One possible way to achieve this might be to replace one of the spring
leafs (leaves?) with a longer one from a spare spring. Presuming that
all the leafs are the same thickness and posess the same curvature
around the pivot point (something I'm not sure of btw), by replacing
a short leaf with a longer one, a higher spring rate would be achieved.
It would not be a perfect linear solution, but if say one of the
extremly short leafs were replaced with a medium length one, then
the soft initial flexing of the very long leafs would not be affected,
but the action of this additional medium leaf would increase spring
rate once it started to flex.
No warranty expressed or implied with this thought. Though it is a
thought I've considered for my Spitfire.
***********************************
>someone said:
>The shop always creates new clamps. As for the added stiffness, if the
>added leaf is one of the smaller ones either the #2 or #3 then this leaf
>doesn't get a load until the upper load range. This is my understanding, am
>I wrong? Please enlighten me.
***************************************
David,
Yes and no. . . the swing spring is a rather unique spring - the smaller
springs are always loaded to some extent, the amount as you mentioned is
proportional to the load that is applied. In other words as more load is
applied then these smaller springs begin to take more of it. But there is
a LOT more to this spring than meets the eye.
The particular clamp (housing) for this spring is specific to this
spring, and is uniquely designed. It is not merely a clamp but a pivot
housing carefully designed so that all the elements of the spring can
operate as intended. The only CORRECT way to ensure that it is functioning
as intended is to add to the bottom of the "shrouds" of the clamp housing
the exact thickness of any springs plus pivot hump you add. Also (all of)
the added springs MUST have the proper curvature center hump to allow for
pivoting. If you look at each (more properly termed housed, not the
clamped main) spring leaf you'll notice that the hump is different on each
successive leaf, and each are designed to "mate" or conform to the spring
adjacent to it. Simply inserting another leaf from an existing spring
would not allow this conformity. You can see where this is going. . .it's
not as easy as it sounds. There is really no way to simply add a leaf to
this arraignment, without making a COMPLETE set of pivoting leafs, with the
pivot humps to match and the housing clamp to allow for proper pivoting -
It could be done, but I should think it would be very expensive -
And as I mentioned, just clamping a new bottom leaf to the diff, while much
simpler, would practically negate the swing function of the spring
degrading it's tendency to control tuck under by ADDING roll stiffness as
well as overall spring stiffness.
Barr
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