Alfa Romeo Spider S2
1972 Alfa Romeo Spider 2000 S2
Owned by Russ Smith (russ.smith@gmx.com) Time owned Seven years Miles this month 94 Costs this month £0 Previously Handling overhauled by fitting periodlook Pirelli Cinturato tyres
If there’s an element of déjà vu to this episode of Our Cars it’s only because it has all happened before. Some classics can’t seem to get particular issues out of their systems. With editor Phil it invariably involves removing the rear axle from his Jaguar E-type; for my Alfa Spider it’s starter motors. By way of background, two years ago I replaced what might well have been the car’s original starter motor after it made ineffectual groaning noises and emitted quite a bit of smoke. I also took the opportunity to upgrade to the motor from the later S4 Spider, which is a straight swap but it’s a smaller, lighter and higher-torque unit. I’m starting to wonder if it’s also a flakier piece of kit…
The first (brand new) one failed completely, so that was replaced by a reconditioned Bosch item. Which was great for a while, though it was always quite noisy compared to previous units when turning the engine over.
Now that one’s gone down the Swanee too, grinding slowly to a halt when I was just about to head off to a show. It sounded like a flat battery, but that’s also near-new and the tester and charger both said otherwise.
On many cars removing the starter’s not a big deal, but on the Alfa it means first taking off the twin carburettors because you can’t get at the motor from below. It’s a real knuckle-skinning fiddle but with all the practice, I’ve got the job time down to just over an hour now. My regular parts supplier, Classic Alfa, to its great credit, immediately popped another starter in the post at no charge because the old one was still under warranty.
And I’m really hoping it’s third time lucky. Certainly the early signs are good. It not only seems like the liveliest of the starters I’ve tried on the Spider so far (further confirming the good health of the battery and all its connections), but it’s also the quietest. We’ll see.
At least the Spider only missed one week of the best summer we’ve had since the last one. But having fixed the car I managed to break myself, damaging the cartilage in my left (clutch) knee.
So instead of working on my Tuscany style top-down tan, I’ve been sweating away most journeys in my father’s automatic Peugeot 306. In which the aircon has stopped working.
Oh well, it did give a chance to get round to fitting the new pedal rubbers I bought earlier this year. Easy once you remember to put them in a saucepan of hand-hot water first. The old (probably original) ones were nearly out of tread. And so hard they had to be cut off with a Stanley knife.