Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 09:47:07 -0500
From: "Rich Hirsch" <[email protected]>
Subject: GTV6, Milano, Alfetta Driveshaft Vibration
Roger Medlin wrote in the Alfa Advocate, Mid Atlantic AROC, ca. 1996:
...
"Speaking of the giubo bolt and nut assemblies, Fred Di Matteo has written
that he has seen
different thickness washers and doubled up washers used in giubo assembly,
for balancing
purposes. Peter (Krause) said that he has never run into this, so be aware
of the possibility and
note so if found."
...
Peter Krause wrote in the Alfa Digest, ca. Apr 2002:
...
"For years I've been reading drivel about differing weights and
arrangements of washers,
bolts and nuts (no difference in the part numbers) and the idea of
"balancing" the driveshaft
with the addition of strategically placed hose clamps (?!?)."
...
So the question is, "Did the factory specifically add washers, nuts, etc.,
to a giubo assembly
to help balance the driveshaft?"
I just replaced the clutch and rear donut on my '87 Milano (106,000 miles)
and wanted to
report my findings to help resolve this important controversy. ;^)
Here's what I found. The rear donut is attached to the clutch yoke with
three bolts. In my case two of these
bolts were fitted with additional nuts. And the nuts were of different
weights! One weighed 6g,
the other 8g. The nuts were screwed onto the bolts after the "main" nuts,
like locknuts, but were unnecessary
as locknuts as the main nuts were beefy nyloc nuts.
I bought this car new and this is the first driveshaft work done on the
car. So, I can only conclude that these extra nuts were added at the
factory to help
balance the driveshaft.
As to whether or not the extra nuts help balance the driveshaft in it's
current state, I'm still testing.
Rich Hirsch
'67 Duetto
'78 Spider
'87 Milano (106k on first clutch--pretty damn good)