Alfa 33 Rebuild

conaero

conaero

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For those of you who dont have local knowledge of the South Coast, the Taliban is slang for a local pub, The Talisman, Parkgate.

Dicky lives just round the corner.
 
M

MAF260

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Conaero said:
For those of you who dont have local knowledge of the South Coast, the Taliban is slang for a local pub, The Talisman, Parkgate.

Dicky lives just round the corner.
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Thank fook for that! Although parking a car somewhere near the Taliban full of explosives wouldn't be a bad thing. Not the 33 though, Dicky - too much hard work has gone into it!!!
 
SachaP

SachaP

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Lovely reading this thread. I ran a 1991 33 1.5 a while back, in glorious white. A friend at the time took the mickey when he saw that I had bought a white Alfa, but i personally loved everything about it. Sold it cos I developed a hankering to own an XJS, but if I had to choose between the two I would take the 33 every time. Iconic rear lights in my opinion.
 
CatmanV2

CatmanV2

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dickyb said:
I have a number of electrical issues that are a real pain, I was hoping to just reconnect the battery and it would all come back to life
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Wow. You must be the most optimistic person on the planet!

Looking good, though :)

C
 
2b1ask1

2b1ask1

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Now that is impressive Dicky; as ever a real pleasure to read the updates, simply awesome dedication to perfection... Keep going the end must be in sight :)
 
conaero

conaero

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Keep going Dicky, the finish is within sight.

When its down in Parkgate let me know would love to pop over and have a gander.
 
CatmanV2

CatmanV2

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dickyb said:
Sorry, no pictures in this update but now got most of the wiring issues sorted. It was mostly down to earths, there are 3 which go on the engine block that had not been connected (due to there being no engine yet!) and these were causing all kinds of weird problems like indicators coming on instead of headlights. For those of you familiar with Alfas of a certain age, my car was fitted with the Alfa Control panel (a series of additional and generally spurious warning lights).
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Generally spurious? The one in the 116 acted as a better thrmometer than anything else. The colder the ambient temperature was, the more lights would flash randomly on and off!
Got to agree about the timing belts.
C
 
conaero

conaero

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dickyb said:
Sorry, no pictures in this update but now got most of the wiring issues sorted. It was mostly down to earths, there are 3 which go on the engine block that had not been connected (due to there being no engine yet!) and these were causing all kinds of weird problems like indicators coming on instead of headlights. For those of you familiar with Alfas of a certain age, my car was fitted with the Alfa Control panel (a series of additional and generally spurious warning lights). I decided a while ago to delete this function and have a small storage cubby hole instead as featured on models without Alfa Control. I have now discovered that the main wiring loom for cars fitted with Alfa Control is totally different to those without it, and having carefully studied the wiring diagrams it seems that a lot of wiring goes through Alfa Control and some items (such as rear lights) will not work if it is not present. A replacement is currently winging its way to me and will hopefully resolve most of the outstanding issues.

If anyone has been inspired to try a 33 for themselves, this one may be of interest.
http://www.alfa-pages.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=6978
http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C422789

I think this is a really nice honest car with no major issues and really good value, decent 33s are few and far between these days, latest figures suggest that there are just 92 taxed in the UK (all versions). This one would certainly have made much better sense than my project! Don't beleive the hype about the cam belts as stated in the Car and Classics advert though, 33s are very sensitive on cambelts. That mytimingbelt.com says information not available rather than an infitite cambelt life as the vendor seems to have interpreted it. On the 16v, cambelts need to be checked at least yearly as the correct tension is vital and personally, I would change them every 3 years irrespective of mileage, I certainly wouldn't do any more than 36000 miles on them (I think that is also Alfa Romeo's recommendation). If a belt goes on one of these engines you can almost guarantee it will lunch the cylinder head on the affected bank and if you're really unlucky it may even take out the belt for the other head. Happy to help anyone if I have inspired them to take the plunge.
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If I had the space, then I might consider it but I just dont at the moment as the car is just up the road from me.

Did want a P4 if I am honest really.
 
mjheathcote

mjheathcote

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As I have said before, I loved my P4 (oh the traction, the grip...) however it is easy to only remember the good points...the bad points where the central diff 'bounce'. My ownership was pre-www as we know it, and apparently it was TADS. Also the rear diff whine, that I never solved even after an expensive rebuild.
 
mjheathcote

mjheathcote

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CatmanV2 said:
What was the bounce?
C
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When undertaking a sharp turn, say pulling out of road junction, or turning into or out of a car parking spot, the central viscous diff would bounce up and down on its rubber mountings. I think it was a case of 'transmission windup' with the 4x4 system, the viscous diff could not cope with extremes of the different rotational speeds between the front and rear when undertaking a tight turn.
 
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