low profile tyres had been around at that
time, its an even bet that Alfa would have fitted them to its pride and joy.
Les Singh
105 GTV
From: Ron Lotton <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 06 Mar 96 15:37:00 PST
Subject: Alfa/Ford Wheels
Ian Lomax asks:
>>Now for the wheel question. Has anyone tried using Ford fox chassis
wheels (Mustang, etc) on their Alfa? I've seen photos of Alfa Spiders with
the old Ford TRX wheels, but not with the newer 15" x 7" wheels. I'm
looking to pick up some cheap 15" wheels, and the Mustang 15" x 7" "turbine"
wheels are plentiful in the Detroit area. I'm going to need some sort of
spacers, as the offset is off by about 15mm, but Alfa Ricambi sells those.
The hub diameter is also too small on the Mustang wheels. Do I need to
worry about a hub-centric fit, or can I rely on the lug nuts for alignment?
I'm hoping that with spacers I can solve both the offset and hub
interference problems. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.<<
Ian here's some information I sent to ICD last June. Sorry, but I don't
have any information on your spacer question.
Any Alfa with a 108 mm bolt circle may fit 4 bolt Mustang wheels. Keep in
mind that front drum brake equipped Alfas will require a 15" wheel. A
Mustang wheel has a bolt circle of 4.25 inches. As their is 25.4 mm to the
inch, this works out to 107.95 mm . In this application, 5 one hundredths
of a mm is not enough to affect anything. Should you go with this option, I
would only suggest that you carefully seat each nut into the wheel and
torque as specified. A compatible bolt circle is only part of the overall
success of the installation. Wheel offset and tire size must also be
considered.
I have a 750 Giulietta with front drum brakes. I roughly calculated that a
15"x5" would fit without modification. It is very difficult to locate 15"
aftermarket wheels with the correct bolt circle and not be too wide. I
soon discovered that I had two choices, custom wire wheels or custom modular
wheels (like BBS). At the time I had more time than money so I began to
examine the aftermarket wheel guides to see if an other vehicle used a wheel
with the appropriate dimensions. After extensive research, I located the
Mustang TRX wheels. They were 390 mmx135mm or 15.35 in.x5.3in. This was
the closest match I was able to come up with. After some quick calculations
to determine overall size with tires (155/80-15 = overall height of 638mm
and width of 155 mm vs. 180/65-390 = overall height of 624mm and width of
180 mm) I discovered that the TRX wheel and tire would be 1 in wider and 1
quarter inch lower than stock. Great! My search for wheels began at a
local swap meet where a set was quickly located for $75.00. This was done
over 6 years ago and everything has been working fine since their
installation. BTW, the TRX wheels do not require special lug nuts. I'm
using the original Giulietta brass/bronze(?) lug nuts.
I compiled the following list for one of the members in our club. I used
the '87 Michelin fitment guide as my source. Only applications using a 4
bolt wheel are listed.
Make Yr Model Wheel Bolt Circle
Acura 1986 Ledgend 14x6 108mm
Audi 85-87 4000S+CS 14x6 108mm
80-87 5000S 14x6 108mm
85-87 Coupe GT 14x6 108mm
Ford all 4bolt wheels var. 4.25in
all TRX wheels 390x135 4.25in
86-87 Escort GT 15x6 4.25in
Mercury all 4bolt wheels var. 4.25in
Nissan 1987 200SX XE 15x6 4.25in
Porsche all 924 14x6 108mm
TVR 84-87 Tasmin 14x7 4.25in
RonL
------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ron Lotton <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 96 16:41:00 PST
Subject: Alfa Wheel - Compatibles
4 on 4-1/4 (4 on 108 mm) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Alfa Romeo (exc. Alfetta)
Ford - Fairmont '78-'86
- Mustang 4-bolt patterns '74-'93
- T-Bird '80-'88
- Pinto '71-'80
- Fiesta '78-'85
- Escort all (RWD and FWD)
- Cortina all
- Taurus, Tempo, EXP to '89
- German-built Capri I, II, III '69-'8?
Mercury - Capri '71-'88
- Cougar '79-'88
- Merkur, Topaz, Lynx '80-'89
- Zephyr '78-'86
Plymouth Cricket
Porsche - 924 '77-'84
Sunbeam - Tiger, Alpine '65-'70
4 on 98mm (4 on 3.858 in.) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Alfa Romeo Alfetta
FIAT
Lancia
I found this at:
http://proffa.cc.tut.fi/~k124476/tm_index.html
This site may be a bit biased towards Toyotas but has lots of Automobile
links and info. I found the following information informative.
