Best spring choice

[jeffremj]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">How does it feel in normal use?

Does it crash and bang on normal roads ?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">I have been re-assessing the comfort and can confirm that the ride is hard and you can feel most changes in the road surface, but I don't think it is harsh as everything has a softened edge - the rubber bushing, I guess.

As a comparison, if you try and 'bounce' each corner of the car by hand all I get is a dip of 1 inch! I once tried this on a rally TR7 and there was no give!

Here is a new picture from this morning - I noticed the car looked good and the arches gap was more visible [:)]

[sydney.wedgehead]

Might just be the lighting (and my weary vision) but it looks like the rear tyre pressure is low in that picture.

Also, it appears that the front tyre to arch gap is less than that at the rear?

I have close to equal arch gaps front and rear of around 30mm from face of tyre to underside of arch top. This has proven to be much more comfortable than the harder and shorter springs I used to run, but as noted previously, I still find it too harsh if the rear tyre pressures are above ~28 psi.

Interestingly, in comparison to Mike's setup, if I bounce each corner I get less 1" dip, probably around 5/8" (16mm), so deduce the combination of springs and dampers is probably harder.

Note, this setup really doesn't suit unpaved corrugated roads, but is good on the poorly maintained surfaces prevalent on most of our suburban streets.

[busheytrader]

For future availability of tyres, 15" rims must be the way to go since the selection of 13" has become restricted and 14" will be going the same way.

However, on our UK roads I much prefer the ride quality of my 60 series tyres on 14" than 50 series on 15". (Both are 195 wide) The quality of our roads, the amount of traffic on them and general road safety mean that it's impossible to get close to the handling limits of either tyre / wheel combination where I live in greater London.

The standard front suspension wasn't blessed with much travel before it bottomed out on the stops. Back in the day I fitted the lowest available springs from TriumphTune and regretted it soon afterwards.

Adam





TR7 V8 DHC Jaguar Solent Blue. 9.35cr Range Rover V8, Holley 390cfm, JWR Dual Port, 214 Cam, Lumention, Tubular Manifolds, S/S Single Pipe Exh, 3.08 Rear, 200lb Spax & PolyBushes all round, Anti- Dive, Strut-Top Roller Bearings, Capri Vented Discs & Calipers, Braided Hoses, 4 Speed Rear Cylinders, Uprated Master Cylinder & Servo, AT 14" 5 Spokes or Maestro Turbo 15" Alloys, Cruise Lights, S/S Heater Pipes, Replacement Fuel Tank. No Door Stickers. Mine since July 1986, V8 from 1991 courtesy of S&S V8 conversion and big brake kits.

[Beans]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by wayne walsh</i>

... 200lbs -1inch seem to be popular but others I see have moved from these to a softer rate for daily use ... <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Or harder for more fun on twisty roads [}:)]
But one thing is for sure, for any form of normal driving your car is to low.
Also bear in mind the consequences that lowering a car has on the suspension's geometry.

And with a 5,0 litre TVR engine I presume you're more for spirited driving [:D]

<center>
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1981 TR7 FHC Sprint (better known as 't Kreng)</font id="blue">
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[kstrutt1]

I found it wasn't the rate but length which was the issue , my first set of 200lb rears (quoted as 2" lower) were so short that it crashed through to the bumpstops all the time, fitting longer ones (supposedly only 1" lower than standard )vastly improved things. The ride is still firm but not unbearably so.

I keep meaning to get some more progressive bumpstops off a modern car as I think these would also improve matters.

[busheytrader]

[quote]<i>Originally posted by kstrutt1</i>

I found it wasn't the rate but length which was the issue , my first set of 200lb rears (quoted as 2" lower) were so short that it crashed through to the bumpstops all the time, fitting longer ones (supposedly only 1" lower than standard )vastly improved things. The ride is still firm but not unbearably so.

I keep meaning to get some more progressive bumpstops off a modern car as I think these would also improve matters.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

From the TriumphTune catalogue back in the day.

"The bump stop, fitted inside the front spring, comes into play far too early even on a standard car, so creating ‘bump steer’. It is therefore essential for these to be corrected so as to reduce this on hard cornering. This becomes even more important when using any of the lower road springs. We have therefore redesigned this so that the ‘stop’ becomes progressive and is also much shorter to allow more suspension travel.

I have them on my 7V8. They are much shorter, conical and of a hard poly type material. They've lasted over 25 years compared to the originals which had fallen apart after 7.

Adam



TR7 V8 DHC Jaguar Solent Blue. 9.35cr Range Rover V8, Holley 390cfm, JWR Dual Port, 214 Cam, Lumention, Tubular Manifolds, S/S Single Pipe Exh, 3.08 Rear, 200lb Spax & PolyBushes all round, Anti- Dive, Strut-Top Roller Bearings, Capri Vented Discs & Calipers, Braided Hoses, 4 Speed Rear Cylinders, Uprated Master Cylinder & Servo, AT 14" 5 Spokes or Maestro Turbo 15" Alloys, Cruise Lights, S/S Heater Pipes, Replacement Fuel Tank. No Door Stickers. Mine since July 1986, V8 from 1991 courtesy of S&S V8 conversion and big brake kits.