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cchan
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Post by cchan »

Hi Michael,

No problem, I will send you my map when the my Alfa is done. I think the most frustrating part on the tuning was that we never did this before. The collection of cars that we have are all stock alfa's or american cars with carbs. Therefore, this was new to us. It appears you have done the MS so you at least know about FI, LM1, etc.

This was greek to me until this project. I missed speaking with Phil today but I am hoping that the Alfa is ready to be picked up.
cchan
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Post by cchan »

GregoryV wrote:cchan,

Never mind the "consultant" crap - you owned this car a long time I thought? Who'd been your regular mechanic? Even if this thing was trouble free and running down the street a few months back, to get to the end of a build and then be wondering about good local mechanics to maintain a car with an aftermarket FI system on it and it's an Alfa to boot?

GV
Before I started this project my Alfa just sat and I did not use it at all except to change the parking place when my wife keep complaining that it was an eye sore. It always ran and I used Roger at Roger's Autowerks in Oakland. He serviced my Alfa and I was always happy with his service. When I was starting this project I first approached Roger to help us. He said that he did not do restoration and was not interested. Therefore, we went with JJ @ Glenwood Motors/G2.

Once the Alfa was almost done we approched Roger again to help us complete this project. He admired the work that was done but told me that he would not help us since it was not a stock alfa. Therefore, this is why I am in need of a new mechanic.
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Post by x-rad »

Chan: I am surprised your mechanic Roger did not want to help out. I am sure you would have paid him and except for the electronics, you car is pretty much the same as any other car. Would have been a good learning experience for him and probably just plain fun n challenging if he really liked working on cars....

too bad for you....
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Post by Michael »

junglejustice wrote:Since you're here locally, call me any time and I can help out! I'll likely be there come the time any way - just ask - we'll just head over to Alex at Carb Con and get it done fast.
Ok thanks Johan - now all I need is for my work schedule to ease enough that I can finish the project. :roll:
I'm in Prague now.
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Rodgering Rodger's

Post by SlewofDamascus »

x-rad wrote:Chan: I am surprised your mechanic Roger did not want to help out.
X-Rad: if you read the following thread, it will all make sense.

http://tinyurl.com/2vdsbk

David B.
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Post by x-rad »

anecdotal, but still makes sense

there is always someone else who can help.......
cchan
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Post by cchan »

I did not realize that Roger had a thread on his services. I think that Roger & Cris are cool. Cris was going to give me his key for my gas tank for free and I am sure Roger has his reasons for not wanting to work on my modified alfa. I really don't think that they are just about the $$. If they were, Roger could tell that alot of $ was spent on our project and he would of took our $. My stock Alfa was a pain to deal with so I really don't know what I was thinking when I thought it would be easy to upgrade and modify.

Anyway, Phil along with some help from JJ, have successfully tuned the Alfa to pass smog. It did not pass yet but I was told it will. Some additional parts for the throttle control were added. We also found out that I grounded the car to the engine valve cover bolt. This was causing voltage irregularities that was causing problems with the Gotech tunning. We re grounded the Alfa to the engine block correctly.

I was told that the Gotech needs to have a manual that really reflects my system. I was also told that the Gotech is slow on reponse from changes on the computer screen to real time changes to the engine performance.
There was alot of other small items that need to be corrected from our original set up. I will figure this out when I look at my invoice.

I was hoping to drive it but I do not have the time lately. I was told that the Alfa in 1st gear is a blast and I just hope my new rear tires are still new. Especially when I know that Alfas are not known for 0-60 sprints.

The next problem is the drive train vibration. I cann't believe it. Anyway, we are addressing this. We are also starting to deal with the slipping clutch. WOT and the clutch slips alot. Normal RPM driving and its ok. We will be removing the drive shaft assembly again, along with pulling out the clutch unit. We will have it inspected again, etc, and hopefully solve the vibration and clutch slipping without having to buy more parts. I would have been able to do this myself but at this point, I just want the Alfa done so we will have to pay for this again.
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Post by junglejustice »

Glad that you/they're making progress... It's unfortunate that they screwed up the drive-shaft balancing - who did that for you again? Any way - yeah - it was pretty bad when I drove the car.

As far as the clutch - Andrew Garcia at Garcia Alfa Racing built that box and put the clutch-unit together for us and I did the installation - he should stand behind it though. He told me that he thought that it was a weak pressure-plate, but I don't buy that - there may have been oil on the plate itself during assembly and then once it slips, it's all over. Could be something wrong with the clutch plate itself too?

