Oldsmobile has a new home!

[purplebargeken]

Just had a call from Mike who took the car from Wuvvum. Mike lobbed the car onto the ramp and went through the MOT process, all seemed to be going reasonably well until he discovered a broken rear spring. Test was aborted accordingly.

 

Now the dilemma is thus:

 

The car is with Mike and the original plan for him to drive it over to the barn in Essex is now quite understandably no longer an option due to safety. Quite right too.

 

The bits that need doing to the car can be done at my leisure once the car is at the barn. No issues there.

 

The problem is getting the car to the barn.

 

I have sufficient money to cover Mikes costs so far but I will not have the cash to do anything else (ie: get it transported or trailered to Essex) until the end of Sept at least as I have had to pay out on insurance for the Volvo and bits for the Dolomite.

 

Am not sure of the way forward as the car is in Mikes yard and I don't want to take the piss re: keeping the car there for too long.

 

The other option is to flog the car via fleaBay and move on.

 

What to do.

[michael1703]

Pictures of the kenbarge

 

 

 

 

 

A usual grot spot that looks ok

 

 

 

Preview to disaster picture coming up

 

Bollocks

 

[purplebargeken]

Was looking ok until then lol.

[cort1977]

Just had a look online, can't find the fiberglass spring anywhere, just the pads for each end.   JC Whitney, RockAuto - none of them seem to list it.   Might be worth looking at a steel replacement?

[Bear]

Where's the car? I'm looking at transport options at the moment - if the Olds is somewhere not too far off a route I'm on, might be able to help. Might. At the moment it looks like the transporter I need is further away than the car!

[michael1703]

Car is in IP14-5QJ

 

I've been googling and I can't find a spring

 

Maybe try a breakers near mildenhall/lakenheath as there used to be loads of these floating around bases

 

Or.... Get a spring off a herald from rimming brothers

[wuvvum]

Bumhats.  Wonder how long the spring's been like that?  I certainly didn't notice it when I was poking around under the car after I bought it.

 

[purplebargeken]

It seems to be called a transverse spring and indeed is made out of fibreglass. Also as others have indicated, seems to be a non-item. Fuck knows how to sort that out as you need some special tool to compress the thing.

 

I think I will lob it onto ebay as 'spares or repair' or scrap the thing if it doesn't sell.

 

Bollocks to it. It's costing money that could be directed elsewhere.

 

Fucksticks. 

[wuvvum]

This is apparently the special tool you need:

 

 

Doesn't look overly complicated - you could probably achieve the same result with a selection of jacks.  That still leaves the problem of the spring - but would imagine there would be plenty of "W bodies" in scrapyards in the US, and can't see a fibreglass spring being too heavy to post.

[cort16]

A fibreglass transverse spring. Welcome to america folks. 

Bad luck, I hope you find a solution.

[Lacquer Peel]

It's actually a good idea in principle, it's compact, negates an anti-roll bar and it's lighter than a conventional setup.

Late Volvo 960s and S/V90s used a composite transverse leaf spring at the back. Might have just been the estates, not sure.

 

I tried looking up the part number for the leaf spring and it comes up with lots of place holder pages where you have to ask for a quote (i.e. no one is selling them), hope you can find a good second-hand one, they are used in a lot of '90s FWD US GM shite.

[wuvvum]

A fibreglass transverse spring. Welcome to america folks. 

My Innocenti has one of those too. 

[Pillock]

If it's a supplementary spring, like an ARB was sometimes only fitted to the "cooking" versions of a car, can't it just be removed for the purposes of driving it? Obvs you can't twat around with the main suspension but this is extra, isn't it? Or am I missing the point of this part?

[Lacquer Peel]

It's not supplementary.

[michael1703]

This is the only company that makes them according to the millions of threads on American forums

 

http://www.birchmountspring.ca

 

http://60degreev6.com/forum/showthread.php/46142-transverse-monoleaf-delete

[stillOrange]

It's actually a good idea in principle, it's compact, negates an anti-roll bar and it's lighter than a conventional setup.

Late Volvo 960s and S/V90s used a composite transverse leaf spring at the back. Might have just been the estates, not sure.

 

I tried looking up the part number for the leaf spring and it comes up with lots of place holder pages where you have to ask for a quote (i.e. no one is selling them), hope you can find a good second-hand one, they are used in a lot of '90s FWD US GM shite.

My saloon 90 definitely has one. That clean plasticy part looks so out of place amongst the rest of rear suspension.

 

Good luck with finding the part

[purplebargeken]

The spring is a problem but I imagine time and effort will prevail.

 

This biggest immediate problem is how to get the fucker from Michaels place to the barn near Chelmsford.

 

Hard cash at present is uber limited.

[michael1703]

It can sit in the yard for a bit until I need the space for another purchase/raffle win

[Alexg]

Sorry to bust in as everyone's putting their coat on, but are you google searching with part numbers? That's should throw up shared parts with Euro motors not actually listed for your specific car.

[purplebargeken]

I have a towing set up on the Amazon but no bloody trailer. Arrgghhh.

 

Maybe it is one of those things I need to save up for instead of buying cars.

[purplebargeken]

I'll focus on the part once the damn thing is in  the barn. I can take stock then and relax about it. I just need to get it there.

[Asimo]

 

Every one of these has a composite transverse leaf spring at the front and every Corvette of the last 20 years has one at both ends.

[cort16]

Doesn't make it right

[twosmoke300]

Deffo not right on the sprinter if you catch diagonal speed bump wrong . Still rocking half a mile down the road

[purplebargeken]

You never know lol.

 

There will have to be one somewhere!

[Lacquer Peel]

Deffo not right on the sprinter if you catch diagonal speed bump wrong . Still rocking half a mile down the road

 

I've only driven a Sprinter 4x4, are the 2wd ones as bad for being disturbed by ridges and tram lining?

[purplebargeken]

Have found a few american car parts/breakers over here and will email them accordingly. We'll see what happens.

[danthecapriman]

I've only driven a Sprinter 4x4, are the 2wd ones as bad for being disturbed by ridges and tram lining?

Yes! Any sort of bump or ridge they go over will cause the whole van to shake or rock, sometimes quite violently. Even dropping off curbs slowly is bad. My one does it so badly sometimes the tools etc on the racking in the back bounce off! I've got some little plastic part containers mounted on the inside of the van above a workbench and I had these break off too when driving on a rough surface, it made a right mess!

I tow a lot with mine and the trailers affect them a lot too.

They aren't bad to drive, but they really aren't very stable, and if it's windy they blow around an awful lot. In fact I'd say my mk2 Transit handles better in this respect!

[purplebargeken]

Seems a Chevy Lumina 1992 to 1993 uses the same part. Is another option to check out.

[twosmoke300]

Yes! Any sort of bump or ridge they go over will cause the whole van to shake or rock, sometimes quite violently. Even dropping off curbs slowly is bad. My one does it so badly sometimes the tools etc on the racking in the back bounce off! I've got some little plastic part containers mounted on the inside of the van above a workbench and I had these break off too when driving on a rough surface, it made a right mess!

I tow a lot with mine and the trailers affect them a lot too.

They aren't bad to drive, but they really aren't very stable, and if it's windy they blow around an awful lot. In fact I'd say my mk2 Transit handles better in this respect!

Mine was a well loaded 2wd mobile workshop and it used to get a serious sway on over low speed bumps and kerbs etc