Starting problem resolved (long but educational)

[AK <nasser@xxxxxxxx>]

Hello Alfisti:

As you may recall last Monday I was having problems starting my Milano
after a 
snow storm (near blizzard) where a lot of snow got inside the engine bay and 
was allover the front section of the engine.  At the time the belt covers
were 
not on.  I removed the majority of the snow that I can reach, however there
was 
a substantial amount in areas where I could not get to it.

At first the car started and seemed like someone was choking it.  With the
gas 
pedal all the way down it ran very rough and at very low RPM.  After awhile
it 
died and refused to start.  Engine turns smooth but not firing.  Since then, 
and in frigid weather I had turned every stone and checked endlessly every 
possible scenario but to no avail

On Wednesday night after work, I started checking the obvious and the things 
that would not normally change unless someone got his/her fingers in them or 
are evident from the catastrophic results:  cam timing and distributor 
alignment.  Low and behold I discovered what appeared to be impossible:  the 
distributor's rotor was pointing at about 180 degrees from where it should be 
when all the timing marks are lined up.  So I got on the phone and called my 
Alfa guy.  He said I was probably on the wrong cycle.  I said how can that
be I 
did not touch the timing belt or the distributor.  I asked him if I could
take 
the distributor out and rotate it 180 degrees.  He said no it has an offset 
key.  I did it any way, sure enough it was not possible.  At this time I ran 
out of things to check and gave up.  I told him I was bringing the car in.

I towed the car Wednesday night hoping a warm garage will do the trick.  We 
took the new plugs out which were installed just 2 hours earlier.  They
were as 
wet as a dog.  The car sat overnight under radiant heat.  Next day I called
the 
garage around 2:00 PM relaying some hints from helpers on the AD.  The guy
was 
basically doing over what I had done for the last 3 days hoping that he will 
find something I missed.

Friday at around 11:00 AM I decided to pay him a visit and argue that the
rotor 
is pointing in the wrong direction.  I begged him to just turn the damn thing 
around.  I told him it may be impossible that it turned but we got nothing to 
lose by tuning it around.  By now it is 12:30 PM  and I am running out lunch 
time so I headed to the office.  When I got to the office I found a voice
mail. 
Guess what the car is running.  I laughed so hard I almost cried.

After final tweaking we found that the rotor was off by about 175 degrees or 
two teeth on the driving gear, not the pulley.  How it happened is anybody's 
guess.

I would like to this opportunity and thank all the people on AD who offered 
their help and sympathy; especially Joe Cabibbo, Fred Di Matteo, Richard
Bies, 
Scott Swanberg, Jonathan Coates.  Thank you all.

The moral of this story is:  do not take nothing for granted, do not assume
the 
impossible can not happen and nature can defy logic.

Later

Abe - happier than Last Sunday, but $400 poorer.

Madison, WI

88 Milano Gold

P. S.

OK I got my UL listed flame suit on and I am nicely fortified.  Oops there is 
small opening there.  Front wheel bearing might get through it.  OK now it is 
fixed.

It got so bad and frustrating that I started looking for an other car. 
Remember this is my only car that I can drive and feel save during winter. 
The 79 bug has no heat and it would be suicidal to drive it with the kind of 
drivers we have around here.  Among those cars I looked at was an 89 Volvo 
240DL.  Boy what a boat with that little wimpy engine.  But I got to admit
that 
the engine bay looks inviting to an Alfa V6 engine.  I also rented a 97
Toyota 
Corolla .  The guy wanted to sell it to me for 10 grand.  My 88 Milano drives 
and feels 10 time better, well may be not 10 times, but more than 5 anyway.
 I 
guess the Milano spoiled me and raised the par of tolerance.

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