[TR] Rear leaf springs

[Dave1massey at cs.com]

In a message dated 8/3/2009 9:39:47 AM Central Daylight Time, 
tr3driver at ca.rr.com writes: 
> Are you talking about the leaf friction, or the hydraulic dampers?

Well, the leaf springs, of course.  The non-linearity of the dampers is the 
desirable bit.

> 
> In either case, linearity has little to do with either predictability or
> repeatability.  An ordinary light switch is totally non-linear; yet very
> predictable and repeatable.


The stiction in the leaf springs is caused by the rust and grit between the 
leaves.  As the leaves move they wear, move or otherwise change the rust, 
pitting grit in there and thereby change the characteristics making the car 
more of a challenge to drive at the limits.  

Kind of like MS windows.  Doing the same thing yields different results