Front spring inner diameter?

[davidcmaggs217]

Hi

I am in the middle of putting my front suspension back together with a rental spring compressor that needs to go back on Monday!
The new springs do not seem to fit in the top of the turret.
The old springs have an inner diameter of 4 3/8" and the new ones are 4 1/4".
I also noticed that at in the turret there is a strip of metal welded in place, that does not seem to be there in the cross section from the workshop manual - see the attached picture. Is that supposed to be there?

Maybe someone has added this in the past to ensure a good fit of non-standard springs?
I have two choices, grind the strip off and fit the new springs, or just keep the old springs for now?

Any ideas? The car is a 1967 LHD MK2 3.4 Auto.
regards
David

Extra strip?

[Martec]

I suspect you are fitting the uprated springs, which are thicker wire section.............I hope you like them!!

No they will not fit into the turret, when I fitted mine I chiselled this strip out and made spacers of 1/2" steel with a smaller inner diameter and welded a strip of steel into this to locate these new springs and any other spacers I needed to get the height right.

I gave mine back to Ken in exchange for a better (less hard) set to suit my back, each to there own.

Brian

[davidcmaggs217]

Brian

These were supposed to be standard springs from SNG. It is a 3.4 Auto, with the standard leaky old BW gearbox, so more suited to cruising than thrashing around!
The old springs had a yellow marking, and I assumed they were original. The new springs also have a yellow mark.
I am a little worried about removing the strip as I think it might make the fit very loose.
I think I am just going to put the old ones back in - the ride height looked OK, I just thought that with everything apart it would be worth changing the old springs ....

Thanks
David

[Martec]

I've written about the springs on this forum many times and my comments have been poo-hooed.

Using the original workshop manual you can find the correct WIRE size of the front springs, as the strength of the spring is the wire dia to the power of 4 this is the deciding factor.

Often a batch of several hundred springs are made overseas that look the same and are sold by parts suppliers as original spec!!!

I recently found out from a small UK spring maker that the reason his rear springs were so expensive was that the original spec was for 2 1/4" wide leaves, so he has to have 2 1/2" steel machined down to size. Most cheap rear springs are 2 1/2" wide and kick the back end up too high.

The devil is in the detail, if you look on line there will be formulae to calculate frequency of oscillation and from that spring rates.................I have it in an old book.

Get the spring rates wrong and your back and neck will let you know.

Best of luck
Brian