Reed,
It's a problem common to all later Spits with the pivot spring.
Unfortunately, the air shock will not compensate for a worn rear spring.
It will, however, help with the load carrying capacity of a good spring.
If some of you Spit drivers are like me, close to 200 lbs, I represent
about 1/10th of the total weight of the car as it goes down the road.
Without a passenger, toward which direction do you think the car will
eventually list?
For a test of the spring, I'll pop the hood, stand on with one foot and
bounce, on the right hand body ledge, just below the bonnet catch. If
the car's rear end comes back to a fairly level, side-to-side height,
with something less then a negative 4 degrees camber, chances are the
air shock conversion will help. Once the car gets to about 6-8 degrees
of negative camber, something needs to be done with the spring--re-arch
or replace.
I've had positive comments from many of you about the conversion. Thanks
for the feedback. One person complained of a much rougher ride. Perhaps
that was a case of a totally shot spring and the rear was riding on the
shock stops. I do know I've had the conversion on both of my Spits for
years now (seven on the Monroes, three on the Gabriels) with no
problems.
As the saying goes, results may vary.
Have fun,
Charlie B.
> Hello all,
> My spit (hybrid 68-74, powered by datsun 210 5spd) has the Driver Side
> List Disorder. For a while I thought my frame was bent, since I had swapped
> my spring for one a friend gave me, and it still leaned the same way. But
> now I'm pretty much conviced is the spring(s), since if I jack it up by
> the back crossmember and let it down, it rides high for a little while
> and slowly settles. It also has significant negative (thats with the bottoms
> of the wheels sticking out right ?) camber (more on the driver side).
> So what I'm wondering is do I have any choices for replacement
> springs ? Is re-arched OK, is it better to go with a new one ?
> Has any expirmented with using another kind of leaf spring (which a custom
> mounting bracket, of course)
> Is it difficult/worthwhile to transfer a later GT6 style rear
> suspension (assuming you found one) ? This car will eventually
> get a later model Nissan motor, and having a beefier rear sounds
> like a good idea.
>
> Thanks in advance, and happy spiting!
>
> Oh BTW, I checked out Charlie Browns (!) article about fitting
> 'vet shocks, (http://www.vtr.org/maintain/airshocks-spitfire.html) which
> sounds like a worthwhile mod, but I think my spring is so far gone
> replacement is in order.
>
> ,---/._,=-.
> <(o)-`--(o)'
> --
> Reed Mideke rmideke@interbase.com
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