Augusta progress

[Kari]

Hello all,

The spring NR. 34-5583/6 is the uppermost one, the longer one of the two. To keep water and dust out, there is a alu cap 34-5626, which is held in place by the lubrication nipple on top of the damper rod. (M6 tread)

The P/N 34-5595 is soft soldered to P/N 34-5578 (lower sliding cylinder), the oil tube or standpipe is brazed to the cap as you did. The lower dust cover is also soft soldered to 34-5578. The solder can become cracked with time and will leak oil. If so, the only solution is the disassembly the lot by heat gun, de-grease carefully and re-solder.

To fill the shock absorber, I use a different method as described in the owners manual. I remove 34-5625 and fill oil directly into the damper rod. At the same time I move the rod up and down and can feel any air pockets left. It is essential that on changing the sense of moving the rod, resistance must be noted, especially when the rod is at the bottom. It's a lengthy process. Excuse my English.

Regards Karl

[Raahauge]

Good evening.
I agree with Kari, 34-5583/6 is the top spring and the middle, shorter one is 34-5583/10.
I had a batch of these made and still have some. Picture attached. £5 each
I am curious about the dust cap arrangement. On my car, and some others I have seen, the top of the damper rod is more or less flush with the top of the top cap which means that on bump it would be the aluminium dust cap that is trying to lift the damper rod and not the spring 34-5583/10. My expectation is that the dust cap would shear and is maybe why they are frequently missing.
I have made a push-on cap from light gauge tube about 60 long which fits snugly over top cap and is not attached to the damper rod.
Best wishes to everyone for 2022.
Mike

[daniel.bangham]

My appologies, I specified the correct spring, but located it incorrectly. The spring that is broken on mine is the top spring. As a stop gap solution, I have leveled of the broken part of the spring and made a spacer to fill the gap. I know that it will be a harder spring, but, better than no spring at all. (I have found some available on Ebay from Italy). Thanks for the replies, by the way. Very helpful and re-assuring. I have finished and re-fitted the 34-5595 cup at the bottom, with soft solder. I have also built up and finished shaped the worn 34-5587 (main "king pin") as described by Morris Parry. I was rather worried about the brazing rod I used, so I have made it .01 undersize and have nickel plated it to bring it up to 35mm in diameter (which I calculated to be the original specification). I made two test plating's using similar size and type material, to get the voltage and current correct. Then tested the resulting finish. I hit the plating with a ball pein and it dented and conformed, without delaminating, I then tried to file it and the file skated over the surface. So I went ahead and plated the original. All looks very promising. I have just moved on to the re-assembly and have been researching the oil to use. I have posted my thoughts on the subject in the "suspension oil" thread on this formum. In summary, I will be using a 32 weight hydraulic oil. (as used in motorbike front suspension)
 I will be making new dust caps as suggested. The tools lent to me by Mike have been fabulous and help from the forum equally re-assuring.

[Mikenoangelo]

Great progress and some tricky work Daniel!
Mike Clark

[Raahauge]

As Mike says, good work.
I have just refurbished the same components our Aprilia suspension but I farmed it out, (generally similar but a bit bigger) it rattled away even on a smooth road and when dismantled there was about 006" wear in both the bore and the component you have just done, total 012".
I had the bore ground till it cleaned up and the male part hard chromed to give 002" clearance
The male part is barrel shaped on the Aprilia with a radius of about 175mm but the bits on our Augusta, which I did not have to rebuild, are parallel. What profile is yours? I cannot tell from the photos.
The 002"clearance proved to be too tight and I have had to increase it.
You are welcome to one of the short springs instead of your packing piece if you wish.
Mike

[Kari]

The "king pin" on the Augusta suspension is barrel shaped as well. On a recent overhaul of a friends front suspension, I had them ground to the basic shape, chromed up and ground to size. The cylinders were worn oval inside and have been ground to be cylindrical again. I did aim for a clearance of 0,04 mm.

