Fulvia Leaf Spring.

Leaf springs on a Fulvia has liners in between leaves and also lubrication.

I was changing the Rubber bumper on the end anyway and So I decided to clean out Spring replace liners and regrease.

I don’t have any sagging issues otherwise. This is what my spring measured as with no load:

I do not know what material was used for liners before, I measured 0.7mm in thickness. I opted to get a sheet of PTFE at 1mm thickness.

PTFE cuts very easily using a Sharp knife and straight edge . Note The old black liner in photo. I could only find White PTFE in stock. Black would be preferable.

Remember to cut out hole where inner bolt and Spacer is mounted.

I used thicker NGLI 3 grease for in between metal and plastic.

The TOP inner NUT has to have a spacer so that second leaf can slide on bottom one.

a Fulvia’s wheel bearings are way oversized and they will last a very long time. The one thing that does NOT last as long is the lubrication on the inside. They are very expensive and tricky to source however.

SKF 633032A/ FAG 510917B. Dimensions are: 96 OD, 45 ID X 34.

After disassembling my front ones, I saw very little very hard grease on the inside.

I washed this out by submerging these bearings in very clean standard Solvent based engine cleaner overnight and wiping out everything afterwards with clean paper roll:

I was not able to remove the seals as I felt it was too much risk of damage.

Even though my bearings where quiet many of the balls had small lines on them which I could not feel with my nail:

I opted for new ½ inch (12.7mm) balls. Each bearing needs 26. These can be found cheap at any bearing supplier.

My Fulvia Steering box has been leaking for a very long time. It was time to address it.

I decided to disassemble ad clean up parts.

Parts needed for basic rebuild:

1 x Top Needle bearing  DL3020( full compliment) 30(inner)x38(outer)x20(width)

2 x shaft needle bearings. B 1816 ( full compliment) 28.57 x 34.94 x 25.4mm

1 x Bottom seal 28.58mm x 39.69mm x 6.35mm

1 x side seal   19 x 30 x 7mm

2 x worm shaft bearings , I did not replace as mine was good.

Notes:

1: Take care of shims for worm shaft!! These need to go back exactly. I just wiped them down with solvent as they are steel.

2: there are two longer bolts and two shorter bolts. The shorter bolts go in the holes closest to the steering worm gear shaft. These holes go directly into the bearings of this shaft. You can oil them directly with fresh oil by simply removing these bolts. DO NOT bolt down the long bolts into these two holes as they could bottom out and damage bearing.

The Two longer bolts also holes the bracket (not shown in photos) that bolts to the frame where front leaf spring sits.

I decided to NOT use SAE 90 gearbox oil since this is such a low speed device  and rather go for NGLI 00 grease with extreme pressure additives which would not leak past seals so easily. Taking care to coat all bearings manually during assembly.

Video of gearbox when I just filled it: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/z9b1ORe0qzQ

I recently Removed my series 3 Fulvia’s Idler to service as part of a Suspension Upgrade.

Note: My Idler Does not have a grease fitting and must have been assembled from the Factory with Nylon Bushes. When I opened it up it had Brass bushes installed with grease. I suspect somewhere in the history someone Had Bushes turned and replaced the Nylon units.

This Idler had no play so I did not press out Bushes. I simply cleaned up everything and replaced Grease and Bottom Seal. The Seal is 29x42x7 however I replaced it with 29x42x6mm seal as this was the only size I could source easily.  This should not leak since it is filled with NGLi 2 Grease and not oil.

If yours has a Nylon Bushes this might be a good upgrade.

You need a special tool to disassemble the large nut. Incidentally, this is the same tool that is used on the Gearbox Differential Large Bearing nut. The Pitman Arm Nut is 36mm for reference.

I used NGLi 2 Grease with extreme pressure additives. For Setting I turn in screw with Flathead screwdriver until it binds movement of shaft and then turn out 1/8th turn and tighten lock nut with 13mm spanner.

I Opted to not paint the Alu housing and just give a quick abrasive clean. I did however paint the arm.