Re: 2nd gear, etc

[Joe Elliott <jee@domain.elided>]

The answer to Alan's question is that Alfa's manual gearboxes, are not made 
by ZF, but rather in-house by Alfa.  They are based on a Porsche design 
that Alfa licensed in the '50s.  Premature synchro wear is also endemic to 
pre-'88 ass-engined Porsches (and I assume the 550 as well).  However, this 
gearbox was designed as a 4-speed (read: that much less rotating mass) so 
the problem was not as pronounced until Alfa added a fifth gear to the 
design.  And while Alfa, with their licensed-from-Porsche gearbox, was 
among the first manufacturers to offer 5 forward gears, Porsche stuck to 4 
until even the cheapest econoboxes offered 5.  (Although I'm sure there's a 
Porsche enthusiast out their somewhere who can tell you why 4 is greater 
than 5 right after he finishes explaining how his 911 is better balanced 
than a GTV6, how controls placed on the passenger side of the dash are very 
ergonomic, and why ridiculous rear camber changes in cornering are a good 
thing.)  So one theory I've heard more than once is that while the synchros 
were a marginal '50s design in the first place, the reason Alfas suffer 
even more than old Porsches is because Alfa added a significant amount of 
rotating mass to the input shaft (the 5th input gear is the biggest) that 
the synchros were never designed to deal with.  But yes, lots of other old 
cars wear out their synchros, too, although Alfas are probably the worst, 
followed closely by Porsche.

PS> I just checked the website that Luca mentioned, and am tempted not to 
read beyond the first paragraph, in light of the factual error contained 
therein (kind of like reading AutoWeek, eh?).  It says that 
double-clutching "allows you to select a much lower gear without the 
tell-tale lurch you normally get when the clutch is let out after 
downshifting."  That would be an accurate description of [single-clutched] 
heel'n'toeing, not double clutching.  And if you "normally" experience such 
a lurch, I think you're a blockhead and should stop driving and give me 
your clutch budget, but I think I said that yesterday.

Cheers,
Joe

--On Friday, August 9, 2002 5:27 PM +0000 alfa-digest 
<owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided> wrote:


> On that note I too wonder why 2nd gear on Alfas are so weak?  These are
> ZF trannies that are used in MB, BMW, Ferrari, and many other makes that
> don't seem to have this 2nd gear syncro problem.  Could it be that Alfa
> says o.k. "ZF, you'll have build a tranny that cost $X" and ZF uses
> cheaper material to offset the costs?
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