The day my "onboro ALFA" would revive

Last time when I did the maintenance of WEBER , I found fuel leakage from the fuel hose connected to WEBER. I recognized that the gaskets of the fuel union had to be replaced. I bought a gasket sheet with 0.8mm thickness at a motorcycle part store.  I guess it is cheaper if I order it at automobile part wholesaler.  But I bought it at motorcycle part store because I wanted to get it quickly.  I found there are lots of parts , which can be utilized for a historic car repair , in a motorcycle part store. ☺︎ I copied the gasket shape on the gasket sheet and cut out them with a cutter , but to cut out the rounded shape was little difficult.   It took more time than I expected.  I should buy a circle cutter in next time. The appearance was not very good , but it should be no problem functionally.  And it would be invisible after the installation. After the installation I activated the electrical fuel pump and confirme...

Recently my onboroALFA had a difficulty in engine start. The phenomenon started before the restoration of the fuel tank I did almost 1 year ago.  Regarding the engine start of Giulia , normally push the gas pedal several times to operate the acceleration pump , then the engine should be started.  It didn ’ t work.  But the engine could be started with choke.  After the engine start , there was no problem.  So , I guessed the acceleration pump had some problem and cleaned it.  But the problem was not solved.  That was the situation. I overhauled the WEBER carburetors , but 2 years had passed already since then.  I thought probably the gasoline deteriorated , or some foreign matters may be clogged in the fuel line. However , when I was looking at the WEBER manual , I found some points , which could cause the bad engine start. There might be problem in these parts shown in the following picture and it could be cleaned wi...

On this day I was busy with home tasks so it was difficult to find the time for the repair , but I could manage to find a little time in the late evening. Regarding the hub bolts of the left rear axle currently repairing , the thread ( left handed thread ) of one of the hub bolts was damaged in the past.  I thought I should order it to replace , but I found it while I was checking my stock parts a few days before.  Thinking about it , it might have been ordered when I had ordered many parts a few years ago.  Recently I often forget the parts or tools I purchased in the past…that is bad! I had little time on this day , so I just prepared for the replacement.  Since the tip of the new bolt was very edgy as it was cut , I refined it with a file. The other work I did on this day was the replacement of the O rings at the accelerator pump jet plug of the WEBER carburetor.  I found that the O rings at the accelerator pump jet plug were...

I found that the coughing from the #1 cylinder at 1500~2000rpm. I adjusted the idle adjust screw to make the gas richer direction , and then the coughing was disappear ☺︎ I wanted to start the next task , however , in this season I had lots of other events in every weeks , such as may kid ’ s basketball match , the open day of my kid ’ s school , so I couldn ’ t find the time. Rusted fuel tank , the overhaul of the sticking brake calipers and master cylinder , the overhaul of clutch master cylinder and the replacement of hub bearing … there were millions of tasks I had to do! The rust removal of the fuel tank seemed to be tough.  Someone said that it should be done by professional shop because there might be the risk of the explosion.  I was wondering how should I do ?

I tried painting the air cleaner box with yellow paint. Oh , it became gorgeous!  It looked very Italian! ? ( I should take a picture after cleaning the engine room… ) I would enjoy this color for a while.

I cleaned the air cleaner box because it had to be removed for the WEBER overhaul.  Now I was thinking to paint it. I was considering the color of the air cleaner box.  However , as a primer paint , I tentatively painted it by brush with the gray rust prevent paint I bought before. After painting I installed the air cleaner box on the engine as a trial.  But immediately I found it was bad color combination.  Which color would be interesting except for normal black ? i  I had several old parts I was thinking to install on my onboro ALFA. One was the Abarth steering wheel that I used for the 1st generation Honda Civic I drove when I was a student. It looked not so bad on the picture , but actually the leather condition was very bad with lots of cracks.  I liked it very much , so I could not throw it away.  I was thinking I wanted to use it at the first time in 20 years. The other one was this wheel. I fo...

I did the adjustment for the idling. The oil pressure was increased and it seemed good. The engine was running at 600rpm stably.  No problem so far!

