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Discussion starter · #381 ·
1984 Maratona "Ran when parked..."

My anti-grime, anti-rust OCD is killing my schedule. Well that and the house AC quit, and the water well pressure switch started acting up. AC guy took several hours, and constantly wanted to show me why my 19 year-old system needed replacing...at cost several times more than the cumulative purchase cost of my 4 Alfa. LOL I can't have something like that cut into my parts budget!

Several parts sat overnight in a large basin of Supreme Clean. I rinsed them off and they are now sitting in Evaporust.




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Well that and the house AC quit, and the water well pressure switch started acting up. AC guy took several hours, and constantly wanted to show me why my 19 year-old system needed replacing...at cost several times more than the cumulative purchase cost of my 4 Alfa. LOL I can't have something like that cut into my parts budget!
I suppose that if I have to replace my 38 year old heat pump it could put a dent in my car hobby budget. The only time that I paid anyone to work on it was when the blower cage got loose in mid winter and I was out of the country. I believe that is the secret to reliability of these things - keep other people's hands out of it. And my well pump pressure switch is acting up too. Fortunately simple to replace.
 
Discussion starter · #383 ·
Total range of adjustment on TB, without moving splines. This illustrates the extremes, I'll try and fall in the middle.








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Discussion starter · #384 · (Edited)
1984 Maratona "Ran when parked..."



I'm mildly perturbed that the new upper ball joints do not come with mounting hardware. I'll have to make some with M8x1.25 10.9 bolts, cut and threaded so that the threads don't start until peeking out of the control arm. Secured with a couple of spot wields on top and red locktited stover nuts on the bottom.


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Discussion starter · #386 ·
Keep it from rattling free. I'm a belt AND suspenders kind of guy...and I don't want the tedium of drilling the hex and safety wiring. Old racing habits die hard.




Substantial trimming is required.


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Discussion starter · #387 ·
I apologize, some of this is tedious minutiae for you guys, but it gives me a diary of what I was doing to look back on when I take a few days off.

The stover nuts are a bit thicker than the mock up nuts. I need to take that into consideration when I cut down the bolts.




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Discussion starter · #388 ·
Well, the spring "breakage" season is upon us, and consumes my time.

Nevertheless, I've got a few pictures to share:



Brake pistons came out easily. Whew

I find the colored marking on the brake backing plate interesting.


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I'm mildly perturbed that the new upper ball joints do not come with mounting hardware. I'll have to make some with M8x1.25 10.9 bolts, cut and threaded so that the threads don't start until peeking out of the control arm. Secured with a couple of spot wields on top and red locktited stover nuts on the bottom.


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I really like the attention to detail here. And these transaxle suspensions are just fun to work on.

On my car, I just used prevailing torque nuts and a healthy torque spec on class 10.9 hardware. Might add cotter pins this weekend to be smart, but won't go as far as safty wiring / tack welding.

Curious here - is the bolt shoulder through the control arm really necessary given that the bolts won't be loaded in shear? I would think of them as more fit for a shear application or one in which there is relative motion. What was your reasoning behind it?

Looking forward to seeing the front suspension bolted up.
 
Discussion starter · #390 ·
I took Friday off, making the coming weekend 4 days off. Other than a couple of non-Alfa tasks (change the valve cover gasket and find out why the van is leaking coolant, and rewire the horse trailer electrical connection, yes they do get ground off when you let them bounce on the road!!:( ) I should be able to spend a bunch of time on the car. I'll see if I can start on the bushing replacement and painting of the passenger side front suspension this week.

The brake refurb is simple. I just need to control my desire to scrub every little bit of grime off the caliper...because that will lead to scratching the stock anodizing off...which will lead...another trip down the rabbit hole. LOL
 
Discussion starter · #391 ·
Graham, looking at the motion of a ball joint, and the potential for fretting caused by a fully threaded bolt, I chose to keep a shoulder to the bolt. I would suggest that there is a potential for shear. Given the looseness of the fit, I'm not happy about slop in the hardware. To do this completely correctly, I should have gone up a size in bolt, reamed the hole to just about a press fit. I hope to cure any of the potential movement due to the loose fit with the tack welds. My current thought is to both bolt the BJ flange with the hardware, and then do a small plug weld through the flange to the arm itself. Hopefully that will keep everything from sliding around. There is tremendous force here, and I don't want things moving around.

Belt and suspenders, belt and suspenders.
 
If you see shear at the bolt, you have bigger problems. In that type of bolted joint the bolt should strictly see tension, like all bolted joints of that design. The shoulder style bolt adds a stress concentration at the shoulder to thread transition as well.

And as far as doing it correctly goes, I disagree based on experience with bolted joints. The goal is to achieve proper friction to conteract the shear through friction alone; clamping force and surface finish lend to this. The bolt will not move radially if installed to correct preload (most easily and practically through torque, more accurately through strain or elongation but obviously not in a garage).

Where you are very much achieving your goal is the redundant use of prevailing torque fastener and red loctite and the tack welds (or safety wire if you had gone that route). Were the bolt to attempt to loosen for some reason (unlikely with a 10.9 torque spec on a zinc fastener), the prevailing torque nut and red loctite would keep the nut from rotating and maintain proper clamping load. That's prudent and logical.

All of that said...if you are concerned with alignment of the bolt in the UCA / ball joint, the shoulder bolt and tight clearance make a lot of sense. But as far as shear goes, it's not really a belt and suspenders fix since the pants it's attempting to hold up would be shear force, and that bolt doesn't see any - the joint does. So, the shoulder bolt is valid, but it's not really necessary or even a belt and suspenders style move.

I should add that I rather enjoy details like this, and hope you understand that I am just attempting to shed light on a technical topic. This is one of my favorite AlfaBB threads and I'm more than impressed with the work and decisions made on the car. These small details are fun to discuss for certain types such as myself :)
 
I have always used bolts here, but have had them come loose on me once. Sounded and felt like a bad wheel bearing. Burned two of those up before I discovered the ultimate issue.

Lock nuts are important here. Although it can't fall TOTALLY apart, loosing the bolts would sure mess up your day.
 
Discussion starter · #394 ·
Thanks, gentlemen, for the insight. I always appreciate advice and participation.


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Discussion starter · #395 ·
Whomever came up with the method of heating the bushing sleeve until the plastic melts in order to remove it, brilliant!!! Man that was easy. What was left in the sleeve either peeled right off or succumbed to a wire brush on a dremel.

I made up a couple of washers to help with getting the new one on.




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Liquid N2 or dry-ice can be helpful, too.
 
Discussion starter · #398 ·
Well, the four-day weekend degenerated into "honey-do", horse trailer rehabilitation (tires, wheels and electrical...man my mediocre electrical skills are getting a work out), porch/patio building and way too much property maintenance. Other than the bushing above, and some painting...not much was done to the car.

I did have to purchase a $86 set of valve cover gaskets for the van, last time I tried to sell it to the pic n pull they wanted to pay me $136 to take it away. **** near doubled its value with that part purchase. LOL
 
Discussion starter · #399 ·
Let's see how far I get in June. I set myself a challenge of working an average of an hour a day for the month. So a minimum of 30 hours this month. That should get some progress on the project.

Bob
 
Parts ordered, time to tear out the front suspension. I'll pull everything apart, de-rust and paint. I hope everything turns up by Thursday or Friday.
The "might as well's" kill you too, I see.

Several years ago, I pulled the my 70 Ram Air IV GTO into the shop for a brake job and tuneup. Next thing you know, it was off the frame...

Final result...

 
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