ALFAGTV6.COM

Hey Scott has the cause of that bloody rattle finally broken so you can fix it? or have you had succes with another driveshaft? or another solution found??

Matt

I tucked the car away for the winter already. A little early but the driveshaft pushed things up a bit. Driving my 164 now.

I found a driveshaft for a decent price that I may get but first I think I'll pull my driveshaft one more time and double check the front bushing. I'll keep you up to date.

Spring is back in Minnesota and I'm back at trying to solve the rattle in my drivetrain. I took my '83 GTV6 to the one Alfa specialist in the Twin Cities for diagnosis. They put it up on the lift and messed around with it for an hour. He identifed the rattle as coming from the front of the driveshaft and suggested the front or mid centering bearings as possible culprits, also maybe just not geasing these bearings. I brought it home and removed the driveshaft (again) to check these things out. To me, everything looks fine. The front and mid bearings look great. The pilot hole in the flywheel looked fine also. I reinserted the front half of the driveshaft without the front donut and the front bearing was tight in the flywheel.

The front bushing is pressed in, nothing to replace from under the car.

While I had everything apart I figured I'd replace the 2nd gear syncros. As I tilted the tranny down I finally got my first good luck at the front tranny mounts. Turns out all the bolts in the mounts were loose, only one still had a nut on the back. Holes in the mounts have even ovaled a little due to the movement.

This must be it, at low rpms the front of the tranny is bouncing around which is transmitted into the driveshaft and terminates at the front.

Wow. So that's it.

Thanks for following up Scott. Mental note made.

Finally got it all back together and guess what? It still rattles!!!

&%$#!!!!!!

It's the pinch bolt. Take it out, clean the threads, put some never sieze on it and tighten the heck out of it with a big breaker bar.

Greg,
How much torque can I put on the pinch bolt. I know it takes a 17mm socket.

I don't know, but it takes a heck of a lot to stop one that rattles. You may only be able to reduce the noise.

Agree on the front yoke and pinch bolt here...From all the rattling the splines wear and eventually the pinchbolt cannot do its intended job.
Replace the frony yoke with a new or very good one..
At a push,loctite the splines ,but beware the next time you need to pull it apart

Ive had a customer that could not spend money on her car,so in desperation I knocked the splines flatter with a rather big hammer....It did sort the rattle out,but obviously NOT the way to go...

Ive had these yokes made at a local Machine shop if they are not available new...

Ive also just balanced the shaft on my project gearbox mount car using jubilee clamps...a first for me,it worked superbly....

And Bingo was his name-o.

I followed Greg's advise and really torqued down on the pinch bolt after first lubing the threads with anti-sieze. Having snaped bolts before, I've grown leary of doing this. I went about 90 ft-lbs on this lubed bolt.

Result is no rattle, completely gone. Wish I would have done this a year ago, but then again if I did I wouldn't have taken the time to install new 2nd gear syncros.

Can I have a Rah? Come on, give me a Rah!

RAH!

WHO - RAH !

Well done to the guys on here - who without them we would all have broken gtv6's ! or be getting ripped hard by mechs!!

The Yoke-to-flywheel shaft nut calls for 105 Nm or 77lb ft torque down.

I had a rattler with some worn splines on our run around Alfetta so I gave it the Locktight treatment and the prescribed torque down. It has been very quiet on the western front ever since...

Where did you get the 77 ft-lbs? I guess, where in the GTV6 or Milano workshop manual does it state this?