Alfa Romeo Tips

I wrote these tips in 1998. Your cars and experience may be different, proceed with caution at your own risk.

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Trying to change the driver’s side headlight bulb? The bulb retaining screw-on ring is obscured by the air filter box to the back side, and on top by the relay holder.; First-view choices are to remove the air filter cover and airflow meter or try and reach the bulb retaining ring by contortion. Alternative method: Using a small 8mm wrench, remove the two small nuts attaching the relay holder to the body. Then swing the holder out of the way and the bulb ring will be easily reached. Note - remove the wiring plug from the back of the bulb before undoing the ring and trying to remove bulb – there’s little room to spare between the wiring loom and air filter box, so you’ll have to remove the wiring loom anyway. This method makes bulb changing a 5 minute job max.

Leaking crank seal? Tip from Rich at Tonkin’s Gran Turismo: I noticed some seepage from what looked like the “rear” crank seal area down the driver/transmission side of the crankcase. Thinking it may be cigarette seals too, I started inquiries about general procedures (entailing motor mount removal, sub-frame moving, and hoisting engine up to get the crankcase off!). Why not leave it you ask? Well, airflow causes the drip from this spot to land right on the exhausts and cat converter – nice oil smell and a bit of smoke from time to time. Worth investigating and trying to fix! Rich noted that seepage from the rear valve cover gasket will sometimes flow down around the block, and down the crankcase in just that very spot (below the crank seal), and advised checking for leaks at the valve cover. Short story: I needed to do a valve adjustment anyway, so in the process cleaned all valve cover mating surfaces very well with lacquer thinner (the “Gillam” method) and used the ALFA OEM gaskets that have silicone impregnating the gasket. Upon reassembly I’ve noted no recurrence of the “crank seal” leak (Thank you Rich!)

Rough Idle? Install proper hose clamps on the Idle Air Control valve and vapor separator hoses behind the airbox, replacing the simple metal strip clamps installed at the factory. Over time the rubber becomes brittle/hard allowing air seepage into the idle circuit at the IAC and vapor separator. There’s also a small rubber grommet between the IAC valve and the airbox, which gets hard too, allowing air seepage. The IAC valve is held to the airbox by a clamp and easy to remove. Pull the IAC back a few inches to the firewall, replace grommet, and reassemble.

While the main airbox is off for valve adjustment, remove the vapor separator and check to ensure it’s not plugged with goo. Blow through the openings, alternately plugging the two other holes to see if the drain line and air outlet fittings are plugged or open. If suspect, rinse out with gasoline and allow to dry out overnight.  The Vapor separator can be removed for inspection with everything in place, but it’ll take some work with nimble fingers!

SPIDER (late model)

If you ever have the brake/clutch peddle box out (say, if you’re replacing the steering box) – replace the clutch clevis pin, plastic pinion shaft bushings, and have the pinion shaft reinforced at the pivot arm. The arm is tack welded to the shaft on the outside edge only, but not on the inside. This joint is a very common failure point! The Sports Car Shop in Eugene did a beautiful job Tig welding the inside edge for me (Thank you Bob!), thus reinforcing this critical component (you DO like to have a usable clutch in the middle of nowhere don’t you?). Use a high quality moly grease upon reassembly. Did your little foam/rubber seal ring at this joint (between the joint of the shaft/arm and the pedal box) disintegrate upon disassembly? Go to an automotive store and ask for some battery terminal felt rings. I bought a few different brands and ended up with a perfect match for the old seal, coated it with grease upon reassembly and it looks/works great. Between the peddle box and body use 3M “strip calk” upon reassembly, available at automotive stores for penny’s a strip.

Burman Steer boxes – Leaking from the bottom of the steering box at the main shaft? obtain replacement steer box main shaft bottom seals from Jon Norman’s Alfa Parts in Berkley. Per Ruth there, she said some boxes come with just an O-ring, but a machine shop can very easily rout the correct dimension to fit the large style seal (the large style comes OEM on some boxes, while the O-ring is used on certain years – not too common). If you’ve got the large style seal in your box, just use a Pitman arm puller to pull the arm from the shaft, pry out the old seal, and put the new one in (be sure to re-torque properly and use a new retaining pin!) If you’re not replacing the steer box, you shouldn’t need to do an alignment, as the splines are quite coarse, and there are big scribe marks on the Pitman arm and on the shaft to line them up the same way they were.

Steer Boxes – general: Apparently, there are two styles for the Burman box (not counting the stub shaft GTV boxes). I’ve heard there is a “long” shaft and a “less-long” shaft. Apparently on the early Alfa’s with a non-dished steering wheel, the shaft is of a different length than later dished-steering wheel Spiders.  So, if you’re looking for a replacement Burman steer box be sure to check the shaft length of the one you’re contemplating! Late model ZF boxes are apparently a suitable replacement for earlier dish steering wheel spider if you can’t find a Burman (don’t know if they’ll work on flat steering wheel spider). Good ones ARE hard to find, but rebuilt Burman boxes are available from Centerline in Colorado, and Alfa Parts Exchange in Hayward has a supply of used ones too.