CLASSIC TAILS

TIPS, TRICKS AND NOSTALGIA FROM A LIFETIME IMMERSED IN OLD CARS ANDREW EVERETT

ITALIAN RELIABILITY

THERE USED TO BE (probably still is) a lot of talk about Italian electrics and how Snr M. Marelli must have been Joseph Lucas’ Italian cousin. Well, I’ve had no fewer than 28 Alfa Romeos. About half were breakers that I used for bits, but the other half were used and abused – from Alfasuds through 33’s, an Arna, 164 Twin Spark, a couple of 75’s and a Giulietta RS. And you know what? I can’t recall a single Italian electrical fault.

My first Sud was an R registration 1200Ti bought for £50 in 1986. Originally Cilento brown, (brick red) it had been painted black and had been thrashed mercilessly by the previous owner and was a wreck. Yet all the electrical bits worked. From here I worked my way through the various other Sud models, including late model Sprints fitted with the 33 outboard front brakes but really, it was the original metal bumper saloons and two door Ti models I always liked best. Oh for the days when you could pick one up for 300 quid from a grainy black and white photo in the Thames Valley Trader.

CHEAP PART EXCHANGE

One stands out in particular, SWL618T. This Kermit green 1979 four-door 1.5 Super was a part exchange at the Alfa dealer I worked at in 1995. One owner from new who had taken the precaution of having it Ziebarted. By 1995 it was looking a bit grim – wing tops, rear arches and some other bits were thoroughly rotten but the Ziebart had saved the important bits.

I had it panelled up and repainted and sold it to another Alfa nut. It was driven by Clarkson in a Top Gear episode a few years ago – probably around 1998. I next saw it at an Alfa gathering at Stanford Hall around 15 years ago and it still looked very good – where is it now? Needless to say, the bits that required 12 volts to work, just did.

With Alfasuds, you were too busy chasing rust to even think about making sure the electrical bits worked and I never had a single breakdown. I’m sure I had to replace a bulb or two, but one problem does spring to mind.

STUTTER & CUT OUT

This was on a 1986 1.5 Sprint Green Cloverleaf that would occasionally stutter and try to cut out but every time we went to find the fault, it would just sit there and idle perfectly. The fuel filter was nice and clean and it just didn’t feel like a fuel problem. But when it really did act up one day and only just limped back home with the occasional pop from the exhaust, it was clearly an ignition problem. I took the distributor cap off and looked inside.

The cap and rotor arm looked fine, with no tracking from one electrode to another, the plug leads all tested okay – but hang on, what’s this? There was a green insulated lead that ran from the electronic ignition module to the side the distributor body. Where the distributor end plugged in, the cable was damaged where the green cable entered the plug. If you flexed the cable with the engine running, it would cut out. Good old Robert Bosch eh? I did a temporary repair and drove up to the breakers to find another green cable – it might have come from a VW or an Audi, as it was slightly longer.

When the Suds were getting scarce, I moved onto 33’s and the problems were a worn cam lobe on one, a missing fifth gear on another, bits of rust on early ones but really, very little went wrong with these. Plus they were much easier to maintain due to having outboard brakes.

TERMINALLY ROTTEN

I only ever had one Alfetta, a mid green 1979 1.6 GTS Coupé on a V plate (GVT23V if I remember correctly) that was terminally rotten but which today would be a very viable resto project. I ran a 1985 Giulietta which was okay, and then a couple of 75’s. The first one was one of the early 1986 1.8 models that used Alfetta running gear – four stud wheels and carburettors – and the issues with this were a rusty fuel tank, worn stem seals and very dodgy rear light electrics due to the appalling wiring for a crap towbar. Once this was cut out and re-made properly it all worked okay and I enjoyed driving it. Not as much as the 1990 75 TS ( Twin Spark) though – that was bought with light front- end damage and repaired at four years old.

It was with the later stuff like the 155 that irritating electrical faults began to creep in and the 156 could be a real drain if you’ll excuse the pun. But Alfa were using a lot of Bosch bits by then and my last Alfa – a high mileage 164 TS – was bought for buttons as an ideal warrior to take to the Nurburgring.

This had an intermittent power loss issue where it would seem to lose about 20bhp and, on the way there, it went from being a sprightly 148bhp to about 110 if you were lucky. The reason? Well, one of the two Bosch distributor modules had failed, although it did come back to life on the A1 on the way back home after the weekend. Honestly, Italian electrics eh?