[alfa] The gauge that cried ouch (was: the gauge that cried wolf)

[John Hertzman <giovannisvedese@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Al Mitchell mentioned that (to his horror) the transmission temperature 
gauge he installed for his ITS GTV6's transaxle worked its way up to 
well beyond the 270 degrees F upper limit of the gauge and stayed 
there.

FWIW, the classic blackface, chrome bezel "Series 1" VDO gauges I had 
mentioned include 250 and 265 F water temps, 340 F oil temp, and 400 F 
transmission temp gauges, so perhaps a 270 peak is a low threshold for 
that function. I don't  know what a reasonable range  would be - the 
problem is well outside my more road-oriented interests. The automatic 
transaxles on Alfetta Sport Sedans, and I assume on Milanos, use an 
oil-to-water  heat exchanger in the radiator header tank, implicitly 
accepting substantially higher temperatures than an oil-to-air heat 
exchanger would offer.

I believe it is generally accepted that  the critical cooling problem 
of rear transaxle Alfas was with the shrouded brakes rather than with 
the transmission. That problem had been addressed  very directly a 
hundred years ago on the big Fiat racers of the Gordon Bennett era, 
which also had chassis-mounted transaxles and inboard brakes (and 
consequently very low unsprung weights, contributing to their 
remarkable performances) with the brakes water-cooled. The water 
cooling system was very direct, a driver-actuated spray on the drums 
and bands, which would probably be less acceptable today on an asphalt 
short-track than it was on the unpaved road courses of the period.

John H.
Raleigh N.C.

164
Milano
MBz C 23 K
various 115 projects
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