Ok, so I'm in the middle of a suspension rebuild.
The FAQ'a gone missing
and I've got a few questions, but I don't think they were in the FAQ anyway.

What I'm up to: I've got a lowered uprated suspension kit - JR Tourisme. Carnoisseur have them listed at £284.37, but I got it on ebay for £95 from petes-parts alias partbox effectively as a clearance item (parts for cinqs are getting rarer ). And I've got a full set of Powerflex bushes from fastfiat. And the idea is paint every rusty bit before it goes back on again... in Hammerite yellow, to match the yellow of the car (I know it won't stay that colour, but if you're going to paint it then there's no reason why it has to be black)

So, at the end of today, I've got the car up on axle stand with all 4 corners off

And my questions for today are...

1. replace all nyloc nuts with new ones
suggestions where to get hold of them readily at a sensible price. I'll be honest, I'd always intended to put the old ones back on again, but if I can get hold of some easily then I might be persuaded to do the right thing

2. front wishbone ball joint boot
is it possible to get replacement rubber covers for the ball joint on the lower wishbone - if so , I'm off to the car spares shop in the morning; if not, the crack in each boot will have to stay (ok, it may have been my fault - I used one of those 'fork' ball joint splitters, 'cause there was no room to get my 'proper' splitter on top of the stud, but I can't be a***d, erm bothered to replace the wishbones at this stage just because of a crack in the rubber cover)

3. removing old bushes
come on guys, is there really no better way to remove the old bushes than to burn them out? My son's burnt out one so far, but he's left a very sticky mess :yuck: on the drive (o-er, matron ) and we've got another 5 to go...

Anyway, all comments welcomed. I've been reasonably happy with progress so far.

Chris

ChrisPa said:

1. replace all nyloc nuts with new ones
suggestions where to get hold of them readily at a sensible price. I'll be honest, I'd always intended to put the old ones back on again, but if I can get hold of some easily then I might be persuaded to do the right thing

Click to expand...

A fasteners supplier perhaps? They will definately be able to help, failing that, theres always B+Q.

ChrisPa said:

2. front wishbone ball joint boot
is it possible to get replacement rubber covers for the ball joint on the lower wishbone - if so , I'm off to the car spares shop in the morning; if not, the crack in each boot will have to stay (ok, it may have been my fault - I used one of those 'fork' ball joint splitters, 'cause there was no room to get my 'proper' splitter on top of the stud, but I can't be a***d, erm bothered to replace the wishbones at this stage just because of a crack in the rubber cover)

Click to expand...

AFAIK, no, you have to replace the whole Track Rod End. If it helps, I did the same thing to one of mine whilst doing the 1242cc swap last year (I also managed to remove most of the thread from the shaft too ), and the car's done about 4k since in all weathers, with no problem. Theyre not exactly costly or time consuming to replace when they do go anyway!

ChrisPa said:

3. removing old bushes
come on guys, is there really no better way to remove the old bushes than to burn them out? My son's burnt out one so far, but he's left a very sticky mess :yuck: on the drive (o-er, matron ) and we've got another 5 to go...

Click to expand...

Theres always the hacksaw method (eg: remove blade from Jr hacksaw, put thru hole in bush, replace blade and saw away), but burning stuff is entertaining...

arseofbox said:

AAFAIK, no, you have to replace the whole Track Rod End.

Click to expand...

No, it's not the track rod ball joint, it's the ball joint on the wishbone

arseofbox said:

If it helps, I did the same thing to one of mine whilst doing the 1242cc swap last year (I also managed to remove most of the thread from the shaft too ), and the car's done about 4k since in all weathers, with no problem.

Click to expand...

That was my plan..

arseofbox said:

Theyre not exactly costly or time consuming to replace when they do go anyway!

Click to expand...

Track rod ends, yes - lower wishbones with powerflex bushes... erm, a little more expensive

arseofbox said:

Theres always the hacksaw method (eg: remove blade from Jr hacksaw, put thru hole in bush, replace blade and saw away), but burning stuff is entertaining...

Click to expand...

Can't disgaree about the entertainment factor. I was wondering if someone had successfully used a home made press?

attn: fixitagaintomorrow - Pete, have you tried this?

