La Tempesta

Ever since the new fuel pumps were put in and all of the rubber hoses were changed, the fuel pressure warning light (”Alimentazione”) have been flickering.

After turning on the ignition, but before starting the engine, it is solid lit. When the engine idles, it flickers. It’s usually off when you cruise along without exploiting the engine, but once you step on the accelerator pedal, it lights up. When I turn on the headlights, the warning light stays on almost all the time.

Now, the warning light is supposed to come on when the fuel pressure falls below 0.5 kg/cm², and the nominal fuel pressure in the vicinity of the sensor should be 1.5 kg/cm². Something is (seriously) wrong with the fuel system, and I don’t really have any good ideas about what it might be. As mentioned, the fuel pumps and all the hoses and filters are brand new. The battery is a few months old, and the alternator amperage stays just above zero when driving.

Since it seems to get worse when the headlights come on, I thought it could be a voltage drop at the pump terminals. I made a separate ground line from the battery chassis ground connector to the pump ground terminals, but it didn’t change anything. The pumps are supplied 12.0 volts now (like they should), but the symptoms are exactly the same as before.

I think I’ll have to do a full ignition, throttle and Spica adjustment again to verify everything’s in working order. La Tempesta has an appointment with the vehicle authorities (Statens Vegvesen) on 31. May, and it’s a two hour drive to get there. I probably shouldn’t drive anywhere at all with low fuel pressure, even though it’s probably safe-ish to do so in the relatively low temperatures we have around that time.

Another thing I discovered today: the seats needs to be fixed sometime. The car is full of dry, yellow dust from the seat cushions, even though it was thoroughly vacuumed and cleaned a few hundred kms ago.

After getting the fuel pumps sorted, and while waiting for access at a four point jack somewhere, I decided to clean up the interior a bit. The years in semi-storage with Herr Irgel had left the interior in a rather grimy state, so some soap and water and a scrubbing looked like the right thing to do.

During the vacuuming I found some screws that didn’t fit anywhere, except for one that probably belongs in the long removed eyelid trim. The seats are starting to dry up too, so the floor had a lot of small, yellow crumbs from the cushions. The interior was generally dirty, and the ashtray contained a cigarette butt, even though Irgel didn’t smoke! Apparently it haven’t been washed on the inside since he got the car. The trunk carpeting have been lying around in my house since January, so before I put them back, the trunk got a scrubdown. The cockpit carpeting really needs to be replaced because of the sunbleached colours, but cosmetical things will have to wait until the mechanics have been sorted.

I polished the windows and mirrors as well, and suddenly the windows got their original green tint back Apart from a small scratch from the wiper arm, they are in very good condition. It looks like stone chips are an unknown phenomenon in the middle of Germany.

I have taken the ashtray out to treat the inside with some rust eater. It was caked with some kind of rust on the inside, even though it is stainless steel. I’m going to smoke in the car anyway, but I’m not about to butt the cigarettes in solid rust

The Monty is still in winter storage, but I managed to bring home a few items I could work on besides the brake calipers.

The carpeting in the tiny luggage compartment isn’t too bad, but some of the stitching on the edges have come loose over the years. So I grabbed a beer, sat down with a needle and thread and stitched them together again. It’s a real test of your patience and eye/hand coordination, but in the end they came out nicely. The carpets are of a very coarse quality, so my right thumb is going to be useless for a couple of days Afterwards, all the carpeting were treated to a thorough wash in the washing machine.

Giorgio Penatti from Italy also supplied me with repro trim for the door armrests as well as a repro fuel cutoff switch for the Spica injection pump. The latter is supposed to cut off the fuel for the Spica when decelerating above 1400 rpm, to avoid backfiring and uneccessary fuel consumption.

Another thing I did was cleaning and checking the warning triangle and the emergency jack. The latter was more or less unused and was full of dirt and grime. I also noticed that the original Montreal tool kit had been replaced with an Alfasud tool kit. The grey plastic box bears the familiar Alfa Romeo script and the word “Alfasud”. The tools are in bad condition, but after some cleaning up they can probably be sold for a princely sum to an Alfasud connoisseur