widemouthfrog said:

Btw - if you're tempted by the cheap price tag for the Birth front hub flanges for the Multipla (as sold by Shop4Parts and a couple of places on ebay) - don't be. Another item to add to the 'cheap crap' list. There is stacks of free play on the splines where they fit onto the outer CV joint stub axles.

Click to expand...

Here's a video clip to show the difference between the tolerances of the Birth hub flange (the first one I fit), followed by a genuine Fiat one (the second). You'll need to turn the sound up a bit but you'll hear the slack in the Birth flange. Also, watch the body of the CV joint, visible at the very bottom of the frame, inside the plastic bag; it gets 'left behind' as I turn the Birth flange, but moves as one with the Fiat part.

http://vid606.photobucket.com/album...ph/multipla/MultiplaHubFlange_zpsisduvudn.mp4

Not had much time to work on the Multi recently, but did a bit more last Saturday.

Hubs: Not at all happy with the quality of the Birth ones, so set about sniffing out proper Fiat ones on the cheap. Gratuitous piccy:



I think the part numbers are just about readable for both. The OEM ones are spot on and a very nice fit for the J&R CV's.
Then it was on to the halfshafts. Offside one first. Part assembled, to give an idea of what goes in to one:



Slide the gaiters well on to the shaft to get them out of the way while you get the CV's in place. I took a bit more time to lay out all of the bits for the nearside shaft,
to give a better idea of order of assembly. Purdy. Shame it's out of focus:



Early days, but I'm impressed by the epoxy Rustbuster paint. Feels very tough. Will be interesting to see how it stands up to a winter on Britain's finest roads.

Assembly as for the OS. Slide the gaiters on to the driveshaft. I found that pulling the gaiter right back on itself made it a lot easier to see what I'm doing when
wrestling the new CV joint into place, like this:



You can just about see the ends of the retaining clip in the shadow of the little cut-out in the back of the CV joint. Sliding it into place is a lot easier if you give
the driveshaft splines (and the corresponding ones in the CV) a good smear of grease. A few light taps on the end of the stub shaft (at the other end of the CV)
with a rubber mallet and it soon clicks into place.

There then follows a particularly filthy session with a tube of CV grease. No photos of this I'm afraid as I wanted the camera to work afterwards . Once all
cleaned up and the gaiter clips crimped, these are ready to go back on:



I also whipped the steering rack off. That's off to Kiley Clinton tomorrow for a rebuild. It was rebuilt by a bunch in Bristol 3 years ago but has now got some
play in the OS which isn't to my liking. Won't be going back to those shysters as I reckon they did little more than spray it black and fit new boots .
Kiley Clinton get a lot of good reviews on the web so I hold out more hope this time around. While I was in there and had done all the hard work, it seemed rude
not to abuse the privilege:



Took it down the road to have it shotblasted this morning . Looks to be in very good nick actually - just some surface rust on the underside where the
main pressings meet the box section that runs across the back.



Looking forward to getting this back all cleaned up and ready for some more Rustbuster lovin'. Will need to spray the internals with a can of Dinitrol and a wand
I think.

Not much progress to report as I've been busy running about for family and keeping folks at work happy. Picked up the subframe from the shotblasters:





He's done a nice job. I'm impressed by how little corrosion there is (now was). The steel is generally in almost perfect condition with only some minor pitting on the underside/leading edges of the outriggers. I spent a while with a powerfile zipping off some pretty sharp flashing around spot welds and a smattering of weld spatter, then rounded off as many edges on the pressings as I could get at, so that the paint wouldn't go thin on them. No pictures of the painted subframe yet, but the Rustbuster covered well. It was cooler today and it didn't flow quite as well as last time I used it - when it was hotter - even though I added some thinners. My best tips for getting a smooth finish are: apply it on a warm/hot day, use a long (longer the better) bristle synthetic brush, lay it on quite thick and don't brush it out much. It finds its own level quite effectively if you don't mess with it. Other news:

Rebuilt steering rack is back from Kiley Clinton. They charged £130+VAT for the rebuild plus £30+VAT for collect and return insured delivery. The latter was a bit steep but I didn't have to do anything to it other than seal it in a box and wait for a courier van to pick it up. I won't know if they've done a good job until it's back on the car.

