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[Testament]

1974 Fiat 124 Sport Coupe

Discussion thread










Plans:
In the (slow) process of building an evil 8 valve turbo motor for this, but I don't know if I will be able to bring myself to put it in this particular car. Might have to get another shell or maybe a nasty 125 or 131 to put the motor in.

[Testament]

Well it lives once again after lying dormant for many months with a blown head gasket, so I washed off the dust and took a few pics. And jeepers I don't remember it feeling quite as fast before either

[Testament]

Props to richie for the pic tripod stz even if its the wrong wheel haha

[Testament]

Standard vs. 40mm lowering spring




Captivity fail




lousy supposed to be a kit for this car but doesn't actually fit.

[Testament]

been going hard on this since getting the 131 exhaust all tacked up - but argh the damn thing fights me every step

On thursday got one of the guys at work to shorten the rear shocks by 35mm
installed the LR shock and spring (all good now, I just hope they dont sag much at all)
made up SST #43453456 internal spring compression tool for the front springs, got the whole front end apart
managed to have a 22mm spanner get away from me while undoing one of the lower control arms and do the whole matrix end over end stz and the prongs of the open end split me open just above and just below my left eye.
drilled out the rivets holding the original bottom ball joints in then took the arms into work to use the press to get the old shagged bushes out and pillage the scrap bin for bits of tube and pipe the right dia. to press the new ones back in.
installed new bushes in the control arms and began to reassemble. but jeez even with my SST getting the front springs back in was a total mission as when you install the springs they are actually yanked over in an arch and then come straight when you bolt all the arms in, 1st one went in ok but the 2nd one i had to revise the SST about 3 times, try resetting the compressor about 5 times (damn I wish I had a rattle gun) and in the end just get brutal with a 16" crescent.
then the nut for the LH outer tie rod woulding gon on the thread as id bashed that getting it out and I spent nearly 2 hours stuffing about to get the thread/nut sorted out, so so so so so frustrating grr.

anyway got the front end all back in apart from the sway bar and just have to replace the leaking rear brake compensator install the right rear shock+spring and then change the bushes in the 4-link (much easier than the front control arms)

but fail at getting it sorted before headin up to aucks for xmas

Anyway hopefully finish that off when I get back down after xmas and get a warrant before new year maybe, and go roll it around on the compomotives for a while until the 131 is ready.


front sprungs


SST #43453456 internal spring compression tool

[Testament]

a small amount of low has now been installed



have a bit of an issue with the brakes pulling too the right atm will have to try to sort that tomorrow and maybe see if there is anywhere in town that might do a wheel alignment as I changed a couple of the tie rods so it's probably up the wop

Will put the compomotives on after I get a warrant/maybe tomorrow if I can be bothered.

[Testament]

as reported elsewhere - got a warrant, the dodgy braking was a combination of a flat rear right and the rear brake bias regulator being out of adjustment now. the rears still lock up first under hard braking but at least it pulls straight. So put on the 14x8's





As you can see it's not exaclty even front/rear which is somewhat dissapointing (wasn't quite so obvious with the 13's and big tyres), I have a few theorys on this

- the kit leaves the front higher so as not to put the front suspension geometry out of whack too much

- the rear springs they gave me are shorter than they are supposed to be (hence I had to get the shocks shortened even though it was a "kit" for this car)

- the front springs arent sitting in the spring seats quite right and/or need to settle more

- Spax are just cabbage and designed the kit wrong


Anyway too late to do anything about it before Kumeu so will roll in maximum acceleration attack mode for now

[Testament]

Took the 124 out for a thrash at flawless trackday, new suspension is much much better than the old busted stuff. Few small issues, over revved it to 8k once and 7k a few times but no apparent damage - then had a bit of an issue in that it developed a air leak or something and lost a bunch power started/popping and farting everywhere and would not idle. found one of the studs holding the carburettor down was loose so took off the carb and re-did the gasket and studs etc. but no luck - will have to take it all off again and figure it out - or just bite the bullet and put the IDF's on and sort some other ignition system. Also with the lower suspension ran into a bit of an issue on the long left hander (taupo track 2) in that the bumpstops are too close to the diff (only about 10mm) so with the bodyroll on the long corner I could feel it touching the bumpstop on the one side and unsettling the car.

But a fun day and the car is still in one piece so I'm happy

http://www.turbo124.com/forum/download/file.php?id=13980


postscript:
after much stuffing about and rebuilding the carb it turned out the anti dieseling solenoid had died so it was not getting stuff all fuel hence no idle/running lean and popping and farting. got that sorted and then proceeded to fail it's warrant check 2 days before another trackday. RF wheel beaing had play and two bung tierods. tierods of the devil. was still trying to swap them out at 11am on the morning of the trackday and then threw in the towel as it was absolutely bucketing down with rain anyway. Springs do seem to have settled somewhat but it still has a lean so I will be on the lookout for some fiat 125 or fiat 132 hubs as these bolt up and will lower the front another 9mm or so alledgedly.

[Testament]

Cleaned engine bay yesterday, used heaps and heaps of sca heavy duty degreaser in an old spray 'n' wipe spray bottle and brush and hose then attacked the harder to get spots with brakleen and a rag. repeated this 3 times and attacked the brake booster with a scotch brite pad. came up pretty good apart from where the paint is all lifted and peeled from brake fluid spillage/leakage. need to think about what to do there, somewhat reluctant to repaint the whole engine bay due to lazyness but thats probably the correct solution.

old and yuck



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