[Spits] Rear Spring reply

[Jim Muller]

On 10 Nov 2009 at 21:25, Mark J Bradakis wrote:

> If you tighten the bolts when the car is on the ground at rest, there is
> no twisting stress on the rubber while the car sits there.  You're not
> making them stand on their head 24/7, so to speak

This makes sense and I defer to mjb's and Joe's greater experience, 
but it is also true that the deflection isn't much in any case.  
Perhaps I shall go look at mine.  Can't say I've ever had an issue 
with them.  I'm trying to remember - seems to me they are much 
eassier to put together when the hub is jacked up anyway, which may 
be why I've never thought about it.

Let me add that I certainly did not mean to imply that Joe was being 
flippant about suspension or safety concerns.  Rather, I was thinking 
two things:  1. Tuning a car for optimum autocross or race 
performance is a more demanding task than just tuning it for the 
street, and Joe would surely know about performance tuning.  2. The 
effect of loaded bushings on safety (provided they don't break, of 
course) would be far less than the effect of having camber that is 
too positive, and the camber is influenced far more by the spring 
than by loaded bushings.  If (or I should say when) I drive my 
Spitfire spiritedly I'd rather have the camber be slightly negative 
regardless of what it looks like.

I'll go back to sleep now.

-- 
Jim Muller
jimmuller at rcn.com
'80 Spitfire, '70 GT6+