Uppity Rear End

All, I am the guy who purchased a collection of parts gathered by a pretty detailed guy who could not finish his 58 100-6. As such, I installed the rear springs furnished. This went smoothly, no indication of incorrect component. Now that I am finally rolling on wheels/tyres, the chassis is still firmly pressed to the bottom of the rear axle. Yes, with considerable push down I can move the chassis off axle slightly, but feel even with gas weight in the tank and rear sheet metal, I am way too stiff. Did I read some time back that some springs that are offered as replacement need a leaf removed?? Certainly not looking forward to anything like that, but this is way too stiff. Please comment or direct me to archive info. Thanks!

Hi Andy
If possible send some photos of your rear end
Cheers
Andrea

How many leaves do you have? Is all the body, engine, and transmission in place?

About 15 years ago, I bought a new set of rear springs for my '59 100-6. They were left from a group buy our club made.

When I finally installed them, the rear of my car sat as yours does. Not even my excess bulk bouncing on the rear brought the axle off of the stops.

In diagnosing the situation, I found out that I had Jule springs. I talked with Martin Jansen at Jule and found out that the springs that I had were for a BJ, NOT a 100-6. As I remember, there is an inch difference in the arch of the two springs. The spring stack was made from 6 of 1/4" leaves rather than the stock stack of 8 of 3/16" leaves.

Martin was very accomodating in offering to resolve the situation, but in the end, the cheepest thing to do was to buy 4 longer axle straps ($15) and to add a 1" spacer block between the spring stack and the spring plate.

I don't NOW remember the differences between the 100-6 and the BJ springs but there are people here who do or call Martin. Marty is often in this forum and may see & answer this.

Before you go any farther, make sure that you have the correct springs. I didn't.

Tim

Originally we set the rear spring arch at 4" for the BJ8 . These set the cars to the original height.
We now set the arches for a BJ8 II and III at 3 3/4" and for all other Healeys at 3 1/2" because our customers were requesting the car to be lower. The most popular set ordered is 31/2" but for BJ8 we recommend 3 3/4". But is an owner's preference.

58- I think we are living in parallel universes... Today I put my 57 parts collection on its wheels for the first time in 15 years and it also sits pressed against the chassis rails. I can bounce each side down a little but it'd be uncomfortable driving like that.

My springs are only assembled for trial fitup as I'm going to fully reassemble the car before painting so I know where everything goes and am sure it all fits ok. The spring packs are missing the three zinc interleaves which will have a minor effect on the height.

Further to this issue I found that the diff is too far rearward by about 1/2" and to the left side by 1/2" when wooden spacers are fitted between the frame rails to lower the car to about ride height. I tied a loop of string around the knock-off and drew a circle around the rear wheel arch, would be interesting to hear how your wheels sit in the arches.

57.

Update - 6 leaves in spring stack, I am still looking for record of purchase part number, but will restate that the gentleman who gathered all parts did extensive work on the chassis and was working for a very accurate restoration - it is a shame he was not able to complete. From Texas, anyone know of him? Lastly for now, I never noticed any lack of centering of the axle/wheel/tire in the arch, but never looked for it either - nor diff alignment, I will check these also. I am sure I cna locate purchased part description, but it would appea that at minimum I will need to remove a leaf as noted above. Thank You all for comments.