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Jerseygirl
Jedi Trainee
Offline
I know there aren't a lot of Spitfire owners on here, and a quick search didn't reveal a thread already discussing this, so I thought I'd post this to maybe save someone from experiencing what happened to me.
When I bought Baldrick, he had the appearance of driving uphill all the time because, as we were told by some other Spit owners, Triumph did that to meet federal regulations for either bumper height or headlight height (I don't remember which).
So then we were told that to remedy this, we could replace the front springs with springs from one of the '71-'74 Spits and that would bring the front end back down to a normal height. So that's what I did...
Well, we installed the springs, and while the front end looked great, the springs just never looked right to me. The coils were extremely compressed and there was only about 1/2" of clearance between each of the coils. The darn things have got to be bottoming out over just about every bump in the road. Not a pleasant thought.
So I go onto the SpitBits site today out of curiosity, and notice that they have something called "Uprated springs" that lower the front of the car 1". A phone call to them confirms my worst fears...
According to what I was told on the phone, the springs from the '71-'74 Spits were only rated at 150lbs, whereas the springs on the '75-'80 Spits were rated at 180lbs. So putting the older springs on the car lowered the front end, yes, but at the expense of the springs functioning properly.
So... I now have a new set of front end "uprated springs" on the way, along with two brand new front shocks (might as well since the car will be apart anyway).
The only saving grace of this whole thing is this... Two brand new front springs and shocks for the Spit cost a grand total of $142 plus shipping.
If you've got a later Spit and are looking to lower the front end... consider yourself warned. :wink:
Oh, and anybody with a '71-'74 Spit looking to replace their front springs? I've got a barely used set with way less than 1000 miles on them.
When I bought Baldrick, he had the appearance of driving uphill all the time because, as we were told by some other Spit owners, Triumph did that to meet federal regulations for either bumper height or headlight height (I don't remember which).
So then we were told that to remedy this, we could replace the front springs with springs from one of the '71-'74 Spits and that would bring the front end back down to a normal height. So that's what I did...
Well, we installed the springs, and while the front end looked great, the springs just never looked right to me. The coils were extremely compressed and there was only about 1/2" of clearance between each of the coils. The darn things have got to be bottoming out over just about every bump in the road. Not a pleasant thought.
So I go onto the SpitBits site today out of curiosity, and notice that they have something called "Uprated springs" that lower the front of the car 1". A phone call to them confirms my worst fears...
According to what I was told on the phone, the springs from the '71-'74 Spits were only rated at 150lbs, whereas the springs on the '75-'80 Spits were rated at 180lbs. So putting the older springs on the car lowered the front end, yes, but at the expense of the springs functioning properly.
So... I now have a new set of front end "uprated springs" on the way, along with two brand new front shocks (might as well since the car will be apart anyway).
The only saving grace of this whole thing is this... Two brand new front springs and shocks for the Spit cost a grand total of $142 plus shipping.
If you've got a later Spit and are looking to lower the front end... consider yourself warned. :wink:
Oh, and anybody with a '71-'74 Spit looking to replace their front springs? I've got a barely used set with way less than 1000 miles on them.
