128 wagon front suspension rebuild

[Agnelli]

Symptoms exhibited: massive wheel bearing noise, wandering steering, torque steer, torn CV boot. Gathered all new bushings (larger wagon sway bar makes this tricky: center bar mounts for 22mm bar not obviously available, same for lower control arm sway bar capture bushings). Progress so far: entire front suspension uninstalled. Most if not all parts now acquired (bushings, NOS Boge struts, axles, boots, bearings/uprights, CV). Next step to re-bush lower arms, move springs and new mounts on to struts. Drop the transaxle, as the freshly rebuilt from 3 four speed cores Steve Hoelscher new transaxle arrived. More to follow.

 

[motoTrooper]

Always love some 128 stuff, missed an opportunity to buy one from a nice woman in Mountainview a year ago. Occasionally still kick myself (gently) over it.

 

[Agnelli]

With great effort succeeded in replacing the lower control arm inner bushings. The bushings have shoulders that make it quite challenging to press into the arm ends. First had to press out the old failed bushings to retrieve the metal sleeves, through which 8mm bolts fasten the arms to the body. Installed the bushings using a bit of pvc pipe fitting matching the outer dimension of the bushing, then pressing it in with a 3 arm HF bearing puller (I don't have a hydraulic press). Then staked the inner sleeves with a vice. Success took multiple attempts and careful alignment, but it worked. Next I need to modify the Pirelli Ritmo bushings that mount on the sway bar and located the control arms. There were no additional spacers when I disassembled, which per the manuals are used to adjust caster.

 

[Jeff Stich]

Gathered all new bushings (larger wagon sway bar makes this tricky: center bar mounts for 22mm bar not obviously available, same for lower control arm sway bar capture bushings)...

The swaybar end bushings (donuts) are the same as on the 128 Sedan, only the swaybar pivot saddle bushings (center bar mounts) are different for the 128 Wagon (4230095).

 

[Agnelli]

Thanks Jeff. I have new swaybar end bushings (donuts) from MWB. I also have new the round shouldered hard plastic bushing that sits inside the round sway bar control arm mount. However, it seems that with the larger wagon 22mm sway bar may not fit through that hard bushing which does look correct for the thinner 19mm sedan sway bar. I can see how the donuts could stretch over the thicker wagon sway bar.

The modified solution referenced above is to delete the shouldered hard plastic center bushing, and modify the Pirelli Ritmo bushings to fit. Those come with metal sleeves internally that are certainly much smaller than 22mm ID. I will press those out, and see if I need to enlarge the bushing centers to fit over the sway bar to capture the control arm. Or, revert to the stock new donuts. Not sure about the original wagon / control bar bushing configuration. Upon disassembly, a fine crumbly dust emerged which could have been a completely decomposed center ring, or simply accumulated dirt. One of the donuts that came off has a hard plastic backing, but not all of the four donuts.

The wagon swaybar center mounts as far as I could tell stock Fiat bushings unavailable. I ended up sourcing an equivalent from eBay which are originally 22mm for Honda Civic. Will report back as to if those fit. Other alternatives from sources like bushing.com were expensive and most often poly, which I did not want to use, preferring quieter more compliant rubber.

It was also interesting to observe the struts that came off the car were old Boge, and apparently already had stock sedan 7 coil front springs mounted, along with Moog camber adjusters. I have another pair in waiting sourced from MWB which are also 7 spring allegedly from a 128 coupe. Will compare both sets in length once disassembled in length and spring diameter. The car was sitting slightly high in front, as the PO had already performed the lowering block mod trick on the rear. As this is a '74 it originally had the super heavy US bumpers which are long gone. So which springs and if I cut a coil is TBD.

 

[Jeff Stich]

The threaded/machined ends of the swaybar are the same size as the 128 Sedan (& Yugo), so all of the swaybar-end hardware bits (rubber bushings, plastic bits, metal washers/spacers/nut) are the same, as well. Only the actual "bar" part of the swaybar (forward of the machined ends) is 19mm or 22mm respective of the 128 model it's for (Sedan vs. Wagon). Thus, the only Wagon-specific front suspension items are the 2 swaybar pivot saddle rubber bushings, as I noted previously.

