Re: [alfa] donuts (was: 77 GTV driveshaft problems)

[Bernie & Diana Bennett <bennetts77833@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

John:

I remembered the spelling issue; but, decided on 'donut' to avoid having 
to do research to be correct.

I am running back and forth to my garage on a project to get shelving up 
on a homemade platform (building the platform is the current step), so 
there will be room to drive in hood or rear drck beneath the platform -- 
two 164's or one and a spider and get out (goal is driver and passenger 
getting out.)  Garage is tiny, only long enough for a 164 +3" w/ garage 
doors closed and nose to the front wall.

Well, I've had a coke and have cooled off, so, I'm going back out to add 
some molding to the decking on the left half of the platform.

Best Wishes,
Bernie Bennett



John Hertzman wrote:


> Bernie Bennett commented on the cracking, breaking and chunking of 
> driveline donuts, relating his experience with his '75 Alfetta and 
> mentioning that Milanos didn't have that problem, and "Alfetta sedan 
> with automatic transmission didn't either. I think the shifts were 
> gentler on the driveline when controlled by the automatic."
>
> A major difference is that the original Alfetta donuts, as on his '75, 
> were revised in mid-'76 and further tweaked in late '76 for '77 
> through '79, a period which included ALL of the Alfetta automatics; 
> the donuts were revised again for the GTV-6 and Milanos, with some 
> further variations between the automatic Milanos and the five-speeds. 
> There are also imponderable demographic skews: carbreakers are 
> probably more drawn to certain cars than to others. I wouldn't be at 
> all surprised if red cars generally go though donuts faster than blue 
> ones do. It would be hard to prove, but I wouldn't necessarily assume 
> that the gentilezza of the automatic's shifting was the main factor.
>
> A different issue, which some will consider tedious pedantry, is the 
> spelling of the proper Italian name for these elastic couplings. In 
> the current thread Gwynne Spencer, Graham Davis, Jason Kerr and 
> Richard Welty all referred to them as "guibos". I used to call them 
> that, too, until Fred vigorously corrected me: they are "Giubos", a 
> contraction of Giunti Boschi, the joints (or couplings) of Ing. 
> Boschi, the engineer who patented them and founded the company Giubo 
> SpA which manufactured them. Later I realized, partly on a basis of 
> literary style as well as a different level of erudition, that Fred 
> sometimes (as in this case) served as a conduit for messages from a 
> lurker who wished to preserve his anonymity. The lurker was probably 
> (almost certainly) Don Black, who was the technical core of Alfa's 
> presence in the US from before its beginning to after its end as a 
> separate company. When Alfa first decided to establish a sales & 
> service subsidiary in the USA it had hired the best qualified 
> Americans it could find (in Black's case, from Volvo, I believe) and 
> brought them to Portello to work in various parts of the company and 
> absorb as much a possible of the flavor, character, traditions, and 
> values of the company before being returned to cultivate an American 
> market.  Black's mentor at Portello was the engineer Giampaolo Garcea; 
> Garcea and Boschi were both members of a string quartet which played 
> together in off-hours, so Black met and knew Boschi, although their 
> relationship was not as deep as that he developed with Garcea.  
> Anyhow, when Fred occasionally spoke authoritatively about Alfa lore I 
> would take it more seriously than even his advice on machinery and 
> electrickery; if it wasn't Black behind the curtain it would have been 
> Fusi or someone else also very much worth hearing.
>
> Guibo or giubo? Think Giulietta or Guilietta. Guibo has roots in 
> American English by now, and may (like Alpha Romero) outlast the 
> Italian name in popular use, but Fred did what he could,
>
> R.I.P.,
>
> John H.
> 164
> Milano
> MBz C 230 K
> various 115 projects --
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