• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Spitfire Spitfire rear suspension problem

Share this page

frankenstang57

frankenstang57

Jedi Warrior
Offline
100_5454.jpg


I picked up this little gem last summer. It was a partial trade in an eBay deal. Poor thing was sitting in a field with about 50 other cars when a tornado went through. It faired better than most but has been sitting with a destroyed top for a few years. In a Captain Ahab-esque moment (since my other 2 Spits are collecting dust) I took it for a drive yesterday. It's probably the first time it's been on the road since '89 or so...

Anyhow, the driver's side rear suspension appears to be collapsed. I've jacked it up a don't see anything out of the norm. I'm assuming the spring is shot. You guys have any suggestions?
 
I would almost be 100% it is spring and shock.
 
I'm pretty certain it's the spring. I swapped it out for another. Sitting side by side on the floor I could see the one I removed looked seriously beat-down. Pretty quick and easy task when someone was kind enough to re-install bolts instead of those @#$%^%$# studs! :thumbsup: I'll have it on the ground in just a few.
 
New used spring, marginally better. Any suggestions of anything else? I'll try to get some pictures up, anything in specific?

Just had a thought, could this be an alignment issue?
 
went through the same problem on my 72 spit and just put a new spring and KYB gas dampers on the car ; now it sits perfect in my driveway under snow i hate snow.
 
Well if you are going to tear the rear suspension apart you might as well do the u-joints on the half shafts. If the spring and shocks were gone the u-joints are probably shot too.
 
JKB1957 said:
Well if you are going to tear the rear suspension apart you might as well do the u-joints on the half shafts. If the spring and shocks were gone the u-joints are probably shot too.
Click to expand...

+1
 
JKB1957 said:
Well if you are going to tear the rear suspension apart you might as well do the u-joints on the half shafts. If the spring and shocks were gone the u-joints are probably shot too.
Click to expand...

I thought that way once...

https://www.britishcarforum.com/bcforum/ubbthreads.php/topics/213532/1

I'll fix it as I go. I want to drive this one, cheap, easy and most importantly, now. :banana:

I took a better look at the first spring, check out how worn out this thing is:

100_5473.jpg


The rusty(clean) mark is actually worn in about 1/16". The other spring wasn't much better. I replace 6 of the 8 buttons with carriage bolts, with the rounded head facing down. 4 of them replace the rivets holding the alignment brackets and 2 I cut the threaded parts off. I know it's pretty half-@$$ed but the bolts are pretty soft and cheap. I just wanted to see what it would get me:

100_5511.jpg


It's a marked improvement if I do say so myself. (note the exhaust is no longer hanging down)
grin.gif
It still has a lean to the drivers corner though. Time for a new spring and trip to my alignment guy. On a good note, the car does have all new shocks!
 
Just remember, it could be worse !

DSCF0007_reduced.jpg


Just a thought, something I was talking to my father about the other day : "Back When", they used to put rollers between the leaves to reduce the friction to an absolute minimum. Rollers can be from an old needle bearing or U-joint. Cut an old inner tube to go around the rollers, hold them in place.
 
The other thing we use in old Fords is to jack it up, spread the leaves one at a time with a screwdriver, and use spray gears between each leaf.
Some of the early Fords had metal telescoping covers on the springs with a grease zerk.
 
Randall, do I remember correctly from a previous thread that you once used some of the plastic strips made to separate the leaves in a spring?
 
dklawson said:
Randall, do I remember correctly from a previous thread that you once used some of the plastic strips made to separate the leaves in a spring?
Click to expand...
Well, I have strips of UHMW between my spring leaves, although they were not made specifically for this purpose. And it didn't change the ride height much, so probably not the best solution on a Spitfire spring (the TR3 springs did not have buttons originally).

Sorry, no photos of the process, but here's one of the result:

TR3springwithUHMW.jpg
 
jeezzz...nice table cloth leafs resting on...my wife would shoot me! did make for a nice photo shoot background!
 
Back
Top