The Coupe front spring is shorter. "7-coil" is misleading, as there were different lengths across the "128" family line:

 

[Karfrik]

Watching

 

[Agnelli]

Jeff's above post is dead accurate. I've measured the sway bar ends (and you can see the difference in the above photo), and yes the mounting ends are 14mm. Solving the question as to my approach, I will use the stock type new donuts and nylon shouldered center bush. Turns out the Ritmo modified approach will not work with the acquired bushings, as they are the variant with 12mm ID steel sleeves. Pressing out these will apparently destroy these bonded type bushings. Having done some internet research there are 12mm and 14mm variants.

Next will dismantle the struts and carefully compare sets of springs in stock, and post up comparisons with photos. I do have new strut top mount bushings of high quality.

 

[Jeff Stich]

Turns out the Ritmo modified approach will not work with the acquired bushings, as they are the variant with 12mm ID steel sleeves. Pressing out these will apparently destroy these bonded type bushings. Having done some internet research there are 12mm and 14mm variants.

If you're talking about the bushing/sleeve in the inboard-end of the control arm, the smaller ones are for the early 128's, the larger ones on the later models. Likely 1100 (69-73) vs. 1300 (74-on). My '72 128 Wagon originally had the smaller ones, finally "upgraded" to the larger ones the second time I rebuilt the front suspension (car has 400k+ miles). I also changed the bolt that goes through the sleeve (which is larger in diameter, to match the sleeve), & enlarged (drilled-out) the corresponding holes in the under-floor mounting bracket (per side) to match.

 

[Agnelli]

I was referencing the sway bar ends. The possible modified solution was to use Ritmo bushings and delete the nylon shouldered ring. There are apparently two variants of Ritmo bushings. One variant has 14mm ID metal sleeves. The ones I sourced are 12mm, which will not work or be modifiable, as the bushings are bonded. Pressing out the sleeves would likely destroy them. Enlarging the holes unlikely to work either. So I'm back to stock donuts and the nylon shouldered bushing which is fine.

As to the inboard end bushings, mine like yours had 8mm ID metal sleeves. I had two spares with 10mm sleeves. One original arm had a failed boot and failed ball joint. One of the spares had a failed boot. Interestingly, the spare arms themselves are thicker and less elegant than the OE Fiat arms. I contemplated drilling out the body mounts as you have, but instead opted to keep the 8mm bolt sleeves.

Next question: How to replace the center sway bar bushings. The mounts that capture the bushings and bolt to the frame - how do you separate that mount to allow installing new bushings? Everything now is quite firmly seized together. The old rubber bushings seem affixed to the bar and mounts.

 

[Agnelli]

First attack on the struts this evening. Disassembled old strut that had been on the car. Medium blue, sealed, Fiat. To be replaced with NOS OEM Boge made in Germany. Dimensions appear correct. Springs that came off the car are longer than the MWB 128 coupe springs that will mount on the Boges. both are 7 1/2 coils, but the coupe, or perhaps, sedan / coupe springs are also 7 1/2 coils though perceptibly shorter. I will start with these as the new baseline before any cutting. Will try to remember to measure springs as a comparison before installing

 

[carl]

Could be the shorter springs are just sagged with age and were originally the same as the other.

 

[Agnelli]

Measured the springs. MWB sourced 128 SL Coupe = 14". Springs that came off the wagon = 15".

 

[Agnelli]

Failed sway bar end bushes

 

[Agnelli]

Bush options: left side are stock, right are Ritmo.

 

[Agnelli]

Left arm is aftermarket, notably thicker. Right is OE Fiat, a more streamlined and better looking arm. New inner end bushes mounted

 

[Agnelli]

Went with Ritmo bush solution, fitting well with OE backing washers

 

[Agnelli]

 

[carl]

Is that wedge just for setting the lower strut bolts?

 

[Agnelli]

The wedge is for changing the camber. Note the top strut bolt is slightly smaller than stock. With the wedge in place, the camber angle compensates for a slightly shorter spring, which causes excess negative camber. The other common system are cam shaped camber adjusting bolts. A more permanent solution is to gradually enlarge one of the strut holes, then weld in a washer once you've set the camber correctly.