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Re: Springs

To: Rob Guerra <Bomber44@kaiserair.com>
Subject: Re: Springs
From: rpalmer@ames.ucsd.edu (Bob Palmer)
Date: Tue, 9 Sep 97 16:11:29 PDT
Rob,

Sounds interesting.  Have a couple of questions though.  What do you mean by 
"some anti roll built in".  I'd like some of that myself.  Also, what are 
you mean by "still have the ability to align them".  Are you talking about 
having enough compliance to get the #$**! bolt through the bushing hole or 
what?  You referring to rear springs only, I presume?

Mixing threads somewhat, an earlier posting asked about using polyurathane 
bushings and one response discouraged this as likely to give too harsh a 
ride.  In my own experience and one other I'm familiar with, the use of even 
solid metal bushings does not seriously affect ride comfort.  In my case, 
switching from stock to solid metal bushings at the rear spring eyes made a 
big improvement in stability and control and I can't say I feel any 
difference in ride comfort.  In addition to the rear spring bushings I use 
solid upper and lower fulcrum pin bushings as well.  I would recommend front 
springs in the range of 400-500 #/in, depending on whether you drive 
primarily on the street or the track.  Rear spring rates are another 
question.  Loose springs are good for going in a straight line, stiff 
springs if you want to go around corners.  How stiff?  How brave are you?   
Maybe we could all contribute to a top ten list of the ways you know when 
your car has oversteer.

#10:  You find yourself looking for oncoming traffic in the rear view mirror.

I can think of a few more, but maybe some of you can come up with some 
better ones.

Bob

>I had some springs made from Betts Spring Co. in San Leandro Ca. for our
>Alpine and we also had a set made for Tom Hall's Tiger.  Betts' did a
>significant amount of testing the springs for rate and roll
>characteristics. The ones we had made were slightly stiffer than stock with
>some anti roll built in. I have been very happy with them thus far. We had
>them re made with the stock eyes so you can buy the bushings from Sunbeam
>Specialties and still have the ability to align them. If your interested I
>can forward you some more details.  When we had them made they were $250.00
>per set, then if you wanted to change the height to your own specs after
>installation it was an additional charge to cold roll them. This works out
>really nice though. Tom likes his car slightly lower than I liked mine, so
>we both got what we wanted.
>
>Rob


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