Rear Coilover Springs

[CosworthCabrioLee]

Re: Rear Coilover Springs

Hi John I do like your hood, very nice it looks dark blue ?, next years job me thinks....................my hood is brand new but blue on a blue does look special

[cabrioman]

Re: Rear Coilover Springs

Hi Lee

Sad to say it looks better in the picture than it is, which is tired. Its due to be replaced as part of the current rebuild with a new black mohair job.

Was meaning to ask you what offset wheels you used and did you have to resort to spacers with the 17" rims. My existing 15" are et35 but was thinking of going for circa et25 to avoid using spacers.

John

[CosworthCabrioLee]

Re: Rear Coilover Springs

Hi John, my wheels are et 38 and you do not need spacers 35-38 you will be fine without, are you thinking about moving up in size ? my car uses granada hubs so 5 stud, but lots of choice, I went for wheels that are easy to keep clean and also something to show the 282mm front discs and 260mm rear discs been from the cosworth donar car, I also used Greenstuff pads all round.

[Mike]

Re: Rear Coilover Springs

Hi Lee

Was meaning to ask you what offset wheels you used and did you have to resort to spacers with the 17" rims. My existing 15" are et35 but was thinking of going for circa et25 to avoid using spacers.

John

Hi John
Tyre width will also have a significant effect on the need for spacers.
I have fitted 7" rims with 215 tyres. With ET38 offset I had to fit 10mm spacers at the rear. Lee may have had a different experience due to using Granada hubs - I believe the track on a Granada is wider than a Sierra, but do not know a what point it gains it, so he may well have had more clearance at the outset. I am hoping not to fit spacers at the front, but I have not set the front suspension up yet, and with the excessive camber I have, the tyres do catch the chassis when in full lock. I'm hoping that when I push the top suspension out to correct the camber this will solve the fouling, but that remains to be born out in practice!
My tyres walls (but not tread) project marginally beyond my wings, and may/will fail the SVA rules, so I'll submit it for its test on standard Sierra pepper-pot alloys and 195 tyres (and re-calibrate the speedo).

Mike

[CosworthCabrioLee]

Re: Rear Coilover Springs

indeed the Granada track is 41mm wider than the Sierra so you may have to fit spacers like Mike, however Bob has just put ET35 wheels on his car with 205 tyres and they go on.

[cabrioman]

Re: Rear Coilover Springs

Mike / Lee

The intention is to go 17" with 215/55/17 tyres, as theres quite a bit of tyre choice in that size. The logic if you can call it that, was Simon G used the same tyre and rim size with ET40 offset and 15mm spacers. There are a lot of rims available in 17" with ET25 and 4x108 spacing, apparently to fit Cortinas, although why you would want 17" rims on a Cortina is anybodys guess.

So thats the cunning plan when I get to that stage, feel free to point out the error of my ways if my logic has gone fuzzy!

John

[CABRIOBOB]

Re: Rear Coilover Springs

indeed the Granada track is 41mm wider than the Sierra so you may have to fit spacers like Mike, however Bob has just put ET35 wheels on his car with 205 tyres and they go on.

I have just fitted 7x17" et38 off sets with 205/50/17 tyres and I nearly went for 215/55/17 and I am glad I didnt as the inner tyre on the rears might have touched the rear chassis as with 205/50 there is a 10mm gap, also with 205/50 the inner tyre just touches the A.R.B on the front on full lock, if I went 215/55 the tread would have caught the A.R.B. With et38 offsets the front wheel/tyres just slightly stick out past the wings sides compared to 195/65/15 which were flush with the wing sides and my camber and caster is spot on.
The best price I got after searching the internet and ringing at least 20 different places re wheels was a company called Wheel Heaven .co.uk they were very helpfull and good service.

[cabrioman]

Re: Rear Coilover Springs

Useful feedback Bob, I'll take a look at Wheel Heaven. The main reason for 215 section over 205 was availability of reasonble price tyres in 55 profile, I may take another look, as 205 is more than wide enough.

Cheers

John

[greyV8pete]

Re: Rear Coilover Springs

Mike.
I know your original question was about coilovers but for reference have a look at post #62 on the Madabout link below:

http://www.madabout-kitcars.com/forum/showthread.php?p=38433#post38433

Its for the Royale Sabre and shows rear suspension for a Sierra, in particular the square cut off ends of the (standard Ford?) rear springs and the rubber top cushions that as I remember are contoured to take the “unflattened” spring top end.
Peter.

[cabrioman]

Re: Rear Coilover Springs

Mike

A bit of further info.

I took another look at the coil springs on my Hunter yesterday. The original Marlin short springs would technically fail an MOT test, when the car is jacked the travel on the swing arm allows the bottom of the spring to come out of the spring seat before the travel is caught by the shocker. It needs assistance to guide the spring back in when the car is lowered (an MOT fail). I have just not noticed it before and assume it has just slipped back into place after the spring has operated a few times.

After I discovered this I dropped out the halfshafts and fitted the spare pair of original new Sierra springs I had.

I don't think cutting springs is the answer to lower the ride height, maybe fit springs of the same length that are softer and stiffen up the shocker?.

Anyhow for the moment until the car is fully rebuilt I have gone with the longer springs and yes the ride height at the moment looks like yours but I will deal with it later if I need to, but in the meantime the car is MOT compliant.

John

[Mike]

Re: Rear Coilover Springs

Hi John

Your info on rear springs is useful. Now that you mention it, I suspect I would have the same issue. I wonder if shorter springs and dampers with less travel is an option?
My only other thought is to have variable rate springs that effectively use the soft part to fill the travel when the wheel is jacked up, but have the normal spring rate for the required ride height?

Mike