Re: cracked bellhousing

["Paul G.A. Garossino" <paulgaro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Subject: Re: cracked bellhousing on 74 GTV



At 06:00 PM 8/4/98 -0700, you wrote:
>Item Subject: cc:Mail Text
>The bellhousing on my 74 GTV has cracked where the starter attaches to it.
 This
>is the second time I've had this failure.  The first one lasted about 160K
miles
>(18 years).  The second one (it was used) lasted about 40K miles (6
years).  Is 
>this a common problem and if so is there a suggested fix besides just
replacing 
>it that might increase the lifetime of the repair?

>the question is "why did it crack?"
>it is currently cracked on my 1973 gtv; the reason is that when the car was
>reassembled by bobcor years ago (back before i bought it), they used the
>>wrong bolt for the center hole of the three that attach the starter.  yes,
>the center bolt is different, and if you use the wrong one, the bellhousing
>cracks.
>
>the center bolt has an enlarged and extended shoulder, and conventional
>>bolts are too loose and don't locate the starter properly.

>richard

The same malady affected a 73 Berlina that I now own and ended up being
related to the starter / flywheel combination.  It turns out that at
some point during those years Alfa went from a 130 tooth flywheel / 0.7
HP starter combination to a 131 tooth flywheel / 1.1 HP starter
configuration.  I guess the small starter was having trouble starting
the thing in the winter.  The larger starter was often installed with a
backing plate that mounts on the passenger side motor mount to stop the
starter from wiggling around and cracking the bellhousing.  The smaller
starter it was argued didn't need it.  On my car I had the 130 tooth
flywheel and the 1.1 HP starter without the backing plate.  The
bellhousing cracked 3 years after a full bare metal restoration.  At
that point the previous owner installed a backing plate to prevent it
from happening again but didn't switch to the 0.7HP starter.  Since the
backing plate prevented the starter from cracking the bellhousing what
actually failed the next time [about 2 months ago] was the casting nose
of the starter itself.  I replaced the 1.1HP starter with a 0.7HP
version that I had lying around and haven't had a problem since.  Of
course one might argue that I haven't had a problem yet :-)

I like the idea of the starter breaking rather than the bellhousing as
it is much easier to replace so if you have the larger starter I would
recommend the backing plate.

A couple of the guys in town have had great luck getting the bellhousing
welded, so it can be done.  

Paul

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