Re: SPICA woes

["Pat Braden" <pbraden@domain.elided>]

The SPICA system was adopted from a diesel pump design, and features the
same kind of piston/cylinder pump and centrifugal ball "governor" speed
sensor as many other diesel pump designs. Norm Riffle is correct in
remembering that ARI staff (most specifically, Roberto Francione) was very
concerned about the government shutting ARI down if it felt they were
circulating information about modifying the pump to increase emissions. This
concern extended to a series of articles in the Alfa Owner, written by Joe
Benson (author of the Alfa Buyer's Guide), which explored the interior of
the SPICA pump and suggested methods for its repair and modification. Joe's
series remains the best technical series ever published in the magazine. The
Owner's editor at that time created an "open letter from Joe Benson" to ARI
which urged the release of service data for the pump. The result of this
adventure inside the SPICA pump was a lot of hard feelings and the eventual
loss of Joe as a contributor to the magazine. I'm not sure if Joe lurks on
this Digest, but if he does, he may want to comment in more detail about
this. Fred diM was also there at the time, as was John Hertzman (among
several others on the Digest: a tip of the hat to them all!).

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