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BJ8 leaf springs

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AUSMHLY

AUSMHLY

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I recently road in a friends BJ8 and his rides smoother than mine.
Mine seems stiff, makes more noise and seems to bounce around more than his.
My mechanic agrees that my car does not ride as smooth as it should and thinks the problem is the leaf springs. He says the rear shocks are fine. I recently replace the from shocks.

The new leaf springs were purchased from Victoria British in 2000.
They didn't cost much then. $69.95 each.

He recommends we replace them.
Question is who sells the good ones.
Austin Healey Spares sells to a lot of the vendors.
Moss, Victoria British, British Car Specialists, Healey Surgeons.

Maybe the ones from Healey Spares is different from the others. Maybe the vendors source them from different places.

What I don't want to do it buy another set, go though the exercise of replacement to find the springs are the same.

Any suggestions?
Thanks guys,
Roger
 
I have used many of the sources you mentioned over the years. The VAST quality of the parts was incredible.

So....I have found for me I cannot lose using Healey Surgeons. Call them and tell them your concerns..

Pete
 
Roger, be sure to give them your vin number. I believe you have a 64 which may be a phase 1 or 2. The 2's are designed to be higher and stiffer. Do you have the pan hard rod or the radius arm? Check the bushings in either case. Did you stiffen the sway bar at the front? Check those bushings also. I'd go for a ride in a third BJ8, maybe the other guys may be too soft. Generally, if you have the right height at the wheel well your leaf springs are ok. If you can bounce on the rear and get secondary movement you may have damper problems. They are more of a hydraulic damper than a shock.
TH
 
Well they can be tuned and Healey Surgeons gets some bad ones like every body else. I think the prepoderance of them come out of the same bin.

Take the second leaf from the bottom out and see what happens after it beds in you can replace that leaf.--FWIW-Keoke
 
Its possible your tires could just have a little more air than needed to get a smooth ride. Something to test the road with before throwing more money at it.
 
When I changed my last sety of tires on my "civilian" car, from one brand to another there was a significant change in smoothness. The older the tire, the harder they ride.
Maybe swap out tires with the other car first?? I have Jule springs on my car but haven't finished the car enough to drive it on the road. Jule can build springs for a BJ8 so that they sit "level" instead of the "jacked up" strange look that they originally came with.
Patrick
 
Roger,
Several years ago I changed my ph1 BJ8 rear springs to new Moss springs, hoping for a little more rear end height. The new springs actually lowered the car even more. There was not "set" between the leaves. They were returned for a full refund. Then I had my old springs rearched, which raised the rear end to the proper height. Over the years, however, the springs have sagged a little. The rearching probably is good for a limited time. I, too, am looking for new (good) rear springs. If you find them, let me know.
skip
 
Last year I replace the leaf springs using Moss products.They were fine. When both new and old were off the car I checked the arch and height. They appeared the same. I replace the rear hydraulics and pan-hard rod bushings as well. The new rear combo gave a more stable ride and better cornering but not smoother or softer. New tires are in order but I wanted to finish the season first since I will be sending them to Hendricks. I'll have enough down time when the snow flies. The point is, as Patrick says, don't forget the tires.
TH
 
I recently replaced my (BJ8) springs... bought them from Moss, and they obviously came from AH Spares (AH part number marked on them). Upon installation, the car sat ridiculously high. Not "BJ8 high"... I mean more than that. I ended up taking out a leaf, and this got the car sitting at a decent height, but at a cost. The cost was that there was far less resistance to travel, which meant more rear movement going over bumps and things. So they still held the car up, but I could easily smack the rubber stops on a big dip while going down the road... which isn't exactly a pleasant feeling.

So I took them back off, and took them apart again. This time, I measured the approximate arch of the springs in their installed state (with the car's weight on them). Then, I took the leaf that I previously removed, and using a heating torch, I de-arched it until it was right at the arch it would be when assembled. This ended up being a huge amount of de-arching... like over 3 inches off the arch. With that done, I put the leaf assembly back together... which was a bit difficult, since one leaf was much less curved than the others... but I got them back together, and the result was really nice. The car sits at the height I want, and the resistance/stiffness is such that the rear stays up well and never bottoms out.

What a pain though. There must be a lot of manufacturing variances on these things out of the box.

~Robert
 
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