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Rear Coil Springs

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Tinster

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The rear end of my 69TR bottoms out easily including most small speed bumps, regardless of speed it seems.

I have replaced the shocks, trailing arm bushings and diff mounts. Still bottomed out fairly easily and tail end still "crunches" when I push down on it.

Before the TR died on me, I had ordered new coil springs all around because by elimination, there was nothing else left that could give out under bumps vectors.

There is a difference of .75" between LR and RR at body and ground measured on flat surface on center line axels. 1.125" between front and rear- rear is lower.

The new coils arrived this week and using Bentley I now have the rear left suspension dismantled with the shock and axle waving in the breeze- the old coil out.

I noticed the four coils are of different heights. Two tall coils and two slightly shorter coils. The 8 plastic mounting rings are of two thicknesses also.

So please help me once again??

Which coils go in the rear and which mounting rings go with them? Or are the plastic mounting rings put on with one thin one and one fat one?? If so, top or bottom matter much?

BTW. The left rear coil spring on my TR had no mounting plastic on top- once I had it apart. Coil directly to frame steel. Maybe THAT was the nagging "crunch" sound I could not locate or get rid of??

tinster /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/patriot.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/patriot.gif
 
Are the springs you got by any chance the "uprated" spring package from TRF? I got the same set, and noticed a ~1" difference between the pairs of coils. TRF assured me that this was how it was meant to be.

From what I remember, the shorter pair goes on the front. A caveat - this is from memory, and I could be completely wrong. I'm not sure about the spring packings; my new urethane ones were of the same thickness.

As for the rear-end slope (down to the left?). I have this also. From what I've read, it can be corrected by playing with the trailing arm shim setup. I have new trailing arm bushings with the Goodparts adjustable mounts that I'm waiting to put in; this should (hopefully) be a relatively painless fix to this problem and negate any shim chicanery.

How's the rewiring going? I'm waiting for my powerblock to arrive.

Cheers,
Mark
 
Hey Tinster,
There is a pretty good possibility that your lever shocks are worn out. These can be rebuilt by TRF or perhaps other vendors. I shucked mine and went with tube shock conversion. The bottoming out problem went away. I also went with the competition springs, which lowered my rear end about 1". The new lower stance of the car was what I wanted. I had the car 4-wheel-aligned by an old hand at aligning and everything tracks well. You need to put the plastic spacers on bottom and top of the coils, doesn't matter which. If you don't, the creaking will drive you batty as well as wear on the mounts.


Bill
 
Yes, the coil springs were from TRF spring edition.
I will install the taller pair in the rear.

I quess I'll split the difference on the plastic discs and put one fat one on the bottom and one thin one on top.

The shocks appear to be quite new and functional. The mechanic who installed the diff mounts and fixed the broken right front diff mount declared the shocks in good working order.

Installing the new wiring harness takes a great deal of auto electrical winging knowledge. I have none I'm afraid. After five rather dismal weeks of effort I have successfully rewired only the driver's side front turn signal. I spent a month, 60 to 70 hours, on the rear end lights and my effort was a total failure that I ripped out. I am going away from the wiring for a while. Eventually I will figure it out and get it installed.

Nut and bolts I am able to work with and understand.
 
Actually, Tinster, installing a brand new wiring harness takes essentially no knowledge of electricity. I am a perfect example of that; I don't trust anything that I cannot see, hence I follow a good wiring diagram. Do you have a good diagram? The harness from British Wiring (the same one all the vendors sell) is usually spot on. (Although I have caught them in a few errors, emabarassed them) Wiring is fun, just follow the diagram. Like a big puzzle.


Bill
 
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