Forgot to confirm standard 126 gearbox, still to fit bis crownwheel and pinion.

Ralph

When I opened this thread I said that I had made enquiries with a couple of Polish colleagues regarding 'MOTOMAX', and come back to you with the outcome.
It would seem that MOTOMAX do tend to make the "tripod c/v joints" for the 500/126 in batches, mainly because it is expensive to make them and they make more money when re-conditioning drive-shafts. One of my colleagues ordered 15 sets--and it took the 8 months to deliver the order! 2 contacts that I have come up with who might be able to supply the couplings are:---(1)---Lucasz--on [email protected] (the company is in Sudbury, in Suffolk, and is called "LP Garage")
(2)--- new tripods Fiat 500/126--his name is Piotross, and can be found on the "club 126 UK" site. It would also seem that when fitting the kits, they don't bother to renew the 'crush' spacer (?)
I hope that this information is of help to one 'n all.

Good evening everyone, this happened today and it is really strange, maybe bolts got loose and one or two broke and then this happened but didn't hear any strange noises before. Engine is tuned and pushing it sometimes but not from zero to max, accelerating while moving. I think that axle is not perfectly aligned with gearbox. Anyway I think it is time to upgrade to a CV kit, at list this will overcome any misalignment problems. Thing is that my shafts are cut to the circlip groove so I can't put any circlips to secure the tripod bearing. Do you think this could be a problem? I have asked motormax about it and waiting for their answer. Now before you ask the reason the shafts are cut is because they where extremely close to axles, almost touching for a reason so I just cut a few mm each side.

thepuddlejumper said:

Rusty, I installed the cv units without replacing the bearings and distance piece. So in effect it was a 2 stage compression of the spacer. I also screwed the nylon nut on before fitting the cv unit.to thread the nylon part, this allowed the nut to be fitted more easily. I also used red loctite to secure the nut. I did have one problem when fitting the axles back. The axles were too long to fit into thr joint, the green steel cover section would not allow the axle past and into position. I therefore had to slacken off the gearbox mounts to manipulate the shafts into position.
I have a 126 engine fitted with panda 30 head and carb setup, so the Gamine goes very well and I use it to the max when I can in saying that over the last couple of years I have only done a few hundred miles per year.

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After all the thoughts regarding using a nyloc nut the 'wrong way round' I had a very long, hard think about a solution---and I found one. I am lucky in that one of my good friends is a superb "micro-engineer"---he is of the opinion that "1-thou" is a ruddy great gap! I handed him one of my couplings and he made me a couple of small spacers---convex on one side to match the concave shape of the inside of the coupling, and flat the other side for the nut to tighten up against. I got the 'lathe-man'at work to skim the nut a little bit (so that the 'nyloc' part of the nut WAS fully utilised) and as I was not having to do a complete 'crush' on the bearing spacer, I was able to use the supplied nut to tighten the hub up with. Fitting the drive-shafts into the coupling made my 'little grey cells' work hard until I realised that if undid the 4 bolts that hold the rear hub-unit in place, I could just pull the hub out enough the locate the drive-shaft into the new coupling. This was done AFTER the bearing had been attached to the stub-axle and the nut tightened up. Doing the job this way was very easy, and gave me the opportunity to give the rear brakes a good check-over and service. The only problem that I had was fitting the large 'spring-type' coupling-boot retainer onto the boot---there just was not enough clearance between the coupling boot and the inner surfaces of the rear wish-bone. In the end I stopped trying to fit the supplied spring-type boot retainer and resorted to stainless-steel locking wire---and after a year of use, i haven't had any leakage from the boot.

Tom that's a good mod you did, truth is that I don't like the Idea of putting the nut with the nyloc inside but on the other hand what can it go wrong? If I finally buy this set I might put the guys at work and make me two washers as you did. What are your thoughts about my shafts don't have the circlip? Is it possible for the tripod to come off the shaft during operation?

gordinir8 said:

Tom that's a good mod you did, truth is that I don't like the Idea of putting the nut with the nyloc inside but on the other hand what can it go wrong? If I finally buy this set I might put the guys at work and make me two washers as you did. What are your thoughts about my shafts don't have the circlip? Is it possible for the tripod to come off the shaft during operation?

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The honest answer is Thomas, I don'tk now. There is a fair length of spline on the axle, and a fair length on the coupling, so the chance of the coupling falling off the end of the drive-shaft is, I reckon, slim

I guess there is not much I can do now except of trying and if there is a problem I will go for new axles. Looking around for it I noticed there are other kits available like omokinetic which use the original nuts but also original cast iron hubs. https://www.ebay.com/itm/2237499019...Vq74aiNSau&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

gordinir8 said:

I guess there is not much I can do now except of trying and if there is a problem I will go for new axles. Looking around for it I noticed there are other kits available like omokinetic which use the original nuts but also original cast iron hubs. https://www.ebay.com/itm/2237499019...Vq74aiNSau&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

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A piece of advice---when fitting the "Omokinetic" couplings, I would suggest that the "sliding-coupling" is renewed, with TOP quality items. These 'sliders' have a habit of the splines stripping out if the cheap versions are used. The good sliding-couplings have a blue colouring around the splines area where they have been heat-treated. As I mentioned earlier, Abarth used C/V couplings, but retained the rubber/alloy coupling on the stub-axle. But in all honesty, I expect that the couplings that Abarth fitted were of a MUCH better quality than the couplings available today! Looking at the Abarth system, I think that the C/V joints were only put onto the drive-shafts to reduce the flexing on the rubber/alloy coupling.

Tom I am aware of that and but the problem is that sometimes is difficult to know which spare part is of good quality, the one that broke was the most expensive Axel had in stock. I hope that this problem will eliminated since now that the new coupling will be flexible and there will be no load or stress on the splines. To be honest I prefer to have worn sliding hubs than axles, the first time hub spline damaged but axle remained intact, I also keep a spare in my trunk.