Empty idler...

[garion]

So I'm waiting to get my head back from BEEK, I decided to poke around some more, clean stuff up, etc...

I decided to check the idler, well... Its a bit dry to say the least...



I'll be cleaning it out, then filling up with 80w90 oil, then look at the steering box, which is probably in the same shape...

Wheeeeeeeeee!

--John

[dom]

I think auto tranny fluid is better gear oil is too thick for the idler

[RRoller123]

Having these 2 boxes properly lubed makes a huge difference in the steering of these neat little cars! Mine were both dry too when I got the car, took a while to sort it out but what a great difference after filling them properly!

[garion]

The steering box had a little bit of fluid:



The steering wasn't bad..No noises or anything.. But I'm sure its going to be better now...

The steering isn't centered, but until I get the shock towers fixed up (see my other thread(s)), I'm not going to worry much about it... I just did this cause its far easier with the head off...

Now I only have 2 fluids left to change, the rear diff and the brake fluid.. The brake fluid will probably wait until I go to rebuild the calipers next year.. But i will do the rear diff soon...

[Fi8spider]

Here is a step by step post showing an idler/damper reco.

http://www.turbo124.com/forum/viewtopic ... 81#p135832

[RRoller123]

Yeah that is really good. Make sure you get that grey metal paste out of there, it will act as a grinding compound if not completely cleaned out.

[BEEK]

if you noticed a fishey smell when you opened the idler, you were correct. fiat uses a fish oil, because it does not change viscosity with temperature change. 90wt is way to heavy, if i was going to use a mineral oil, i would use jack oil or a very light viscosity.

[124spiderman]

Question?
Shouldn't the idler be topped up after heving been removed from the car as the angle it sits on would make topping up difficult?
BTW
I heard of Dexron auto trannie fluid also being used successfully in the idler.

[Fi8spider]

The centre filling bolt is also the highest bleeding point so i guess you're right there.

I have never tried filling up a dead empty one on the bench without dismantling it. The other issue with topping up while it's in the car is that there are two lower chambers in the idler unit that might not take the fluid in without swinging the idler arm fully back and forward to bleed the air past the tiny check valves.

There's a link further up this page that shows an idler strip down in it.
If you can get away with not having to take the main shaft out then it's fairly straight forward.