Classic Alfa Forums

alfadave wrote:Take the petrol cap to Colourtone in uptown Stockport.
They'll colour match it for you!

Yes that's what the bloke who did it said, and when the wings were painted it worked out but no this time. Who knows it may fade to the right colour.

Spacenut wrote:

junior wrote:Time travels slower in rural Herefordshire.

Not as slowly as it travels in rural Hampshire

Car is looking great - where are you off to first? Auto Italia? SAD?

Got a couple of events up here first but hoping to do a proper Alfa day soon.

Sprint88qv wrote:.....the mystery continues......

How else would you get the frogs out of your pit, and with the sad state of amphibians world wide its got to be done.

Hi.

Took the Sud out for a run and it still makes me smile lots. The garage next door to Eric Weaver at Ludlow who helps me, is now an italian one and so soon

after I had it on the ramp all 4 mechanics were round to have a look at it. made them smile too so that's good.

Just taken a front leg off and the springs are 10 inch and 350 pounds. I would like to soften them a bit and am thinking of 300 or 275 lbs.

Any thoughts please to assist my decision. Do not want to go too soft and risk damaging tyres etc.

Thanks.

For general tarmac use i am on 225lb springs
I might have something in between if you want me to have a look?

Rsfruitbat

rsfruitbat wrote:For general tarmac use i am on 225lb springs
I might have something in between if you want me to have a look?

Rsfruitbat

I am on coil overs I believe the term is, 2' and 8 inch long so quite short , so i probable will go to Demon Tweeks,

but if you have something inbetween to try that would be a great help. Thank for the offer.

I'll take a look in the spares and see what I have. They will be 2.25" and either 9" or 10.5" long though.

I am only in Kidderminster so not far if I do have something

rsfruitbat

Ah yes had forgotten that your so close.

I may be able to get away with a 9inch, but no more as they are short dampers. Thanks a lot for looking though.

Interesting your on 225 as that is a lot less than 350. Mind you my chum Eric was saying about some Ford people on 600 springs, that must be virtually rigid.

junior wrote:My chum Eric was saying about some Ford people on 600 springs, that must be virtually rigid.

My old Droop Snoot Firenza had 900 lb springs on the front and 450 lb rears. I didn't need the anti-roll bars so they were removed!

Not saying that springs that firm are a good idea, but the snoot did handle.

I've got some analysis spreadsheets that I used to calculate the optimum spring rates for the Nova (325 rear, 225 front), based on a target resonant frequency and taking into account sprung weight and unsprung weight etc. Based on the formulas in Allan Staniforth's Race and Rally Car Source Book. I can look them out if you are interested.

Lauren

So far found some 8" x 300lb and some 9" x 225lb
Come and get them if you want to try them
Be weekend before I can see what else I might have.
Rsfruitbat

Spacenut wrote:

junior wrote:My chum Eric was saying about some Ford people on 600 springs, that must be virtually rigid.

My old Droop Snoot Firenza had 900 lb springs on the front and 450 lb rears. I didn't need the anti-roll bars so they were removed!

Not saying that springs that firm are a good idea, but the snoot did handle.

I've got some analysis spreadsheets that I used to calculate the optimum spring rates for the Nova (325 rear, 225 front), based on a target resonant frequency and taking into account sprung weight and unsprung weight etc. Based on the formulas in Allan Staniforth's Race and Rally Car Source Book. I can look them out if you are interested.

Lauren

900 ! Wow I never thought people would go that hard. Thanks for the offer of the book but to be honest that sounds above my pay grade, again thanks for the offer.

I shall have an experiment with fruitbats 300 lb and see how the car feels then.

rsfruitbat wrote:So far found some 8" x 300lb and some 9" x 225lb
Come and get them if you want to try them
Be weekend before I can see what else I might have.
Rsfruitbat

Hi. The 300 lbs sound to be the best thing to try could you pm me your address and when would suit you for me to call over. Thur eve would be handy if its not too short a notice.

