Classic Alfa Forums

As this forum isn't very lively i thought i would give you all the riveting news that I just dropped the car off to have the prop-shaft rebalanced. The annoying bloody vibration has been spoiling the experience for me. I can't wait to get it back so I can see what the car is like above 4000rpm! Anyone else suffered this?

not suffered it, mainly as i don't have an alfetta or 75, but i'd be keen on hearing about how succesful it was

am i being daft (very possible!) but how does the shaft go out of balance in the first place?


the support bearings worn etc i can appreciate, allowing it to oscillate and vibrate out of true, but how does the shaft actually change?

uneven rust and decay of surfaces?

Evening
I know with the spiders, if the prop shaft isn't fitted back together as it was originally It can be out of balance

Silly RWD! ha ha!

Old School used to mark the flanges with a hacksaw blade. A possibility is a balance weight might have fallen off.

It's quite a big problem for transaxle cars, because unlike a conventional RWD propshaft, the Alfetta shaft runs at engine speed through to the rear mounted transaxle. So balancing this shaft is much more critical. Hopefully this will cure the vibration problem (fingers crossed!)

Lauren

But how does it go out of whack in the first place?

Is the shaft machined to balanced whilst made, or weight added to compensate after manufacture, and since lost some of those weights?

Probably wear in the joint bearings. Also, I think the shaft is two-piece, there is an intermediate bearing.

Lauren

was actually talking to ian, a local VW engine builder guy today. was mot'ing a '63 beetle that he'd just done a full suspension and engine rebuild on, a lhd californian car that despite being 50+ years old was still original and hadn't/didn't need welding
bloody things

anyway, i got him talking alfas' as he knows i will. and he humours me as i'm doing an mot for him
he got on about a guilia that he knows of from his historic racing (races a porsche 356 in historics) which he was impressed with the noise and ability to rev, but had recently bent its' propshaft at a goodwood at a meeting he was at. apparently it was visibly bent, you could see it twist out of shape by eye as you spun it...

ian does know his stuff on the air-cooled vw stuff. being flat 4 boxer engines i obviously tried him on the alfa engines, but he's not budging

http://wolfsburgperformance.co.uk/index.html

Got yer

thanks Lauren.

Blimey! This one took off! Thanks for all the feedback.

The prop needed balancing when I got the car in Sept. I don't know the cause of the problem. What it HAS done is prevent me from revving over 4k and that's just not fair!

I don't have the car back yet. Will report back soon.....

Steve

good luck steve,


sounds pretty straight forward to me now, and quite rightly, no more than 4k is just not cricket!

Paul, the propshafts go out of balance due to donut wear and tear, not because the weights drop off.

The way they balance the propshafts is Assembled. This means that the propshaft mount is on and all rubber donuts as well.
As time goes by, those rubber parts start falling apart, so they make the whole shaft out of balance.

When replacing with new donuts, again you need to balance the propshaft.
I know that most people using genuine parts without balancing the propshaft didnt have serious vibration problems, but those who used aftermarket ones had some serious issues.

You are probably thinking that this is not the case, as donuts are made out of castings etc, but rubber is rubber, even different dense will cause imbalance.

......and that answer wins the gold star!

This site is really gathering momentum and I'm looking forward to meeting everyone and putting faces to names/nicknames wherever that will be......MITCAR?

Steve

Prop-shaft update.

I was getting the rebalance done so I could take the car to biamf2014 next Sat. The prop is not back yet so it is looking unlikely that I will make it. This would have been my first Alfa outing so I am a bit disappointed but never mind. I will move on and look forward to the next opportunity.

Hope everyone has a good weekend planned. I finished early and opened a bottle of wine. This is just the beginning.........

Bugger!

thats a real shame mate, sorry to hear that.

i hope the wine soothes the pain adequately

Wine is gone. Rum isn't.

Big news!

The car may be ready for the show after all. The prop is expected back on wed. Fitted thu, collected Fri and then off to Bristol on Sat.

I will know for sure tomorrow.

Fingers crossed.

Steve

Good Luck mate,

keep us posted...

Nah, didn't make it. Shame.

As I am based in Sussex I will have to have a think about the car's first outing. I'm not sure where to go.

Thanks for the interest, Shrew!

Bugger!

Sorry to hear that mate, what delayed you?

It's a long story but.......

The car was delivered on the 10th of March as requested for collection prior to 19th April. The prop was removed and sent away as planned. Then nothing for a couple of weeks.

I chased and found that my prop plus one other had sat at the refurb place for two weeks with nothing done at all and no attempt to contact my garage as they did not know what to do. I was told the refurb place was also difficult to contact. They still had about 2 weeks at that stage. I chased again last week and was told that they were trying to get it back for Wed with collection today.

On Thu morning I had the email telling me it was not going to be back in time. I will have to chalk this one up to experience.

I'm sure I'm not the only person suffering this sort of frustration.

would it be appropriate to name and shame these vagabonds Steve?

it would be good know who not to use unless you have no timescale whatsoever

very annoying

Shrew,

I will hold on to that info as I have had no problems at all with my alfa garage and their communications are good - in fact they have been brilliant. I have no idea who the 3rd party is either. My last posting was really about expressing my frustration at missing the show.

I appreciate the sympathetic ear!

I had intended to be flying around in the gtv6 but I will now return to my lonely task of refurbishing the garden furniture!

Ha Ha! the easter weekend diy blues!


here too mate, here too

lol!

Update. Prop still not returned. Awaiting a very rare part*. I guess with the cars now 30 years old the stock of parts will be diminishing with each year that passes. If it does not make it back by the end of the month if will have missed the Easter and May bank holidays.

Not what I was anticipating when I stuck 2 toes in the 'classic car' water.

*don't ask!

Update on this weeks update.

She will return!! The prop returns on Monday and the car midweek.

How happy am I?

Steve

Great looking gtv . I bet your gagging to drive it

Johnboy wrote:Great looking gtv . I bet your gagging to drive it

That's an understatement! I will tear around for a few hundred miles just to say hello again. There is a local transport show at the end of the month that has a classic car category. Entries are closed now but I may take it down anyway.