Technical 126p front control arms on 500d

[RogerNZ]

Hi all, I stripped my donor 126p car this weekend and can now see that while I can use the brakes and king pin housings on my 500d I won't be able to use the front controls arms (sometimes called wishbones or swinging arms). This is a shame as they are more heavy-duty than the original 500d version, and also are joined at the point where they mount to the king pin housing, which should theoretically prevent twisting. However, I can't mount them because the pin which holds them to the car has its bolt holes at different centres to the 500d ( the centres are about 15 further apart). I could use these parts if I were to change the locating bolts on the car body, which seems simple enough. To cut a long story short has anyone tried this? Is there anything l am not considering here?
Thanks Roger

 

[RogerNZ]

Here are a couple of pics that explain my thinking. The camera angle sllightly exagerates the relative size of the pins, but you can clearly see the 126p pin in longer and thicker and has holes at wider centres. my 500d control arms are away being powder coated so I could not include them in the pics, but they are not as heavy-duty as the 126p ones and are in two parts, without the 'bridge' welded between them as seen on the 126p parts pictured here. After thinking about this a little more it seems that rather than change the bolts on the body I would be better off manufacturing a set of new heavy-duty pins with holes at the correct centres which will allow me to use the 126p control arms. Anyone done this before? Seems pretty straightforward?
cheers Roger

 

[Bambino]

Roger,
I'm not aware of anyone doing this. I think that people just replace the front hubs with 126 ones and leave the rest of the suspension standard.

Machining a new pair of heavy duty dogbones to mount your 126 wishbones could be quite an expensive exercise with no real discernible benefit.

Have a look here -

http://www.fiat500clubsa.org.au/articles/swapping-niki-parts-into-your-bambino

Just my opinion,
Chris

 

[RogerNZ]

Thanks Chris. I figured that since I hadn't seen it discussed it was probably rarely done. Still, seems sensible to me that with an increase in braking force you'd look to increase strength in all points where that force if felt. (obviously fiat felt the same?) Mind you, if no-one does it and there aren't a whole lot of posts about standard parts failing under the new load then I guess I have my answer! I'm a bit stubborn though so I'm still going to check out how many beers I may have to buy an engineer friend to make me up some bespoke "dog bones"!
Cheers Roger