More pesky suspension questions
-
Michael Findlay
- Posts: 47
- Joined: 04 Feb 2009, 08:01
More pesky suspension questions
In my last post I mentioned that I have an early 1500 saloon subframe that I am using for donor parts for my 1963 Flavia 1800 Coupe. My saloon parts book shows a lot of rubber isolating blocks and two large steel forks that hold the spring in place in the housing. The coupe however has none of this. The spring sits on steel section that has been welded to the inside of the housing. Four high tensile bolts connect the base plate to the housing and that is it. Is this regular? It seems to have lasted the distance so I have put it back together as it came apart. For all its complexity, the saloon spring had shifted off centre and the retaining bolt holding the leaves together had sheared so the geometry was way off. Did they abandon all the rubber to stiffen things up? Am I missing something essential?
-
Michael Findlay
- Posts: 47
- Joined: 04 Feb 2009, 08:01
Re: More pesky suspension questions
Ciao a tutti
Having reassembled the spring on my Flavia Coupe, I can now answer my own question. Here are my findings that I hope may be informative to others tackling this job. As mentioned, I have two subframes to choose parts from. The spring housing on the early saloon subframe was fitted with two U shaped rubber buffers and a pair of spacers that look like large tuning forks. The lower retaining plate is deeply flanged and pulls hard up against the spring housing when the four bolts are tightened up. This gives the spring a degree of flex under compression and also insulates against vibration. I can only assume my coupe spring housing was bodged many years ago with a piece of 1/4 inch bar welded in place of the rubber buffer as I failed to reconcile this arrangement with images in various parts books. As I was loading the spring up to refit the A arm I noticed a stress crack opening up across the top of the main housing that was not visible before. I gave it a good wire brushing and noted more cracks running longitudinally as well as on an angle away from the bolt holes. I guess the lesson is that after 50 years all sorts of crude repairs will have been carried out that could compromise the safety of your car. With Lancia engineering being a highly sophisticated form of black-smithing, I would still check anything that looks odd against the appropriate parts book.
All the best to Lancisti in the new year.
Michael
Having reassembled the spring on my Flavia Coupe, I can now answer my own question. Here are my findings that I hope may be informative to others tackling this job. As mentioned, I have two subframes to choose parts from. The spring housing on the early saloon subframe was fitted with two U shaped rubber buffers and a pair of spacers that look like large tuning forks. The lower retaining plate is deeply flanged and pulls hard up against the spring housing when the four bolts are tightened up. This gives the spring a degree of flex under compression and also insulates against vibration. I can only assume my coupe spring housing was bodged many years ago with a piece of 1/4 inch bar welded in place of the rubber buffer as I failed to reconcile this arrangement with images in various parts books. As I was loading the spring up to refit the A arm I noticed a stress crack opening up across the top of the main housing that was not visible before. I gave it a good wire brushing and noted more cracks running longitudinally as well as on an angle away from the bolt holes. I guess the lesson is that after 50 years all sorts of crude repairs will have been carried out that could compromise the safety of your car. With Lancia engineering being a highly sophisticated form of black-smithing, I would still check anything that looks odd against the appropriate parts book.
All the best to Lancisti in the new year.
Michael
-
gamma a.i.
- Posts: 888
- Joined: 23 Dec 2008, 14:18
Re: More pesky suspension questions
MF, why has no one replied ? Strange, isn't it !
-
Michael Findlay
- Posts: 47
- Joined: 04 Feb 2009, 08:01
Re: More pesky suspension questions
I guess it is a quiet time of year. It is summer down here of course so I am putting in long days in the workshop while folk in the north try and survive the winter.
I can usually work these problems out with time but the disadvantage of living in a country with very few Flavias is that I can't easily look at another one and make comparisons. The specifications obviously changed a lot over the lifetime of the model and I was hoping someone who had worked on a few might have recognised what I was describing. No one replied when I posted the same question to the Fulvia forum either. It all worked out for the best in the end.
Cheers,
Michael
I can usually work these problems out with time but the disadvantage of living in a country with very few Flavias is that I can't easily look at another one and make comparisons. The specifications obviously changed a lot over the lifetime of the model and I was hoping someone who had worked on a few might have recognised what I was describing. No one replied when I posted the same question to the Fulvia forum either. It all worked out for the best in the end.
Cheers,
Michael