leaking self-leveling systems on automatic Alfas

[<JHertzman@xxxxxxx>]

In AD7-027 Bernie Bennett, responding to a query by Bob Cess about a costly
repair to fix a leaking self-leveling suspension system on a Milano Platinum,
writes "I was told no and put regular shocks on our Automatic Alfetta.  Big
mistake.  Ride was not as good as before.  If no one has a fix, I would
recommend two things.

1. Buy and install the replacement unit.

2.  Try to figure out how to stop the wear.  As I recall it occurred
too  soon, around 100K miles."

Excellent advice IF one wants to stay rigorously stock, and can afford it (the
shocks, as well as the valve, are expensive) and especially if one really
wants the self-leveling feature, which Alfa for some reason felt would be
valuable on 
Automatic-transmission cars but not on manual-transmission cars. The last time
we went around this topic (Howard Warren's car) it was suggested that the
automatic transmission was heavier, thus the AT car springs need help in the
form of a self-leveling system. (Nobody suggested at the time why stiffer
springs wouldn't have done the job). Bob Cess himself furnished the
information that the AT cars weigh either fifty-eight pounds or ninety-one
pounds more than the manual transmission cars, depending on which AR
information one used, a variation which should be well within the normal range
of passenger and luggage variables for a sedan. But someone else, later,
suggested that the automatic transmissions were very sensitive to continual
operation at a non-optimum attitude. That sounded unlikely to me. But I would
be guessing; if ZF, who makes the transmissions, requires the other car-makers
who use the same internals in different cases to use self leveling systems to
avoid harming the transmission I would certainly pay attention.

In the experience of a friend the catch on just fitting regular shocks, as
Bernie did on his Alfetta, is that the springs are different. If one replaces
BOTH the springs and the shocks the Alfetta ride should be exactly the same as
that of a manual-transmission Alfetta with some groceries in the back seat.

The problem comes up (or came up, past-tense?) more often on Sport Sedans, as
owners faced with either a $2,000 transmission rebuild or $1,000 suspension
overhaul on what they regarded as a $500 car would chose to simplify by
returning the car to something like base-model specification. The friend I
mentioned above had a Sport Sedan which a previous owner had converted from
slipping-automatic and leaking leveler without changing the springs, and it
wallowed, dragged on dips, and jarred on the bump-stops. Given springs as well
as shocks it should have handled like any other manual-transmission Alfetta.  

In the case of the Milano, there is the added complication (which I, to my
chagrin, overlooked the last time around) that the self-leveling rear shocks
are pressurized by the power-steering pump. It would seem that a manual-
transmission Milano owner who needed self leveling, as e.g. to keep headlights
aimed the same general way regardless of severely variable loads, could fit
the valve, shocks, pump and hoses for a couple of thousand dollars, while an
automatic-transmission Milano owner who did not feel a need for self leveling
could probably fit non-leveling shocks, springs and pump for a relatively
modest amount of money, someplace in the range of the cost of one component
for the self-leveling system.

I believe Howard Warren followed his mechanic's advice and fixed the system;
what is a couple of thousand dollars every hundred thousand miles or so? Short
of evidence that ZF requires, say, BMW to fit self-levelers on all AT cars, I
would look hard at simplifying. Good luck, either way.

John

------------------------------