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</head><body><p>Hello, everyone.<br></p><p><br></p><p>Sourcing a "new" pair of springs doesn't have to be from a new supplier. There are a number of Triumph used suppliers who may have what you want without paying "new" prices, that are old stock, but still very much serviceable. You can try Mike Bonaduccie in Bradford, Vermont (802-439-5815), as one of these. No financial interest and all that. I've used and can recommend because he's been the closest to me. <br></p><p><br></p><p>Terry Smith, '59 TR3A<br></p><p>New Hampshire, where we had 20 inches of snow on Tuesday/Wednesday. The first day, my John Deere loader used to clear the 300 yard driveway started, but wouldn't go forward or backward. Crawled in the cold and snow under it and finally discovered the issue was ice in the transmission fluid. Drained and replaced, worked great. Second day wouldn't start. Issue was dead battery (must have left the key partly on AC after turning it off on Day One.) Gadfrey!!!!!!! But all fine and cleared now.<br></p><blockquote type="cite"><!-- [if !mso]>
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<![endif] -->On March 16, 2017 at 4:32 PM Randall <TR3driver@ca.rr.com> wrote:<br><br><div class="ox-4d80626062-Section1"><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">> If I took my old ones to a spring -</span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">> maker here in the Portland (Maine) area, what data would I need to</span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">> provide to them, along with my old springs? It's obviously possible to</span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">> make them look right but still be too stiff...</span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">The drawing in the workshop manual should be enough. Page 203 here</span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2H2NJt34OffYWZiN2VlZGMtNTkxMi00NGUzLWE4NzMtMGRkODRkYzU3MDU1">https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2H2NJt34OffYWZiN2VlZGMtNTkxMi00NGUzLWE4NzMtMGRkODRkYzU3MDU1</a></span></span><br></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">The ones I got from TRF appeared to have two problems:</span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">1) The leaves were not tapered in thickness as shown in the drawing.</span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">2) (More importantly, I think) The leaves were just a bit thicker than given in the drawing. Not by much, but apparently it doesn't take much. I found an on-line site that would calculate leaf spring stiffness (sorry, I've lost the link). When I put in the measured thickness of the new spring leaves (along with all the other data), it came up with a spring rate very similar to what I had measured. When I put in the numbers from the workshop manual, the result was much closer to the rate in the manual.</span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">In case anyone is interested, here's a photo of my lashup to measure spring rate.</span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://s258.photobucket.com/user/TR3driver/media/Tools/DSCF0008.jpg.html">http://s258.photobucket.com/user/TR3driver/media/Tools/DSCF0008.jpg.html</a></span></span><br></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Two needle valves (one is hidden in the photo) allow adjusting the amount of air in the cylinder. The resulting force can be calculated from the air pressure displayed (times the area of the cylinder piston), and the deflection measured with a ruler (not shown). Cost for the whole contraption was only about $50 (the used air cylinder was $25 with shipping from ebay).</span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">As it happened, I got given a pair of original springs, so I kind of lost interest in the quest for new ones. Unfortunately, they seem to be sagging pretty badly, so I need to be working on this topic again soon.</span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">-- Randall </span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">56 TR3 TS13571L daily driver</span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">71 Stag LE1473 - awaiting engine rebuild</span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">71-2-3 Stag - awaiting gearbox rebuild</span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span></span></p><p class="ox-4d80626062-MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span></span></p></div></blockquote><p><br> </p><blockquote type="cite"><br>** triumphs@autox.team.net **<br><br>Donate: http://www.team.net/donate.html<br>Archive: http://www.team.net/archive<br>Forums: http://www.team.net/forums<br>Unsubscribe/Manage: http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/triumphs/terryrs@comcast.net<br></blockquote></body></html>