Thanks.

I have got to go out tomorrow night sorry.
I should be about all over the weekend though.
Let me know if that's any good

Rsfruitbat

junior wrote:900 ! Wow I never thought people would go that hard. Thanks for the offer of the book but to be honest that sounds above my pay grade, again thanks for the offer.

I shall have an experiment with fruitbats 300 lb and see how the car feels then.

No problem - I wasn't offering the book anyway, just the spreadsheet. I found it at an autojumble, the best £2.50 I ever spent, still a mine of useful information, even today.

I targeted a suspension resonant frequency suitable for circuit racing, which was 125 cycles per minute. To a first approximation, the mass of my Nova is probably very similar to your Sud at 830 kg, the only difference is that the Nova is distributed 54% rear and 46% front, and the Sud about the same but with the largest mass over the front axle instead of the rear. Take into account the mechanical advantage conferred by my wishbones, which requires a higher spring rate to overcome compared with your Mac struts, and 300 lb front springs will probably put you in the same place.

Lauren

Yes i gathered that ta, and it is great when you bump into something so useful and so cheap. i once found a book on making buildings with a chainsaw in a charity shop (£4) and gave it to a chum who i knew would love it.

25 years on he still raves about it and with the net he now knows its ultra rare and worth a lot of money in the states. Makes me smile.

I bow to your wisdom and that is good to know. I am very intrigued to find how much difference it will make as never having messed with cars before this is quite entertaining.

Some from the motorbikes crosses over but less than I had imagined. Will be post to let you know how I go on.

junior wrote:

rsfruitbat wrote:So far found some 8" x 300lb and some 9" x 225lb
Come and get them if you want to try them
Be weekend before I can see what else I might have.
Rsfruitbat

Hi. The 300 lbs sound to be the best thing to try could you pm me your address and when would suit you for me to call over. Thur eve would be handy if its not too short a notice.

Thanks.

Thanks to Fruitbat I now have a much better car as it is far more controlled over bumps and a lot of the crashing sounds have stopped. Its not a leisure drive, its still quite raw and fun but much more usable on 300 lbs springs.

i just need to adjust the tops now as it was sat down a bit at the front when I took it on the run home, and now its sat down a bit more. just needs leveling up I reckon.

Now got it going on to 3 cylinders between 2300 rpm and 2800 unless I am accelerating hard . Annoying, but to be expected, as its still settling in..

Back to 4 cylinders and running well. Just seems to have been a wet plug. Perhaps one of the times someone else has started it and not given it a few rev's from cold.

I came back from a local meet the other day and it lifted the front over a small bridge on the main road and landed perfectly. Very pleased with my new springs.

It always used to crash about at that point.

Took the rear wheel with me to Eric Weaver as I was helping strip down a ford wiring loom. Very boring, so two of you makes it less of a chore. Thinners cleaned it up very well.

Some of the wiring looked brand new when we finished with it.

Anyhow the wheel was balanced very carefully and took 140 grams to get it right. So its an odd tyre ! The old weights put on by a reliable firm with a good name had fallen off so i put them on the bench to remind me to get it done.

So when I got home I checked. Only 60 grams. And there was I thinking they had done a good job.

Great day out at Richards Castle soap box. They rundown all day and we run up at lunch time and for some reason we got 3 runs today so a good blast in the car and its running spot on.

Sitting nice now as well after a little bit more adjustment.
Eric Weaver who has helped me a lot has this Anglia and drives it well. Got all out of shape on his second run and just gave it more stick to get it back, so big black rubber marks up the track. I was quite impressed.
Also one of the good things about this place is the views.

Looks like you had a great day out, and you're right, views are fantastic.
Anglia looks a tough bit of kit

Yep there is not got a bit of it that has not been worked on at one point or another to improve it. Its won a lot and Eric has been west midlands champion in it.

Quite impressive. Esp to some one who knew nothing about Anglia's.

