In the 66Gia I've replaced rear arms, and everything in the front. Disc brake kit, new bushings in the upper arms and a new spring pack. It seems as if every bushing is creaking, like rubber creaking. Upper arms at the cross shaft are the most noisy. The busings dont seem to be loose in the arms, and all the hardware is tight...thoughts before I tear into this disaster?

I’d leave it, sometimes a bit of water on the rubber bush will sort it, even with a small amount of detergent to help it settle.

I wouldn't go tearing things down just yet!
As Chrismunn suggests, try spraying some water or detergent solution around the upper arm bushes and see if the squeaking goes away. Or you could try possibly something like silicone spray for a more longlasting cure - but check whatever you use is compatible with rubber.

If you can't pinpoint where the noise is coming from by ear, try reaching in and holding each bush/mounting etc. by hand while someone bounces the car on it's suspension. Just be careful you don't get injured!!


I've found that the most likely area causing the squeaking is the section of bush contacted by the large washer under the pivot arm nut.That's where I'd try spraying first. You might also have to spray the interleaf liners on the front spring and the spring rubber location blocks if the noise persists. Also try the shock absorber (damper) mounting bushes and steering idler arm bushes (not usually a cause of squeaks).

There was some discussion on here a while back about tightening the arm bushes. The general consensus was that they should be tightened with either the car back on it's wheels or to jack up the suspension arm to the normal static position before tightening. This was to prevent the bushes being under torsion, possibly leading to early failure, when the car was back on it's wheels.

Hth,

AL.

Drive in the rain more frequently...mine goes quiet then.

fiat500 said:

Drive in the rain more frequently...mine goes quiet then.

Click to expand...

He shouldn't do this ^^

Electric vehicles short out in the rain, everyone knows this

AL.

Lol, well it sound like every pushing is making noise, its miserable to drive because of al the noise. The sleeve in teh pbushing really slips in there? cause thats what it sounds like. Biggest offender it he upper arm crossshaft bushings. Ill hit em with some silicone spray see what happens, but this cant be normal, it didnt make any noise before changing everything, then again it was all trashed before.

I drove a fiat 126 that had been converted to electric for 5 miles or so. It was a home-made conversion and as it was still in the development stage he was using lead acid batteries.


Until this point I had not appreciated how much noise the car makes while moving. The engine does a fantastic job of masking all the creaks, groans and rattles. Driving it was exciting and unnerving at the same time!


You could try some soundproofing in addition to the other suggestions as you will always be able to hear more of the cars workings than the rest of us.

I would get Peter to do a sound recording of one of his longer trips in Murphio then play it at just the right volume to mask the creaks and groans.

Im pretty tolerant of noises, mostly...but this is insane, its like a rusty door hinge against the body, 4 hinges in the front of the car and another 4 in the rear, its not a turn the radio up kinda noise. Its really really bad...Gonna try and inspect it today at the shop, see what I can turn up. Gonna double check the bushings make sure they are not moving when torqued, and try to pinpoint where the squeak is happening. Its way beyond like a little squeak, its a creak eerrraaahhh noise. Like when Poly bushings were first being used, and no one knew to lube them properly, that kinda insanity.

So the front end ended up being the control arms hitting the body just enough to make noise. I have minimal alignment shims in there to get a proper setup and the end of the arm was just kissing the body. A little belt sander work made a quick fix of that. Also one of the knuckle upper bushings worked its way out, dunno why but I swapped that out too.

Then the rear. All 4 bushings worked their way out of the sleeves. When I first got in this car is drove like crap. Had 2 inches toe out in the rear, thats not an exaggeration. I had another thread I think on that. I modified the aft removable mounting points for the rear arms by redrilling the hole and cutting the back, adding metal and rewelding em. Basically set them up so I could get a proper 1/16 toe in at the rear suspension, still with some adjustability of the stock slots which I also opened up to allow more wiggle room. This apperantly put pressure on all the bushings in such a way that it worked all 4 bushing out of the sleeve. I had no shims on one side of the bushing. So remove the rear arms again, and used a porta power (portable hydralic ram) and stretched the arms open 1/4". This put everything in the right spot so with no tension on anything the bushings sit in the middle of both mounting points.

Ive got the transaxle out for a reseal right now so I havent test driven it yet with the rear changes, but Im confident this will take care of the issues.

That's some serious misalignment of the rear arms!
I drove with 6mm of toe out on one side for a few months, that was bad enough!


Do you have dimensions of the arms to check they are back to normal size now? I'd be curious to know what caused them to be out of shape in the first place.

Im guessing crappy aftermarket parts. I dont know where the alignment was with the original arms. It was torn down to be re bushed and after cleaning and inspection they were not safe to reinstall so they were just replaced. The Aft mounts I did not modify in such a way that the original mount point for the arm couldn't be reused, its just a matter of changing the hole the bolt is in. But either way with it set up properly it cruises at 50-55mph and is very solid, even on the 12" pizza cutter wheels

I've never fitted aftermarket ones, but that explains the poor fitting. It would have been a concern if an original part was fitting like that!


As long as your toe in is correct and the bushes are not under stress it will be fine.


I took my swing arms to a local garage to fit new bushes. 3 ok and one most of the way in with a fouled lip so it won't go in any further so one bush has no shims on one side to correct it. It's not ideal, but the toe in is fine. I'm working on a replacement set at the moment. I've had them zinc plated and in time they will be painted in epoxy paint.