Alfetta Spica belts

[Joe Martin Cantrell <agiyo@domain.elided>]

Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2002 21:37:37 -0800
From: "Tom Dennis" <eyeinthepyramid@domain.elided>
Subject: SPICA Belt Assistance
Hi all,
After lurking on this list for awhile I finally took the plunge & bought my
first Alfa, a '77 Alfetta GT.
Car drove & checked out great. I was enjoying the drive home when I thought
to check the gas gauge, of course it was on empty (why do people insist on
selling cars with no more than a pint of gas in the tank?). I pulled into
the nearest gas station just as the car appeared to run out of gas. Pushed
it up to the pumps, filled up & guess what? still wouldn't start. To make a
long story short, had to have it towed the extra quater mile home & after
some poking & false starts discovered the spica belt had snapped (weird
coincidence that it happened with near empty tank at gas station).
I have a new belt, but my question is if there is a trick to getting the
damn thing on. It looks to require a bloody knuckle sacrifice and much foul
language. The guy at the Alfa shop says you have to remove either the spica
pulley or the crankshaft pulley. Please tell me there is another way. I have
lots of shade tree experience with other european cars of mostly German &
Swedish origin and a relatively complete set of tools.
BTW I have both the Alfa Bible & car disc and didn't see anything in either
on how to change the belt.
Thanks,
Tom D.

It can be done w/o pulling anything, or so they say; a couple of local guys 
claim to have done it on the roadside.  I suspect they can fit an SUV 
through a keyhole, too.

When it happened to my Alfetta, I pulled the pump---but the pump had 
seized, which was what broke the belt.  According to them what says they 
done it, talcum powder will help it through that silly slot around the 
crank pulley, so you don't have to remove anything major.

However, on Paul Albertson's Turbo Alfetta revival, we have pulled the 
crank pulley (not to mention the Wes Ingram magic on the Spica pump) and I 
believe Paul is removing some of that shroud which blocks access to the 
belt.  The earlier cars don't have it, and I've never heard of a problem 
except for one guy who lost one of those invisible nuts which had rolled 
into the inner workings, never to be found, until (I) pulled the damn pump 
again to replace the broken (new) belt (again).  sigh.

Joe, the slow learner

--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided