SHOCK CONVERSION KIT - AH 3000

[CASCADEWILLY]

WHO HAS PICTURES OF A CONVERSION KIT FOR A AH-3000. I WANT TO SEE WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE. I AM A CERTIFIED WELDER AND I AM GOING TO CONVERT MINE. ARMSTRONG ARE TO EXPENSIVE TO REBUILD COMPARED TO THE PERFORMANCE YOU GET.

WILLY

 

[Keoke]

Take a look at this Willy.putzkes-fahrspass.com---Keoke

 

[BUNDYRUM]

Hello CASCADEWILLY, to do this job yourself can be very involved but on the other hand it is very rewarding. I used the Moss Motors setup at the rear except i didn't like the lower end of the shock mounted in single shear so i made my own using the spring plate as a start. I made the top mount also as the kit i had was for a 4 seater and they don't fit the 2 seater. When the kit is free you don't complain.The Moss kit angles the top of the shock backwards whereas i wanted them vertical. Actually when i think of it i used the shocks and that was all as everything else was made up to suit the car. I haven't done the front yet but have other plans that will require more extensive surgery and i don't have the facilities as yet to do it. The shocks are Konis' and they made such a difference but there again they should have because the original ones were just about useless. I had to reroute the exhaust but i was replacing the tailpipes at the same time so it didn't make much difference, well not to me it didn't. I've seen a setup for an MGB (similar front suspension) where they remove the spring and cut out the part that the top of the original spring is located by, weld in a plate and a bracket to mount a shock and have a coil over in there mounted at the bottom by a bracket off the lower wishbones. The original shock was discarded and an alloy bracket was fitted that had two arms pivoted from it to attach to the top of the kingpin as the old shock did. The trouble with a lot of tube shocks for the front of a Healey is that people leave the valve in the original shock (if they use the Moss style kit) and you end up with the front having too much shock and you cannot adjust it to have less. Regards, BUNDYRUM.

 

[Lin]

Willy,
As Keoke says, if you are going to do this then putzkes-fahrspass.com is the way to go. I have his front and rear shock conversion on my car. On the rear set-up you might want to drill out the mounting bracket and put in a longer bolt with a locking nut, but that isn't necessary. Udo is great to work with.
Lin Rose
1960 BT7 in restoration
1959 Bugeye

 

[Michael Oritt]

[ QUOTE ]
On the rear set-up you might want to drill out the mounting bracket and put in a longer bolt with a locking nut, but that isn't necessary.

[/ QUOTE ]

Lin and all--

On my car the link to the DW rear anti-sway bar is picked up by the same bolt going into the bracket and, perhaps due to some minor misalignment, the link's up-and-down action was backing the bolt out of the right rear shock bracket. I drilled out and oversized by a couple of .0001" the blind hole in the bracket to accomodate the shoulder of a hardened through-bolt and lock-nutted it on the outboard end. No more problems and I have since modified the left bracket in the same manner.

 

[Randy Forbes]

[ QUOTE ]
WHO HAS PICTURES OF A CONVERSION KIT FOR A AH-3000. I WANT TO SEE WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE. I AM A CERTIFIED WELDER AND I AM GOING TO CONVERT MINE. ARMSTRONG ARE TO EXPENSIVE TO REBUILD COMPARED TO THE PERFORMANCE YOU GET.

WILLY

[/ QUOTE ]
First off, WHY do you always type in ALL CAPITOLS? That is the online equivalent of YELLING at someone. Besides that, it is more difficult to read.

As for the shocks, here a few pictures I turned up of my front mounts. I made these about twenty (20) years ago.

And here's my "Monte Carlo" bar (ties both shock towers together to minimize "spread" during high cornering loads).

But don't stop there, add some negative camber to your front wheels:

 

[JamesWilson]

There are commercially available kits available for this conversion:

Putzkes's has already been mentioned, and seems to be one of the more widely used ones, He's pretty helpful and was willing to send me pictures of the installation. His site is:
https://www.putzkes-fahrspass.com/


Another commericial kits is provided by Cape International, who take a somewhat different approach at the rear, Pictures of theirs can be seen at:
https://www.pbase.com/stevegerow/healey_rear_suspension


Finally you might do it yourself, and a set of rough diagrams may be seen at the Nasty Boys (Healey with American V8s) site:

Front:
https://www.ntahc.org/modifiedhealeys/Technical/KoniClone1.jpg

Rear:
https://www.ntahc.org/modifiedhealeys/Technical/RearTower1.JPG

I've opted for Putzke's but haven't yet reached the point of installing it all yet....

 

[Cottontop]

I have gas charged shocks on the front & rear of my V8 powered 100-6. I designed and fabricated all of the brackets.

Pictures of my installation can be found at - https://ntahc.org/modifiedhealeys/Photos/1Moran/FullStoryAll1.html

The Modified Austin Healey Registry has dimensioned sketches for Koni-clone front mounts and tower mounts for
rear shocks on their web site at - https://ntahc.org/modifiedhealeys/Technical/Technical1.htm

I have a pictures of a couple of other types if you are interested.

Tim

 

[Richard Dickinson]

Randy-I was about to send my shocks off to have them rebuilt, after reading this thread I'm considering converting to tube shocks. The Putzkes system looks good but is kind of pricey. I think for the 300 bucks I would spend on rebuilding, I could fabricate a conversion. I liked your design for the front mounts. How did you mount the rears. I have diagrams of two approaches to the rear, one which is a tower system attaching to the frame and the other attaches the the sheet metal tub. I think the one tha attaches to the sheet metal might be subuect to fatigue failure. The other one just doesn't look right. What kind of shocks should be used?

 

[GregW]

Does anyone know if Koni makes a kit as the KoniClone page implies? They don’t list one on their website, or anything about Healey’s for that matter. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cryin.gif

 

[Randy Forbes]

[ QUOTE ]
Randy-I was about to send my shocks off to have them rebuilt, after reading this thread I'm considering converting to tube shocks. The Putzkes system looks good but is kind of pricey. I think for the 300 bucks I would spend on rebuilding, I could fabricate a conversion. I liked your design for the front mounts. How did you mount the rears. I have diagrams of two approaches to the rear, one which is a tower system attaching to the frame and the other attaches the the sheet metal tub. I think the one tha attaches to the sheet metal might be subuect to fatigue failure. The other one just doesn't look right. What kind of shocks should be used?

[/ QUOTE ]
For the rear, I fabricated a lower mount bolted to the spring perch and an upper mount that attaches on the underside of the rollcage's intersection of the main hoop rear support and extension into the trunk area. That would be the right-most joint shown in this picture (the shock brkt isn't depicted, for some reason).

 

[Richard Dickinson]

Randy-Nice photo of your roll cage, thats not going to work for me though. Did you fabricate the pins for the shocks?
Anyone have suggestions for brand and model numbers for shocks.