arse! suspension collapse! - spring fitting question update

[scooters]

question - do I need to replace both front springs at the same time? I am thinking yes but thought I would ask.

 

erm... How many fingers have you got left?

 

 

tell me about it - hurts like hell bloody cheap halfords rubbish!

[scooters]

buggeration! can't find my spring compressors if memory serves me I lent them to a mate in London!

 

£30 for cheap nasty sealey ones in Unipart!....sod that - going to try and hire a set from somewhere

[scooters]

well despite my diligence in buying two springs it turns out that the front shocks are an odd pair anyway!

 

took me 2 hours of swearing - one stripped shock absorber allen key hole - a pair of mole grips and a 1 mt breaker bar to free the off side spring from the strut....flippin kwik fit and their air wrenches!

 

so job for tomorrow is to put everything back together

 

finger hurts like a bastard though - suspect a chipped bone has swollen up nicely as well!

 

splendid!

[Cavcraft]

I'm looking forward to the thread a day after you've sold this!

[cort16]

I take it no local scrappies have any in as it might have been easier to swap over the complete strut?

[scooters]

Naaa..a chap in livi had one but he wanted 60 quid and the shock was fooked.rebuilt the struts in front of the telly last night. Scooby springs only have 5 coils so compressing them was a pain but got there eventually...

 

Gonna give it a service as I put the bits back on it.

[scooters]

well - thats me finished - gave the fekker a service as well - new air filter making a hell of a difference.

 

took advantage of the struts being out to vactan and underseal the bell housing and wheel arches on both sides of the car. much much better now on the road - some clunking from the springs at manvouvering - bit odd as the struts and springs are properly alinged - mid you the rubber top caps which sit between the spring and the strut hat looked past their best - reused them anyway and suspect when they have settled down the clunking will stop - it is already lesst than it was.

 

other than a squashed finger I was quite pleased with the result and cost saving - with scoob springs coming in at 120 a pair the labour saving was welcome indeed!

[cros]

Its time for more spring fun. The Rovers arse has been dragging on the ground so bad something has to be done.

I was expecting difficulties with siezed bolts as the springs look like they've been on for a while, could be anything up to 61 years.

It helps to have the right tools for the job so I've whipped out my King Dick.

That's the nastiest bit done, all bolts came out without recourse to heating siezed bushes, just as well with the LPG tank living a few inches above.

Since I'm indulging myself a couple of new tyres will be going on, I've never heard of this brand before, probably something exotic and new to the fens. They were nearly £39 each, but you can't put a price on quality.

 

Edit:

Here's the finished thing with lovely new tailpipe, new springs and tyres. Me backs a bit fucked from putting the tyres on but the ride is better so it's swings and things.

[xtriple]

I 'thought' the reason that springs snap for a passtime nowadays was down to the new rules in place for making them? Some of the acids(?) etc are now 'bad shit' and are banned so springs now are made badly from the start. I can hardly ever recall a spring going in the 'good old days' but now it seems to be endemic.

[DodgeRover]

Are you going to have them re arched or what ever the correct term is or do you have new ones to fit?

[cros]

I got a new pair made by Jones Springs. They're on now, what a pleasure it was working under the old sow as the temperature went above zero and ice melted and dripped off the bodywork onto the floor. Sadly the last bit of exhaust has gone holy so I need to get an end section to go from the silencer. Its £30, but the downside is that most pipes for old cars seem to be made worse than moderns- this looked fine when I fitted it a year ago, so I'm guessing that particularly awful steel is used for the classic wanker market as most of the vehicles are never actually driven.

One issue I'd like to address is the silencer, but it will have to wait as I need the car on the road ASAP. These cars only have one box but it looks like something off Titanic. Given that the makers went to great lengths to keep the car quiet, I'm guessing this component is more than a bit restrictive. If the use of rubber mounted wiper boxes is anything to go by it wouldn't surprise me to find there's no route for the exhaust to actually pass through the bloody thing at all, so I shall have to look into it.

[cros]

^^^have added picture of finished job to the original post as the difference is so disappointingly tiny. However I also renewed all the roll bar bushes so the car is a bit less like a ship on corners. You modern drivers would still be horrified it has to be said....

[DodgeRover]

Would it be worth adding some helper coil springs in the centre of the rear springs (like you would to disguise an overloaded transit) to lift the ride height a little?

[Rocket88]

Further to springs never breaking in ye goode olde days..............brake discs never wore out either..........possibly due to asbestos in brake pads?

[cros]

A helper spring is a nice idea but to be honest I've had enough of lying under the thing for the time being. I've had a new radio waiting to be fitted since I bought the car a couple of years ago, but its not happened yet. Its quite a nice Blaupunckt one with USB and card slots so you can play your modern beat music plus some kind of wired remote so it can be hidden away. I just don't seem to be arsed to put it in- there's also this nagging feeling that buying one of those tiny but incredibly loud Bose USB speakers I could save a lot of buggering about finding a place to hide conventional drive units....

[Zelandeth]

Further to springs never breaking in ye goode olde days..............brake discs never wore out either..........possibly due to asbestos in brake pads?

 

I've been advised that this is indeed largely down to the composition of brake pads these days (mostly carbon and iron filings - which is why the brake dust often goes "rusty" leaving nigh on impossible to shift stains on your wheels). 

 

This is also why the brake dust loves to stick to and cause issues with the magnetic pickups for ABS systems. 

 

Again, I can't vouch for the validity of this data, but it's come from a mechanic I've known for a number of years and whose info I've never had any reason not to trust.

[tooSavvy]

^^^ brake pads for my 27yo Toyota. Would NOS mebbies be asbestos = worth looking for??

 

TS

[NorfolkNWeigh]

RE springs not breaking in the Olden Days...

Christmas Eve 1977, location halfway between Tregaron and Abergwesyn, weather snow.

Fatha N is taking the family to Birmingham for Christmas in our posh luxury* car , a 1967 A60( the S1 had a broken half shaft) .

Bang!!! The near side leaf snapped, luckily we had a spare in the boot, 2 weeks previously the other one broke so he got a pair from a scrappie, but only fitted the one that was broken.

Did I mention he was renovating a house and carrying a ton of rubble and bricks in it most days?

 

Anyway 40 minutes with me and my brothers helping* and my mum swearing , we were on our merry way. By the next Christmas he still had the Cambridge ( still got the S1, now!) but my mum had fucked off- are the two incidents connected, I wonder?

[Talbot]

I've also read that modernz springs are heat-treated to a far higher / more complex degree than older springs used to be, which is part of the reason why they are generally a bit thinner/smaller than they used to be.

 

What this then means is that they are far more susceptible to stress risers caused by uneven heating/cooling of the spring.. which often happens where they are hung in the furnace from a bit of wire, often on the first coil, which co-incidently is where they often snap.

 

Not that older springs never snapped.. seen plenty of Series land-rovers running about on their safety leaf with the owner somewhat oblivious.