My Bilstein springs have finally arrived. They were out of stock across Europe so Bilstein had to make me a pair. Wire gauge is the same as the KYB's I'm replacing, but it's interesting to note that they have one full turn less:




This will mean that they'll be stiffer than the KYB's - something that I'm not particularly happy about. It will also raise the stress in the spring, so could make them more likely to fracture than the KYB. Let's hope the steel grade is better than the KYB sh*te. I've got a feeling they may have done it on purpose, to try to stop the coil binding on the bottom turn that you get with the KYB. You can see the effect tihs has in the upper photo - the turns rubbing together splits the paint finish and corrosion soon gets to work, undermining the paint cover even further. The surface of the wire in this region is very pitted as a result, which will make a real stress-raiser (and so make it more likely to break )

Something I was hoping to try as a weather protection for the springs was to sleeve them with weatherproof, adhesive lined heatshrink:


This isn't something I've seen tried anywhere else before but I figured it's not going to do any harm. Unfortunately, the 15mm stuff I've bought is too difficult to slide on to the coil, so I've just ordered some 20mm and will have to wait for that to arrive. Most springs fail as a result of damage to their paint finish. The paint's at its most vulnerable when you use the spring compressors to squash them while they're fitted to the struts. I've got one of the single-arm spring compressors now, which are brilliant and from what I've experienced don't mark the paint so easily. That, in combination with the heatshrink, should hopefully give me a pair of nicely protected springs. Watch this space.

sorry didn't realise you had it on stands as well

A quick update: As ever, progress that's measured with a calendar, not a stopwatch. but such is life. The painted front subframe:

I got a smear of grease on the camera lens on the day I took the subframe photos, so everything looks like it's in soft focus. The above is about the clearest. At the bottom of the photo is a new subframe bushing (more about that below) and a can of the Dinitrol cavity wax that I used to spray inside the subframe. The long thin tube is a wand that comes with the can. It's got a fitting at the end that gives a 360 degree fan of spray which is excellent for getting right into the furthest-flung corners of the subframe. The wax is a lot runnier than I was expecting; it gets everywhere and ends up running out through the smallest gaps in seams and joints. It's non-hardening and self-healing - not that that will matter inside something like a subframe.

A quick mention of the bush that fits in the bottom of the subframe. This shot shows old and new. The rubber in the old one looked pretty tired and a deep crack had formed all the way around it. The threaded fitting had also come loose, which would have made it pretty hard to refit as it sits on the blind side of the bush when it's in the subframe. No such problems with the new one.


Gratuitous shot of the subframe on a dry-run assembly to make sure everything fitted. All looked good



so on it went. I pre-fitted the steering rack and ARB; neither add much weight to the subframe so it was still pretty easy to lift into place, and it's a lot easier to bolt them to the subframe when it's off the car.

Last up for now: the larger diameter heatshrink sleeving arrived today and my curiosity got the better of me so I had a go at putting it on a front spring. It doesn't look too promising to start off with:



but a bit of careful attention courtesy of a heat gun and it magically transforms:



It is fiddly to do, but if you start from the inner end of the sleeving and work your way back towards the end of the spring, it's fairly controllable. Lots of pulling and twisting (and burnt fingers ) but I'm pleased with the result. I decided not to wrap the whole length of the springs as it gets more and more difficult the further you push it on. The pig tail end of the spring (nearest the camera) is close to the limit of radius bend that the 20mm heatshrink can cope with. All of the photos of broken springs I've seen (mine included) break near the end of the spring anyway, so that's what I wanted to protect. I'm not sure if this will have any benefit, but running it through this winter will give it a bit of a test. Watch this space.

Just...wow...
I would just love to have time to do this

Well done mate

I'm in the fortunate position that we can (just about) get by with having one car on the road at the moment - my wife's Citigo. The Multipla has been off the road since it failed its MOT in March and I'm well and truly abusing that privilege. Work has been manic through the summer (and continues to be so) but the time is fast approaching when we'll need two cars again, so I need to get the Multi sorted. Problem is, it's been a bit like Piglet's jumper - started out only intending to replace the MOT fail items, then when I took it apart to sort them out, though "while I'm here, I may as well....." and so it's gone on. Most of the parts needed are ones that I've hoarded in preparation and have been stashed in the garage for ages. I really wanted to take the engine and gearbox out for a rebuild, but that pleasure will have to wait.

