[TR] Rear Springs; Ride Height TR4

[Jeffrey Barteet]

Jim,

My '62 TR4 with the original springs sat pretty high in back too. 
Reminded me of a postal jeep. I think the problem is that the car was 
fitted with springs to carry 2x 175 lb. passengers and 75-100 lbs. in 
the trunk and a full tank of fuel for a road trip, and the springs were 
built to that spec. I suspect if you added all that weight, it would 
look just about right.

Since I usually ride alone sans baggage, I decided to lower the rear of 
my TR. I fabricated a pair of lowering blocks from 1"x 2"  aluminum 
stock cut to about 4" in length. In the center of each block I drilled a 
5/8" hole and inserted a stubby 5/8" pin about 1" long that stands proud 
of the block 1/2" or so. The pin goes into a hole on axle and locates 
the block there, while the space under the pin is occupied by a bolt 
head in the center of the springs. I got 4 new, slightly longer u-bolts 
from an outfit on the web that sold trailer and RV parts.

When it's all put together, the car looks just right IMO, and it still 
carries two people without issues. Once or twice with two people and 
some gear in the trunk I've gone through a dip in an intersection and 
felt the axle bottom out, but that may have been aggravated by goosing 
it through the intersection while hitting the dip.

Moss makes a very similar kit for the rubber bumper MGBs. If you wanted 
to ferret around the Moss site, you could probably come up with a picture.

Anyway, hope that helps. It's one of the few projects I've done on the 
car that I didn't have to revisit at least once to get right.

-jeffrey