Bruce:
I think you answered your own question. The GT springs are unlikely
to settle enough for you to be happy. The rear is too "light" due to
oversteering brought on by the stiffer and higher rear suspension. GT
springs on the front are a nice way to both lower the car and stiffen it,
but not on the rear. I would suggest regular rear springs and do recommend
the poly rear shackle bushs and spring mounts. They can be a pain to
install but seem to cut down rear wheel steering.
Rear coil setup?? Perhaps you mean rear tube shock setup.
Correctly valved rear tube shocks can make a tremendous difference in
transient handling over rough roads. My test area was the section of I70
going into the Colorado mountains. On the back side of Floyd hill is a
sharp right turn over a bridge. In the middle of the turn is an expansion
joint. Before modifications my 70B would change lanes when hitting the bump
at 70 mph. After installing Bilstein rear tube shocks (with soft damping)
the car hunkered down and went round the corner.
A big mistake is to install too stiff of a tube shock. Modern
suspension designs rely on lighter, but more reactive damping. Converting
to a correctly valved tube shock allows the full use of the suspension
travel under heavy loading, but also a more supple ride under light loads.
Try changing out the rear springs and leave the rest alone. For
street use I think you will have the best balance of handling and ride. If
the car still leans too much for you, check out either the "evolution" or
"Ron Hopkins" sway bar kits. With the HD valves in the front you will have
enough damping to deal with sideways resonance. Also play with tire
pressures. Lower rear tire pressure will cut down some of the "lightness"
in the rear end.
Kelvin.
have fun.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: BDurgin1@aol.com [mailto:BDurgin1@aol.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 1998 4:26 PM
> To: doddk@mossmotors.com; mgs@autox.team.net
> Subject: Re: Suspension lowering
>
>
> Kelvin,
>
> Last year I made the following mods to the 64 B:
> 1. 3/4" antisway bar
> 2. V8 bushings front
> 3. New coils; Apple rebuilt HD levers in front
> 4.B GT 7 leaf rear springs (on advice from BritTek!)
> 5. Braided hydraulics (pretty!)
> 6. Stock Rear Levers; changed out all rear bushings , but,
> used stock bushings
> in rear
> 7. Fat tires (can't remember the size, maybe 195's?)
>
> I'm disappointerd because the car looks like a TR7 and does not handle
> well...the rear is much too high! Last winter I loosened up
> all the bushings
> and loaded 150# of sandbags in the trunk...the car sagged
> about an inch after
> 2 months...still too high.
>
> Based on this, should I just go back to the 6 leaf setup?
> Also, I really
> don't want to go to the coil setup in the rear but will if I
> can't get the car
> to handle better. I'm slowly making mods (bolt on only) that
> makes this car
> leaner all the time. I've also thought about composite leafs.
>
> Interested in what people have to say on this!
>
> Bruce Durgin
> B
>
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