Dampers and springs

[Griffith500user]

My car seems very low on the rear and a little high on the front, it rides beautifully but seems to look a bit awkward at standstill, to the point where I’m considering replacing the rear springs at least.

I have checked the front springs and they are definitely red, the rears I’m yet to confirm that they are yellow as they are quite dirty and I’m currently finishing off another job on the car before I start this one.

It dawned on my this morning that could it be possible that someone has previously wrongly fitted front dampers (which have a shorter body under the lower spring platform I think?) with rear springs to the rear of the car, hence the low rear ride height, and rear dampers (which have a longer body under the lower spring platform, again I think?) with front springs to the front of the car? This would give an overall high front and low rear stance with correct looking springs fitted at first glance wouldn’t it?

[TJC46]

This thread needs pictures.

[phillpot]

Do you dampers have adjustable spring platforms?

[Griffith500user]

No they appear to be standard Bilstein non-platform adjustable dampers. I’ve seen pictures of front and rear dampers side by side on google and they do appear to have different length lower parts of their bodies side by side with each other. Fairly easy to find out, just need to get the car in the air and measure them. I’ll get some pictures posted as soon as I find more out. Anyone got the open lengths to hand, or even better, the lengths of the bodies under the spring platforms front and rear?

[Classic Chim]

I put one front shock on a rear once, drove round the bend wondering why the rear was low on one side
So yes wrongly fitted you could expect to get lower rear ride height.

Rear shocks the top lug that connects it to chassis is normally longer and narrower than fronts to avoid rubbing on outrigger diagonal tube as it leaves chassis area I seem to remember.
Others will confirm

Edited by Classic Chim on Tuesday 22 October 13:54

[Griffith500user]

Interesting. I’ll update when I get it up in the air. It would explain it though. If anyone has measurements i would be grateful.

[thicksliced]

I bought a 92 Griffith in 2007 and put new Bilsteins and springs on and the car sat too high at the front. Everything was checked and was correct. After eighteen months I put a set of Gaz Golds and stronger springs on. Good on smooth roads and on track but poor on country roads, not helped by lack of power steering.

I decided to put the Bilsteins back on for winter even if it meant buying new fronts.I might not have the story 100% correct but after the factory went bust Bilstein were supplying dampers with the wrong ride height. If you look at those for sale now they have three grooves in the body to allow the platform to be positioned for different ride heights.

I have had another groove machined into the body of my front dampers which will hopefully reduce the ride height by 15mm. If I can work up the enthusiasm I will swap them tomorrow.

Ben Lang is the man to speak to if you need info.

Mark

[magpies]

I converted my Bilseins to have height adjustable platforms. The threaded sleeves fit over the damper tubs and sit on a C clip in the cut groove.

https://www.burtonpower.com/adjustable-spring-seat... for example

[Griffith500user]

magpies said:

I converted my Bilseins to have height adjustable platforms. The threaded sleeves fit over the damper tubs and sit on a C clip in the cut groove.

https://www.burtonpower.com/adjustable-spring-seat... for example

Like that a lot, thanks

[Trevor450]

Mine was like that. Springs were shot. I tried some extended spring seats which fixed the ride height, but you could feel the springs bottoming out so they were clearly too far gone. They were only 5 years old too.

I went with a new set of Bilsteins from Ben Lang and the difference was night and day. The car had the proper stance after fitting.

[fieryfred]

This may help. New Bilsteins showing the lenghts.
This will be a quick check to see if you have them back to front.
2 photos attached.

[QBee]

Springs are not expensive

[Griffith500user]

With the car in the air at the rear I’ve confirmed 385mm open damper length eye to eye and 80mm between the lower spring platform and the lower eyelet bolt centre.

Can anyone confirm whether that’s a front or rear damper that I have on the back please.

I’ve also crawled under the front and taken the same measurement of lower spring platform to eyelet bolt centre and this is about 95mm, maybe a rear damper?

Edited by Griffith500user on Friday 25th October 09:38

[Sardonicus]

For an original rear Billy I have 100mm for your 2nd measurement and 380mm for the 1st give or the so later at least appears correct, this is off the car so I'm confident with these figures

[Griffith500user]

Thank you, I think that confirms them as fronts then. I’ll get busy with the spanner’s over the weekend!

[Griffith500user]

I have removed both the rear dampers from the car and found they both have D0351 stamped on them. Google search proves that they are rears for a Chimaera but only have one circlip groove not x3 like the ones for sale today. They do both have the correct yellow dual rate springs as far as I can see too? If this can’t be explained, my plan is to machine up some new longer lower spring platforms to allow the spring to sit where the higher grooves on the later dampers put them.

[spitfire4v8]

^^ that would do the trick ..

incidently when tvr changed to the dampers with the larger top bush the ride heights went up because they apparently didn't change anything to account for the bigger bush , or were happy with the increased ride height anyway.

If your dampers have large top bushes on the front and std top bushes on the rear then it will look nose-high.

[Griffith500user]

Just posting an update - I’ve managed to get hold of some known good ride height second hand Bilsteins and springs for both front and rear. I know the newer rears have red springs , these are rear ‘yellows’ but have been re-powder coated red. The difference is in the rear damper spring platforms. Both sets of rears bare the same part number. No wonder the ride height was low.

[spitfire4v8]

You're not comparing apples with apples until you dig a bit further.

The red coloured spring set are earlier dampers with the small top bush, and unless they actually say bilstein on them assume they are harvey bailey.

The big top bush raises the ride height, so the lower spring seat will counteract that effect somewhat assuming no other changes. So, by fitting the other dampers you have a raised spring seat, but a lower top eye bolt, so you *might* not see any change in ride height by fitting them, and if they are harvey bailey they are a backwards step certainly in reliability if not actual damping effect IMO.

Best bet is to have a look to see if there's already a second spring seat circlip groove in the bilstein set and re-use those. Or make a spacer as you've suggested (the original alloy spring seats used to corrode and split so don't force it too much if making a spacer is easy for you to do)

[QBee]

If you can afford to bite the bullet, you can get a good set of fully adjustable dampers and springs for between £600 and £1000.
This will give you a fully adjustable ride height via a seat height adjustment ring, and softness/hardness of ride via an adjuster, to suit what you are doing with the car.
So soft for wafting around the country lanes on a Sunday afternoon, harder for that little adventure on the TVRCC track day.

I changed mine in the first year of ownership and have never regretted it.