New member introduction

[Chris P Duck]

Hi all

Long time Alfa owner here, but new to this forum. I met a forum member on Sunday at Autokarna in Wollaton Park, and he pointed me in the direction of this forum.

I've owned various Alfas in my time. One of my earliest cars was a 1.3 Ti Sud, but I'm afraid that rusted away. I've had a couple of 33s, and an old 2000 GTV. The one I own now is a 1984 Alfasud 1.5 Ti Green Cloverleaf, which I bought from the original owner around 1990. To my shame it's been SORNed and (less shamefully) dry stored for several years, but in our time together we've competed successfully at several Stanford Hall National Alfa Day concours competitions. It'll need a bit of TLC to coax it back onto the road (I'm thinking new fuel hoses, new brake fluid, an oil change and a general service), but I do miss driving it.

Here's a photo of it that was done as a photoshoot for a book. I never did find out which book it was going in, so if anyone recognises the photo I'd love to hear from you (unless you're the publisher and I've broken any copyright laws by posting it here, in which case I'd rather NOT hear from you)!



Chris

[Kegsti66]

Welcome Chris,
Car looks nice and it will be great if you can get her back on the road.
We have a few good meets soon to get along to.
NAD and MITCAR so hopefully see you, and the car soon.
Keith.

[KevJTD]

welcome on board Chris, car looks great in the pic, nice sharp and true lines.

as your from Notts we'll be having a little mid week mini meet somewhere around the area soon when Tony has his annual pilgrimage so look out for that

[Chris P Duck]

Thanks both, it'll be good to have something to aim for. When I was using my car more regularly I did very few of the mechanical jobs myself, but since then I've had a lot more practice, ever since I bought my camper van ("VW, turning owners into mechanics for 50 years" ). What else should I be doing to the car to recommission it after maybe 10 years?

- New fuel hoses (and fresh fuel)
- new brake and clutch fluid
- Oil and filter
- Coolant

I seem to have temporarily mislaid my Haynes manual - how difficult is a belt change? Having watched just about every episode of Car SOS I've seen Fuzz Townshend change a cam belt by slitting the old one along its length and removing the outer half, sliding the new belt into place, then cutting the inner half of the old one off and pushing the new one home. Would that technique work on the Sud?

And where are the preferred places to get service parts from these days?

[Chris P Duck]

My car is hidden under a car cover and buried behind a mountain of junk in my garage at the moment, so it's not easy for me to check. But in preparation for maybe excavating and re- commissioning it this weekend, can somebody advise what is the approximate total length of fuel hose that I need to replace the rubber on all the fuel lines, and what is the correct internal diameter?

On the forum I follow for my camper van this is a regular topic, as there are no end of horror stories about campers going up in flames because of rotten fuel lines, and having changed them a couple of times I know that there are two different internal diameters needed for the camper. It's a long time since I even opened the bonnet on my Sud, but I do know it still has the original 32 year old fuel hose

[justsuds]

Fuel lines are 8mm for supply, and 6mm for return, - about 2m will be more than enough, - don't forget the pieces near the tank, there are short pieces between the metal pipes that are clipped up under the sill and the pick up pipe from the tank and also in the return line that runs back into the filler neck.
John.

[Chris P Duck]

Thank you - exactly what I needed.

Chris

[Kegsti66]

Hi Chris,
As you plan to change the coolant, if you remove the radiator as well, you can flush it out and it will help with more room on the belt change.
If you use the engine's markers ( "T" on the flywheel and markers on the cam housing ) you can remove and change the belts without the need to "Fuzz about". You don't want to nick your new belts with a Stanley knife !!
Obviously, check and clean the brakes out as well before replacing the fluid.
Check all the lights work as that would be a bugger to fail your MOT on.
I get my parts from a local factors, but the likes of John can also sort you out .
Good luck, and hopefully we will see you both soon.

[Alfasixnut]

Welcome - nice looking Sud and it will be good to bring it back to life - plenty of help and support on here!

[KevJTD]

I've seen people do the belt slit approach and was more than surprised to see it advertised as a legitimate way of doing things.
I do get it in one way, keeping timing marks and all that but no mention of properly tensioning the new belt, or changing pulleys/guides
plus on a sud it won't work as the n/s belt sits behind the o/s one so it does need to come off.

marks are easy to find, the flywheel one is sometimes a bit faded but they are there
notches in the cam box houses at the rear end, tensioners have a spring that puts the right tension on each belt, new pulleys often come with a kit as the wheels are plastic and can fatigue

another little thing to check is the vacuum pipes that link to the little breather junction, they can go brittle and split which doesn't help the engine running!


I would add though if you're doing a belt change then a fresh water pump isn't a bad idea as they have much better access once the belts are out of the way, just be prepared for some chiselling

[Chris P Duck]

Thanks everyone - all good information. And that tip about the nearside belt sitting behind the offside one is the sort of advice I was after - no alternative but to do it properly. I'm going to have to order a replacement Haynes manual I think, and I seem to remember Ed China covered the belt change so I'll watch that back. Thanks also for the tip about the vacuum lines - I have plenty of nylon and silicon hard and flexible pipe in stock - that's another common problem on the camper.

Yes, I was planning to remove and flush the radiator, but I've read up a bit on the water pump and was hoping to get away without that for an initial re-commission. It was running fine the last time I used it, and the engine isn't particularly high mileage, so I'm hoping I can run with the existing one for now and only change it if it's a problem. Is it corrosion that makes it hard to get out? Is that caused by the wrong coolant, and if so, what's the recommended type? In my camper engine (alloy water-cooled flat four) it's critical to use the right coolant (G12 or better) otherwise the head studs, which pass all the way through the water jacket, corrode and snap when you try to get the heads off.