New water pump seal needed a bit of lube to go in. This was to hand:


Refitted WP, cam sensor, cam sprocket, auto tensioner and belt. Timing marks still good so pushed the tensioner rearwards to the max tension setting. 2 revs of engine and rechecked the timing. Then reset the tension to the centre of the hole and torqued it to spec.


2 more revs to double check everything.


Booty fluff. Just got to put everything else back on.

Note the file names of the pics, I'm tired!

Most of the way buttoned up now. Not quite enough new coolant to run it for any length of time but it started up first time and sounded good.

Managed to finish it off (bar the coolant). Also swapped the sump plug for a flush type mk2 one in the hope that it'll still clear speed bumps.

Will top up the fluids over the weekend and swap the insurance back over Sunday.

That means the Alfa's for sale! £300 if anyone's interested?

"according to The Highways (Road Humps) Regulations 1999. The height of speed humps must also be a minimum of 25mm but no more than 100mm at the highest point."

Height of baked beans can:
110mm

Hmmm...

Am impressed with your dedication and patience! Road ground clearance matters most away from the wheel axles, unless you straddle those narrow bumps down the middle .. [emoji106]

Thanks!
Had the Multipla for 1 year today.
In that time I've:
Cleaned 6 seats - washing all the covers.
Washed the front carpet and replaced the rear.
Cleaned off all the interior sticky plastics.
Thermostat and Renault5 t-stat in top hose.
New clutch and gearbag oil.
Fiat Coupe wheels
20mm rear spacers
30mm lowering springs
Top mounts
Drop links
ARB poly bushes
Front shocks
Aux belt
Timing belt, idler, tensioner and water pump.
Front bumper
Drivers wing.

And tried to do a little cut/polish/wax/touch up here and there.


Phew!

SNAP!


Children wondering why Dad is so weird...

This has largely been performing ok. It's slow as hell after driving around in the Alfa (Now sold) and doesn't handle as well either though it's improved over the old set up. I've only hit one speed bump on the sump and it was one of those plastic/rubber type ones that I was going over diagonally, no damage. There was a knocking coming from the drivers side and found that the drop link nuts had come a little loose so nipped them back up. Then the passenger side sounded even worse - a proper bang like something was about to fall off. Eventually managed to see what the issue was after sticking my head and hands into precarious positions. The ARB had slid in it's mounts about 2 inches to the drivers side which now mean that it and the drop link were catching the bottom arm and one of the subframe mounts. Took the front wheels off on Sunday and the ARB mount bolts and shifted it back where it's supposed to be. As widemouthfrog predicted the crappy plastic end stops glued on the ARB had come off the drivers side allowing the bar to slide laterally in the mounts. The way I had split the ARB mounts to fit the poly bushes wasn't great as it wasn't fully compressing the bush so I took them back off and ground the steel parts flat so that they could sit flush when bolted back on the car. So now the bush should grip the bar tighter but these end stops missing are a real PITA.
I've purchased some hydraulic pipe clamps in 18mm flavor so I can bolt them on to the inside of the ARB so that they sit next to the bush.

I'll let you know how I get on fitting them.

Havent fitted the clampy things as the ARB hasn't shifted knowingly yet.

Other day I had 'ALTERNATOR FAULT CONTACT GARAGE' and in all honesty it sounded horrible like someone had replaced the brushes with sandpaper. I drove it for a couple of miles and the problem went away. I'm assuming a stone got stuck in there or a brush was doing something funky? Anyway, in addition the whole auxillary belt area is making a terrible racket on idle. If you raise the revs to 1000rpm it's quiet again. I've watched the belt with the engine running and the tensioner isn't doing a fancy dance or anything and the belt isnt hopping about. Does anyone have any experience of needing to change the crank damper/front pulley/harmonic balancer or any other name you choose to call it - the biggest pulley bolted to the crank. I'm wondering if that could make a racket at idle - it looked fine when I took it off for doing the timing belt?

Sounds like it's the crank pulley. A failed one typically sounds like a bag of spanners at idle then smooths out from about 1k rpm.

Don't but a cheapo no-name one off ebay, or you'll be doing the job again inside 6 months. Gates ones can be had for around the £60-mark and I know them to be good (i.e. reliable). I think the part number is TVD1013? Make sure you get one with the four mounting screws included. There have been two types of pulleys fitted in the past and they use different length screws (one has a 'fat' core that needs longer screws). They are interchangeable, as long as you have the right length of screws.

