Classic Alfa Forums

Ever broken one of these:



Thought so... its just me then!

Broke it while repositioning the engine after the rebuild, don't ask how I'm not sure either but I somehow slipped when tightening the top engine mount.

Instead of locating one via the usual parts outlets I decided to knock one up out of 15mm copper heating pipe and some brass 15mm compression olives. The original is actually 16mm dia and the T tube 8mm. I had some spare pipe and olives to hand and also found some 7mm brass tube in the garage from my RC model boat days.

Here's what to do but I suspect you can all work it out yourselves. Solder an olive at the same point as the T tube, drill, at a right angle a 7mm hole through the olive and 15mm tube. The olive will give extra strength to the T tube joint.

Solder on the end olives, then cut the 7mm brass tube to length, allow a bit extra (5mm) for the depth of olive etc. and insert into the hole. Make sure it protrudes into the 15mm tube by a mm or so. Solder it. Make sure you use flux on all the joints otherwise the solder won't flow.

I added two layers of heat shrink tubing to the T tube bit as the header tank tube was a touch loose on the 7mm brass. Result:

neat job
although, i do have a few plastic ones knocking around

A resourceful bit of scratch building. Like it! The new component will be much more robust as the nylon plastic that the originals are made from seems to get brittle after 30 years use.

The breather tube connectors for the standard twin carb set up also suffer from this problem but are of more complex construction. Just the sort of part that it would be good to get reproduced.

Maybe someone on the forum has access to CAD and a 3D printer?

From what I have seen these small plastic items are just the sort of thing that can be made successfully using 3D printer technology.

Another unavailable item that you could possibly reproduce this way is the plastic bonnet prop rod clips, there are two types: one on the inner wing and the one on the bonnet itself. They get brittle and break as they are a terrible flimsy design. Beefed up reproductions made on a 3D printer would be relatively easy to produce and would also provide the prototype items to then get moulds made so they could be remanufactured in quantity.

Good job

The early cars had metal T pieces, - I have a few if anyone needs one, send me a pm.
John.

That is really neat - it's not just you, I had to make up two T-pieces out of copper tube to reproduce the factory heater connections in a mid-engine configuration, but I never thought to solder compression olives onto each end - great idea! Perfect fit and provides the same rolled ends as the factory part which ensures the pipe doesn't pop off under pressure.

My cooling system is in bits at the moment, so I am off to the nearest DIY store to get some olives at the earliest opportunity!

Lauren

Hello all,

I haven't posted much here even though I registered in January..

I'm currently plumbing in the 16v engine in my Sud and will update progress generally in a separate topic.

Both of my T-pieces were past it so rather than be over creative I didn't diy and used this for the 16x16x16 side (a bit more robust than the placcy original)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221593249706? ... EBIDX%3AIT

and this for the 16x16x8 side which eradicates two joins, together with nice new black silicon hose throughout

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111422016025? ... EBIDX%3AIT

Thanks,

Adam