1981 Spider Bushings? And what am I in for?

[adam17]

Have a 1981 Spider. Shocks are good. I took it into a local mechanic. Going to take it to a Fiat one.

It's doing a lot squeaking. Like a old bed if you were to jump and down on hit and hear that kind of noise. I am thinking it's the bushings etc. Is it expensive to repair bushing? I am guessing anything with suspension is going to cost. But was looking to see some rough costs if it's not the shocks.

[lglade]

It's a job easily tackled by most car owners over a weekend. And if you do the work yourself, it can be done for a couple hundred bucks with new A-arms with installed bushings--cheaper if you install the bushings yourself into the old A-arms. But if you have to pay a mechanic for 10 to 12 hours of labor, at shop rates, then be prepared to pony up at least a thousand more than that.

[geospider]

Just did the entire front end of my '79. Not difficult, but learned a lot. New pre-built A arms is the fastest, easiest way to go. But, looks like AR is out of them again. I refurbbed my A arms, new bushings, etc. I did need a tire shop to press the lower a arm bushings for me. the uppers can be done with rented tool from Autozone or Oreilys. while you'r at it: new ball joints top and bottom: $18 each and easy to do.
While you are under there, check your steering linkage for worn joints.

good luck and have some fun.

Geo

[JohnMc]

I did my entire front and back suspension about 2 years ago. Maybe it would have taken only two weekends for the front suspension - but got some bad replacement parts and that killed a few weeks of back and forth. So much easier with impact wrenches. Also need a few specialty tools. just remember to take lots of photos and do not get the sides mixed up. The sway bar was very difficult and needed another person to help me on that - we got it together but it took a long time. But the car handles great. Well worth it.