I know, you are all expecting another seemingly endless stream of blathering
continuing my response to Joe C.s question of how to lower a Spitfire. Of
course, the short answer is what Bob B. has already mentioned a couple of
times, get some new springs. Wait until you hear my recommendations at the
end of this!
All I'll do at the moment is provide some numbers taken from the Killer Spit
and the red race car last night. Turn you attention, if you please, to the
painstakingly crafted, true to scale and amazingly accurate representation of
a small chassis Triumph fron suspension:
\\
B / \\ Top of shock/bottom face of tower
/ \\
\ / / \
\/ /
A \ /
\ / \/
/ | Frame
O------------O|
^|_____
C ^
| D
v v
====================== Floor
Dimension Killer red car (all in inches, +/- 1/8" )
A 3 3/4 3 1/2
B 7 1/2 7
C 6 5/8 5 3/4
D 4 3
So for the production racer, the total distance from the lower shock pivot
to where the coilover unit seats against the tower is 10.5 inches. On Killer,
this distance is 11.25 inches. The difference in ride height of the frame is
due not only to the longer spring length on Killer, but also the fact that
Killer sits on tires with about a 3/8" taller radius.
Maybe next time I'll take the camera down and try to get some pictures of the
top shock perches I made for Killer. Basically the little steel plate with
the three banged up, bent and nearly stripped studs has been replace by a
half inch thick aluminum disk, fitted with 1/4 socket head screws for mounting
and a seat machined into it for locating a threaded perch. At the moment, the
perches are not installed, I'm planning to get some new springs made up with
about a 15% higher rate and an inch or so less free length, as I need some
more adjustment room for tweaking corner weights. RealSoonNow.
So the bottom line, Joe, is spend a hundred bucks or so for some decent
short springs.
mjb.
|