front brakes modification upgrade..... with fiat 500 parts

[BEEK]

The front end failures on these cars is purely lack of proper maintenance or abuse. Cross member failures are usually due to loose bolts, this is in the mounting and the lower control arm areas. I have raced fiats on asphalt circle tracks with bankings of 30 deg. You are looking at an excess of 3g's loading with corner loading of over 10,000 lbs momentarily. absolutely no failures on stock components. the only change i made is i used lower ball joints all around. Big brakes will not generate too much torque on these front ends. Hitting potholes at 70 will destroy one though.

[KevAndAndi]

The front end failures on these cars is purely lack of proper maintenance or abuse. Cross member failures are usually due to loose bolts, this is in the mounting and the lower control arm areas. I have raced fiats on asphalt circle tracks with bankings of 30 deg. You are looking at an excess of 3g's loading with corner loading of over 10,000 lbs momentarily. absolutely no failures on stock components. the only change i made is i used lower ball joints all around. Big brakes will not generate too much torque on these front ends. Hitting potholes at 70 will destroy one though.

I've done a little searching and I can't find specifics about cross member maintenance. For a newbie, can someone explain what's involved? How many bolts, and what are the torque specs?

Seeing the cracked Spider cross member on the TV show "FantomWorks" was a real wake-up call.

[DieselSpider]

The front end failures on these cars is purely lack of proper maintenance or abuse. Cross member failures are usually due to loose bolts, this is in the mounting and the lower control arm areas. I have raced fiats on asphalt circle tracks with bankings of 30 deg. You are looking at an excess of 3g's loading with corner loading of over 10,000 lbs momentarily. absolutely no failures on stock components. the only change i made is i used lower ball joints all around. Big brakes will not generate too much torque on these front ends. Hitting potholes at 70 will destroy one though.

I've done a little searching and I can't find specifics about cross member maintenance. For a newbie, can someone explain what's involved? How many bolts, and what are the torque specs?

Seeing the cracked Spider cross member on the TV show "FantomWorks" was a real wake-up call.

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

http://www.mirafiori.com/~courtney/124/ ... erail.html

I printed out Eli's Primer on the suspension and brought it to the front end shop when they aligned mine so that they would have quick and easy access to the specs in case they had trouble locating them.

[KevAndAndi]

The front end failures on these cars is purely lack of proper maintenance or abuse. Cross member failures are usually due to loose bolts, this is in the mounting and the lower control arm areas. I have raced fiats on asphalt circle tracks with bankings of 30 deg. You are looking at an excess of 3g's loading with corner loading of over 10,000 lbs momentarily. absolutely no failures on stock components. the only change i made is i used lower ball joints all around. Big brakes will not generate too much torque on these front ends. Hitting potholes at 70 will destroy one though.

I've done a little searching and I can't find specifics about cross member maintenance. For a newbie, can someone explain what's involved? How many bolts, and what are the torque specs?

Seeing the cracked Spider cross member on the TV show "FantomWorks" was a real wake-up call.

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

http://www.mirafiori.com/~courtney/124/ ... erail.html

I printed out Eli's Primer on the suspension and brought it to the front end shop when they aligned mine so that they would have quick and easy access to the specs in case they had trouble locating them.

Awesome, thanks.

[spiderrey]

Why lower balljoints, beek.

[BEEK]

2 reasons, this is for racing only. First the lower ball joint is stronger than the upper. Second, it is taller, thus giving me more camber gain. it makes the suspension think the spindles are taller.

[spiderrey]

Thanx

[carlospena96]

This modification need brakets to adapt the fiat 500's calipers to the 124 spider?

[djape1977]

as far as know, 85 spider and volumex used fiat 132 stub axles and 250mm discs.
132 stubs are thicker, use bigger bearings and lower the car by an inch up front

[Sparky]

See:
http://www.mirafiori.com/~courtney/124/ ... erail.html

Does anyone have an archived copy of that page? It appears to be a dead link now.

[Sparky]

Just to follow up on this, it seems both the Vick's kit and Allison's kit are using the same calipers and rotors? Why the discrepancy in which wheels will fit? Anyone have some long term wear & performance experience with either kit?

Also curious about brake dust? I've had a couple new cars with oem ceramic pads that were awesome and a Mini with oem pads that made a ridiculous mess.

[So Cal Mark]

we have many customers with these kits and I believe it's been about 3 years now. None have had to replace pads yet

[Sparky]

Brake pads are relatively cheap and easy to replace, I'm more curious about how the ones included in your kit perform and how much dust they create. Ideally it'd be great if the kits came with ceramic pads or if there was a discount for no pads...

[djape1977]

1985 fiat 124 spider and spider volumex did have bigger brakes, but they also used stub axles from fiat 132/argenta, thicker ones with bigger diameter inner bearings

[So Cal Mark]

we include either ceramic or EBC Green pads with our kits.