Re: Throttle cable hook up and transmission question.

[Simon Favre <simon@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I believe the hand throttle hookup that is on the car is correct. The
cable is not supposed to be firmly attached to the linkage. At least,
that's how the older cars worked. The real throttle is supposed to
operate the linkage without interference from the hand throttle cable.
If the end of the cable is securely fastened to the linkage, they would
fight each other. When you step on the gas pedal, the throttle linkage
should slide along the cable. The set screw is the cable stop.

You are right in that they are almost useless on a Spica car. Remember
that the Spica unit was a U.S. thing. The rest of the world was still
getting carbs at that point, and a hand throttle was helpful for
warming up a cold motor. Perhaps Alfa just wanted the rest of the car
to be the same, so they fitted a hand throttle anyway. 

There really is no good way to bench test a tranny out of a car. The
slipping you refer to is more likely the clutch, not the tranny. If
yours is grinding, that may also be caused by a dying clutch, but a
better tranny might make more improvement. As for evaluating the
other tranny, about the only things you can do on the bench are
wiggle the input shaft, and operate the shifter. If the input shaft on
the supposedly rebuilt one wiggles less than the one on your old one,
then maybe it really was rebuilt. If the rebuilt one feels harder to
shift without the shift lever than your old one, then maybe it also
has new synchros in it. The only way to really evaluate the parts in
a tranny is to open it up and look at them. You may still not be able
to tell how the box will feel on the road.

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