The Alfa is back on jack stands as we start to disassemble the suspension.
Here’s a shot of the rear suspension. It’s particularly nasty.
We’re going to use IAP’s rear red springs and a set of 1100 lbs./in front springs (the purple ones) from Speedway. This is actually quite reasonable, rate-wise, for a Alfa track car.
We used a rear seal from MacGregor on the trunk lip. MacGregor has an extensive collection of seals for vintage cars.
Partially disassembled
The springs, shocks and rear arms are pretty rusty, as well as being worn out. ick.
Rear suspension, disassembled
Ric measures the shim thickness with a micrometer.
The break away torque wound up being about 100 ft.-lbs.
The freshened rear axle has now been hung back on the car.
Now that the rear axle is on, the Konis can go on.
he axle limiting straps and axle shafts are now back in. Time to work on the front!
We’re starting the rejuvenation of our Alfa’s suspension this week. We’ve got parts sourced from Vick Auto and International Auto Parts to make the suspension look and perform better than new.
With the arms, springs and shocks out, we’ve got to decide whether we are pulling the entire rear. We will, so we can freshen the LSD and repace the trunion bushings.
We went on to completely disassemble the rear suspension to its basic parts. We spent several hours scrubbing the axle assembly before unbolting the axles from the aluminum differential carrier. The differential is now out and the factory limited slip will be shimmed back to spec. Some paint and fresh bushings will be added to the mix to complete the rear’s rejuvenation.
We spent about an hour working on our limited slip differential at RML Automotive and we improved the “action” of the unit from just about nonexistant to having about 100 ft.-lbs. of breakaway force. We did this all for a whopping $2.
The trick was using a flywheel shim for an aircooled VW. We purchased several of these $2 shims in varying thicknesses and put them between two of the cross plates. We settled on a .36mm shim that gave us quite a bit of locking action. The friction plates looked fine, they just needed more pressure to work correctly.
Next up, we’ll be reassembling the entire rear end and then we’ll get started on the front.
The rear axle of the Alfa went back in, hanging from refurbished control arms from International Auto Parts and bushings from Vick Auto. With the springs, shocks and axle shafts in, we can move on to the front.
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