Triumph over Alfa-pity
How great it would be if I could report that the Spider was happily starting again and out enjoying the spring weather. But it isn’t. I closed my last report waiting for a new main battery/starter motor cable, which duly arrived. And in taking off the old one I discovered that it had in the past been burned badly on the exhaust and taped up, with the bad bit tucked out of sight. That must be the problem. But it wasn’t.
I did some research and found mention that the centre of the starter motor bolts should be a special shouldered one, to position it exactly in relation to the flywheel. I hadn’t seen one of those during the now many times I’ve had the starter off so I ordered a new one from Classic Alfa. That had to be the answer, as the main symptom now was the starter seeming to not mesh correctly with the flywheel.
Once again it wasn’t, though with patience and Easy-start I did manage to get the car to fire up, so took it out for a ten-mile blast – firstly because it needed one and secondly because you never know, a good shakedown to bed everything together might do the trick.
It didn’t. After stopping for fuel it took 17 goes to persuade the car to start again.
So that was me and the internet all out of ideas. At this point there’s really no alternative but to call in professional help, so the Spider has been packed off on a trailer to The Alfa Workshop in Royston, Herts, my nearest Alfa specialist. I’m dreading the bill, but looking forward to once again being able to use the car properly.
Seeking distraction I volunteered to navigate for my friend Simon on Club Triumph’s Historic Counties Run. It’s a 12-hour overnight event that basically involves visiting as many on a list of prescribed counties and points of interest as you can in the time allowed, and providing photographic evidence of each.
To make the 500 miles even more interesting, our rally steed was an exceedingly beige Triumph Acclaim.
But who needs six cylinders and big litreage? Starting in Coventry and reaching points as diverse as Crewe, Peterborough and Bristol, we came fourth out of 21 entries and bagged a trophy for winning the car-related pub quiz element of the trial.
Still, I’m sure we’d have done even better if we’d have used the Alfa.