Hi,
Reconstruction of Mk2 Punto is going well but having difficulty getting the anti rollbar back on. Can't seem to get the bracket holes to line up with the holes in the wish bones and subframe.
Do the bushes move?

meikle said:

Hi,
Reconstruction of Mk2 Punto is going well but having difficulty getting the anti rollbar back on. Can't seem to get the bracket holes to line up with the holes in the wish bones and subframe.
Do the bushes move?

Click to expand...

Ho boy......

Ive replaced all my bushes....
And mother god and jesus never ever ever ever again.......

I found i had to use longer bolts and to stand a chance to getting then in on the subframe

The wishbone ones i ended up using straps around the radiator subframe downrights - to pull them near into line

It was a horrible horrible job i wish i never did start

I got to the point i was gonna remove the arb and live without it....

Ziggy

Sent from my SM-G920F using FIAT Forum mobile app

Thanks for your input Ziggy. It's reassuring that you had similar problems. Thought it was just me getting it wrong somewhere. Longer bolts sound like a good idea.

I have noticed if I jack my car up one side to get it higher on jack stands the car moves over to the opposite side by forcing the other wheel to slide away from the jack. Possibly if you remove both sets of wishbone bolts from the antiroll bar with both wheels only raised slightly off the ground you are more likely to be able to get it back on again without all of these terrible alignment problems.

judderbar said:

I have noticed if I jack my car up one side to get it higher on jack stands the car moves over to the opposite side by forcing the other wheel to slide away from the jack. Possibly if you remove both sets of wishbone bolts from the antiroll bar with both wheels only raised slightly off the ground you are more likely to be able to get it back on again without all of these terrible alignment problems.

Click to expand...

I found getting middles back into position was best starting point followed by forcing the arb outer back into place

In future id never swap an inner without cause (actually f.... not just tired looking)

Outers id swap as there not as bad singulary

Ziggy

I seem to recall using a jack under the arm or bar or both to help get them lined up. Not something I want to repeat any time soon.

When I did mine I had no problems lining up the bar and getting the bolts in.... getting the bolts out however was a nightmare the bolts sheered in the subframe and when I tried to drill them they hardened and destroyed the drill bit, after about 3 hours a neighbour came out and leant me some colbolt drill bits and his Makita drill, after this I bought my own makita drill and always keep a stock of cobolt bits, they go through butter like hot knife and seem to never give up. Hardened steel, no problems.

The outer bushes were another problem of their own and took a lot of time with a jack to keep pushing the control arm up and down to get the position, really bad design, probably why they moved to drop links on the grande.

Thanks for all the input. I got it back on eventually but stripped the threads in one of the holes in the subframe. Ahhh!
Tried re tapping the hole and a new bolt but it just did the same. I guess the thead in the hole was too far gone. Thinking I'll have to take it all off again and put a helicoil in that hole. Any other suggestions?

meikle said:

Thanks for all the input. I got it back on eventually but stripped the threads in one of the holes in the subframe. Ahhh!
Tried re tapping the hole and a new bolt but it just did the same. I guess the thead in the hole was too far gone. Thinking I'll have to take it all off again and put a helicoil in that hole. Any other suggestions?

Click to expand...

If you tape bolts to a piece of wire you can eventually position bolts from inside the subframe which stuck out of the bottom of the subframe. I did that to fit my engine guard. If you drill out that captive nut and put a long bolt in thru the hole from inside you can get 3 nuts on the bolt and lock the outer two so you can tighten the inner one that retains the roll bar bush.

Great idea. I'll give thar a try.
Thanks