I had planned to spend part of this morning telling you all what a great time I had on the Snowball Rally and how well my '62 Alpine performed. I had a great time, but the Alpine, well...
I've been doing a lot of work on the good old Alpine lately. I redid the rear axle with new seals and wheel bearings, and it looks good, sounds good and doesn't leave puddles of stinky gear oil everywhere anymore. I'm pretty pleased with the way my work turned out, to be honest. Then, my friend who owns a muffler shop helped me put a patch in my floor. I cleaned and painted everything, and it's solid and looks good. Then, that same friend found a piece of 2" stainless tubing "just lying in the scrap box" and we replaced the rear muffler with the straight pipe-- oh man, it sounds good. With the header and (stainless) stock system, the car had a quiet burble at idle and a subdued growl at full throttle. Now, it's moved into "healthy 2-liter Alfa" territory. Still a nice burble at idle, but it snarls and howls when you put your foot on the loud pedal.
Then I thoroughly flushed the cooling system, remembering that I'd be going over 9000-foot passes on the rally and that the radiator boiled over on last year's California Melee. I set the valve clearances, checked the tire pressures and topped off all the fluids. I did a fast shakedown run the day before the rally-- oil pressure was good, temperature was good, no unexplained noises. Beautiful. So I spent the day of the rally polishing my baby and making a bracket to hold the rally "plate" (which, really, is a sticker on a piece of appropriately-shaped scrap aluminum.)
I pulled up to the starting line of the "night stage" from the Bay Area to Sacramento (and the official start the next morning) in high spirits. As the rally organizer waved me off for the start of the rally, a strange grinding noise started coming from under the hood. We decided to check it out, and by wiggling the generator pulley we found that the generator bearings were shot. "No problem," I said. "I've got an extra set of generator bearings at home. I'll catch up with you later." I limped home and enlisted my dad's help in redoing the generator. It was significantly worse than expected: The bad bearing and bushing had allowed the armature to rattle around in the generator housing, which had cracked one of the brackets that holds the brushes against the commutator. Then the broken bracket dug into the commutator, gouging a groove in the soft copper. It became painfully obvious that my Alpine wasn't going anywhere, at least not with that generator.
I did the rally anyway, taking my daily driver '94 BMW 318is-- although I did tape over the BMW roundels and draw Sunbeam badges over them. At least the Rootes Group's honor was upheld-- there were two Tigers on the rally, and one of my friends was discussing bringing a Mazda 13B-powered Hillman Minx on the next rally as soon as he sells his Imp. (Anyone want an Imp with a complete spare drivetrain?) And at the end of the rally, I was given a sweatshirt as a prize for staying in the spirit of the event, even if I brought a cheater car. The overall prize, the "Best in Snow" perpetual trophy, went to a 1924 Lancia Lambda. The Lambda was not only the oldest car in the event (by a full 30 years, by my count!) but drove the farthest to get to the starting line and attacked all the mountain roads with proper Italian brio, despite its skinny tires and mechanical brakes. All in all, it was a fun weekend. Now all I have to do is figure out a solution to my generator problem before the next rally.
The gentlemen at www.bringatrailer.com did the whole rally in an old Porsche 356A, and the website has lots of great pictures and videos of the event. If you look closely at the photos of the night stage, you can catch a glimpse of my Alpine. With any luck, they'll be taking many more pictures of my car on the next rally they cover!
--Armand
I've been doing a lot of work on the good old Alpine lately. I redid the rear axle with new seals and wheel bearings, and it looks good, sounds good and doesn't leave puddles of stinky gear oil everywhere anymore. I'm pretty pleased with the way my work turned out, to be honest. Then, my friend who owns a muffler shop helped me put a patch in my floor. I cleaned and painted everything, and it's solid and looks good. Then, that same friend found a piece of 2" stainless tubing "just lying in the scrap box" and we replaced the rear muffler with the straight pipe-- oh man, it sounds good. With the header and (stainless) stock system, the car had a quiet burble at idle and a subdued growl at full throttle. Now, it's moved into "healthy 2-liter Alfa" territory. Still a nice burble at idle, but it snarls and howls when you put your foot on the loud pedal.
Then I thoroughly flushed the cooling system, remembering that I'd be going over 9000-foot passes on the rally and that the radiator boiled over on last year's California Melee. I set the valve clearances, checked the tire pressures and topped off all the fluids. I did a fast shakedown run the day before the rally-- oil pressure was good, temperature was good, no unexplained noises. Beautiful. So I spent the day of the rally polishing my baby and making a bracket to hold the rally "plate" (which, really, is a sticker on a piece of appropriately-shaped scrap aluminum.)
I pulled up to the starting line of the "night stage" from the Bay Area to Sacramento (and the official start the next morning) in high spirits. As the rally organizer waved me off for the start of the rally, a strange grinding noise started coming from under the hood. We decided to check it out, and by wiggling the generator pulley we found that the generator bearings were shot. "No problem," I said. "I've got an extra set of generator bearings at home. I'll catch up with you later." I limped home and enlisted my dad's help in redoing the generator. It was significantly worse than expected: The bad bearing and bushing had allowed the armature to rattle around in the generator housing, which had cracked one of the brackets that holds the brushes against the commutator. Then the broken bracket dug into the commutator, gouging a groove in the soft copper. It became painfully obvious that my Alpine wasn't going anywhere, at least not with that generator.
I did the rally anyway, taking my daily driver '94 BMW 318is-- although I did tape over the BMW roundels and draw Sunbeam badges over them. At least the Rootes Group's honor was upheld-- there were two Tigers on the rally, and one of my friends was discussing bringing a Mazda 13B-powered Hillman Minx on the next rally as soon as he sells his Imp. (Anyone want an Imp with a complete spare drivetrain?) And at the end of the rally, I was given a sweatshirt as a prize for staying in the spirit of the event, even if I brought a cheater car. The overall prize, the "Best in Snow" perpetual trophy, went to a 1924 Lancia Lambda. The Lambda was not only the oldest car in the event (by a full 30 years, by my count!) but drove the farthest to get to the starting line and attacked all the mountain roads with proper Italian brio, despite its skinny tires and mechanical brakes. All in all, it was a fun weekend. Now all I have to do is figure out a solution to my generator problem before the next rally.
The gentlemen at www.bringatrailer.com did the whole rally in an old Porsche 356A, and the website has lots of great pictures and videos of the event. If you look closely at the photos of the night stage, you can catch a glimpse of my Alpine. With any luck, they'll be taking many more pictures of my car on the next rally they cover!
--Armand