He did say that it may be a weak pressure-plate core from a batch that he had from me for rebuild and that there was no way of testing a pressure-plate prior to installation, but here again - I'm not buying. Any way, I'm sure that he'll get it figured out.

Just pull it out and send the whole transaxle back to him for inspection. If he screwed up on the clutch, then I would just have the whole thing inspected again to make sure that he did not miss anything else! It felt good when I drove it and yeah - the early gears were a blast, but as soon as you rolled on the high-speed torque in the higher gears, it would slip pretty badly.

This is the reason why I could not really notice it as much on the first short drive around and out of the neighborhood by Carlos, but then I knew something was up once we hit the freeway on the way to the dyno-shop... Once we were rolling and well on our way there to get the alignment done any way - I just kept going... A call to the dyno-guys on the way down reflected the possibility that the clutch possibly needed bedding just like brake-pads do (if this was a composite-type clutch), which it turned out not to be.
...to Alfa, or not to Alfa? That is the question...
cchan
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Post by cchan »

quote=junglejustice;445524]Glad that you/they're making progress... It's unfortunate that they screwed up the drive-shaft balancing - who did that for you again? Any way - yeah - it was pretty bad when I drove the car.
QUOTE]

Hi JJ, To refresh your memory. Frank balanced the drive shaft unit and you installed it. You broke the drive shaft unit in half when you realized that my Alfa did not have the removable cross member like I was telling you. I thought we should drop the transaxle, etc, but you said you could break it in half and install it this way. I really thought that since we paid to have the unit balanced that taking it apart was a bad idea. but thats the story on that.

We should know about the clutch today. :D
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Post by ar4me »

It is fine to break it in half if you keep track of the pieces and reassemble identically. For insurance most keep track of the bolts, washers, and nuts, though the primary is probably the rotation of the two driveshaft halfs relative to each other.
Jes
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87 Milano 3.0 Motronic - budget race car - Roxanne
87 Milano 3.7 24v - race car
(Repeat or do as I say at your own risk - be critical)
cchan
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Post by cchan »

Hi Jess,

I am sure you are correct and if you look at the prior post on the driveshaft issue we were really careful. I really thought this through before I rebalanced it, etc. If I remember correctly you felt that this was not necessary but we did it anyway. Bottom line, it vibrates. Whether it was balance incorrectly by Frank (Highly unlikely). Or it was installed incorectly but JJ (Highly unlikely). It is an issue. :(

I really don't care at this point of my project why it vibrates. Just want to correct it and move on. Of course, since I know you do alot of work on your Alfa's personally, you know how much work it is to re do this again after doing it as carefully as possible. I hate to do things twice. Pulling out the drive shaft in an 82 Alfa is no fun and doing the clutch again is frustrating. To top it off, remember my exhaust has no flanges in the rear so we need to cut and install flanges as well. All the little details that I have learned and now realize. However, I am still confident that I am going to love the final project and this is my Hobby only. No worries. :D
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Post by ar4me »

Chuck,

I understand, but your previous post seemed to point fingers at JJ, but he may have nothing to do with your driveshaft issue.

Anyway, you will have an absolutely fantastic car when it is all done :D Trust me! It will be very, very, very nice. Let me know if you want to sell it :wink: I was looking at some pics - I love it!

The driveshaft will be a piece of cake - you need to pull the clutch anyway, right? So the driveshaft will be easy to take out.

Jes
87 Milano Verde - daily driver - Juliet
87 Milano 3.0 Motronic - budget race car - Roxanne
87 Milano 3.7 24v - race car
(Repeat or do as I say at your own risk - be critical)
cchan
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Post by cchan »

Hi Jess,

Yeah, I see your point that I could be pointing fingers at JJ. I really would not have posted anything but JJ's prior post of saying "who did that for you again? Any way - yeah - it was pretty bad when I drove the car."
hit me the wrong way. JJ knows whats what with my car so I really don't know why is would post this.

Anyway, no more finger pointing. My Alfa is almost done and I am grateful to everyone that has helped me on this project.
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Post by ar4me »

Hang in there - you are oh so close :)
Jes
87 Milano Verde - daily driver - Juliet
87 Milano 3.0 Motronic - budget race car - Roxanne
87 Milano 3.7 24v - race car
(Repeat or do as I say at your own risk - be critical)
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Post by MR2 Zig »

Hang in there cchan.

the devil is always in the little details at the end of a big project like yours. Once you get the bugs out of the thing you will have to move your ears out of the way of your grin :D :D :D

Scott
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