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[alfa] The gauge that cried ouch (was: the gauge that cried wolf)



Al Mitchell mentioned that (to his horror) the transmission temperature gauge he installed for his ITS GTV6's transaxle worked its way up to well beyond the 270 degrees F upper limit of the gauge and stayed there.

FWIW, the classic blackface, chrome bezel "Series 1" VDO gauges I had mentioned include 250 and 265 F water temps, 340 F oil temp, and 400 F transmission temp gauges, so perhaps a 270 peak is a low threshold for that function. I don't know what a reasonable range would be - the problem is well outside my more road-oriented interests. The automatic transaxles on Alfetta Sport Sedans, and I assume on Milanos, use an oil-to-water heat exchanger in the radiator header tank, implicitly accepting substantially higher temperatures than an oil-to-air heat exchanger would offer.

I believe it is generally accepted that the critical cooling problem of rear transaxle Alfas was with the shrouded brakes rather than with the transmission. That problem had been addressed very directly a hundred years ago on the big Fiat racers of the Gordon Bennett era, which also had chassis-mounted transaxles and inboard brakes (and consequently very low unsprung weights, contributing to their remarkable performances) with the brakes water-cooled. The water cooling system was very direct, a driver-actuated spray on the drums and bands, which would probably be less acceptable today on an asphalt short-track than it was on the unpaved road courses of the period.

John H.
Raleigh N.C.

164
Milano
MBz C 23 K
various 115 projects
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