My Citroen has had its dual mass flywheel come apart and so got the Sud out as everyday transport.

What fun. Until the main beam stopped working !

Traced the problem to this contact not coming down hard enough on the bottom pillar to make a good contact.
I would rather build the bottom pillar up than bend the tab down as if it does not bend well I have ruined a £45 switch. An it does feel resistant to change (like many of us)

where as if the pillar can be built up I an always file it down again.

Anyone solved the same problem. Blob of solder or would it melt the plastic ? Liquid metal ? Conductivity. Thank for your thoughts.

Are your switches early or late type?

Its a lucas one. SQB114. Chosen so I could get a lot of functions easily on one stalk.

Ta

Was it used on Range Rovers?
Maybe ask on their Forums?

It was used on mini's, but their forum seems to be having a big argument about fuses and so it mentions the problem, but no solution.

Been suggested to araldite a small strip of brass on to the contact whilst ensuring there is still continuity. Not sure about that one.

Waiting for a reply off Lauren as the electrics man on this site !

Now the Fiat 500 had died and the RAC said 4 to 5 hrs, so walked 7 miles home,

(minus one mile when a lady in VW van ran responded to my thumb and took me to the next country road junction. Funny all the country folk `who would do anything for anyone' would not give me a lift)

then RAC rang to say another 6hrs, and so from 3 cars and we are now down to the Sud.

Had the same problem on the wife's Marina.
Ended up changing the stall to solve the problem reliably.
Tried various things but wouldn't solve it permanently.

Rsfruitbat

rsfruitbat wrote:Had the same problem on the wife's Marina.
Ended up changing the stall to solve the problem reliably.
Tried various things but wouldn't solve it permanently.

Rsfruitbat

Ah yes, drilling it out would be quite easy I think. Will take a good look at it at the weekend. Thank you.

junior wrote:Waiting for a reply off Lauren as the electrics man on this site !

Now the Fiat 500 had died and the RAC said 4 to 5 hrs, so walked 7 miles home,

(minus one mile when a lady in VW van ran responded to my thumb and took me to the next country road junction. Funny all the country folk `who would do anything for anyone' would not give me a lift)

then RAC rang to say another 6hrs, and so from 3 cars and we are now down to the Sud.

Sorry, bit late chipping in here. I am using a very similar set of stalks, albeit modified a bit

(pre-'77 Rover SD1 stalks, that's indicators on the RH side of the column and wiper on the LH side)

I too have had problems with my main beam contacts, made worse by the low current passing through the contacts due to the use of relays (SD1 originally routed the full headlamp current through the contacts). As RH indicator stalks are getting hard to find I have (1) cleaned the contacts with emery cloth, (2) carefully bent the contacts so that they have similar travel between dip and main beam, and (3) fabricated a small aluminium clamp plate that fixes over the contact leaf with a self tapper. In my case it increases the travel, without it the contacts don't seem to close. Maybe due to wear in the plastic cam attached to the stalk.

I don't suppose any of that helps as I suspect each set of stalks is different. That said, there is quite a lot of read across between BL parts, so you might find a replacement that fits from an SD1, Mini, Marina, TR7... Also, I have noticed that the LP5000 Countach uses the same stalks as me, as well as Alfasud S3 face vents, so you are in good company

Good luck with the fix and sorting out the rest of your fleet!

Lauren

Thank you lauren. Get the Citroen c3 back tomorrow and will be very glad. 32 mile cycle to Ludlow has left me a bit tired.

The idea of it being wear in the plastic cam is interesting as I was trying to fathom what had changed for it suddenly not to work.

Will have to have a good look in the daylight. Thanks to all for advice.

Took the indicator stalk off cleaned it all carefully, but no different.

Ran out of time and left it.

Took it out in the pouring rain and muck as had to move it and it was quite interesting as the light weight and wide tyres seemed to be making it aquaplane.

Best of it was that the lights now work !

So carefully put it away and see what happens in the spring.