good project.
the momo vegas look original will bring in a little starting capital

 

Thanks, yes speced from new apparently, there are 4 green and the spare is a 'normal' black one. What do you think they are worth?

 

well, they won't pay for the full restoration! ))
difficult to say a price, but the replicas cost about 650 (ink Vat) for 4.

selling rims always stumbles a bit on shipping/postage costs...last restored set of 4 went, I believe, for around 1500 $ in the US but shipping them out there would be too costly.

must be a few people who'd want these rims....they always seem to sell when they (albeit infrequently) turn up on fleabay.

 

Thanks both, yes that would certainly help out and I think I'm going to need all the help I can muster! I've not decided yet but when you consider the refurb cost plus limited choice of 14 inch tyres I think moving them on wouldn't be a bad idea.

 

Simon, limited choice of 14" rubber ? There are Continental, Michelin, Dunlop, Firestone, Kumho, Toyo, Avon CR6ZZ to name but a few, all in & around 185 x 70 x 14".
185 / 70's are a good modern compromise for what was in period, not too low a sidewall, (which also looks ridiculous), and more than wide enough to retain the famed Alfa dynamism on 51/2" to 7" rims
I put 185 x 70 x 14" Conti's on my 7 x 14" GTA wheels on the last GTA Rep, and they were superb, also had them last year on my BMW NK 2000 Ti.
I don't hold with this "lack of good tyres" business for 14" rims. As long as you're not going racing, there's plenty of top make, good fast road tyres out there in 14". I've always thought it was a ploy by a certain outfit to sell 15" wheels.
I also think 15" wheels don't look right on a Bertone Coupe., with one exception, the TZ / TI Super 5.5 x 15" , but only on the early low-arch cars.
Best looking in my opinion are either 7" X 14" GTA, or the lovely Momo's that you have.

I think you'll struggle , or be very lucky to get the big money for those lovely Momo's, shipping is expensive and a pain, and the price of a repo set means your market is extremely small, but good luck if you decide to !


BTW, you stole that car. Absolute sheds are going for way more than that. Also, that original metallic olive green is beautiful in the flesh, and very rare !

Steve

 

been keeping my eye out and never seen this come up in the usual for sale places..

 

I'm always looking too but I suppose I got lucky with this one. The owner gave it to a small dealer in Manchester to sell who mostly deals in British stuff, he posted on a 105 Facebook page to test the water, I replied straight away and he was good enough to give me first refusal. He wanted to put it on eBay but I knew I had to get it before then, I think it would have gone for more but then you never know?

 

Thanks both, I think you're right Steve especially about a certain bias towards 15's and I must admit I've been suckered in. The Spider has Conti's and the Alfetta Bridgestones, both in 14's so I know you can still get them but when I was looking for some more track orientated tyres for the Alfetta the problem wasn't necessarily the size but the profile, most of the 14's being too low, certainly at the end of the price spectrum I was looking at. Maybe I just need to look a bit harder.

I hope the olive green is the original colour, if so I'll definitely be going back to that. Will have see how green wheels on a green car look though? The only thing that's definite is it's not staying red!

 

Simon, you've done really well there. Looking forward to hearing more about the project. What must go to make the room though....

 

Got yourself a bargain there Simon. It will be interesting to follow the resto.

 

Might as well make this the resto thread.

I wasn't going to start until the spring but I'm itching to get going already!

First job is to get it running so I can give the mechanicals and electrics a once over. Even though everything will be stripped I think it will still be a good idea. Currently the carbs are off and brakes disconnected so you never know it might be straight forward!

Once it's stripped down I'll then have to decide how to remove the old paint. I'm going to try and do everything except the new paint so I'll speak to the body shop first but as I haven't got the money for a dip or blast, it will a choice of sanding or chemical stripping.

 

It's all back together but I can't get it to start as there's no spark at all, it cranks over fine but no sign of starting ☹. I've read lots of old posts, mostly from me! but I'm out of ideas.

Findings so far are as follows.

