164 tires and alignments, and speedos

["C.M. Smith" <cmsmith@domain.elided>]

Do yourself a favour and get good tires. Hard tires take away some of the
pleasure of the 164 handling. The stock tire on my 164L was a Goodyear NCT
made in Germany, yecch, way too hard a compound. I now have Pirelli P6000
(not the Veloce all season version, the real thing). Even if the cost of
better tires seems expensive try rationalizing the incremental cost over
the expected life of the tire, you can convince yourself to get the better
tires.

As far as the alignment goes, only the toe is officially adjustable front
and rear. ALFA changed the spec on the 91 after the car was released onto
the market. If you do go with Sears (shudder) make sure you specify the
steering wheel must be centered, on the work order BEFORE they get their
hands on your car, and make sure they do a four wheel alignment with the
proper specs, the newer alignment machines are coded from a bar code in a
manual, not set up manually, and any reasonably competent service guy
should have no trouble, if he's got the correct specs in the machine.

Be aware that even correctly set up 164's eat front tires, of any brand or
hardness, with the high negative camber specified. to maximize tire life
rotation is very important, the inside edges of the fronts will wear faster
than the inside ribs of the rears. Rounded shoulder tires like Pirellis are
more durable than square shouldered tires like Michelins.

And my speedo seems to be bang on, well as far as ALFA instruments ever are.


Michael Smith
Calgary, Alberta
Canada
91 Alfa 164L, White, original owner 

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