The hubs are built up with new SNR bearings and new flanges. Driveshafts are back on. Now that the springs are sorted, I can put the struts back together (got new spring pan rubbers and top rubbers for them, so should be tight as a drum). I've ordered some new bolts for the wishbones as the old ones are looking a bit stretched, judging by my thread gauges. Then it'll be brake lines (calipers still seem fine after their rebuild 3 years ago) and a purge of the power steering and brake fluids. After that, I think I'll be about done.

A small update. Inching closer to completion. Though I liked the heat shrink sleeving, I realised that it wasn't adhesive lined (in spite of the fact I'd bought it as such) so bit the bullet and bought some heavy duty stuff that definitely is. I also decided to persevere and sleeve the entire length of the springs.

What a bu**er of a job. Each spring took well over an hour to completely sleeve with the heat shrink. That's just to get it on there - shrinking it down take about another 20 minutes each, but is a much less painful job. If anyone else decides they're mad enough to attempt this, put some talc down the inside of the sleeving before you start and dust the spring with it as well. You will get a (un)healthy crop of blisters by the time you've finished. Note the talc on the floor!

Anyway - photos of them, both underway and once complete:





The last one shows an offcut of the shrunk stuff next to a 5p piece, to give an idea of just how thick the coating is. It feels very tough - easily strong enough to resist stone chipping etc.

Then a word or two about building the struts back up. I can highly recommend the single-arm spring compressors. Jago sell them on ebay. They make what is usually a terrifying job into something that is almost pleasurable. However, just as with the 'normal' compressors, you need to get them in just the right position on the Multipla springs if you are to avoid frustration. If you don't, you'll find that the forks of the compressor get trapped between the spring and the spring pans. To set this up, I offer the spring up to the larger (bottom) pan so that the spring end sits into the step in it. Then I sight across the strut with the spring end to my RHS and put marks on the inside of the spring to show where the damper strut is:

Then I take the spring back off the strut and put it into the compressor, so that the end of the fork sits just short of the spring marks, as shown by the red arrow:

So you start with it looking like this:

Note the red arrows pointing to the end of the forks and where they are relative to the ends of the spring.

You need to compress the Multipla springs A LOT to be able to refit the top washer and nut that holds them all together. This is a before and after:


and this shows how much you need to squash the spring to get there:


The above also shows the top spring rubber and the turntable bearing that clip into the top of the spring, which look like this:


With the spring heavily compressed and the bearing clipped into the spring, the whole lot can be slid back on to the strut and the dished washer and nut refitted. If you're not using a new nut, put a bit of threadlock on the thread sprouting from the top of the strut. I wouldn't like to be around if that nut came loose once it's all back on the car....

Not much more to do now!

For the benefit of Multiross (who's PM'd me this evening about the missing photos - courtesy of Photobucket. I hope they rot in hell), here's all of the above again, with the photos hosted by FF this time:

OK. A less fraught and more constructive day on the Multi today than last weekend. I didn't have my mind on the job then and it bit back. Stripped out the half shafts, struts, hubs, drop links, track rod ends and link arms and stripped most of the removed stuff down.

As forestryman pointed out, there's a round wire clip in a groove in the splined shaft that goes into the nearside of the diff. The clip had distorted so that it couldn't seat properly in the groove so I couldn't push the shaft back into place. So I stripped the nearside halfshaft down:

(IMG_7680)

That's the outboard end of the halfshaft at the top. I' had already removed the outer CV joint by the time I took this picture. The groove in the splines take a square wire clip that holds the CV joint to the shaft. The lump in the middle is a ballast weight (probably there to dampen harmonic vibration); below that is the boot for the inner tripod joint. I had already rolled the boot back to have a look at the condition of the tripod - so there's a fair bit of joint grease floating around. I was expecting to just be able to pull the tripod out of its housing, but it's not possible because there's a very small lip at the outer end of the housing that stops it. At bottom of shot is the flange joint between the half shaft and the inner stub that goes into the differential. I'm in the process of removing the 6 screws in this shot. Note the thin metal tab you can see between the two holes on the RHS that have already had the screws removed. Once all 6 screws are removed:

(IMG_7681)

The halfshaft just lifts away. Not much to see; however I could now take the stub shaft (the bit still in the vice), refit the round wire clip to the splined section (obscured by the vice in this shot) and shove it back into the diff. It went back into place nice and easily (unlike last weeks effort).

