Milano rear wheel bearing

["Brian Shorey" <bshorey@domain.elided>]

I have some comments and a question.

I just got finished, along with two other digesters, with doing the wheel
bearing from hell on a Milano Verde.  Keep in mind that I have a lift, air,
and all the factory tools for this job.  I've also done rear wheel bearings
on Alfettas many times.

This job was a pita from the very beginning.  We screwed up the sequencing a
little bit and ended up having to remove the entire half shaft along with
the splined shaft that goes through the hub.  Comment #1 - disconnect the
half shaft from the hub first.

Once we got the hub off we set to work on the little ring that holds the
bearing in place.  We realized, too late, that it was reverse threaded.
There was no mention of this in the shop manual, thanks very much Alfa
Romeo.  We broke a 1/2" breaker bar on it and spent a *long* time with the
air impact wrench.

We finally decided to grind it out, but needed to find another ring before
we ruined the one that was in there.  No problem, I've got three or four
dedion tubes lying around.  Btw, I should mention that this ring is slightly
different from the earlier Alfetta style rings I'm familiar with - It used a
special Alfa tool that looked like it had six or eight sides to it, the
Alfetta style uses a tool that has six or eight teeth protruding from it.

Anyhow, I located a dedion in the attic that already had the hubs removed
and had the Alfetta style ring.  It came out, eventually, and we used the
die grinder on the Milano.  We finally got the ring from hell out of the
Milano, but when we tried to thread the Alfetta style ring in we discovered
the reverse thread.  No problem, back to the other side of the donor dedion,
but that side had a Milano style ring in it.

We ended up breaking two more 1/2" breaker bars, heating nuts to glowing
trying to melt them off, before we *finally*, eight or nine hours after we
had started, got one of the Milano style rings off a donor dedion tube.  We
tried three different tubes and only got the ring off one of them.

Ten hours (!) after we started we finally had it back together.  The
comments I would make to anybody attempting this job at home is "DON'T DO
IT!".  Take it to a mechanic and write a check.  But if you are stupid
enough to try it yourself, keep in mind that the ring on the left side of
the car is reverse threaded.

My question is this - the Alfetta style ring seems to come off much easier.
My simple analysis tells me that it's because the Milano style ring causes
the special tool to exert pressure outward on the ring, where the Alfetta
style ring causes the special tool to exert pressure 90 deg on the ring.

Are the Alfetta style rings available from anyone?  Am I right in my belief
that Alfa switched ring styles from the Alfetta and maybe early Gtv6's to
the Milano?  If so, why?  I've never had a problem with the early style, but
all of the later style ones we tried to remove today were impossible.

Sigh...

bs

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