Ian, funny you should mention front end ride height. I have been looking
into it these past few days. I have brought this up before too. My very
late SV always sat very high - like no engine. I can easily fit my fist in
there. In fact, I've measured from the top of the tire (with a 2x4 on it
to extend out the top) to the bottom of the lip is currently 4.5" (with low
profile tires)! But, I have realized that there are lots of Alpines like
this. Take a look, for example, at the SV in the R&T article on page 132
of the Gold Porfolio. The picture in the Gold Portfolio is in some
shadows. I don't have the original. But, you can make out a pretty high
gap. When I asked about this last, I remember though that a couple of
people went and measured their gaps and came back with 3.5".
At the last car show I went to there were around 10 or 12 Alpines. I could
easily fit my fist plus more in most of those - especially the SV's.
I've been busy looking at all the pictures of Alpines in all my various
Sunbeam books, especially period shots, as opposed to more recent shots of
cars that probably have sagging springs anyway and are not a good example
(or course ALL of our cars are probably sagging by now). I have even been
measuring the gap in the pictures. What I have been doing is measuring the
distance between the center of the front wheel to the bottom of the
wheelwell lip straight above, and measuring the wheel from edge to edge
along the same line. Then I have been coming up with a ratio of the wheel
to the distance from the center to the lip. I know this is very
unscientific. But, I do believe it shows that many of the later Alpines
sit up much higher than I had realized. (I know there is distortion in the
pictures too, but figure the ratio should still stay the same)
I think it's odd that your S3 has the same problem. Most of the S3
pictures show a pretty "normal" gap.
Another thing that might be involved is the tire height. My ratio
calculations mentioned above eliminates the tire issue - since regardless
of how high profile the tire is, the distance between the center of the
wheel and the wheelwell lip will stay the same. I am running Michelin
XZX's. I don't have the size here at work. But, I believe they are low
profile, which would increase the gap size by a little.
Also, in some of the pictures where the gap in front is small, I noticed
the gap in the rear is smaller too.
Finally, although I know Ian knows this, when you install new springs, you
have to loosen the nuts that hold the A arms to the rods (I forget the
technical name of those rods - you know, the ones that break on the Tigers
- pins, some sort of pins). Once it settles back down, you can tighten
them back up.
As to the rubber isolator, there are three available. There is the stock
one that is being remade. There is the CAT one which is much thicker
(because it was designed to go with a certain spring). And there is the
Ford Capril one which is thinner than the stock one. Of course, you can
eliminate it all together - which will give more vibration and road noise
up through the car.
I presume this constant changing of height may have been intentional. I
don't know if there was some wheel rubbing problems, or other steering
problems they thought they were fixing. Or, if it was thought that it
de-emphasized the fins.
I was going to put the set of S3 springs I have in there until you now said
your S3 is sitting up too high. I think I'll still pull them from the car
and put them side by side to see how they appear (assuming the spring rate
is the same).
By the way, what do you use to remove and replace the springs. I have used
a floor jack in the past. But, I don't like the feeling when it finally
gives and pops. It's never shot out or seemed to risk harm to me or
anything. However, that pop still makes me nervous. The standard spring
compressors I've found don't really grab enough spring because of how much
of the spring is covered on top.
Jay
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