On the halfshaft you can now see the plated sheet metal pressing that closes off the inner end of the tripod housing (sometimes called a tulip). There are three tabs on the edge of the pressing that are folded around the housing. Gently bending these away from it allows you to pull the pressing off, to reveal:

(IMG_7682)

a nice gooey mess. Stripping these joints is a filthy job. Have lots of rags to hand, a dustbin liner to drop the used rags into and wear some tough rubber gloves. Wiping some of the grease away and pushing the tulip down the shaft reveals a clip seated in a groove in the halfshaft:

(IMG_7683)

Ping this off (make sure you catch it as you'll need it later) and then pull the tulip sharply up a few times to tap the tripod off the shaft. Everything can then be cleaned off and inspected. That's about it for the nearside shaft. Hopefully I'll be fitting the new outer CV joint and tripod tomorrow.

Things are a bit different on the offside. Because there's a fixed jackshaft running from the differential, across the back of the engine to a fixed bearing below the alternator, Fiat didn't fit a tripod/tulip joint like the one on the NS. Instead, there's a very clever (well, clever to my eyes anyway ) variation on the Rzeppa CV joint that not only allows the shafts either side of the joint to articulate, but also to plunge, whilst at the same time retaining the ability to transmit power through the joint without variation in angular velocity (in other words, the shafts turn at the same speed no matter what the angle between them). Its build up is a bit weird though and it's covered in just as much gunk as everything else joint-related:

(IMG_7685)

Looking at the state of the grease in this one, I think it could be where my clicking noises were coming from. The pressed metal cover is also mishapen. Not my doing (honest ) - it looks as though someone has been in here before me. To give you your bearings, if you can excuse the pun, the shaft going out of bottom left of shot would go to the OS wheel; the thing on the red rag is next to the jackshaft bearing when it's all fitted to the car. The odd looking thing towards bottom left is the rubber boot peeled back on itself to give better access. Again, the joint doesn't just pull out of the housing. It's not particularly obvious how to get this one apart.

(IMG_7686) & (IMG_7687)

I guessed and started tapping at edges of cover pressings to see if anything would budge. Which led to this:

(IMG_7689)

In the course of pulling it apart my balls fell out. In the interest of public decency I'll not post a picture :yuck:, but once I'd picked them up and cleaned them off, I was left with this:

(IMG_7690)

Remove the circlip and the CV joint assembly just slides off the shaft. In striping this joint, it all looked vaguely familiar. Sure enough, when I went rummaging through my boxes of parts hoarded for the Multi, I found a new CV joint that I must have bought some time ago on a vague promise that it would fit. I think I bought it from ebay, but I can't remember which seller. It's not a J&R one as they don't sell the inner ones.

With a bit of luck, tomorrow I'll get everything cleaned down, inspected and will possibly start building everything with the new joints.

An honourable mention should go to this thing:

(IMG_7688)

For not much money (about £60, plus another £40 for a good selection of impact driver sockets, up to 36-38mm AF) it gives you an impact driver to rival the power of a professional air impact driver, but without the need for a compressor. It undoes staked wheel hub nuts in seconds (it's best to tap the staking out a bit first, if you can, just to avoid any chance of damaging the shaft). It is way more powerful than the cordless ones I've tried. Just bear in mind it's quite heavy, a bit bulky and of typical chinese build quality - robust enough, but not the last word in finish or refinement. That said, it's very controllable and it won't try to rip itself out of your hands when you press the trigger. It wouldn't stand up to the rigours of full time use in a garage, but for the few minutes of use it'll get from the average DIY'er it's great and I've yet to find a stubborn nut it can't undo. Joins the ranks of the Meek Shall Inherit the Earth tools for weeds like me, along with my 750mm breaker bar

OK. My war against shoddy, crap parts for the Multipla continues. You'll recall I've bought some new front wishbones and I've dusted off a few of the other bits I've gathered over the past months that were being amassed for a major rebuild, but time (or the lack of it) means I've only been able to do the urgent jobs needed to get the Multi back on the road. I've also noticed that almost everything that I've replaced with new parts over the years now has a generous covering of rust and crud and is generally unpleasant to work on. Sooooo.......

I started cleaning up/stripping all the bits I've been working on (even the new stuff like the wishbones) to get them ready for painting with something that will hopefully Laugh In The Face Of Road Salt and Rust in equal measure. I started off with a selection of wire brushes and cleaning discs but wasn't happy with the results on most of the parts. I gave up with that, gathered together all I could find and headed to a shot blaster a few miles from me. He's got a decent reputation and does lots of stripping of classic and vintage car body shells (including aluminium ones) so the selection of bits I put in front of him gave him no headaches. Three days later, my boxes of manky, greasy old car parts were transformed into sound, monotone, clean pieces of loveliness.

