Richard,
Over the (entire) Fourth of July weekend, I fitted new TRF rear springs
to my TR3. Success!!!! As I'd suspected, the old "new" ones had too much
arch, about an inch too much. They seemed to be about the correct "rate"
however. I used my stand on it and measure the deflection test.
Interestingly, the two sets of very well used original springs still
retained their stiffness since they too passed the test. They just look
like hell and may have sagged a bit, but not much. Man, do I feel better
about this car now!!! One thing I did add to the new springs was an
additional short flat piece on top. Got this piece from one of the old
springs. You may have one or even two of these on the old springs.
There's more to the story. Now that the rear of the car was at the
correct height, the front was too high. I'd run across a 10 year old
invoice for a set of competition front springs, so I thought I might
have installed them on this car. So the next thing I did in the 90
degree plus heat was remove the front springs. Sure enough, they were
.035 thicker and had an extra coil although they were the same unladen
height as originals. You can see what happened. They are so much stiffer
that their laden height was greater than the original springs with the
same weight. If you're going to make them stiffer, you must also make
them shorter!!! Anyhow, I cleaned and painted an old set of originals
and put them in. The car sits perfectly, front and rear, now.
Let me know if you have any questions,
Regards,
Ed
|