Rear leaf spring

[Paul Amey]

Right, so last night I was in the pub with some friends and the old chap said that in the seventies his mate bought a Vitesse and inverted the rear leaf spring . This was done apparently to prevent the rear wheels from going in to negative camber. Has anyone heard of this before and is it a good idea?

[johny]

Never heard of that one but think back in the day springs were heated and flattened out to reduce wheel camber. It was dodgy because you couldnt guarantee the temper was right in the spring afterwards...

[Clive]

9 hours ago, Paul Amey said:

Right, so last night I was in the pub with some friends and the old chap said that in the seventies his mate bought a Vitesse and inverted the rear leaf spring . This was done apparently to prevent the rear wheels from going in to negative camber. Has anyone heard of this before and is it a good idea?

Yep, I think there was a magazine article at that time. But it is something like the 3rd or 4th leaf down, it flattens the spring a bit.

Better option is a courier spring (stronger and much flatter). Or as Johny says, get the spring reset by a proper spring company (they often refuse new springs as the steel is not the correct grade, but OE ones they should have no issues with)

The simple answer of course is to just use a lowering block....

[PeteH]

There was an even more simple answer, often used back in the day?. Icwt of bagged sand in the boot. Worked in SWMBO`s Vittesse, on the daily, "traffic light grand prix/commute" to work.😁

She was noted for her "lead foot" back then. Even surprised the odd "young buck", when the "Old Girl" beat him off the line, and was into the car park before him😉

1 Cwt?. For those brought up in Metric think 50Kg.

Pete

[johny]

It hurts to think though that youre accelerating and decelerating that unnecessary weight though☹️ If youre going to do it best to carry a load of spares and tools as at least they offer some justification....

[rlubikey]

16 hours ago, Paul Amey said:

Right, so last night I was in the pub with some friends and the old chap said that in the seventies his mate bought a Vitesse and inverted the rear leaf spring . This was done apparently to prevent the rear wheels from going in to negative camber. Has anyone heard of this before and is it a good idea?

To lower your car with leaf spring suspension, people used to simply remove one (or more) leaves. Trouble is, this also lowers the spring rate - i.e. makes them softer. The smarter idea was to invert one or more of the leaves as this lowers while maintaining the original spring rate. However, I don't know if we can do that - isn't there a dimple on the other side of where the rubber button is?

But, as Clive says, a Courier spring (if you can find one) or a lowering block.

Cheers, Richard

[PeteH]

7 hours ago, Mathew said:

Still remember buying cement 1cwt 50kg bags. 8 in the back of my dads capri for a job. Drove like a boat looking skyward!

It would, Just short of 1/2 ton, Did the springs survive?😁 I broke the back of a Home made Trailer doing similar things during a House build, and had to reconstuct it!.

Pete

[Clive]

That reminds me of this

 

[cliff.b]

On 10/11/2022 at 21:49, Paul Amey said:

Right, so last night I was in the pub with some friends and the old chap said that in the seventies his mate bought a Vitesse and inverted the rear leaf spring . This was done apparently to prevent the rear wheels from going in to negative camber. Has anyone heard of this before and is it a good idea?

Going back 40+ years ago I heard many times that the "fix" for the rear suspension was to reverse one leaf, but none of these "experts" could explain exactly what was involved. 

I had a MkIV back then so no need but I also had people telling me that was what Triumph had done to improve matters. Knowing nothing about swing springs back then it sounded plausible at the time 🙄

[Paul Amey]

On 11/11/2022 at 14:13, rlubikey said:

To lower your car with leaf spring suspension, people used to simply remove one (or more) leaves. Trouble is, this also lowers the spring rate - i.e. makes them softer. The smarter idea was to invert one or more of the leaves as this lowers while maintaining the original spring rate. However, I don't know if we can do that - isn't there a dimple on the other side of where the rubber button is?

But, as Clive says, a Courier spring (if you can find one) or a lowering block.

Cheers, Richard

Thanks for that.

[Paul Amey]

On 11/11/2022 at 07:01, clive said:

Yep, I think there was a magazine article at that time. But it is something like the 3rd or 4th leaf down, it flattens the spring a bit.

Better option is a courier spring (stronger and much flatter). Or as Johny says, get the spring reset by a proper spring company (they often refuse new springs as the steel is not the correct grade, but OE ones they should have no issues with)

The simple answer of course is to just use a lowering block....

Thanks. I'll have a look at this over winter.