Technical suspension and steering

[tomviam]

Hi there!

Recently I have acquired a Fiat 126 (1978) de ville version.

I have no idea about mechanics and I dont know any other person with this car so I cant compare...lets see if you can help me out here.

The point is, when I cross a street bumper, you know, those b*******s to slow the cars down, the car literally bounces,making it even slower to get back on track, from my point of view, the suspension is veeery soft, thats why the car bounces that much, lets say it gets hard to recover till the car is stable... now I dont know if thats normal because of the mechanical part of this car or the absorbers must be replaced... I dont hear any noise though...

The second question is about the steering wheel, its not straight I had a car, Opel astra with the same problem time ago, but I didnt care...with the fiat I do care so is it a problem of the steering knuckle or can it be adjusted somehow?

Thanks!

 

[gadge]

Hi for the steering ild say take it to a garage and get the tracking checked. If the wheel is still out you can remove it and move it around a few spines to your desired position.

Suspension shouldn't bounce around a lot so perhaps the shocks are shot. Try doing the "bounce test" - put both hands on one corner of the car and push down with all your weight then let go. The car should bounce up and down 1 and a half times. Any more then suspect that the shocks are no good

 

[tomviam]

Hi for the steering ild say take it to a garage and get the tracking checked. If the wheel is still out you can remove it and move it around a few spines to your desired position.

Suspension shouldn't bounce around a lot so perhaps the shocks are shot. Try doing the "bounce test" - put both hands on one corner of the car and push down with all your weight then let go. The car should bounce up and down 1 and a half times. Any more then suspect that the shocks are no good

thanks a lot! normally I push the car from each side on each absorber and I feel nothing wrong..no noise and nothing is apparently wrong... just for more info its not the Polski Fiat, i know the polski one has better absorbers

 

[F123C]

My recollection is that the 126 was more or less normally sprung and damped at the front and a bit 'bouncy' at the rear even when new. Remember that short and narrow lightweight cars tend to jump around more over bumps than larger,heavier cars.

You could have someone watch the car's behaviour as you drive past over one of these bumps and see if it looks normal...ish.

But if the rear keeps bouncing up and down several times after going over one of those blasted 'speed bumps' then maybe new rear shock absorbers/dampers at least are needed.

You could try removing the shocks and see if they offer much resistance on the rebound (as in when extending them from the compressed state) but unless you're familiar with doing this rudimentary check, this may not tell you much.

Or you could just treat the little car to a new set of shocks all around, idt they're expensive.

Al.