Rubber bushes. by Tony Lloyd -- Working for Royal Mail has given me a great opportunity for analysis of vehicle repairs via their computer system. A trend I noticed a few years ago was when some vehicles received suspension work. or accident damage repairs, the following visit often involved further suspension work, in particular the replacement of rubber bushes.
The reason for this turned out to be the bad practice of tightening suspension bushes in the hanging position. If you think how a rubber in shear bush works, the outer is an interference fit in the suspension arm and the centre tube is clamped by the locating bolt. If you tighten the bolt in the hanging position, the first time you lower the car to the ground the weight of the car tries to twist the middle out of the bush When the suspension is then compressed the bush is twisted even further. The increased distortion on the bush in one direction causes rapid failure.
The correct way of assembly is to leave the final tightening of the bolts until the suspension arm is in its normal position i.e. when the car is on its wheels. This is particularly important if you are assembling with original or used bushes.
Next time you remove and replace the rear suspension bottom arms on your Monte, spare a thought for the rubber in shear bushes which should always be tightened in their normal position i.e. off the jack and on its wheels. Its a bit of a struggle to get under the vehicle on the floor without it being raised, but its the only way without the aid of a hoist. Same applies to the front track control arm inner bushes.
Rear "A" arms from a 1.5L X-1/9 fit. Remove the Scorpion sway bar brackets from the old arms and weld to the X-1/9 units. Use a 79 or later arm. (1)
If the car "jacks" at speed on sweepers check the rear ball joint play. The "A" arm must be loaded-car's weight on tire-to get a good check. Any play will compromise handling but 1/8" is max. "A" arm bushings are available, late X-1/9 "A" arms work if the roll bar brackets are installed. (1)
Late X-1/9-128 lower front control arms will fit. (1)
Ray McNairy has a list of TRW suspension and other parts that fit. They are cheaper than FIAT. (1)
Do not use a fork to separate ball joints or tierod ends that must be reused as the rubber seal will be damaged. Use a small tierod puller. (1)
Rear X-1/9 toe out/in link rod ends work and seem to have the same bushing specs. (1)
Fiat 128 steering rod ends work but require machining as they are too long. (1)
Scorpion Struts by Sjaak van den Berg on February 08, 1998
1.) Purchase set of them secondhand from L&M spares in uk : phone +44-1494-538899 or scorpion reproductions uk: +44-1872-553272 or René de Graaf nl: +31-416-311393 or Martin Willens nl: +31-591-352212 I Don't know if anyone of these companies have them available at the moment since these are "wanted" items so you have to check with them.
2.) If they are KONI ones, the KONI-factory can rebuild them (I assume yours are leaking , otherwise these items can be adjusted to perform as new.) Koni NL. contact them at: tel +31-0186-635500
3.) If your car is still equipped with original shock absorbers these consist originally of inserts in housings. These parts have stock numbers which might still be available. The part number for the original damper-valve is 82325550 the seal kit on the top has a number 82316919.
Scorpion Struts by Tony Lloyd on July 04, 1998
Several years ago the shock absorbers on my car showed signs of dampness around the dust seals, not enough to impair their action but enough to attract the gaze of the MOT man. As funds were tight at the time I set about stripping the units down to see if anything could be done. The internals of the damper unit were in perfect condition with no marks or play at the damper rod. All that seemed amiss was that the oil seal was worn allowing a slight seepage of oil from the unit. I checked the availability of seals but unfortunately they were specials and unavailable from a normal seal and bearing supplier. However, I did manage to obtain a standard seal, which was .5 mm larger on the outside diameter. It was a simple job to machine out the seal retainer to accept the standard seal.
The entire unit was then cleaned out and refilled with motorcycle fork oil of SAE 10 grade, which was a close match for the original. The rebuilt shock absorbers have worked well and are in fact still on my car! For a while supply of front and rear shock absorbers was short resulting in a glut of calls on availability. I machined several sets of seal housings for people who had leaking units with some success. If anyone is contemplating doing this I still have the facility to machine the housings and can normally turn them around within a few days.
Unfortunately, series two cars had "sealed for life" type shock absorber, which cannot easily be dismantled and the only solution is replacement.
Koni Shock Adjustment From: x19er@yahoo.com Hugh Macdonald (Scotland)
>DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO ADJUST KONI ADJUSTABLE SHOCKS ON A LANCIA SCORP???
--Assuming your Konis are the same basic design as those on my X1/9 here's how its done - You have to remove the strut from the car and remove the spring. Now push the rod all the way down into the shock, when it hits the bottom rotate it, you should be able to feel it engage in the adjuster and move down a bit further. Once it's engaged now you can turn it clockwise for firmer or anti clockwise for softer.
My shocks had about 7 turns of adjustment from end to end so that should give you an idea of how much to adjust them by. Make sure they are all adjusted equally.
Removing Scorpion Strut Nuts From: simon@isgaix.co.za Simon Taylor: -- The Montecarlo shop manual states that special tool 88041158 should be used to clamp the stem cup while the strut nut is undone. Between the shop manual and Haynes, it seems that this tool is a clamp with lugs that fit into the slots in the top of the stem cup (the thick dished washer that is located under the strut nut and is clamped onto the rubber doughnut in the strut top mount). Hope this helps.