One week passed and a long-awaited weekend came. I changed the engine oil , Put the oil from the sparkplug holes and rotate the crank by hand , Tighten the idle adjust screws to the end and return 1 turn , At last I turned on the ignition praying the moment of the engine starting.  After hearing the sound that the electric fuel pump sending the fuel , I pushed the gas pedal a few times then turned on the key … VROOOOOOOOM!!!!! The engine started with the first ignition!!!!! ☺︎☺︎☺︎ The engine revived for the first time in 10 years!  YES!!  I did it!!! I haven ’ t done the accurate adjustment , but the idling was stable and it seemed good. Tomorrow I would do the adjustment for the idling and throttle synchronization ♪

Despite the WEBER was already assembled , I was busy recently and could not find the time. But today I could manage to find a time and installed the WEBER on the engine! I also wanted to try the engine start.  But I found that the cam cover was dirty and for some reason I began to remove the cam cover to clean it.  As the result it became dark and I withheld to start the engine at night. I became very hungry so we enjoyed a barbecue with “ Shichirin ” for our dinner. (“ Shichirin ” is a small portable stove for cooking with charcoal made by clay. )  

On Saturday I had to go office and Sunday was the athletic festival of my kids ’ school.  Therefore , the progress of my work was little.    From today evening I started to assemble the second WEBER. As I got used to it a little , the assembly of the second WEBER was faster. The mission for the WEBER overhaul was completed.  Remaining task was to install the WEBER on the engine and to start the engine.  I hoped it would go well…

I ’ ve assembled one WEBER finally!  I felt that the WEBER was really cool. It became much cleaner than before. The taste of wine at this night was really good!!!

Finally the cleaning of the WEBER was completed almost.  It was still not shiny , but much cleaner than the previous horrible condition.    I also cleaned the screws and jets.  The hole of the main jet was clogged with the deteriorated gasoline.  Now I understood that the reason why engine couldn ’ t run.  I used a thin brass wire to clean the hole. At night I had a call from Mini shop that the ordered acceleration pump rod was prepared. Tomorrow morning I would go to the shop to pick up the part and assemble the WEBER!

Again it was continuation of the WEBER overhaul. I tried the engine conditioner to melt the sticking accelerator pump.  Based on the structural drawing on the manual and the fact that the acceleration pump rod could be moved slightly , I guessed the piston was sticking. I sprayed the engine conditioner a lot , which was normally used to melt the carbon inside the cylinder , on the accelerator pump piston and rod , then went for a walk with my dog.  After 2 hours walk I tried to remove them.  I expected success this time , but it failed… So I changed my strategy.  I inserted the screw driver in the upper part of the acceleration pump and pulled up it carefully using the screw driver as lever.  It removed! ?  But actually only the rod was removed because the hook shape at the top was deformed…oh my god!  The piston was still sticking.  I ’ ve got desperate and put the radio pliers in the WEBER.  I grabbed the piston with pliers a...

Finally I have started the disassembly of the WEBER.  I was a bit nervous in front of the removed WEBER , some goods for the overhaul ( I got them at 100Yen store and DIY hardware store ) and my treasury genuine workshop manual.  At first I started to disassemble the WEBER for #3 and #4 cylinders , which seemed to be bad condition because of the sticking acceleration pump. According to the instruction in the workshop manual , I removed the top cover , idling jets , main jets , inlet valves and acceleration pump retainer valve.   So far there was no problem.  However , the acceleration pump jet was sticking.  I couldn ’ t remove it… I decided to do it later.  I removed the choke jets , inspection screws , idling mixture screws and choke systems.  Finally I came to the sticking acceleration pump.  I removed the spring plate and pulled the pump….…but the sticking pump didn ’ t move!!! I gave up today. ...

Yesterday, the removal of the WEBER was interrupted by the sticking nuts. Today morning, I went to the DIY hardware store near my house thinking how I could remove the WEBER. When I arrived at the store, “junk tool sale” was held at the store timely.   I got the combination wrench set with the special price 498JPY (about $4.5).  It seemed thinner and better than what I had used.  And I also got the disc grinder to make the special tool from my old tools because I thought I would struggle to loosen the nuts. However, contrary to my expectation, I could loosen the nuts easily by new 498JPY combination wrench.   Great!  There was no turn for the disc grinder I bought…okay I wanted it before.   So, I could remove the WEBER finally. After the removal I found that different size of nuts were used.   2 pieces of 12mm nuts and 2 pieces of 13mm nuts were used in the WEBER for #1 and #2 cylinders.  And all 12mm nuts were used for the other...