Other data:
Wheel bolt patterns
Muffler test results
Oil filter test results
Ciao
RonL
-------------------------------------------------------------
From: [email protected] (Les Singh)
Date: Sun, 25 Feb 1996 21:03:32 GMT
Subject: Re: Mickey Mouse Suspension
>From: Nelson Wong <[email protected]>
>Date: Mon, 3 Jan 1994 00:32:58 +-800
>Subject: Squeaky Suspensions
>
>Hi,
>
>We just had a period of rain and lately, my car has squeaky noise when =
>driving and especially when I go over humps! These noise comes from the =
>front and rear suspensions. These things happen pretty frequently and I =
>was wondering if there was something that can be done to stop this once =
>and for all. Anyone has any advise on what I can do ?
>
>168 3.0 V6 from Singapore....
Hi Nelson
I had a GTV that had a whole family of mice in the suspension. Tried
spraying various joints with CRC and that was no use after the first rain
shower. The best of the spray lubes was Valvoline but the cure in this case
was the use of limited slip diff oil - the EP90 with black stuff in it -
graphite or moly or something.(I know, I know! yeah, renew the joints; all
of the pedantic populace who will pick me up on this). I can't quite
remember the additive as this was a while ago and the car was one of the 20
or so "real Alfas" I have had the pleasure of owning. But that worked a
treat and seemed to cure the problem for good. It also helped the suspension
more responsive I suppose by removing the friction that was there
previously and that was affecting its performance. I guess that's why we
rose-joint the things. Heavy weight oil doesn't wash out in water the same
as light oil as you'll know if you've ever got it on your best white shirt!
Les Singh
From: richard bies <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, 29 Apr 1996 22:29:34 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Wishbone nut torque
My Autobook gives a value so high it scares me -- 94 to 130 lb.ft.
r.m.vies
------------------------------------------------------------
From: [email protected] (jim hayes)
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 1996 23:24:00 -0400
Subject: Re: GTV Steering boxes/alfa-digest V2 #160
> From: "Watry, Andrew" <[email protected]>
> Date: Wed, 10 Apr 96 12:42:16 EST
> Subject: gtv questions
> 3. All of the 90W oil leaks out of the car's Burman steering
> box in a matter of days, or a week.
Repeat after me " they all do that" ... and they are very hard to fix.
I suggest you do what I did with the ones I owned. Let the oil drip out an
refill with a grease gun and a needle adapter.
Jim
------------------------------
From: [email protected] (jim hayes)
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 1996 18:04:12 -0400
Subject: Re: GTV leaky steering boxes/alfa-digest V2 #177
>
> From: [email protected] (jim hayes)
> Date: Tue, 23 Apr 1996 23:24:00 -0400
> Subject: Re: GTV Steering boxes/alfa-digest V2 #160
>
> > From: "Watry, Andrew" <[email protected]>
> > Date: Wed, 10 Apr 96 12:42:16 EST
> > Subject: gtv questions
> > 3. All of the 90W oil leaks out of the car's Burman steering
> > box in a matter of days, or a week.
>
> Repeat after me " they all do that" ... and they are very hard to fix.
> I suggest you do what I did with the ones I owned. Let the oil drip out an
> refill with a grease gun and a needle adapter.
>
CLARIFICATION: Refill with grease - usibg the grease gun and needle adapter.
It lubes just fine and doesn't run out.
I should try not to do these messages when jet lagged and still on UK time
at midnite in Boston!
Jim
Jim Hayes @ fotec,inc. the fiber optic test equipment company
[email protected] 151 mystic ave.
http://www.std.com/fotec medford,ma 02155-4615
ph:1-800-537-8254 (US,Canada) 617-396-6155 fax: 617-396-6395
Web Home Page: http://www.std.com/fotec
------------------------------------------------------------
From: [email protected] (Simon Favre)
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 96 15:24:10 PST
Subject: Re: 105 steering box removal?
First off, you have to remove the steering wheel. The box will not fit
thru the hole in the firewall. The securing nut takes a big socket
(27mm, I think), and a 2-bolt steering wheel puller. The bolts that go
into the wheel to attach the puller are ridiculously small. They may
have changed this, but I had to get some very long 6mm bolts to do it.
I was scared they would pull right out of the holes, but they held.
You also have to remove the turn signal/headlight switch to avoid
bashing it getting the steering column to go thru the hole in the
firewall. With the engine out, it may be easy enough to remove it with
the switch attached, but I wouldn't try it. You also have to drop the
steering arm off the bottom of the box. This usually takes another
special puller (Pitman arm puller?). There's also some shrouding around
the steering column that has to go. Mine required metric Allen wrenches
to get it off. This is one area where a real oddball assortment of
tools is required. Such fun!
-----------------------------