Mine makes the same racket, it also does it idling as the air con compressor cuts in, I've changed the tensioner and the belt and it quietens down if you wet the belt!! The one way clutch on my alternator has seized so it doesn't free wheel, after research on the web i'm thinking this could be the cause, previously the crank pulley had been welded solid but it didn't make that racket! Anyone any thoughts?

Longprest
Interesting, my AC compressor clutch is stuck free wheeling and wont engage. The dash button illuminates but no action in the engine bay. The fuse is good so was sort of assuming it has another fault preventing it engaging like low system pressure or summat?

Have you had the AC system checked to see if it's got pressure? If there is none, or the pressure switch is busted, then you won't get the 'clunk' from the compressor clutch

Thanks WMF, I've got a feeling that MultiScan gives you some sort of AC status feedback. Guess I've sort of missed the boat on getting that done weather wise. I'm noe down to the jobs I have to actually pay folk to do: could do with AC regas, wheel alignment, two new rear tyres and I think one of the fronts has a buckle or atleast a weight missing. May stick the 15"s back on but from memory the chinesium tyres we're not for the faint hearted.

If the pressure switch is u/s, I'm not sure how MultiECUScan is going to get a measure of system pressure. To the best of my knowledge, it's the only thing that measures system pressure. Also, it is only a switch, so will only indicate if the system pressure is above or below the set point. Having the AC system hooked up to a proper system gauge will give a much clearer idea of the health of the system. Better still, get it pumped down for an hour or so and see if the system is holding a vacuum. That will a) properly purge the entire system, which is always a good thing for AC, and b) tell you how bad the leak is (if there is one).

Sounds like one way bearing on alternator was causing that screeching... it would tie in with the message you got too. I only saw that message when the alternator stopped spinning for one reason or another.

Smol update.

Bought Gates front pulley but haven't fitted.
Rear brakes making a lovely grinding noise so purchased pads - haven't fitted. On closer inspection the nearside rear disc has a mighty big lip on it so probably have to do discs also.
Otherwise it's been fantastic carting loads of garden rubbish about.

Until today!

Took it round a work colleagues who offered to take some rubble off my hands. It was fairly loaded up and fairly sure I hit the rear bump stops on one or two dips. Anywho going down his driveway and there's about 7 big speed bumps. Took it very gingery. Unloaded all the crap - possibly 150kg, drove back out of the drive (still not quick) and clouted the sump on a speed bump. Saw a lovely black stripe in the rear view mirror.

At this point I was about 1000yds away from DA Motors in Wickford. With the sump contents rapidly escaping I accelerated slowly in second, clutch down, engine off and costed until the speed dropped to 5mph, then repeat until I reached the yard. Sounded tapity on the last 3 seconds of the journey.

Guys have quoted £100 for the sump and 4 hrs labour + oil & filter. Problem is that they don't really have time to fit it in for a couple of weeks.

Not sure on it's fate at the moment. It's worth fixing but I sincerely hope that i haven't trashed a bearing or the turbo in 20s of running with next to no oil.

Could really do with a shonky Alfa as a back up though - typically I sold it a few weeks ago.

Did you just shear the sump plug and the surrounding inch or 2 off the sump??... if so you can easily bridge a repair with liquid steel or whatever it’s called. I was in the v same predicament you are in and decided to do this repair so I could run the engine to see if I’d done other damage, turned out I hadn’t and I left the repair like that for a few months till I found a replacement sump.
BTW sumps are tricky on these. You need really long skinny Ribe keys to access two of the bolts. Also there’s a few different sumps so make sure u get the right one.
Check my threads here you’ll find one with pics of my butchered sump!!!
Marty.

Thanks very much! TBH I'm going to leave it with the Guys at DAM Fiats. I normally try to do everything myself but the car is 40miles from home and the guy has the sump. Not at all happy about having to do it - would rather spend £300 on tyres, bits of trim, a window switch, sunroof motors, a wheel alignment and an ac regass.

Arse.

Guy's say it might be ready for the weekend. TBH if that works out i'll be bloody ecstatic. I can only beg & borrow vehicles for so long.