(IMG_7732) & (IMG_7733)

It is so much nicer building stuff up when it's in this state. He used soda to clean it all up and I was impressed by the results. For £70, he cleaned 4 brake discs (2 of them for the Multi), the two new Lemforder wishbones, the Bilstein struts, 4 front hubs (again, 2 of them for the Multi), a new radiator support bracket, 4 drive shafts, 2 caliper carriers, a pair of new Lemforder tie rods and track rod ends, 4 brake disc guards and sundry other small brackets. It would have taken me a lot of time (and wire brushes) to get anything close to the results he produced. Bargain. Then it comes to the paint:

(IMG_7731)

I bought a the POR 15 trial kit, but then started hearing mixed views about it, so got a Rustbuster kit which has very good reviews. It's an epoxy two-pack paint that is purpose made for chassis and suspension parts. Mix adhesive (black) and hardener (typical epoxy greeny-grey colour and smell) in equal measure, add a little thinners to make it flow more easily, leave to stand for 10 minutes and then you're good to go.

This stuff is more sticky than Mr Sticky the stick insect hiding in a pile of sticks. Wear rubber gloves! The soda-blasted surfaces are just about perfect for applying it to. I used a cheap disposable bristle brush so I knew I shouldn't expect a perfect finish, but I'm pleased with the results. It has a reasonable pot life (I was applying it for the best part of two hours before I could feel it starting to cure) and the build is excellent - it has a very high solids content. It feels stiff in the pot, but once you start to brush it out, it flows into every little seam and pore. Perfect for something like struts, where there are gaps dips where sheet metal meets sheet metal.

(IMG_7737)

I've left it to cure overnight. Hopefully it won't have done anything nasty like producing a bloom by then. I could handle it (carefully) by the time I packed in this evening. It has an appearance and feel very similar to a thin(ish) plastic dip coating. Looks promising. Practical Classics had this stuff on test outside for three years and it finished with top marks.

Not had much time to work on the Multi recently, but did a bit more last Saturday.

Hubs: Not at all happy with the quality of the Birth ones, so set about sniffing out proper Fiat ones on the cheap. Gratuitous piccy:

(IMG_7741)

I think the part numbers are just about readable for both. The OEM ones are spot on and a very nice fit for the J&R CV's.
Then it was on to the halfshafts. Offside one first. Part assembled, to give an idea of what goes in to one:

(IMG_7753)

Slide the gaiters well on to the shaft to get them out of the way while you get the CV's in place. I took a bit more time to lay out all of the bits for the nearside shaft,
to give a better idea of order of assembly. Purdy. Shame it's out of focus:

(IMG_7754)

Early days, but I'm impressed by the epoxy Rustbuster paint. Feels very tough. Will be interesting to see how it stands up to a winter on Britain's finest roads.

Assembly as for the OS. Slide the gaiters on to the driveshaft. I found that pulling the gaiter right back on itself made it a lot easier to see what I'm doing when
wrestling the new CV joint into place, like this:

(IMG_7757)

You can just about see the ends of the retaining clip in the shadow of the little cut-out in the back of the CV joint. Sliding it into place is a lot easier if you give
the driveshaft splines (and the corresponding ones in the CV) a good smear of grease. A few light taps on the end of the stub shaft (at the other end of the CV)
with a rubber mallet and it soon clicks into place.

There then follows a particularly filthy session with a tube of CV grease. No photos of this I'm afraid as I wanted the camera to work afterwards . Once all
cleaned up and the gaiter clips crimped, these are ready to go back on:

(IMG_7758)

I also whipped the steering rack off. That's off to Kiley Clinton tomorrow for a rebuild. It was rebuilt by a bunch in Bristol 3 years ago but has now got some
play in the OS which isn't to my liking. Won't be going back to those shysters as I reckon they did little more than spray it black and fit new boots .
Kiley Clinton get a lot of good reviews on the web so I hold out more hope this time around. While I was in there and had done all the hard work, it seemed rude not to abuse the privilege:

(IMG_7759)

Took it down the road to have it shotblasted this morning . Looks to be in very good nick actually - just some surface rust on the underside where the main pressings meet the box section that runs across the back.

(IMG_7761)