308 A-arm bushings replacement.

Chris,
All those numbers are in the torque table in the 308/328 workshop manual. Available here:

http://www.ferrari.stevejenkins.com/books/

It's an appendix in the back of the manual. I printed out the 4-5 pages of the appendix and keep it in my tool box.

Birdman

 

I've thought about this. Apparently for a month. I think I disagree. If two surfaces move against each other they will wear, even with lube. If the bushing moves with the a-arm (no lube on the outside of the bushing) them the bushing rotates against the fork on the frame. On the rear suspension the lower fork comes off with a nut, but the upper fork is welded to the frame. Not an easy part to replace if you have wear.

If you lube the outside of the bushing and the bushing rotates in the steel shell, the steel shell would be the wear item. These are readily available and easy to replace.

That being said: 1) I don't think you'd get much wear on the forks; 2) despite the above I did install mine in the rear already with no lube between the shell and the bushing and; 3) I'm not sure what would rotate on what even if everything was well lubed or if only the outside was well lubed (it may rotate on the steel sleeve in the middle anyway).

I still need to do the fronts and I think I will try to lube between the bushing and the shell and see what moves.

 

1 kg-m=7.23 lb-ft

 

http://www.onlineconversion.com/torque.htm

 

Funny, the version of the document I have contains the numbers in both units.

 

Took me a while to figure that out!

http://www.ferrari.stevejenkins.com/books/328_tech.pdf

It's the one under the Ferrari 328 Docs section called:

Ferrari 328 Tech Specs, Publications List, Recall Campaign, Service Bulletin Index

Sorry man, I forgot that was where I found the torque specs in ft-lbs!! Starts on page 47 of the pdf.

Birdman

 

5.6 kg-m, or 43 ft-lbs. for the 12x1.25mm fastener

 

You did not leave for Florida yet, Cavallino is in less than two weeks!

 

This may be true...but you've got pizza, and alot of it!

 

If you come to the East Coast early morning on Sat, the 308 will be prep and ready for you, I will take the Mondial.

 

Chris,

The lower control arm bolts are most easily tightened to the chassis mounting forks "before" the assemby is mounted to the chassis. Worst case, you could torque on the bolt head side...and increase the torque applied by 5% to account for the bolt friction factors coming into play (not the most desireable way to do it.)

The upper bolt could be torqued useing an off-set dog leg wrench (nut size to 1/2" drive) and then apply a length correction factor. And yes...simple things can be a real pain on these cars!

David

 

find another bolt, that one is too pretty to use.

 

Wow!
That bolt has to be good for at least 5 HP!!!!

 

Sometimes it's easier to put a bolt in one way on a fully assembled car than the other way because you simply cannot remove the bolt if you slide it in from the other direction because some other part of the car is in your way.

 

True, but on my rear suspension this is not the case.

I ended up doing them all "properly" (front to back), except for one (can't remember which at the moment). This would have gone in properly, but a torque wrench would not have fit all that well...