Spring free length
Discussion
Just had my o/s front stripped down for rebushing (tip: PAS fluid eats bushes. Fix the bloody leak!) and as I was sand-blasting the spring clean (WHAT a tedious job that is!) I wondered whether it may have taken a set over the years, so... anyone got a clue what typical free length of a front spring on a V8 (I'd say 390 specifically but I don't believe for 1 second that TVR put anything on that differed from the 350) might be?
Interestingly, this (22 year old, I guess) spring has the cross-sectional area of a Forth Bridge girder. A couple of weeks back I helped my aged old father fit a new spring to his Megane after it failed its MOT due to one spring having snapped a couple of inches from one end. The MOT guy said they see loads of broken springs these days and 'it's all down to the speed humps'. Really. It couldn't be anything to do with modern springs having the cross-section of an ant's dick, then?
Pleased to see that good old British engineering prevailed and the whole assembly came apart with minimal tools and without any hassles apart from one split pin needing to be drilled out. It even still had its original top balljoint rivetted in, I had a new one but it seemed a shame to change it as the old one was still in good order! I bet Megane suspension doesn't last that long...
The only thing I must change before I start driving the car again is the lower arm pivot bolt: because the bush had gone mushy the inner sleeve had been fretting away at the bolt and the bolt was rather less than its original diameter...
Slotted in an M12 in as a temporary fix but will have to get the genuine article ASAP.
Interestingly, this (22 year old, I guess) spring has the cross-sectional area of a Forth Bridge girder. A couple of weeks back I helped my aged old father fit a new spring to his Megane after it failed its MOT due to one spring having snapped a couple of inches from one end. The MOT guy said they see loads of broken springs these days and 'it's all down to the speed humps'. Really. It couldn't be anything to do with modern springs having the cross-section of an ant's dick, then?
Pleased to see that good old British engineering prevailed and the whole assembly came apart with minimal tools and without any hassles apart from one split pin needing to be drilled out. It even still had its original top balljoint rivetted in, I had a new one but it seemed a shame to change it as the old one was still in good order! I bet Megane suspension doesn't last that long...
The only thing I must change before I start driving the car again is the lower arm pivot bolt: because the bush had gone mushy the inner sleeve had been fretting away at the bolt and the bolt was rather less than its original diameter...
Slotted in an M12 in as a temporary fix but will have to get the genuine article ASAP.grahamw48 said:
Nice to see you're making an effort Ian...you've less than a week 
I wonder if they used the same pivot bolt as on the Cortina.
Not going to make it, I'm stuck on a big project up at Washington where it's all hands on deck for the week I wonder if they used the same pivot bolt as on the Cortina.
As an absolute minimum I need a front tyre, front pads, the tracking adjusting, an MOT and some tax before it can go anywhere. None of which I have the time to organise before Saturday. OK, at a pinch I could do the brakes and tracking one night, book in for first MOT on Sat then nip back to tax online but I wouldn't be in Blackpool before about 2PM and that's if nothing breaks!
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