Hi Frank, List,
Well the first thing I did today was check my spring poundage tester was
reading out in lbs and not Kgs. What a difference that made to my figures!
As far as standard springs go there should be 3 different semi-elliptic
springs. The figure Frank supplied looks like the Sprite Mk3 spring (1098cc
engine
cars). However, the poundage figure Frank supplied looks excessive for a
standard spring.
SOoooooooo tonight I ran the spring I tested last night back on the tester
being sure the tester was set to lbs and got a pretty credible figure. I also
found that after the top leaf is flat the spring can go up some and the
poundage still increases.
The springs I have are supposed to be 1275 lowered 2 inch but unless I'm a
dunce they are in fact 1500 springs lowered 2 inch and free camber aside they
do
have 6 leaves. After sleeping on this 'wrong springs dilemma I decided to
keep them and lower them with 1.125 lowering blocks which gives me a 'closer to
what I am looking for' ride height if not perfect height. Also the springs
ought not to be flat when installed on the car.
I also concluded that the springs on the car are knackered and soft which is
possibly why they are sitting flat. I'm guessing the spring sitting flat is
what is making the car ride very hard at the rear in that there is no virtually
no travel for the suspension because when I tested one of the springs a long
time ago it wasn't excessively hard.
Testing the other spring (spring 'B') tonight I rushed the tests and did
fewer compared to last night but this spring does look to be slightly harder so
it
will be the one for the drivers side.
I found that the 6th leaf can readily be removed so I removed it and then
re-tested the spring. I was interested to find two significant things.
Firstly
at 2inch of compression the average poundages compared was 50lb less with the
6th leaf removed. This means that I can fit these springs to the car with 6
leaves and if I find the ride too hard and I can either remove the leaf or
shorten the 6th spring until I am happy with the feel of the car. The second
thing I found is that the spring gets to the position where the top leaf is
flat
at about a quarter of an inch sooner without the 6th leaf than with it.
Poundage at 3in of travel was only about 25lb difference between having and not
having the 6th leaf but the spring is then arching up rather than down.
It looks like the spring tester might be the best thousand US dollars I spent
after all..... All I have to do now is wait for another pay cheque before I
buy a lowering block kit and then I get fit the springs and go testing on the
road. I guess this gives me plenty of time to conduct more thorough testing
with the springs I have.
Daniel
In a message dated 20/04/05 01:25:29 GMT Daylight Time, spritenut@exit109.com
writes:
> Daniel1312@aol.com wrote:
>
> >Hi List,
> >
> >I'm changing the semi elliptic leaf springs on my car and have some issues
> >I'm trying to work out which is proving difficult because I think I have
> some
> >gaps in my knowledge.
>
> Daniel
>
> I can provide a couple of numbers to your questions.
> Working load of springs 375 LBs (170 kg)
> Free camber 4.437" (112.7mm)
>
>
>
> --
> Frank Clarici
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