Spider (1966-Up) | Forum profile

If you wanted to get radical on it, you could cross drill the heads of the screws then safety wire one to the other so they couldn't back out more than 1/16th~1/8th or so of a turn even if they did come loose. Granted it wouldn't be fun getting the wire in there, and there's not much room for the spinner pliers to work, but it would all but gaurentee that they'd stay there until you deliberately wanted to remove them.

Quote: Originally Posted by cjsrale Sorry to be a pain with all the questions but it's great to be able to figure out what wrong and fix it.

Dang, you trumped us all . . . I may use Castrol 20W50 now . . . but deep fried. Any takers for Redline now??

Coolant coming out of the head studs is quite normal since they are not the highest point in the cooling system. To prevent coolant leakage during a retorque, remove the cooling system fill cap, squeeze the upper radiator hose and install the cap while the hose is being squeezed. This will create a slight negative pressure in the cooling system that will (hopefully) prevent any leakage (or at least minimize leakage). OTOH, putting some paper...

I am surprised this hadn't been posted previously. A very long but highly informative and super illustrated thread posted by Gadwhite giving a step by step process for pulling the gearbox, installing a new clutch, flywheel resurfacing, and replacing all the other things while you're there on a Series 3. It applies to the all Spiders S2-S4. Along with head gasket replacement, surely a rite of passage for an Alfisto....

I could never afford an Alfa when they were new. Only new car I ever bought new was a 1970 MGB roadster. Price was $3,108.00. Included a factory tonneau cover. I will never forget that price. How much was an Alfa Spider in 1970? Robert 1988 Black Spider Veloce

We have had it since '87.

If the head is smooth and exhibits no corrosion on the sealing surface I would have it checked for straightness but not plan to surface it unless absolutely required. If needed, take off the bare minimum to bring it back to a good surface; my machine shop says they manage to take off just .003-.005." A shop that knows aluminum heads is pretty much essential to evaluate. You can't judge them by the standards of cast iron. Andrew

If you have that kind of time, troll e-bay for "alfa romeo head remove tool". You can gin one up yourself if you're better at fab than I am, but there's an aussie who seems to sell one every 6 months or so. That's the only specialized tool that's nice to have for this job. And even that's not required.

The PO for my 71 found an interesting solution to the horn problem. He attached a door bell button to the bottom of the steering column with wood screws. The horn works.... but,well, it's sooo declasse, ya know? In the process of fixing my turn signals (I'll ask about the spring in a separate post) I've gotten the wheel off and disassembled and cleaned the horn "button" mechanism. I too have a "red...