Battery is fully charged.
No spark to any plugs when engine turns.
I have 12v from the coil and to the dizzy which has an accuspark fitted.
I've tried a couple of dizzy's including one with points but still nothing.
I've ran an ignition lead from directly from the coil with a plug on the end, 12v to the plug but still no spark.
Coil wiring is green ignition wire and red dizzy wire to positive and black dizzy wire to negative.
I've tried, different plugs, leads, coil and dizzy's from the spares box but still nothing.

Any ideas greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Simon

 

Not quite understanding where you checked for voltage, but

I can only think of checking voltage at the green wire, both when removed from coil +ve; again when fitted to the coil....(IGN on in both cases, obviously)

Then I'd check the little wire from dizzy to coil -ve....that it is not broken somewhere along its length.

 

There are two windings in an ignition coil, high tension and low tension, it seems low tension is OK, change the coil and see what happens.

 

Thanks both,

Dom, I didn't remove the green wire other than to clean it up, I checked the voltage by touching the +ve terminal on the coil, eartherd to the body whilst the green wire was still connected, ignition on. The accuspark'd dizzy has two wires, one to each coil terminal but I can swap it for the points one I have and check the wire to the negative side of the coil.

TD, thanks I did swap the coil, the one I have is unused that I bought for another car but didn't fit, I will triple check though and try the one from the Alfetta.

I read on another post about connecting a lead directly from the coil to a plug which would bypass the dizzy and rule it out for now. Is this a worthwhile test and if I'm still not seeing a spark does it point to the coil.

Thanks as ever.

 

Ok tonight's checks -

Green ignition wire readings:

Disconnected from new coil - 11.99v, connected to coil 11.99v, coil with wire disconnected 0.2v

Swapped to old coil and readings very similar, disconnected from old coil - 12.15v, connected to coil 12.15v, coil with wire disconnected 0.5v.

I swapped back to the original dizzy with points fitted, contacts cleaned and gap checked as ok at 0.35mm. I checked the wire to the -ve side of the coil which seemed fine but swapped it for another to check. I think that's ok as it sparked when connected to the dizzy end as I'd forgetten to turn the ignition off!

Still no spark???

The other side of the coin is I'm not getting any fuel either, there must be a blockage between the tank and the pump as I've disconnected and cleaned the pump, filter and engine bay lines but when I try and suck or push air down the line from either the engine bay or the tank end it feels totally blocked. I'm planning on getting some compressed air shot through there to try and shift it or blow all the joins, which ever first!

Let the fun commence ��

 

I take it that you have a very warm garage Simon...:thumbup:

 

I have a cold garage but sadly there's no room in it yet for this one. It was hoody, fleece, overalls, gloves, hat and head torch time. It was a barmy 1c but the rain didn't help!

 

OK, time to check th eking lead, the lead from the coil to the distributor. Swap the cap and leads from another car and see what happens.

 

I was thinking this, especially if with changing out the various dizzies, you used the same cap (did you?)....make sure the little carbon nib inside the cap and the centre plughole of the cap are both good.

When you got the car, was it already fitted with the accuspark or did you fit that?

With a std. points dizzy and good voltage to coil (as you have) I'd normally suspect the condensor (they fail, often, especially aftermarket cheapos)

with the accu-S dizzy I'd suspect the electronic accu gizmo at fault.

btw: did/does your GTV have the old square ballast resistor fitted (a 73 might)?

I believe an accuspark requires a different coil, if ballast is bypassed (Bosch blue I think)

the pump: orig. mechanical one? it might need priming (when you finally get fuel running thru the lines), if you removed and cleaned it....I don't think these have enough pull to suck half empty fuel lines.

 

One other thought!! Eeek! Take the cap off the distributor and make sure the rotor arm is turning, if you have no fuel as well, they are both driven off the same shaft. I hope that isnt the problem though.

 

Thanks both, I will double check the king lead and caps, I’ve got 3 sets of dizzy, caps and leads which I’ve swapped around but it I will be more methodical as some could well be faulty, I did change them in the first place after all. I’ll cross check with a known good one though from the Alfetta.

The dizzy that came with the car was the Bosch one with points, I suppose the condenser could have failed, i’ll check that. The accuspark ones are from the spares box, I know one was faulty as that’s why I upgraded to a 123 but I thought the other was ok, though maybe not.

