>"My Spit (like so many others) has a definite lean toward the driver side of
>the car.
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I've read several listers complaining about one corner of the car sitting
lower than the other over the past few weeks, and the general consensus is
to blame the Swing Spring. I can't see how the rear spring, in a Spitfire
with a SWING SPRING, can CAUSE this problem. I feel that this poor spring
is getting a bad rap, and I believe that it is undeserved. My own opinion
is it is a very CLEVER and elegant solution, given the constraints at the
time to solve a potentially serious problem. Overall rear end sag from a
worn spring, yes and this is evident with any well worn rear spring, but
side loading is virtually impossible by it's very design. It may not
counter an exiting leaning/listing condition by something else that is
causing the lean, and therefore, these vehicles may be more sensitive to
the problem but there is no roll or side to side loading with a swing
spring except from the main leaf itself, and that would be a very small
amount indeed. It's conceivable that a bad main leaf (however unlikely)
could cause a slight list, but I contend it would be very slight. The
other spring leaves are, if all is functioning correctly, and in good
order, FREE to rock about the diff center, and do nothing as far as biasing
the car on it long axis. You could cut one of the leaves off one side
(provided it was not the main one) and all it would do is cause the entire
rear end to sag a little more. The way this spring is designed it CAN'T
cause a "roll" bias, because the action is "divided" between the two
wheels. If one were to imagine, for illustrative purposes, that you had no
front wheels or roll bar on the car. Place a pivot under the front cross
member directly at its center to support the weight at the front end, but
allowing it to rock about that pivot. The only thing now keeping the car
level, with respect to roll, would be the main rear leaf itself, and if
just that spring leaf was removed, (and all others were to remain in place)
then it would roll over to one side or the other "pivoting" as it were on
the center bolt in the spring clamp assy. That's the very premise of this
design. Now you can see, that the remaining spring leaves do NOTHING to
cause the car to lean or list in one direction or the other. So I say
(for what it's worth) if your car is experiencing a tendency to lean to one
side or another, look elsewhere (possibly the rubber pad p/n 149191 UNDER
the clamp if you must look at the rear), not at the Swing spring-
Barry Schwartz (San Diego) bschwart@pacbell.net
72 PI, V6 Spitfire (daily driver)
70 GT6+ (when I don't drive the Spit)
70 Spitfire (long term project)
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