Thanks for asking. Things are going a little slow as I am busy on other cars. The Vignale now has the gasoline tank installed and all the fuel hoses. For now I installed a Facet fuel pump with a Filter King regulator in preparation to start the engine. I will figure out the original Monoflux fuel pumps at a later date. I am in the process of installing the Quicksilver exhaust. The exhaust uses the pattern of a 3500GT coupe and therefore needs work to make it fit the shorter wheelbase of the spyder. I have the front half installed which is all I need to at least start the engine. With any luck I will start the engine this weekend. The biggest problem is that I have excessive negative camber on both front wheels. The top of the tires are significantly pointing towards the body in relationship to the bottom of the tires. I initially attributed this to the lack of engine weight but with the engine now installed the wheels are still way off. All the components are the original with the exception of the bushings and shocks, Even the ball joints and tie rod ends are the originals. I continue to look and study the front suspension and can't figure out what is causing this. I even loosened the top A arm bolts to see if adding shims (even though it originally did not have shims) would let me correct the camber .... it did not. Any ideas? Ivan Image Unavailable, Please Login
Any pics prior to disassembling to see if anything had been swapped etc? That much negative camber is indeed odd. I would not expect the geometry to require that much shimming. The new ball joints used employ the same primary angle the priors had? I would try rolling the car forward a few feet and the backward just to set things a little and then get a good look at the geometry again. This is indeed odd and is kind of irking me now....... I really want to fix this
This problem has me all confused and somewhat frustrated. I normally can figure things out but I must be overlooking something really basic for the camber to be this off. I have plenty of pre-disassembly photos and a Mistral which I can use as reference. I even went back to the original ball joints in case the new ones were causing problems! The only new parts are the bushings, bump stops, rubber seals on the ball joints and tie rods, and the shocks. I temporarily removed the shocks and bump stops to see if that made a difference ... it did not. I need to get my mind off the suspension and focus on getting the engine running, perhaps in the meantime an idea will come to mind. Ivan
Car has to be on the ground!, to debate negative camber AND with new bushes I do hope you have not tightened up ANY of the bolts yet because the car again HAS to be on the ground and maybe even driven around the car park very slowly and carefully before that final tighten can happen. The suspension needs to settle, otherwise your rubber bushes will be over stressed and not last very long at all. But yes I thought we had attributed this to a replacement part being different earlier? Best Pete
I thought that perhaps a replacement part was causing the problem. That is one of the reasons I rebuilt the original tie rod ends and ball joints and re-installed them. I hope you are correct that the parts just need to settle into their place. Once I get the engine running I will drive it around and see what happens. Ivan
I have to think that the upper ball joint is just fresh and tight and the car needs to be rolled a good amount to really work out what it is or isn't. I remember the new uppers on my 308 being incredibly tight to the point that my camber seemed somewhat off, but not this off...... They worked out after a short drive.
It looks to me that you have way too much negative camber that it may be caused by tight bushes. Is it possible that you have changed sides for the upper or lower arms? What about the uprights, is it possible to mount them upside down on the wrong side? Is it just the camber that's off, or the caster as well? Are the tie rods adjusted at approx the same length as before, or did you need to adjust them different to get the track right? Sorry for all questions and no answers, just try to get you check things you may have missed. Best regards Marius Sorteberg
Marius, I have asked myself those very same questions. According to the parts manual the four upper arms (#111) are the same part number. Just to be sure I swapped the two upper arms on one side to see if it made a difference ... it did not. The bushings are not tight as I could easily move the upper arms with my hand. The two lower arms (#122) also have the same part number so swapping left and right should not make a difference. I know I did not swap the uprights since #139 and #144 were never separated. I even disconnected the sway bar and steering tie rod to make sure those components were not affecting the suspension. The caster is also off (toe out). One thing I noticed when I took the car apart was that the two center tie rods (#86) were screwed in all the way. Even though the caster looked okay before dis-assembly, it did not provide for any additional adjustment. I will most likely cut the center bar (#77) a little on both ends so that further adjustments can be made. I need to get the car drivable since things may fall in place once the car bounces a few times. I need to get my mind off this suspension and focus on the many other things this car still needs. Ivan Image Unavailable, Please Login
Ivan, From the drawing I would have suspected wrong mounting of #102 or maybe #132 (if it isn't symmetrical) as cause for the very negative camber. I don't think the lower arms can cause it. Good luck with your very nice project, and thanks for sharing! Best regards Marius Sorteberg
Ivan, congrats on your most recent purchase! Enjoyed seeing you at the Euro Auto Festival. Oh, and congrats on your First Place Award for your lovely Mistral spider! Dean
Yes, #133 was the part I had in mind too, #132 was a typo. But #102 may also cause big impact on camber. It looks like it can be mounted upside down from the drawing.
YES !! That is it ! I installed #102, the upper spindles, upside down. I must have looked at this drawing a 1,000 times and never picked up on it. Luckily this can be remedied without having to remove the springs. Thank you Marius, thank you, thank you ... Ivan
I'm glad I could help. Sometimes two eyes are not enough. Congratulations with the running engine! Best regards Marius
Ivan, kudos to you for breathing life into the machine! Keen observation. Marius, way to go! Ciao, George
The latest two additions are a Ghibli spyder conversion (with a real spyder engine) and a 1960 Alfa Giulietta veloce spider. Ivan
That sounds wonderful. Congrats to you. There's something different about Maserati I-6s compared to others. Lovely
The upper spindles have been corrected and now the car is no longer looks like a Triumph TR4 full of luggage. Ivan Image Unavailable, Please Login
Well if anybody is racing one of these (rather seriously) we now know an easy way to get a lot more negative camber Pete
