OEM stabilizers - installation on FIAT 780.

[mungus]

Has anyone any experience of fitting the OEM type stabilizer anchors to the final drives on a FIAT 780?
The 780 didn't come with any stabilizers as new (perhaps the last of them did, but certainly most of them didn't), and I need to fit them as my 400 litre linkage sprayer is swinging and banging like a mad thing, even when I drive slowly.

The OEM stabilizers themselves are easy to fit and the OEM style anchor brackets from the 880 are also easily available.
However these are bolted into the final drives with 3 hefty bolts, and there are no bolt holes on the 780.
I am concerned that merely marking, drilling and tapping bolt holes into the final drives may weaken the structure.
Has anyone seen inside the final drives on an 880 for example? Is there a thicker casting or some reinforcing around there on a 880?
If not them great, I can just go ahead and fit them. Otherwise I'll have to strip and weld some reinforcing plate there first.

BTW I am really not interested in fitting a U bolt arrangement. FIAT made a very nice installation and I want the factory look as my 780 is an authentic restoration.

Thanks in advance.

 

[mungus]

OK well I solved this one myself. The later 780's all had the axle housings drilled and tapped for M16 fine bolts for the OEM stabiliser anchor brackets. Upon examination at a FIAT wrecker I found the threads are around 40 mm deep and set into a greatly thickened casting around that area. It would take allot of reinforcing by welding say a 10mm plate both inside and outside the housing surfaces to create that space and judging by the number of cracked and repaired OEM anchor brackets there the strength is obviously needed.

So in the end I bought a pair of nice later model 780 axle housings and some 2nd hand brackets. The OEM stabiliser bars are crazy money but SPAREX make a nice copy for $100 AUD each, so I've ordered a pair of those. The end result will be a proper OEM type of result. As it turns out those drilled axle housings supersede the earlier ones, so they are a straight swap. Here is a photo of one of these later model housings, (they are handed BTW, so make sure you by a RHS & LHS one!).

Hope this thread helps someone else. My next project is turning my 780 into a 780DT by swapping the 4x4 front axle, wheels, drop box and prop shaft on to my 2WD 780. Winter is looking busy already!