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Hello all, I'm fairly new to this site, so I posted this in General first, sorry about that! Anyhoo, heres my new ride, its a 1986 Fiat 126, aircooled. I've got 24bhp baby!!!  How do I lower the front? I've looked at Slater's thread, but the mechanics and engineering mentioned boggle my tiny, unmechanical mind! I think I've got a little problem with it too, when its hot and I stop it, it won't start again until its totally cooled down. Could it have anything to do with the oil you can see in this pic?   |
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Been lurking for nigh on ten years now, thought it might be time to try posting every now and then!
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Quite an obvious suggestion but....
Chuck the engine and stick in a cheap bike engine!
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Last Edit: Jul 8, 2006 18:47:09 GMT by Adam
1997 TVR Chimaera
2009 Westfield Megabusa
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I'm gonna have to leave the engine as it is because I wouldn't even know where to start with a swap!
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Been lurking for nigh on ten years now, thought it might be time to try posting every now and then!
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slater
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,390
Club RR Member Number: 78
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Fiat 126 - 1985slater
@slater
Club Retro Rides Member 78
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Its pretty hard to lower the front. You have a few options (bare with me). The easy one is to shorten/remove the spacer blocks that go between the spring and body. You can lower the car about an inch using this method and its pretty easy but obvioulsy an inch is not enough! You can buy lowered springs (reverse eye) from italy and poland but they are bloody pricey! so i would say its cheaper to get one made up in the uk by a specilist spring manufacturer. But then again you will still only get a max 2" drop which... guess what! isnt enough!!! The 3rd option and by far the most complicated and the one you pobably wont understand (sorry) is to convert the front end to use a lower wishbone insted of the leaf spring to locate the bottom of the uprights and then use a coilover insted of the shocks. This is what I'm going to do. The bottom wishbones will be fairly easy for me to make but I'm having trouble finding a coilover to use as a straight replacement as they have studs on both ends and are pretty short. Theres about 5" of room under the bonnet to put in turrets which should help increse suspension travel. BUT i have come up with a way of using a linkage like they do on a single seater car and have the shocks mounted inboard out of the way which mans i can use any coilovers. ( i believe John Beardmore did it on his minor) i like making things complicated so you probably havent understood any of that! ;D The short answer is its damn hard/expensive!!! Looks like a nice example you have there! just how mine should have looked at one time before it got molested and melted (don't ask  ) don't fit a bike engine because thats what everyone is saying you should do with these little cars and thats a bloody good reason not to do it in my oppinion! If everyone has thought of it its got to be a pretty boring idea. |
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Bioshock
Posted a lot
It aint hip to be square.
Posts: 1,861
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HA! Heres a cool one from the lancer register.170 BHP UNO TURBO! Apparently it still has drums all round   |
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Almera GTI = ugly bird who turns out to be great in the sack = Win
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Matty
Part of things
Posts: 316
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Jul 10, 2006 21:29:55 GMT
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Cool ride dude!!! How's the wedge getting along? done much to it?  Matt |
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slater, thanks for that but you're right. It went straight over my head! I suppose sky high is the way forward for me then!
Hey Matt, the wedge is cool beans. Haven't done a thing to it mod wise, just sorted a few mechanicals on it. I've got no money for mods!
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Been lurking for nigh on ten years now, thought it might be time to try posting every now and then!
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) 