Karl

[daniel.bangham]

Thanks for the advice. I have made the king pins dome shaped. I did it carefully by eye using the max diameter of 34.95mm in the middle and the original metal as the outer diameters. I made the decision that the exact shape was not critical, since they still worked when worn 0.4mm out of shape, (one side was almost flat). I decided not to do anything about the outer sleave, it measured to within 0.04mm of round.
It is now all back together again, the most frustrating bit being getting the bottom spring cap square and true, so the thread did not cross. In the end I assembled the caps without the springs, marked where thethreads started (ie the point at which the cap dropped off into my hand) Then made sure the marks lined up when screwing together with the springs in place. I will use a bottle jack next time as well. Flushed with success, I tackled the off side spring. The bottom cap came off  very smoothly and the components inside looked as new, someone has worked on this side! I stopped at that point and re-oiled and assembled.
The final assembly should be possible tomorrow morning ready for the new years day rally in Barrington.

[Mikenoangelo]

Wow - Happy New Year!

Mike Clark

[Kari]

A good idea, to mark where the tread starts. Even with the compression tool I was using on my friends front axle, there is the fear to bugger up the tread. Decades ago, I have inherited the compression tool from a Lancia garage near Zurich. The tool is very useful as it allows working on the suspension while off the car. In the case of my friends axle, the L/H side female tread at the bottom was distorted, probably by striking something while driving and it needed an enormous amount of leverage to undo it.

Best wishes for the New Year and happy Augusta driving.

Karl

[daniel.bangham]

Thanks for sharing that photo, Is the removal of the whole front axle simply a case of undoing the four bolts, stearing linkage and brake hoses, or is there more to it? Maybe in realignemnt or something.
Seeing the alternative tooling us useful. In my opinion, the use of a taper roller bearing under the cap tool, as Mike Clarke has used, is a genius idea.

[Mikenoangelo]

Did you make it to Barrington yesterday?

Mike Clark

[Kari]

I agree, a taper roller bearing would be much better than the plain stub I have on my tool, but plenty of grease helps. I think more important is a very fine tread to compress the spring. On my tool it's a 32 X 1,5 mm tread. The spring on the Augusta is preloaded close to 200 kg. Normally, a lever of 2 ft is sufficient to undo the lower cap.
The axle is bolted to the frame by 6 ea.  M10 X 1,25 bolts.

If one doesn't want to bleed the brakes, the procedure is as follows: remove brake drums, remove whole brake assemblies by undoing the 6 ea. screws (58556 - 58557) at the back plates and hang the assemblies by a wire/string out of way. Disconnect steering rod at the front. Undo 6 M10 bolts and lower the axle, preferably using a garage jack. A word of caution here, the M 10 bolts can be corroded and difficult to remove, as the treads are protruding inside the frame and water can collect there. Very early Augusta have a different attachment of the front axle, the bolts horizontal.

Karl

[daniel.bangham]

Thanks for the information about removing the front axle. Something for the future. I am not sure what the photo is showing?
After wrangling the front bumper back into position, I was able to lower the car down and take it for a test drive. All behaving very nicley indeed. The slight steering wobble, that I got around 40 mph has gone completely. Happy days ahead, time to start preparing to take it to the Pyrenees.
Back over to Mike and his epic Augusta Progress thread. Thanks for all your help.

[daniel.bangham]

FYI, there are quite a few Augusta spare parts for sale on the Itallian www.ebay.it . I have got two different front suspension springs from the guy called Alberto Giuffrida, in Siracusa, sicily. email:alberto.giuffrida@hotmail.it.

[Mikenoangelo]

No Augusta fettling to report - just using and enjoying the car!

I am organising a Touring event around the Yorkshire Dales for VSCC members using Pre 1941 cars on June 3rd to coincide with the exact 95th anniversary of the MCC 1927 London Edinburgh Run which went over numerous hilly observed sections throughout North Yorkshire. I believe there is another Anniversary as well!
 
Yesterday I took the Augusta around the 115 mile route to do a final check on the instructions. A brilliant sunny day and a big smile on my face, the Augusta is just so nice to drive and it behaved perfectly of course and drew a lot of interest. It seems to average 29mpg which I believe is normal for an Augusta.

My only complaint is that the front seats are not very comfortable, feeling a bit humped in the middle of the cushion and lacking the side support needed round all those wriggly bits in the Dales. The seats have been recovered but otherwise seem unmodified. Has anyone else found this? Perhaps a change to the interior padding would work, hopefully without to much change to the appearance of the seats.

Mike Clark