[alfa] Re: alfa-digest V9 #968

[Iopsycheng@xxxxxxx]

Hey Gang, 
Are all the older Alfa owner dead or do they just not read the digest? The 
reason you can't shift your GTV-6s from neutral to first or reverse without a 
crunch is because you don't know anything about your car.(I'm channeling Fred 
DiMatteo here) The synchronizers don't work from neutral into first or reverse, 
they never have. Get into the habit of pulling the gear lever towards, but not 
into, second and then into first you won't get a crunch from a warm gearbox. 
As for cold, you got to let it warm up or it will crunch every gear. 
Now before the deluge of hate mail let me finish channeling here... The first 
time I met Fred I was about 17 or 18 and I was driving a friends Alfetta when 
chanced brought Fred and I together. After hearing me crunch the shift into 
first a couple of times Fred took me to task and explained, in his own 
inimitable fashion, the process I have passed on above. As I recall he told me it had 
something to do with Alfa copying Porsche type synchromesh but modifying it 
enough to not infringe on patent rights so it ended up working a little 
differently. To some extent it has apparently affected all Alfa gearboxes since the 
mid 1950s until the advent of FWD. I know this is going to start the typical 
digest storm but I just had to go with Fred. I had only known the man for about 
10 minutes when he started chewing my ass for not knowing everything about my 
Alfa. I loved the guy from the minute I met him and I have not worked on one of 
my cars since his passing without thinking of him.
Thomas A. Gonnella
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