[addo]

What have I done to one of my 147s today? Cut the screen and floor off!

No rust, just a Cat B car.

Tomorrow I'll finish scrapping the shell. I'm keeping a bit off the front, and the boot floor. Everything else is in the steel bin.

Van in background is for sale, $8000 Australian, it has a pop up roof, icy cold air conditioning and is fastidiously maintained. Would suit longer stay adventure tourists beautifully.

 

[addo]

Getting stuck into repowering the one which threw a belt. Would love to see the factory tool for driveshaft inner flange nuts. Just have to free the AC compressor and I think it's about ready to drop subframe then motor. Put it back on wheels in case the lads need to shift it in the morning.

The rear window stick took some detective work.

In amongst the car's history is a 2012 invoice that includes four new coil packs and a new fuel filter. Well, the coil packs are all April 2002 just like the car - and the filter is a Benz item! I will be inviting the dealership to make amends with the prior keeper.

This car is yet to be named.

 

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Nice bit of subframe damage discovered on the hoist...

 

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I removed the bracketry, cam cover and sensors on my dead 2.0 motor to re-use. Cleaned all in the parts washer, then degreaser, rinsed and then detergent followed by a final rinse. Came up reasonably. Wet bead blasting would have been nicer on the big alloy brackets.

 

[addo]

Big fat WIN today, the new-to-me 147 confessed up its alternator - a 105A, 2013 manufacture Bosch item. Retail on this one item is more than the entire car cost me. Plus I sourced a new Valeo Selespeed clutch kit locally for equal of £140, another win there.

 

[addo]

Scrubbing bits of the engine bay is one method of "getting to know your car". I have been enjoying a variation on this, having many duplicate items - both native to the '02 Selespeed and from the '05 manual donor. The simplest way I find to choose the best of two, is to clean both (parts washer or solvent degreaser spray, thence detergent scrub/rinse) and then compare. At least the sunshine has been in my favour - parts dry readily outdoors after the final hose down. Two sets of timing covers, crank dampers, valve covers, airboxes and ducting, radiator shrouding, coolant hoses...

I've been surprised to find that much of the '02 car is better than the '05, which clearly threw a belt in fairly spectacular fashion at some point (outgoing shrapnel damage to timing covers). Still it does seem weird at times to wash two of something, compare them, and promptly bin one. Sunday I start playing front subframe mix-n-match.

 

[addo]

What kind of putz does this? :curse: I presume they pried on the lug to loosen a water pump or adjust a pulley. Seriously, this engine appears to have been assembled from boneyard junk by people with negligible care factor.

It's missing location dowels in places too - including one of the tranny dowels, a driveshaft was loose "as found", starter had a loose bolt, the list goes on. I'm amazed it timed up OK.

In terms of "What have you done to your Alfa today?" I basically swore at its motor, a lot!

 

[addo]

Banger and mash, eh?

Entrées

• "The Girling Special" - Smashed pigeon, lightly sprinkled with mintex and hint of DOT4, served on a rotating alloy platter

My own contribution to Alfa doings, was unbolting racks from two subframes and being grouched at for the unholy racket (they were well stuck and I used the rattle gun)...

 

[addo]

I had a wobbly seat, the weld-on nuts that secured the backrest to the tilting mechanism had come loose. Careful re-attaching with Loctite and a good torqueing worked for me; it seems fine. The nuts have a locating boss in their centre so sloppiness is not really possible. My theory is they cracked loose from their tack welds in the factory and were never correctly tightened.

Meanwhile, I found this had happened with the old release bearing - one wear pad completely AWOL.

 

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Bit of effort went in today, more the pulling together of various stages in works prior.

Scuffed the flywheel; too parsimonious for a proper Blanchard cut, torqued it on with sealant and re-using the bolts. New clutch plate, the box of universal clutch mandrels was missing so I used a section of swaged tube that fitted snugly in the disc and centred it on the pressure plate fingers with a steel rule. Inside bellhousing was FILTHY, it took an hour with solvent and a toothbrush before a spritz of brake cleaner was effectual.

Removed and cleaned the release fork and bushes, everything copper greased with Wurth CU800. Box mated up, it slotted straight in so I think my friction disc was well-positioned.

