Clattering noise - GTV (105)

["Leslie J. Singh" <Les.Singh@domain.elided>]

Ciao Tutti

Another experience I thought I'd publicise here that might help someone.
Son borrowed the car Sunday to go and start a mountain bike race. When I
drove it on Monday there was a real clatter from the engine bay, or was it
the clutch? - hard to tell. The clutch was on the way out I knew after
having lost a race to an MGBV8 last time out -dang! Anyway, last evening I
went over the engine bay with a aluminium tube listening at various points
and it turned out that the noise seemed to be coming from near the front of
the engine, or was it the valve gear, or the pistons? With an engine like
mine with open induction there's so much noise anyway its just about
impossible to tell.

Pulled the cam cover off, checked and retensioned the chain. Checked the
valve clearances - perfect. Checked cams - yup, still the same corrosion
pits all over the place - let's just call them  lubrication aids! Checked
valve faces in case something stupid was going on in the cylinders - ok.
Checked tops of pistons - no broken rings or lands floating around.
Buttoned it all up, reset the ignition timing, started it, and there's that
blasted noise!!!

Back to the ally tube - checked the ancillaries this time - distributor,
hoping I didn't get zapped in my earhole, then the alternator....
hullo???!!!. And that's what it was. Damn alternator rear bearing. Took me
about 1/2 hour to change alternator with time taken to clean stuff as I went.

Moral of the story for me was to remember to trust my instincts: I have
often said that the 105 4-cylinder engine is bulletproof and probably the
best production 4 every made but I still had a nagging doubt that something
could have gone wrong while the car was not being driven hard. 

Les in Wellington, New Zealand

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