Original coil is a Bosch blue, spare is an aftermarket one, neither have the additional ballast resistor.

As for the fuel, yes I can still taste the petrol after the last time I ‘manually’ primed the pump, looking forward to that when the lines are clear!

And yes the dizzy is firmly in place and the rotor turns with the engine.

I’ll try the king lead and test the condenser tonight. I don’t want to mess with the Alfetta too much as it’s not long had an RR tune but when the Spider comes back from the body shop next week following the lower front valance accident repair, i’ll borrow the 123 and everything else from there so at least i’ll know all the bits work instead of making do from my randomly hoarded spares box!

 

Whenever I think Alfa electrics I think earths !!
How are you grounding the plug to test? Against the block / head? Have you checked the earthing from the head via block to the -ve side of the coil?

 

Thanks, I usually ground the plugs on one of the cam cover nuts which usually works.

I haven’t checked against the -ve coil, how would I do that?

Thanks

 

On the high voltage side, the earth of the spark plug is connected to the cylinder head when it's screwed in, the head is connected electrically to the block via the head bolts, and from the block there is a earth strap to the car body.
In turn the high voltage side of the coil is connected to the earthed body through its case.
On the low voltage side the -ve terminal of the coil is earthed through the distributor points to the block and completes the circuit via the earth strap as above.

If any of these connections are missing then you won't get a spark. Check the engine earth strap and clean up the coil mounting bracket?
You could try grounding the plugs against the body of the coil rather than the head bolts and see if you get a spark?

 

Excellent, thanks for that. I’ve never really got electrics but you cicuit explanation is very helpful.

Haven’t had any time this week but i’ll check all the suggestions at the weekend.

Thanks

 

I'd suggest the engine to body/frame earth is OK otherwise you wouldnt have the starter spinning the engine.

 

Some progress is that I did see a spark!

Fitted a new condenser this morning but still nothing, went through all the different dizzy's, caps, leads and plug in methodical order but still nothing. I came in and reread the posts and realised I'd missed hmitd's suggestion to ground to the coil body so went out for another round. Nothing from the accuspark dizzies but with the points one I saw a spark when grounded to the coil. Trouble is it's very intermittent, a couple of times out of at least twenty tries it would spark once when I first turned it over but that would be it and only one time did I get a second spark when it was on its second rotation as I kept cracking. I then went through the different leads, plugs, caps and rotor arms but no improvement, I also tried again to ground to the cam cover bolts but nothing there.

I suppose an intermittent fault is better than a full fault but I'm still not sure, does the fact that it did spark to the coil mean an earth problem, I didn't check the engine to body connection as I can't get under the car where it is and hoping TD's suggestion was the case but I took the coil mount and battery earths back to bare metal on the body.

The fuel blockage was easy though, a quick blast with my mates compressor and the gunk fired out so that's clear. Even though the fuel gauge read empty I drained the tank and over ten litres came out. It's the colour of a hang over morning wee so I won't be putting it back in but it's a pain to dispose of so I might slowly add it to another car or keep it for cleaning later?

Thanks

 

Any kind of spark is progress in my book!
A couple of questions on what you said previously.....
"Green ignition wire readings: Disconnected from new coil - 11.99v, connected to coil 11.99v, coil with wire disconnected 0.2v "
Was that "dash 11.99v or -11.99v ie negative, and if negative where were you connecting the negative probe of the multimeter?

" and only one time did I get a second spark when it was on its second rotation" - I'm not sure what you mean by second rotation? is the plug still connected directly to the coil or through the dizzy?

 

for diagnostic purposes I'd just stick to the points dizzy the car came with.....till you get spark.

you have a new condensor, thats good.
If cap carbon pin is in place, that's also good.
Points properly set up, good (btw, when closed and you flick them open with a screwdriver, do they spark??)

now, one more thought.... the little wire off the side of the dizzy: On my old bosch dizzy with my 101 sprint, I recall that was plugged onto a little male spade, and that male spade was insulated from the dizzy body by a plastic washer piece.....when that insulation wasn't in place nothing worked.

I am not sure what you have (Marelli, Bosch?), but is it something similar?