Mark,
I put Dale's springs in my Mk 1a after finding the stock rear main leaves
were snapped in half (still pondering that one -- good thing the car wore
Traction Masters and the axle stayed put. Anybody need some of the shorter
leaves? I only snapped the #2 and #3 leaves on the right side; the rest are
intact). Dale said the front and rear were matched for ride height, but I'm
not sure exactly what he meant -- my car does not have the same height as
before. The rear is definitely 1-1/2 to 2" lower than before, with 3.1"
ground clearance under the mufflers now. I'm wondering if longer custom
rear spring hangers would have flex problems. The springs have a slight
reverse arch in them once they're loaded. The car has 185/14's on the
front and 195/14's on the rear, so this bumped the rear up a little with the
stock rear springs, but it looked good to the eye. I put in Dale's 450# per
inch front coils while I was at it (with no rubber spacers) and the front
sits maybe a mite higher than it did with the 335#/in. springs that were in
the car when I bought it. Ride quality hasn't changed. Handling is still
under development since I haven't fine tuned the Spax shocks I put in and
haven't tried disconnecting the 1" hollow sway bar. I'm told full hard on
the front shocks and 1/2 hard on the rears will do for autocrossing, but
mine will be for street use. I still have the shocks set up fairly soft,
but already the stability during turns has improved.
BTW, Dale recommends shimming the sides of the spring eyes to preclude any
shifting around, and use locking nuts on the spring bolts, allowing them to
rotate as the spring moves around, rather than clamping them down tight.
The front rubber bushing is only 1/8" or so thick. The spring has a
normal-looking main leaf and the second leaf extends farther forward than
normal, all the way to the front eye, and wraps around the inside of the
main leaf's eye, around the bushing. Because of this, Dale recommends no
Traction Masters, saying the design of the spring acts as a traction bar; he
also recommends that while you're in there, remove the Panhard rod. Jesse
Rolin, one of our local Tiger Vintage road racers, uses Dale's rear springs
w/o TM's and Panhard rod (600#/in coils in front) and doesn't miss them,
even at the high speeds of Texas World Speedway.
Duncan
B9473116
Manor, Texas
>Thanks for your help this far in putting the jigsaw puzzle back together.
I'm working on the rear suspension and just pulled the leaf springs. >The
guy at the shop said I needed new eccentric bushings for the front spring
eyes. I called Rick at SS and he said they were in the process >of having
some made but it would be a few weeks away.
>I called Dale A about the rear springs that he makes. I checked the Tigers
United rear suspension section and found some comments about >his good work.
>I'm thinking about going to the Koni shocks with Dale's springs. Anyone
have that set-up and want to comment? Worth the money? Not >planning on
autocrossing or racing.
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