Re: Weird crank ringnut

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

In AD8-0009 Chris Kane writes:

"After exhaustive discussions with Les Singh, NZ's "Mr Alfa", I think the
digest might be interested in this one. And maybe somebody can put me out of
my misery with an answer. The Situation:

 "I'm reassembling the engine from my 1750 GTV, which came to me in several
boxes (as did the rest of the car). Having done head jobs on twincams before,
I thought "OK, no big deal, just deal with the liners and nothing else is
unusual". Wrong. Having replaced every part that can be, on the theory that I
won't have to touch it again for 10 years, I had the crank installed, along
with the new liners and pistons. The rear plate cover is on, so it's time to
bolt up the flywheel. Oops - the crank has no threads. ?. Check again - yes,
no threads. Ring the ex-owner and ask what he remembered when he pulled it
apart - "nothing unusual". Hmm. So, I dug around in the box of bits again and
came up with two "half rings", into each of which were tapped 4 threaded
holes, which, lo and behold, were correct for the flywheel bolts. And, if I
removed the rear bearing cap, seal, and rubber sausage-things, I could put
these rings behind the flange on the crank that it appears the flywheel should
bolt to, and bolt to the rings instead. So I did.

 "The Question: Is this normal?

 "I've been up to my elbows in lots of different engines, both real AND
Japanese ones, and never seen anything resembling this before. From an
engineering point of view, its a sensible enough solution, but it poses
assembly problems, not least of all when it's time for a flywheel change with
the motor in situ. None of the manuals I've seen mention anything Mickey-mouse
like this, and I'd expect better from Alfa.

 "Anybody got any ideas?

 The 105/115 parts books say that there are two versions, 101.10.02.404.00
which is 7 mm thick and was used on some early 1600 engines and, presumably,
early 1300s (didn't check) and 105.00.02.404.00, 8 mm thick, which is used on
most later 1300s ('Juniors'), most 1600s and all 1750 engines, but not on
2000s, which may date Les Singh as a young feller. The books call it a "Half
Ring, flywheel securing". (One of the parts books says more of the 1600s used
the 7 mm, I'm not going to try to sort that one out tonight.) It may well be
one of the long-established traditional Alfa details (Jano? Merosi?) which was
not questioned until circa 1970.

 Cheers

 John H., sometime bookworm

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