another thought on tranny wear

[Pottree@domain.elided]

In a message dated 8/8/2002 9:41:41 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided writes:


> Bottom line, I don't care how Fred treats his cars but I THINK I'll keep
> double clutching downshifts on my car.  I don't believe the Italian tune-up
> applies to synchros.

I have it from an Expert Source, once a real racer and later service manager 
at a hoity-toity Alfa dealership, that most tranny repair is made necessary 
by incorrect or sloppy driving habits, and that the clutch is not number one 
with a bullet; most times the root problem is the throwout bearing suffering 
a premature failure because of habits such as keeping the clutch depressed at 
stop lights, slipping the clutch, partial engagement, riding the clutch, and 
other sins.  

I think Fred has done an astonishing amount of driving without ever having to 
change a clutch!  In my experience, Alfa clutches should last a long time 
unless they are victims of foul play, but even the best driver will 
eventually find the friction surface gives it up, I think... unless you never 
get to that point because you replace the whole car "frequently" (such as 
more often than every 12 or 15 years) or you keep a nice little stable of 
Alfas so you don't have to put too many miles a year on any one of them.  
Even Fred refers to all the Alfas he's been lucky enough to own and though he 
claims to be Methuselah, a little simple division shows that there can't have 
been clutch-killing mileage racked up on many of them, a la Zelazny, for 
example.  

What's your clutch-replacement experience in the GTV6, Bernie?

That said, I bought my own GTV6 about 13 years ago.  I don't know how the PO 
drove it, and I don't know (offhand) just how long he'd been driving it since 
the Milano-style clutch was put in.  I've put about 75k on it in those years 
with no signs of the clutch slipping -- although once the gearbox 
spontaneously disintegrated at a dead stop!  Luckily, this was right outside 
the home of the aforementioned Expert Source.

Charlie
LA, CA, USA
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