Jerry,
FWIW here are my comments & opinions.
I did the following:
Cape tube shock kit on rear.
New stock rear springs with teflon tape interleaving.
Cape uprated panhard rod kit with rose joint on one end.
Cape 3/4" sway bar on front with poly bushings & rose-jointed ends.
Lower A-Arm poly bushings from BritishPartsNorthwest.
King pin spindle & lower trunnion observed to be perfect, relube all.
Observe, clean & relube tie rod joints--observed to be perfect.
Bench-adjust steering for minimum play.
Replace & adjust front wheel bearings.
Upper Trunnions replaced with Cape adjustable bronze trunnion kit. Camber
set to most-inward at top (not much)
Homebuilt front shock kit using Spax adjustable shocks.
To come:
BJ8-style radius arms. Still need to install the front brackets and the arms
themselves.
All this makes a noticeable difference, but you can't really pin it on any
one thing.
I believe redoing the front end with tighter trunnion bushings, a bigger bar
and poly bushings is a really great way to go in terms of handling per buck.
Considered Putzke's shock setup but felt like building my own. Am looking
forward to comparing a Putzke kit to the Spax. It's possible they ride
better because he claims they have special valving setup just for the
Healey. Owners I've spoken to all say their cars were transformed.
If I had it to do over, would consider the following:
1) build my own rear shock setup--there are several ideas on the internet
that can be found by careful searching.
2) Would consider the front/rear sway bar setup sold by the Nocks.
3) Nocks also sell an offcenter hard nylon/graphite upper trunnion
bushing--this might be a pretty good way to go vs the Cape. Unfortunately,
the English stuff is terribly expensive right now with the exchange rate.
At one point I'd removed the Cape Trunnion kit and installed poly bushings
instead and you can definitely feel more precision in the steering with the
Cape kit. Personally I don't think the adjustable part is important compared
to the fact that it's bronze. The adjustment isn't much and would only be
good for tweaking as a result of accident damage.
--
Steve
> From: "Jerry Costanzo" <grumpyinloomis@ssctv.net>
>
> Steve,
>
> Did you notice a big difference in the suspension with the tube shocks? Did
> you also put them on the front?
>
> Planning on the front for sure on my BJ8, but I notice that the rear on my
> BN4 bottoms out a lot.
>
> Jerry
> BN4
> BJ8 still in pieces.
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