Ok - so I'm awake really early (thanks to eldest daughter - she who led me to buy a cinq) and what else should I do at 5am than try to design a special tool for pulling out the old bushes.

I knew I'd read this somewhere:

fixitagaintomorrow 18-11-2004 said:

Then you need to remove the old bushes from the arm - the only way I can manage this is in two stages - first the inner then the outer of the bush.

The inner is pulled out using my patented extractor tool - i.e. a 12" long piece of threaded bar and variety of spacing pieces.

Outer then needs to be cut out.

Click to expand...

Pete,

when you built your special extractor tool, did you try building one to take out the outer ring at one go with the whole of the bush?

Because both bushes on the rear arm are pushed in from the centre of the arm, I reckon it should be possible to build an extractor tool like yours but:
- use a drift/disk the right dia. to press on the metal outer but small enought to fit inside the hole in the rear arm (one of the sockets in my socket set seems to be the right size)
- pass a threaded bar all the way through both bushes, and press against the end face of one bush/the arm to pull the other bush out
I reckon I'd need a threaded bar about 500mm long, and 1/2" dia (12mm) to fit through the 1/2" square hole in the socket set

If any of this description makes sense, then what do you think?

Ta
Chris

Re: attn: fixitagaintomorrow - Pete, have you tried this?

Hi Chris,

The outer sleeve is quite thin on the rear bushes, if you could get a socket to fit just right then try - but I'd be wary. The amount of pressure you'd have to apply to the arm could well bend it - they aren't half tight in, those things!

I use the threaded bar and odds & sods to withdraw the inner, then the hacksaw to cut a slit in the sleeve without cutting the arm - then they literally drop out.

Hi
I made a similar extractor to remove metal/rubber bushes from my vespa swingarm but it takes a hell of a lot of force to remove them complete,i would do as pete says and remove the inner tube first
Cheers
Adrian

having just recently done the rear bushes on mine i can tell you that i think it would be impossible to press the old ones out due to how bloody tight in they are in the first place and age/rust seems to keep a hold of them.
the method i used was to cut away the rubber with a coping saw! hacksawed through inner metal bolt carrier, first layer of rubber and middle ring. coping sawed around outer rubber part. knocked this bit out then cut 2 slits not quite through the outer metal shell, the width of my chisel apart. then simply chiselled the shell out....4 times!!
i have an engineers vice so the new ones were pressed in using that. just needed a spacer on the outside to allow the bush to press fully home. or you could fit powerflex ones from http://www.fastfiat.com/en-gb/dept_7.html which would be much easier.

have fun

great idea - DON'T DO IT

Well, it was a great idea, but - put simply - don't do it.

I built a press as outlined this morning, based around a 1m length of M12 studding from b&q (too long, but I'm not prepared to cut it).

Anyway, assemble various nuts, washers, sockets from my socket set. Wind up the nuts at either end (very, very tight) and carefully watch the outer sleeves for movement...
....
....
look back at the stud and realise it is no longer straight but in a lovely gentle arc - the sleeves are going absolutely nowhere, but the two ends ofthe arm are being pulled together

Release the tension on the stud...
the stud now has to be unscrewed to get it out of the bushes because:
- the stud's no longer straight and ..
- the bushes are no longer aligned

Measure the inner distance between the two bush housings on the untouched arm - 270mm - and on the 'studded' arm - 265mm (ouch)

So - one hour later - I've reassembled the stud and bits and pieces so that they are now pushing the two housings apart, and have steady wound up the stud, released, remeasured etc., so that finally I've got the gap back to 269.5mm (close enough for me) and the stud now passes cleanly through the two bushes in a straight line.

So after wasting an hour, the eventual technique was to do as Pete wisely suggested - use the stud puller to pull out all the inners at one go leaving just the outer sleeve..

Re: Suspension rebuild - new question for today

Where do I get some replacement rear backplates from - one of them is completely rotten and the other is not much better. I'd been hoping I could get away without removing them from the rear arms.

Is it a fiat part?
or is there anywhere else?
or what?

Thanks again

Chris

Re: Suspension rebuild - new question for today

'bout £16 each from Fiat, or you could try GGB, Desira, shop4parts etc.

Bought the replacement bolts for mine from the local fastener supplier recommended by the local motor factors. Everything in stock for just under £6.