Danny goes under the GTV and gets completely stuck
It is a truly great car my GTV, the last proper Alfa sports car. I love every second behind the wheel but, boy it’s flaky. Having had my replacement window motor fail on me and the immobiliser begin to enjoy its role a bit too much, I decided to bite the bullet and SORN my 2.0 TS so I could get all the other jobs done, of which there were many.
Starting with the lower rear engine mount, which was allowing the whole engine to pivot and needed replacing. Of course, as is often the case with steel bolts going into aluminium holes, the main mounting bolt had seized, to the extent that, with a long bar, its head sheered. No matter, I could take the mounting plate off and release it that way. BDX spray worked its wonders on three of the four bolts here, but that last one would not budge. Heat, cold, walking away and more penetration gave similar results, and yes, the bolt – in the end – let go in the wrong way. I went through three drill bits removing what was left, followed by retapping. Sigh.
Clive’s cavalry
That was a full afternoon gone. Then I got to grips with the exhaust… the front section of which incorporated a flexi pipe which had failed. This came out without a fuss thanks to previous regular dosing with BDX fluid (I knew it needed doing so I ‘pre-penetrated’).
My TS is fitted with a rare ‘twin cat’ front pipe, which retails at around £600 if you can find one, so I decided on the cheaper option… a £30 flexi of the correct size followed by a ‘cut and shut’ with careful measurements so as not to miss the face of the next section back. A bit of a faff, but I don’t have that kind of cash at the moment, who does? By now I was two days in and I needed a hand, so Clive was summoned to come and tell me what I had done wrong and show me the ways of righteousness.
He did the final welding on the pipe and once the whole underside was reassembled we both cracked into the other tasks, including the main event, replacement of the cambelt. Removal of covers, coil packs, wheel arch liners and cambelt cover took up an hour for the two of us. There’s a power steeri
