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Testament's '74 Fiat 124 Coupe


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  • 3 months later...
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  • 4 weeks later...

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 :doubt:

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.

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front sprungs

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SST #43453456 internal spring compression tool

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a small amount of low has now been installed

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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.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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

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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

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  • 6 months later...

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 :D

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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.

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  • 2 years later...
Guest Testament

And brought to you by todays letters, B, H and G (the combo better known as M) our favourite game of spot the difference

One of these things is not like the others, one of these things is not the same........

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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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new hotness

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  • 4 months later...

So this has sat forlorn for some time while I've concentrated on the carpi, but also I have been waiting for some special custom bits to come from the US which ended up taking this long anyway. But the shipment tracking tells me they are sitting with customs now and I'm going to take the carpi to the sandblasters tomorrow so I figured id get this show on the road.

 

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My plan was to use the 131 volumex block so I got that on the engine stand and honed it but found the wear ridges were worse than I thought. so I honed the shit out of it some more but still the wear ridge was about 0.0005" to 0.0015"  measured with an internal mic. it doesnt sound like much but is quite apparant to the touch.  

 

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I spent quite a while umming and ahhhing and hmmmmming about if it was a big issue or not, consulting books, the google and discussing with a couple of mates. inspected all my other spare engines/blocks and found most of them were similar apart from one which had a ridge only on one cylinder and doest feel as pronounced.

 

Then I started to lean towards yeah it was going to be fine and to just run with using the volumex block/cbf taking this other motor apart so I cleaned up the deck face really well and then found some corrosion adjacent to a water gallery edging into the fire ring area.

 

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 Its barely feelable with your fingernail but was enough to push the decision for me to use the other block which has a nice deck.  It's not that the VX block is scrap - just needs to be decked and bored to 84.5mm, just that would mean using some other pistons (i've got NOS 84mm pistons already)  and why do that when I have another (hopefully) a suitable block

 

other  131/132 type two litre engine bits

 

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hopefully this one will do the trick, I'll give it a tickle with the hone tomorrow and measure it up and see

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So second time around

this 132D1000 block will do the trick, honed it a bunch and you can just barely feel a ridge on a couple of cylinders but its pretty hard to measure, maybe 1/2 a thou. in other aspects the bores aren't quite as pristine as the VX block - the odd water mark or something from sitting around and a small vertical scratch on one cylinder (probably from getting the old pistons out) that didn't hone out 100% but i cant feel anything so it will do. Then I cleaned it up with degreaser and brakecleaner and the water blaster and then dried it and blew it down with air etc. before wiping it down with crc.

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Measured it up

#1 - D - 3.3073"

#2 - E - 3.3076"

#3 - D - 3.3073"

#4 - B - 3.3070"

so above cylinder number, and stamp mark on the sump flange on the bottom on the engine for the factory bore classes I presume. Seems to more or less agree with what I measured after honing but I'm a little suspect of my measurements as it is quite tricky with the internal mic rather than bore gauge - when you get the gauge right to the limit of the bore it is very easy to have the dial turn as you pull it out of the bore to confirm the measurement. I understand why a bore gauge with a dial indicator on it is preferable.

So I had a think about it and worked out I could double check using a piston and feeler gauge poked in from the bottom of the engine as its alot easier to measure the piston skirt with certainty using the external mic and the feeler gauge is go/nogo which I can trust.

so the pistons I have the following skirt diameters

3.3045"

3.3049"

3.3049"

3.3051"

So taking the smallest piston and a 3 thou feeler gauge I did this

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so moving the piston up and down the bore to check for taper etc. I found I could only just get the feeler gauge in on cylinders 1,2 and 3 and couldn't on 4 so I'm happy that confirms my measurements/ 2-3 thou skirt/bore clearance and fortunately the variation of piston sizes fits well with the bore size variations.

so next to polish up a crank and clean up all the main bearing caps and seal housings etc. so I can start throwing things back together.

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Painted the block

 

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cleaned up the crank

 

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block ready for assembly 

 

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crank in, checking end float - 0.2mm/8thou  I think this is ok?  131 manual I have says 0.055mm to .305mm

 

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and torqued up and spinning free!  8)

 

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Thank you courier guy turning up after 5pm ftw

 

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millers mule custom crank pulley with trigger wheel and 32 tooth supercharger drive cog plus some other bits and pieces

 

Then I continued with measuring and assembling

 

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checked ring gaps had 17-21 thou for the top rings and 19-22 thou for the middle.  bit of a battle getting the piston pin circlip out to start with until I figured the best combination of screwdrivers and picks to use. 

 

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Then fitted the chev bearings to the lovely pauter x-beam rods

 

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so 1st hole filled, didn't have enough time to finish tonight but the rest should go alot quicker now.

 

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Why is it no matter how much bench you have it is always covered in junk and you have no where to put things down when working on stuff?

 

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anyways got the other 3 holes filled in/Have no feeling left in my right thumb due to circlip installation procedure not to OSH standards

 

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