Most of the junk I haven't yet cleaned, I can get to from either the engine compartment or below with a jet washer. But it's nice to put clean stuff together. I also copper-slipped the lower wishbone bolts, anti-roll bar saddle clamp bolts and the steering rack bolts.

 

[addo]

Current 147 project is back on its feet today. No headlights, or front bumper. I found both foglight sockets in the front lights need the earth wire soldering directly - the spade connectors had overheated and cooked the wires' insulation. There's also a hidden crack in one headlight housing, I want to shonk up to keep it water resistant.

More disappointingly, I think I've upset something in the column after decoupling the rack, have now got immo, VDC and Selespeed failure messages that don't change whether the ECU or ABS computers are connected. Time to look for elearn online (any recommendations?) so I can trace back the wires and fuses...

One positive in all this - first sunroof car I have owned and this works beautifully!

 

[addo]

At 50% of sale price, a bit heavy on the "spedizione"!

Today was one of the warmer days yet, this Spring. I spent it laying across the bitumen, and generally running about doing ******* panelwork on the bent 147. Without a wooden power pole out the front, I'd be up the proverbial creek. Have used it on three cars now with chain, chocks and a ratcheting cable puller (AKA come-along). Pulled the front crossmember more or less straight, popped on a fairly decent bumper. Gently pressed the bonnet to halve the kinking, adjusted up its latch and voila! The car went from looking battered to maybe a little tired but not demolished. Spare wheel well is still crumpled like a crumpled thing but the back bumper popped out of its own accord, masking the damage.

One positive in all this, is when you've owner-serviced your automotive tat for years, it starts to become "better" than many equivalent age/mileage cars around the traps that are serviced by garages. I've got the time to make sure all screws go back as the factory intended, I clean things more fully, line up pieces to look like new. Makes in-depth operations more predictable and less grimy.

 

[addo]

With encouragement from bazzbazz, got the repowered 147 running. I'd failed to tighten home an earth after removing it to reposition some of the motor harness, and it was throwing all sorts of baffling failures at me.

Found it was easier to adjust the clutch pushrod when the position sensor wasn't unplugged... Cooling system all filled and purged, want to clean up the tiller before reinstalling it - was plain gross with years of finger dirt. Also discovered the (hitherto unknown to myself) return line filter sock on the PAS. Somehow it was not correctly positioned, and bobbing about like a bottle with a message in it. Removed, washed by spraying with brake cleaner, refitted with some swearing at the fiddliness of it all. Definitely, a Good Car Day overall, but tiring.

 

[addo]

Pollen filter removed today from the '02 Selespeed 147.

Note production date, 099th day of 2002. Dealer serviced car the first ten years of its life.

 

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Hi, what I removed was the "one piece" pollen filter the cars are built with, I have never seen them sold as a spare part - only the two piece assemblies.

 

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Something definitely wasn't right there, with your old kit - I have OEM front and rear brakes and they lock (to the point of ABS intervention) perfectly.

The brake hardlines are made of cheese, even here with nil corrosion they want to twist as you experienced. I found penetrant, good blast with air, more penetrant and an initial twist in the tightening direction, helped. Also, hanging on to the flex's hex with a 17mm spanner until progress was clearly happening.

 

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That's over 120 miles, right? Decent time to shake it down.

 

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First lap of the block in the "new to me" Selespeed today; first ever stint in a Selespeed car fullstop. Can see Gendan getting a few bob off me to sort the box with an MES kit, if the Maxidas won't talk with it properly.

Workshop consensus on the replacement motor I bought: "It goes hard!" That's in a fully smogged car, too.

 

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Drove the repowered Selespeed 147 back to the house yesterday, washed it at dusk, today I have two clean silver pre-facelift 147s parked in line out the front. Work truck is silver, too!

 

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I changed the Selespeed car's thermostat for an aftermarket Calorstat, and discovered one significant difference between the BEHR/OEM and Vernet forms - the latter has its hose index lug off to the side, 90° around from the 12 o'clock position of the factory jobbie. Notching the hose was my quick and dirty fix. Love my Clic clip pliers, with R&R jobs like these, they really shine.

Battery is clearly dying, got it on charge again now.

Alex: Have you considered the end-fitting type oil filter socket with a 3/8" drive recess? Makes loosening and tightening a breeze. This sort of thing: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181466163974