Back to topFront strut pivot bearings are unique. Trying to find a replacement. (1)
When bouncing the rear end if the strut shaft moves in the mount at all the rod has punched thru the upper mount hole. Weld a 1/2" SAE washer over the hole. File for rod sholder fit. (1)
If removing a spring coil bend the spring to fit the strut mounting pad or else the strut rod will bend and bind. I feel that removing a whole coil is too much but you decide. (1)
I have not tried but think that some FIAT X-1/9/124 upper strut hardware will fit. (1)
Always go to wheel aligners who use 4 wheel setups. Older non-computerized two wheel systems do a poor job on the rears as the body cannot be squared to the wheels and the car ends up driving like a crab and is hell on tires. Again, I learned the hard way. (1)
Lower the suspension. The Scorpion's suspension springs raised the car about an inch higher than the Montecarlo to meet a U. S. federal headlight requirement; the raisable headlights added the other necessary inch. The taller ride height should be maintained if you plan to rally or 4X4 (just kidding) your Scorpion; but for performance, adding Montecarlo springs and Konis help enormously. Cutting the stock springs is the cheap alternative but since the spring rate remains the same, bottoming out is likely. I've been told that removing 270 degrees of coil effectively lowers the suspension. I haven't had any problem with tire clearance with the Montecarlo springs and tires as large as 205x55VR14. Air dams and any speedbumps in your neighborhood should be considered before performing this modification. (2)
Fitting Rabbit inserts to X1/9 strut housings (Scorpion Relevance, ed.) From:gr8xtc@gte.net Mike Mittelstead
Courtney Waters wrote:
> To go the VW route, you wouldn't use the cartridges in the stock housings. You'd have to fabricate your own as Steve Soar did for his X using 280Z tubes and X brackets or something.
Have a bit more info on the use of Rabbit inserts in the X housings. One of the (way too expensive) Carrera inserts that were in my X lost its gas pressure. I initially was just going to replace the one that failed, but Carrera discontinued that size (grrrr).
So I went down to the local Rabbit store and eyeballed a KYB insert: the insert diameter fit inside the X housing like it was made for it, but the length was about 3/8" short inside the housing. The KYB came with a spacer ring that just needed a few thousandths machined off the outer diameter to snuggly fit inside the X housing and then cinched it all down with the threaded ring that screws into the X housing. Not sure what the upper plunger shaft would require to fit the Fiat uppper strut mount, since I have camber plates, but shouldn't be too hard to space, shim, ream, or whatever. The camber plate mount required that the upper plunger shaft be machined down.
There is no need to use the larger diameter (ie. 280Z) housings if you use Rabbit cartridges. The housings Steve fabricated with 280Z housings and X brackets were necessary to use cartridges he already had. He had recalled they were Rabbit, but after seeing the Rabbit KYBs, is now thinking they were for something else originally.
Utilizing my calibrated Armstrong shock dyno, it appears that the compression stroke of the KYB is the same as the Carrera, but the Carrera is a little more stout on the rebound. The pair of KYBs cost less than 2/3 of ONE Carrera. MM
-The Shock Warehouse, the number is 1-800-245-7469 and I'm pretty sure they sell KYB shocks maybe ones for X-1/9's RO1573@hotmail.com Robert
-The 79 and later struts were different in a couple of ways. The spring mount at the top was different and the angle of the bracket where the strut mounted to the upright was steeper as the later cars had larger diameter outer CV joints and the early style doesn't give enough clearance. I put the later style on my 78 X, and everything was fine, I just had to use the complete later style assembly, including the top mount. PaleoME@aol.com Scott Phelps Thetford, VT
> What mods need to be made to get the early struts to work on a later X, if any?
-Early rear struts will work on a late model X. My street prepared car is set up this way. The strut is a little shorter, the flange with the mounting holes are in line instead of slanted, but fits, but the top of the struts rods are slightly different. If you use the early X strut you need the hardware the strut mounts to on top also. If you look in the Koni catalog there is a good picture of the two rear struts and the differences. Last year when I was looking for the early struts or strut inserts, I found two sets of Koni's. Don't know what might be out there now. cpettett@aristotle.net Corey Pettett
-The 74-78 strut bodies from the rear of the X1/9 are what you are looking for. These are the serviceable type that allow for steering motion on the front of the 128. They will lower the front about 1.5"; without altering available travel. : PaleoME@aol.com Scott Phelps Thetford, VT
-I have a set of 75 X1/9 struts on the front of my 72 Fiat 128 sedan. They lowered the front about 2";. You use the X1/9 strut housing and spring (the 128 spring is 2 coils longer) combined with the 128 strut top mount. I decided to futher lower my front by cutting 1 1/2 coils more off the X1/9 springs. Oops! Now the coil falls out the seat when the shock is fully extended. No problem, simply remachine and harden the strut rod 2" shorter (not for the faint of heart- it helps to have a father-in-law who is a tool and die maker with 35 years experience and $1 million machines at his disposal!). Now it is lowered about 4"; lower than stock.
Not very practical for street use- travel is only 4 1/2"; and the tire size is limited to 175/60-13 even with generous fender banging with a hammer. Oh well, if I wanted something easier I would go back to Sprites. HH19532H@aol.com Marc Frost