91 164 L Steering rebuild in progress....

[Alfisto Steve]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donliznev Thanks Steve, Meanwhile the axles are tilted upright and hanging by the lowest strut bolt so that the leftover grease can be cleaned out. There is a spring clip accessible from the inner side of the outer CV joint. Does this allow the axle and CV joint to be removed from the hub? If so how does that work?????? I was unable to slide the axle out from the hub together with the outer CV joint. I would like to clean these and repack with grease. I found also that the brand new inner rubber boots have a far inferior collar so that the DiFatta supplied collars do not adequately clamp them. I have refitted the old boots tightly with the new collars as they show very little wear and are not being constantly flexed anyway. I will save the new boots until something goes wrong. The outer boots are totally disintegrated but fortunately no grit had found it's way into the CV joints. Locally I am unable to find anything that would work as a collar on these boots except the nylon "handcuff" ties. These are not a bad option as far as I am concerned. Have a very good week all.... Ta, Neville.

[donliznev]

Thanks Craig and Steve for prompt replies.

I had a strong feeling that bolt is not standard.

Steve's theory about a Helicoil screw-up sounds about right to me, especially as the other bolts will not go in this hole.
Until I can locate a not too costly new hub (or used if I can find a good one) I will probably have to repeat the Helicoil fix using a more appropriate bolt.
Not to mention that I will need the special thin wall socket and summon up the muscle power to undo the big hub nut.
I especially went the "Rosso" route to avoid this.

Helicoil kits are plus $30.00 a pop.....but I need to get this car back on the road for the Teen.

Ta,

Neville.

[Alfisto Steve]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donliznev Thanks Craig and Steve for prompt replies. I had a strong feeling that bolt is not standard. Steve's theory about a Helicoil screw-up sounds about right to me, especially as the other bolts will not go in this hole. Until I can locate a not too costly new hub (or used if I can find a good one) I will probably have to repeat the Helicoil fix using a more appropriate bolt. Not to mention that I will need the special thin wall socket and summon up the muscle power to undo the big hub nut. I especially went the "Rosso" route to avoid this. Helicoil kits are plus $30.00 a pop.....but I need to get this car back on the road for the Teen. Ta, Neville.

[donliznev]

Well the ducks are lined up to complete this saga over the Memorial weekend.
Last weekend was mostly wasted on urgent and unexpected Maytag and Cadillac repairs....

I established that the original thread for the problematic hub to strut bolt was not too badly damaged and had not been replaced with a helicoil.
It looked like someone had either lost the original bolt or stripped it and used another bolt with a marginally smaller thread.
To the eye the bogus bolt looks exactly the original like M10 1.25 but with a far smaller head.

I finally found two M10 1.25 bolts at a Pop hardware store (Mom was not around?) about five miles away, after all others failed.
Pop knew exactly where to find it amongst about 50 years of other dust laden inventory .....
I purchased two, as one was used to very carefully "re-bore" the original thread in the hub.
I was able to tighten past the torque setting without loss of grip, and then loosen and re-tighten to the torque setting.

The engine and sub-frame is back in place and all we hopefully need now is to connect the sway bar, connect the steering wheel shaft and transmission linkage, bleed the steering system and torque the suspension after the car is lowered and raised again.
Probably a little more time thereafter to figure out where that extra bolt, nut or screw came from.......

Apart from ensuring the steering rack boots are re-aligned what else should be considered when I relinquish control to the folks at the tire shop for wheel alignment?
Are they going to know what to do?

Ta,

Neville.

[Alfisto Steve]

Print this off: Alfa 164 TSB 21.94.01

[ChazzyD]

Don't clamp the inner tie rod/rack boots down, just leave them loose. When they align it, they will be rotating the tie rods which might twist the rubber boots and possibly split them when you go to turn if badly twisted. When you get home from the alignment shop, you can then clamp them down.
Charles

[donliznev]

Thanks Steve, your TSB link superceded my printout of the CARDISC alignment spec.

Thanks Charles, the clamps were already installed by JORGEN who supplied the rack.
I might unclamp them and leave them loose on the tie rods as they won't come off altogether.
Or I will leave be and watch the "specialist" at work and ensure he realigns the boots.
I have done that before........

Another unexpected problem arose with the sway bar lollipops arriving from the supplier without new nyloc nuts.
Maybe I should have requested these seperately?

The original lollipop nuts do not fit the new lollipops which had me again doing the rounds trying without success to find M10 1.25 NYLOCS.
I found regular nuts (Pop's hardware shop again) which I might have to use with Loctite until I can locate the right parts.
I will also search my box of old automotive nuts but I don't hold much hope in that direction.

Question time:

CARDISC detail is too small for me to see how the four new lollipop rubber bushes are arranged on attachment to the suspension control arm.
It looks to me like lollipop has two cylindrical rubber bushes which meet in the middle of the control arm hole.
Each rubber bush has a 1mm ridge on one side.

Do the two ridges meet in the middle of the control arm hole?

I assume I have to clamp the tie rod nearer the control arm in order to gain enough thread on the lollipop to enable the nut to gain purchase.

The old bushes had long since disappeared so I had no original point of reference.

Ta,

Neville.

[Alfisto Steve]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donliznev Thanks Steve, your TSB link superceded my printout of the CARDISC alignment spec. Thanks Charles, the clamps were already installed by JORGEN who supplied the rack. I might unclamp them and leave them loose on the tie rods as they won't come off altogether. Or I will leave be and watch the "specialist" at work and ensure he realigns the boots. I have done that before........ Another unexpected problem arose with the sway bar lollipops arriving from the supplier without new nyloc nuts. Maybe I should have requested these seperately? The original lollipop nuts do not fit the new lollipops which had me again doing the rounds trying without success to find M10 1.25 NYLOCS. I found regular nuts (Pop's hardware shop again) which I might have to use with Loctite until I can locate the right parts. I will also search my box of old automotive nuts but I don't hold much hope in that direction. Question time: CARDISC detail is too small for me to see how the four new lollipop rubber bushes are arranged on attachment to the suspension control arm. It looks to me like lollipop has two cylindrical rubber bushes which meet in the middle of the control arm hole. Each rubber bush has a 1mm ridge on one side. Do the two ridges meet in the middle of the control arm hole? I assume I have to clamp the tie rod nearer the control arm in order to gain enough thread on the lollipop to enable the nut to gain purchase. The old bushes had long since disappeared so I had no original point of reference. Ta, Neville.

[donliznev]

Folks,

The Memorial Weekend ended with successful completion of this steering and front suspension rebuild.

All the great help along the way from Forum members (Jason, Charles, Craig and JongT) was very much appreciated.
A special thanks to Steve and his Rosso Rebuild Project write-up.

Today I hauled in the Teen so I could check everything and it all looks good after a week in daily use.
It was really satisfying to see that the steering fluid had not dropped an inch in level as it used to do each week.

The Teen departed soon thereafter with the car full of girls not to be seen since......those care free days.

As expected the wheel alignment "expert" failed to re-align the steering linkage boots.
I made them put the car back on the lift and then personally supervised, which wiped the smiles off several faces.

That of course put into question the quality of the wheel alignment but periodically throughout I was watching them get the needle into the green on the meter.
It took over two hours but the car felt really nice on the highway.
The steering wheel is now dead center and the wheels no longer rub the body on right full lock.

The TSB update that I printed out was in fact used as well.

Ta,

Neville.