My turn on the suspension rebuild.. SUCCESS!..Sorta...

[vandor]

> Found cryptic numbers on the diff: 10/43,

Nothing cryptic: The pinion has 10 teeth, the ring gear 43, which gives a 4.3:1 ratio.

[KandJinmaine]

Just a quick note of encouragement. I've been following along with your rebuild as I geared up for and did mine. I am happy to say that the Fiat will go in for the alignment this Friday!! I got parts from AR (thanks for the nudge Jay) and everything went smoothly. I believe the worst component was the steering idler, it was just about seized. Well, it's all better now and drives like a dream, and I believe I may have found the gremlin in the FI, after work yesterday I replaced the oxygen sensor and it no longer went to rough idle after four minutes like it had been doing, so I took it for a drive and it pulled hard in all five gears without sounding like it was hitting the rev limiter!
One thing I did that I haven't seen talked about is the stock washers on the lower a-arms. I talked with AR about them and they rightly suggested to leave them off, but I could tell that the wheel was leaning out at the top and it bothered me as I have quite a drive (17 miles) to get to the alignment shop. So I slotted them like some of the other shims that were in place when I took it all apart, that way it is very close to how it was and they can still be removed if the shop needs more adjustment room.
Good luck with the rest of your rebuild!
Jeff

[DieselSpider]

Make sure all the cross member bolts are tightened to spec before getting it aligned. Check that the ends of the crossmember are welded together still and that non of the spot welds have popped.

According to Eli's Suspension Primer at MiraFiori the front end needs to be check for correct torque of all bolts at just about every oil change to prevent alignment and suspension issues.

See:
http://www.mirafiori.com/124susp/

[njoconnor]

Jay: DUH! I just bought a set of crows feet for the drive shaft nuts (very little clearance). Why didn't I think of them for this? You're right; can't think of a better way to get them correctly torqued.

Csaba: Thanks! Now to decide whether to paint over these numbers, or leave them (were they factory provided, or would this have been a parts supplier labeling?).

Jeff: Thanks for the encouragement! I could not have gotten this far without Chris, Jay, Alan, Diesel, 70, and others, especially Csaba and Ramzi. New spring compressor gets a try out this week.

Diesel: Already have my quick ref index card with torque settings entered, and I'm building up the softener salt collection to properly weight the Spider once I have all the pieces installed. AND I'm teaching myself the string and jackstand trick for a rough alignment before heading over to the shop. Mechanic and I thoroughly inspected the cross member while up on the lift last MAR, and it's good to go.

Hope to try the half hatched bushing idea this weekend. Report to follow. More painting of various pieces as well, including the rear axle. Note to self and others: do NOT fill diff if there's still rotating and painting to be done. There's this vent hole, see........

Neil

[vandor]

The diff came with those markings form the factory.

[njoconnor]

Thanks again, Csaba. So...to keep or not to keep...that's the question. Easier to spray over them; keeping means getting out the fine brushes. Hmmmmmm....think I'l work on the front end while pondering this.....

Neil

[SoFlaFiat]

How about take a picture, spray the whole thing and then tape off and duplicate the markings? Then there is new paint and a bone thrown to originality?

[njoconnor]

Alan, you've never seen my handwriting....and I'm worse with a brush! But, yeah, the thought has occurred.

Neil

[DieselSpider]

Alan, you've never seen my handwriting....and I'm worse with a brush! But, yeah, the thought has occurred.

Neil

There is the stencil and spray can option.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/The-Hillman- ... /202051723

[njoconnor]

Thanks, but they didn't have the "handwritten by Italian factory worker" font when I checked.....

Got some time to think about it. Front end is coming off this weekend (I hope), review the remaining parts, and then send off the 4th or 5th "last parts order" to A/R.

Hoping it rains; it's good for staying in the garage and working on the car!

Neil

[SoFlaFiat]

Hoping it rains; it's good for staying in the garage and working on the car!

Neil

Rain!! That's the ticket!! If it would only rain down here before 4 pm!! I might get something done on my car!! How's that for an excuse? Thanks Neil!!

[70spider]

"Rain" is a four letter word around here now. We haven't had the flooding Texas and Oklahoma have but it has saturated southeast Kansas. This month alone it has rained 14", which is 10" above normal, which isn't good when you have no garage .
njoconnor have you tried your idea on the bushings? Even though I bought new ones it would be cool to refurbish the old ones.

[DieselSpider]

Thanks, but they didn't have the "handwritten by Italian factory worker" font when I checked.....


Neil

More likely was a stamp at the factory or possibly sprayed on by one of their early robotic units. Do you just want to label it or do a museum quality recreation of the mark?

[njoconnor]

More likely was a stamp at the factory or possibly sprayed on by one of their early robotic units. Do you just want to label it or do a museum quality recreation of the mark?[/quote]

Museum quality is way beyond the scope! Nah, I'll just do my best to duplicate what's there, and really just for fun. I was just surprised to see all of the numbers appear once I got the diff oil off the casing. Sorta like archeology....

Neil

[njoconnor]

A long day full of learning (see ball joint thread), some mild surprises, but at the end, mission complete: both front suspensions are off the car and the new pieces are staged for replacement front and rear. Some painting (rear axle, front sway bar, and hopefully the front brake shields), and I'm back to adding parts, not taking them away ( I hope).

Surprises were not major. The right spindle/brake shield assembly is sitting in the bench vise, well padded, while PB blaster tries to coax one of the long bolts out of it's place. One of the short bolts has about 3/5 of its nut intact...and very rusted....thanks to one of the PO's repair attempts. Pix:



The 3/5 nut is next to the leaf, left there as a pointer. I'll review Jay's threads on obstinate spindles and bolts and literally have a few more whacks at it. The left side had one bolt succumb, but the spindle and shield are apart and in good shape. I'll be adding a complete set of shield bolts to the shopping list.

Front springs were the usual bear to compress. Getting the compressor up into the spring, AND oriented AND catching a coil took way longer than I expected. But once compressed, the control arms and springs literally just lifted out. I pretty much followed the old Mirafiori control arm FAQ, with bits of Jay's and others' ideas tossed in. Here's hoping that Ramzi is right in that I don't need the compressor to fit the new blue A/R progressives on a 72!

Painting and putzing this week, next week I have a three day weekend, so hope to have some real progress to show by then.

Neil