Understeer, Yellow Koni's, and other...

[Chris <chris@domain.elided>]

Hi all,

I had the same problems on my 75 (Milano), very bad understeer.
After tinkering about a bit, it is now understeered on wet track only.
(I think all Alfetta based cars are)
When it's dry the car is neutral to a bit oversteered.

Things I did:
- - Tyre pressure (2.3 bar front, 2.2 bar rear on pirelli drago 205/55/15)
- - Replaced castor-rod bushings with Giulia ball-joints (well, there's
  a fun job :) but really worth the effort!)
- - alignment:
	-  toe in: 1.3 mm (total)
	-  caster: 4.0 deg (caster diff 0 (zero) deg
	-  camber: factory setting

Things I'm going to do:
- - Pull the  yellow Koni's from the Alfetta (sedan) and install on 75
- - Install stiffer (race) springs in back
- - Put a little Zagato in my Milano (replace silent block in deDion with
  the ES30 or SZ type (all metal)

The car is slightly lowered, usually lowering yields better cornering.
So, the lower the better, but over here in The Netherlands they are
laying down more and more "speedbumps", very high ones also. To keep
my exhaust from denting and scratching, I don't want to lower it any
further.

Yellow koni's:
- - They are adjustable, but the fun part is, you only adjust the ingoing
  stroke. The good thing about this is, that at any time you'll keep
  your rear wheels on the floor. (With my current setup the car tends to
  lift a rear leg on fast corners.)
  Stiffening up the ingoing stroke should also reduce the leaning in
  corners. Experiment a lot with stiffening up/down on both front and
  rear side (obviously adjust the pairs front/rear the same), the shocks
  don't have to be removed from the car, just detach the rod, push in
  completely with a little twisting (you'll hear/feal the adjuster      
gripping) and turn CW to stiffen or ACW to soften. Don't adjust to
  much at a time, one or two rounds max.

Oh, did I mention the car is a street-use car? :)

If the newsgroup "alt.autos.alfa-romeo" can't be seen on your news
server, write an e-mail to your provider asking them if they would
please activate it on the server, be persistant :)

Super-chips, chiptuning and such.
  The start of a new thread? :))
  IMO, don't ever, EVER, buy preprogrammed "Super-chips";
  They're just a waste of money. Have your chip tuned professionally
  on a roller-bench by a professional shop, this ensures the map is
  adjusted to your engines characteristics and well worth the "odd"
$400   or so.

A finally, not to brag but to release my excitement a bit . . .
I bought an Alfa6! (or, Alfa Sei)
Never seen it, you say?
go to:
  http://www.movit.de/rahmen/alf6.htm
for some pictures of this "Italian Rolls-Royce"
and soon on my homepage too:
  http://www.xs4all.nl/~chris

Have fun now!
    Chris Piepers
    The Netherlands
(unfortunately NOT on the UK Alfaclub meeting)

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