Rear spring

[Jaydub]

Simon
Are the rubbers with the rear groove, caliper seals? That`s what they remind me of.

John

[davidwheeler]

Ferri Adelio have  come up with the goods - at a cost of E202.52 inc VAT and delivery.   I suppose that may be about the same as the Omicron solution.  Pity I did not know of the need a few months ago, could have saved quite a lot of money!

[davidwheeler]

Here is the tool.  A bit crude but made this way for speed and simplicity.  One could think of refinements like a central bolt and swivel arrangement but quite how to manage the bar (which needed a LOT of torque applied to it) I have not yet sussed out.

[frankxhv773t]

I think it produces torque. You apply a force.

[davidwheeler]

"Torque, moment, or moment of force is the tendency of a force to rotate an object around an axis, fulcrum, or pivot. ... Loosely speaking, torque is a measure of the turning force on an object such as a bolt or a flywheel."   I applied a force to the 3 foot steel tube and produced a torque in the tool.  See, I am even more pedantic than you!
I have spent most of today rebuilding the high ratio final drive with new bearings.  I found it necessary to squeeze gently in the press to make sure they were properly seated (even after baking in the oven!).  Now it has all gone together withthe original shims, the tiniest amount of backlash and a nice even strip of engineers' blue on the teeth.  I hope it will be quiet on the road!

[frankxhv773t]

Thank you David. We pedants must unite against loss of accuracy in the use of language.

[davidwheeler]

Or even loss of precision.
Next question - How do I set the torsion bars when re-assembling the rear suspension?  There is, presumably, a set angle to the horizontal of the trailing arms before they are attatched to the spring.

[ColinMarr]

The car needs to be levelled up and the torsion bars inserted (vernier adjustment) so that they are unstressed and 'neutral'. Not that I have ever seen one, but originally there would have been marker plates inside each rear wing cavity to help with this, as in the attached photo. In practice, I think the best thing is to set it up so the transverse spring looks flat and then insert the bars. What fun!

Colin

[davidwheeler]

Thank you for reminding me!    In the "Lancia Ardennes..." story there is a photo

[simonandjuliet]

On my car it is in a slightly different position - 2nd vs 1st ??

[davidwheeler]

It is not clear in the copy but the original picture one can read "Monter la BARRE apres (?ceci)
                                                                                  porte le bras porte roue a 1?0 m?
                                                                                 entre cette (----------)ligne et
                                                                                    la partie                     superieure
                                                                                      du joint                   de cardan" 
(sorry, no accents on my English keyboard)

which is to say "Mount the bar after this (after this way?)  put the wheel carrying arm at 1?0 mm(?) between this line and and the upper part of the universal joint."
Question is how many mm?   Could you give us a close - up of your plate please Simon?  And in any case, what does it actually mean - it does not appear to make a huge amount of sense!

Unfortunately the Restauration describes refitting the torsion bars off the car "in the same orientation as we found on dismantling" and one cannot see at what angle this is.  I notice they use "sangles robustes" which sounds so much more poetic than "ratchet straps" to re-attatch the spring to the subframe before mounting the whole thing on the car - a bit like I did when I replaced the cable straps but I had the advantage of the weight of the car!    I prefer my spring compressor.

[simonandjuliet]

Here's mine in Italian - the plates on either side give the same distance of 155mm

[BlueSky]

The following information is from the factory A.S.T. Sketch 60 I-PM provided by Paul Mayo.
Torsion bar setting on Saloon:
Italian coupling non-greaser = 159 mm
Italian coupling greaser = 155 mm
English/Hardy Spicer coupling = 164 mm
Datum is horizontal line joining shock absorber fixing bolts.
Torsion bar bearing: Lancia 2048307 or 2048056, RIV Tipo 137827 or 5741 – 45 x 78 x 18 mm

My car doesn't have the plate with the settings, in the past I've just marked the torsion bars before removing them, put them back in approximately the same position and then adjusted the height once it's all back on the car. I'd measured the height to the bottom of the rear guards as a guide as well and then basically set them to what looked right!
Noel

[davidwheeler]

Is this with or without the spring?   With I presume?   If so what is the approximate position of the unloaded trailing arm?

[BlueSky]

I would assume it's with the spring. I used the "suck it and see" method! If it's all gone back together with lots of grease then you can adjust the height by jacking up a trailing arm until you see the torsion bar splines are free, use a puller to withdraw it before moving it a notch or two, lower the car on it's wheels, give the rear end a good push up and down, if you have friction shockers loosen them off first, a bit of trial and error should get right.
Noel