850 Rear shock conundrum

[junkycarjunky]

Hello all. Mike from Western Pa. I traded a Troybilt tiller and 1300.00 for my 1971 850 Spider. She would barely run when I got her home and after a lot of fiddling and refiddling, I pulled the drivetrain, removed the fuel tank and took it to a place that renews them. It does run better, but more fiddling with carb and ignition timing is in order. The reason for my post is this; in order to drop the drivetrain, you must disconnect the rear shocks. Easy peasy. HOWEVER......I cannot reinstall them as it seems like they are too short. I thought they were stuck up as I had to push them up out of the lower mount. No luck. Now. I am not a Fiat man, but I am a factory trained former Mercedes Benz tech as well as a licensed aircraft mechanic and am felling pretty foolish right now that something so simple is making me scratch my head. I also tried jacking the control arm up to compress the spring but cannot get that threaded shaft through the mount hole. After you all are done laughing, please tell me what it takes to do this task. The shock brand is RIV p/n, 8083010356, and the Fiat number is; 4114025.

 

[MaxHeadroom]

Hello Mike, (and fellow aircraft techie) welcome to the FIAT forums.

I can't halp you at all but I'm pretty positive someone might be along soon that knows what you're talking about and can help out.
Sounds a bit of a mare. but I'm sure you'll sort it

 

[FR85]

Hello all. Mike from Western Pa. I traded a Troybilt tiller and 1300.00 for my 1971 850 Spider. She would barely run when I got her home and after a lot of fiddling and refiddling, I pulled the drivetrain, removed the fuel tank and took it to a place that renews them. It does run better, but more fiddling with carb and ignition timing is in order. The reason for my post is this; in order to drop the drivetrain, you must disconnect the rear shocks. Easy peasy. HOWEVER......I cannot reinstall them as it seems like they are too short. I thought they were stuck up as I had to push them up out of the lower mount. No luck. Now. I am not a Fiat man, but I am a factory trained former Mercedes Benz tech as well as a licensed aircraft mechanic and am felling pretty foolish right now that something so simple is making me scratch my head. I also tried jacking the control arm up to compress the spring but cannot get that threaded shaft through the mount hole. After you all are done laughing, please tell me what it takes to do this task. The shock brand is RIV p/n, 8083010356, and the Fiat number is; 4114025.

Shocks might be shot, any signs of leaks? How I got shocks into my 600 which is a similar set up was to do the lower mount first and with the car on axle stands I got a trolley Jack in under the wishbone and jacked the wishbone up so the shock went in through the hole in the body, basically I used the car as a spring compressor and it worked for me so I cant figure out why it wont work for you. Same steps taken like

 

[junkycarjunky]

Thanks for trying. The shocks are upside down on the spider. They are attached at the top to a bracket that has 3 bolts holding it to the chassis. you must remove the bracket first to remove the shock from the bracket, then reverse course for install. I will get it eventually but was hoping for a trick! For now I am reinstalling the rebuilt motor into my 1980 Westfalia camper. Back to the Fiat in a couple weeks.

 

[timmycm850]

Hi All.

yes the shocks are only long enough to let the rear arms droop down a little distance, if they were longer it would let the arm go down too far and damage the gearbox boot going over humped back bridges etc or tuck under going round corners, you will have to jack up the arms to get them to connect or even get the cars weight back onto its wheels(on ramps etc) before connecting the shocks. it makes sense really.

my Lombardi shocks are heavy duty, so when pulling them down to connect them its a case of pulling them gently to get them to move, pulling too hard makes them stiffen up
Tim

 

[timmycm850]

Did this ever get resolved.

best thing to do is tie a kg or so mass to the bottom nut and let it pull down gradually overnight rather than try and force it, it is a shock absorber so the more energy you out into it to move it the more it resists.

Tim