best control arms....

Suspension related stuff goes in here.
vandor
Posts: 3996
Joined: Sat May 23, 2009 1:23 pm
Your car is a: 1971 124 Spider
Location: Texas, USA

Re: best control arms....

Post by vandor »

FWIW
We sell the Vema Italian made arms, however we did not like the bushings that came with them. Although we never had any negative feedback from customers, we had several shops complain about the bushings in Vema arms they bought elsewhere.

Because of that starting this year we have the same bushing put in the Vema arms that we sell individually.
Csaba
'71 124 Spider, much modified
'17 124 Abarth, silver
http://italiancarclub.com/csaba/
Co-owner of the best dang Fiat parts place in town
kenmataya
Posts: 80
Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2010 3:18 am
Your car is a: 1972 124 spider

Re: best control arms....

Post by kenmataya »

working on the passenger side, this time i left both upper and lower arms attached to the spindle as i took it off. good thing too, since I had to pound the crap out of the upper ball joint to get is off the spindle. I used a loaner spring compressor from O'Reilly. Actually compressed the spring too much on the first try and the compressor shaft was hitting the shock tower, backed it off and everthing popped right in. You do need to be careful about the orientation of this spring compressor - this alignment worked well - the short tab pointing toward the end of the spring. ( another option might be to get two of these and use both the hooky ends )

Image

i picked up some socket head cap screws, looks like there shouldn't be any interference. I'm waiting for some new dust shields to arrive before i put it back together. One just has to flatten the raised lip ( if it isn't already! ). I'm installing locknuts on the screws.
Ken
72 124 spider 1608
75 124 coupe 1756 (RIP)
72 124 coupe 1608 (RIP)
kenmataya
Posts: 80
Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2010 3:18 am
Your car is a: 1972 124 spider

Re: best control arms....

Post by kenmataya »

yay! got it all back together, used m10x1.5 - 30/60 socket head cap screws - no interference issues. used lockwashers and ny-lok nuts on the back side. much cleaner! now i feel bad i didn't clean up the calipers.......

Image

Image
Ken
72 124 spider 1608
75 124 coupe 1756 (RIP)
72 124 coupe 1608 (RIP)
kenmataya
Posts: 80
Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2010 3:18 am
Your car is a: 1972 124 spider

Re: best control arms....

Post by kenmataya »

now if somebody can just get me a castle nut conversion for the spindles....
Last edited by kenmataya on Mon Aug 05, 2013 3:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
Ken
72 124 spider 1608
75 124 coupe 1756 (RIP)
72 124 coupe 1608 (RIP)
kenmataya
Posts: 80
Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2010 3:18 am
Your car is a: 1972 124 spider

Re: best control arms....

Post by kenmataya »

sorry duplicate post!
Ken
72 124 spider 1608
75 124 coupe 1756 (RIP)
72 124 coupe 1608 (RIP)
kenmataya
Posts: 80
Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2010 3:18 am
Your car is a: 1972 124 spider

Re: best control arms....

Post by kenmataya »

lesson learned - if you have spacers washers on the lower control arm mounting bolts - remove them.... just took spider down for alignment and there are too many spacers on the driver's side.... now how to remove them without completely pulling the suspension apart - any suggestions?

Thanks,
Ken
Ken
72 124 spider 1608
75 124 coupe 1756 (RIP)
72 124 coupe 1608 (RIP)
vandor
Posts: 3996
Joined: Sat May 23, 2009 1:23 pm
Your car is a: 1971 124 Spider
Location: Texas, USA

Re: best control arms....

Post by vandor »

Dremel tool...
Csaba
'71 124 Spider, much modified
'17 124 Abarth, silver
http://italiancarclub.com/csaba/
Co-owner of the best dang Fiat parts place in town
steviebsf

Re: best control arms....

Post by steviebsf »

Looking good so far...

did you know you can install the upper control arms completely upside down and everything will go back together...

don't ask : (

my question is: what are those pretty looking yellow springs??
kenmataya
Posts: 80
Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2010 3:18 am
Your car is a: 1972 124 spider

Re: best control arms....

Post by kenmataya »

those are springs from Vick, standard replacement springs.
Ken
72 124 spider 1608
75 124 coupe 1756 (RIP)
72 124 coupe 1608 (RIP)
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