TR4/4A now I'm curious

After finally getting the bulk of the right side suspension back together, I read an article that stated, after testing, it was determined that excess bending of the coil spring can increase it's stiffness by as much as 20%. Of course it didn't say at what angle(s) that would occur. The article also stated that the normal stock springs used on the tr2-4 were 300lb/inch and my manual says the fitted load is 925lb so I'm assuming the 300 lb number is with the spring sitting on the garage floor? it went on to say there are mods you can make to the pan to change the spring angle. Well I bring all that up because I thought maybe some may find that interesting plus it got me thinking... looking at my installed spring it has what seems to be a wicked angle and no way to change it unless it's installed wrong but there's only one way it can go so it is what it is but I have to ask anyway..does it look right to you??. Of course it's just resting on the rubber rebound underneath so the angle will change some once I'm able to set it down I guess but I'm wondering by how much.

I'd like to see a reference to the article you mention. Frankly I see nothing wrong with the enclosed photo of the installed spring.

See, yours bends out too....but I can't even get my shock inside the spring. I just posted about this. The only thing I would check is to see if the rubber bushing on top is indeed really sitting flat. I had one of my poly bushings get hung up on the edge and caused my spring to really bow like that. I put in thinner ones and it fit right in and flat. But...my spring still bows enough that my shock hits the inside of the spring on the inner side.

Here's the link to the article:

https://www.racing-car-technology.com.au/Triumph/index.htm

Gary, I missed your other post or I would have added this to it instead of starting a new thread. Anyway, I threw in my 2 cents worth to your problem there.
In the meantime I have the other side to do so I'll make sure to pay particular attention to the washer seating, however, at least the shock fits, otherwise original springs and washers that were still in good shape so not many options other pretend it's close to normal.

I dunno. 925 divided by 300 lbs/inch would mean a "fitted" compression of 3-1/12". That sounds about right for sitting on the rebound stop...so off the floor? I would say 3 inches looks about right for the amount it gets compressed to install. Plus, the A arm has mechanical advantage over the spring, so the spring sees more load than the tire at rest.

That doesn't answer the "bow" question though. Some bow is normal...but that does look like a lot.

That 925 lb number makes no sense. The TR4 weighs ~2100 pounds, with maybe 55% on the front (not sure of the exact fraction) so that means about 1100 pounds on BOTH front wheels or 550 per wheel. And 300 lb/in sounds pretty stiff to me.

When the suspension is unloaded and the lower arm is all the way down, of course the spring's retaining plates won't be parallel and the spring will bulge to one side. They should be close to parallel under load, though, the spring should be straight, and the ride height should be correct. If it's not, you have the wrong spring.

I guess it's possible that the spring rate might be higher close to full compression, but so what? You either have the right spring, in which case the car's ride height will be correct, or you don't. The physics of the spring isn't the issue.

Dash...hard to see, are you using a spacer on top of the spring?

yep. using the spacer. Seems there are 2 threads sorta dealing with this subject and I saw your post about shaving the spacer. In the other thread I posted a pic of the lean the spring has so before I get that ambitious and since I still have a side to do yet, I'm gonna experiment with rotating the spring to see what affect that may have. Maybe none but won't know unless I try. Sticking a jack under it is apparently not an accurate indication of the actual down force created once all 4 wheels are on the ground so not trying to straighten the bow completely. Given the opposing tilt of the tower and pan, it's bound to have some bow before the car is lowered.. Just seeing if it's possible to minimize it a bit.