rubber mat on top of rear spring ..

[Bobbybedtime]

Hi,
Can anyone offer a reason why the nearside rear spring had two bits of rubber matting between spring and top mount. The offside spring was sitting in its retainers without any mat. Spring looks ok, same length as opposite. Will put back together without matt. Hopefully all will be well.
Regards,
BBT

[rev-erend]

Perhaps it was put there to spot noise..

[adam quantrill]

More likely to equalise the ride height.

[barrington]

ive had two wedges with this in think it is to make the body sit straight on the chassis

[Mr Tank]

Hi
When I did my rebuild I had the same. The reason is to equalises the ride height as the Shock mount on that side is 1/2 heigher than the other side on the chassis! (See Pics)

The Factory must have had a jig problem when welding them!




Andy

[JR]

Mr Tank said:

When I did my rebuild I had the same. The reason is to equalises the ride height as the Shock mount on that side is 1/2 heigher than the other side on the chassis! ...
The Factory must have had a jig problem when welding them!

but when the factory fitted them they were positioned between the boby and the chassis not between the spring and the chassis.

[Mr Tank]

JR

Sorry the idea of the rubber is to bring the shock down to match the other side, due to as I said in my post the shock mounting being welded incorrectly i.e. to high!
Yes in areas there are rubber between chassis and body but not in this case!

Andy

[JR]

Mr Tank said:

JR

Sorry the idea of the rubber is to bring the shock down to match the other side, due to as I said in my post the shock mounting being welded incorrectly i.e. to high!
Yes in areas there are rubber between chassis and body but not in this case!

Andy

I know what you're saying and it is bad practice. The factory levelled up the body as per my earlier post and there should be neoprene inbetween the body and chassis at all points.

Aftermarket if someone wanted to adjust the shock height then metal shims should have been fitted in place of the neoprene on the above photograph and some of the neoprene from inbetween the chassis and body removed. At a guess it looks like someone has removed some of the packing from inbetween the chassis and body and repositioned it lower.

[Bobbybedtime]

Thanks for the feedback gents, it looks like I'm not the only one with bits of rubber stuck in places like these .. which actually makes me feel a lot better about it.
So its either leveling the chassis on the shocks or the body on the chassis.

I'll take some measurements and have a play and feedback what I find.

Thanks again,
BBT.

[JR]

Bobbybedtime said:

So its either leveling the chassis on the shocks or the body on the chassis.

I'll take some measurements and have a play and feedback what I find.

The measuring sounds like a good first step.

IMHO once you've removed the rubber from below the chassis it's either:
leveling the chassis on the shocks and the body on the chassis or
leveling the body on the chassis; ie unless you don't mind a wonky body then you can't soley level the chassis on the dampers. Depending on the measurements you may also have to consider the security of the spring fixing.

Then there's corner weighting...

[SEvans]

Mine had this on the rear O/S and I think it was still original. As I fitted adjustable platform AVO's I didn't feel the need to put the rubber back. Cheers Steve.

[Mr Tank]

Hi

Believe me it's there to level the shock.

The factory welded the nearside rear shock mounting higher by 1/2 inch so the two bits of rubber are fitted to bring the nearside shock down to match the other!
It now appears that at least ten cars have had it done like this, so with that number it must be a factory fix/mod!

It doesn't show it in my pics very well but that's the case!

I have attached another pic and if you look hard you can see the differance



Andy

[Brap_Brap]

This really restores my faith in TVR engineering!

[Big Daft Lad]

Yip, discovered this on mine the very same day as you! Right hand rear shock.

You saved me from asking the very same question.

[B-Reight]

No rubber between spring and top mount on mine, guess the factory must have sorted the jig by 1988

[adam quantrill]

What keeps the spring in place at the top - I didn't think those tangs sticking down from the top plate would be long enough to engage with the spring...

[JR]

adam quantrill said:

What keeps the spring in place at the top - I didn't think those tangs sticking down from the top plate would be long enough to engage with the spring...

Precisely. I can only imaginge that there must have been a secret B team in the factory.

[Adrian@]

EVENTUALLY....these pieces of rubber were replaced by bespoke discs that fitted in place and could be bought from the factory spares department.
Adrian@
From memory I thought that the chassis jigs were 18mm out on that shock mounting point.

Edited by Adrian@ on Wednesday 20th May 09:52