So many 2000 GTV questions from a newbie!

Hi all!

Bought a 73 2000 GTV about a month ago and have so many questions!
Want to know which brand available in SA is best for gearbox and diff and why second gear synchro's give trouble first. Mine is a bit stubborn for about 3 minutes after starting.
Then is 3500rpm right for 100km/h (62mph)? is there a way to get less revs to save petrol (maybe swop for more economical gearbox/ diff?)
If there are any other South Africans, pls let me know cos I am also looking for black interior door trim and a new centre console. Mine are OK, but I want to start making it look like it just came off the assembly line.

Great site, guys. Such a pleasure to read all the posts here and on Alfabb. Some really good advice from Papajam. Oh, before I forget - where is the windscreen washer pedal supposed to be? Does anyone have a picture?

Sorry for sounding like an excited kid! hope to hear from someone soon!

Hi and welcome to the board.
I am in the UK so cannot help with some of your questions.
However, the easy one is the position of the screen washer.
On my 1974 2000GTV it is in the foot well just beyond the clutch pedal. It is a round button about 2 inches (6cm) in diameter.
Chris

Thanks, Chris.

Will check now. Should be in the same position as yours - I assume yours is RHD too. Does the rpm sound right for a 4.10 diff and standard 2l gearbox?

Eldridge

Hi welcome to AO

Something doesn't sound right with your gearing if you are only doing 62MPH at 3500 in 5th.
Hans, (Selespeed) made up a spreadsheet which works out the road speed for various tyre sizes and gearing for the Bertone's. According to the spreadsheet with standard wheel sizes you should be doing about 75MPH for those revs. 62MPH would be 2750rpm.
What is possible is that you have a 1300 gearbox, they have a shorter 5th gear, when I work the figures out for a 1300GTj, it gives 65 MPH for 3500rpm.

The Gearboxes are interchangeable so you should be able to swap over if you can source one.

Second gear synchro is a normal weak spot and it's quite common to finding it balking when the oil is cold. You can improve this with thinner Oil, but generaly speaking you need to either rebuild the box or live with it.

It's possible that the tach/speedo are not reading correctly. I replaced a tach in a 1750 GTV recently that was reading high in the midrange by 700 RPM (but was accurate at idle).

Best way to check would be to do the same exercise in fourth and tell us what revs you get at a steady 100KMh.

The figures seem a little to coincidental to me, though I've heard Alfa Tacho's can be a bit erratic.

Thanks for info, guys.

The needle does some funny little jumps, stepwise rather than smooth gradual flow on its way back to idle. Will have to check after my car comes back from the mechanic.

Had nightmare of a weekend. On Saturday morning, after changing out gearbox oil, I start her up and she's idling beautifully. The timing chain has always been slightly noisy, but not aggravatingly so. A minute after warming up, this terrible metal sound comes from the front of the engine!

So I switch it off, and then try the ignition again. Just a click from the starter which got me thinking about posts here and on Alfabb about timing chains skipping and the huge costs of repairing.

I open the valve cover to have a look and lo and behold, the timing chain has some slack! Worst case scenario (and most probable) is all valves bent and best only some are bent. Going to cost me 5 G's (about $650) to have head skimmed, new valves, possibly guides and head gasket fitted!

What makes this so devastating is the meteoric drop in giddiness - one moment life is so good so because you just found a painless way way to fill up your beautiful Alfa's gearbox (will post pics tomorrow about this) and the next you're a crazy man with really creative car-destroying thoughts flashing!

Sanity (or insanity, not sure yet) has prevailed and I was able to secure an appointment with George, probably the best Alfa-doctor in Cape Town, for Wednesday. Guess the old adage about pretty girls being high maintenance is true...

It's certainly a roller coaster ride owning these cars.
You might get away with it you know, one of the rather bizzare but reccomended (by some anyway.. not me!) methods of tensioning the chain is to run it at just above idle and slacken the adjuster off.
When I tried it there was a horrible thrashing sound as the chain clouted the inside of the covers, it didn't skip though so no damage done apart from grooves on the inside of the covers. I won't do it again though!

Sorry to hear about your timing chain. I have my own story about what I did when I got my first Alfa many many years ago and it's not pretty. Amusing now but not then. Hopefully you'll feel the same way. Don't let it get you down.
I recently also got a 73 GTV for restoration.
The second gear synco goes first because so many people try and grab some second gear rubber and slam it into second gear.
The syncro ring has to stop the cone from spinning to engage the teeth on the inside of the ring. Back in the day we would take the fourth and third and swap it with the first and second ring.
I'm surprised that it jumped time, I'm asumming your talking about the upper chain? It is so easy to loosen the bolt on the head to allow the tensioner to spring out and take up any excess slack. It must have been making quite a bit of noise. These cars talk to you. Hang in there.

Across the pond (Oklahoma, USA) if you want to save a bit of money - take the 5th gear synchro (used the least) and swap it with the worn out 2nd gear. Not pretty - but you just saved some money - your shift from 4th to 5th will never know the difference.

HEH owner of the 'Cozzamobile'