Single leaf rear springs. (longish post)

[Daryl Smith]

Still working on the bushing issue. The 'eye' piece at the ends they sent to Scott and myself are a 2" od piece, which has some clearance issues (some minor grinding for room).
When I asked Mark at FAF about it, he told me they had a smaller 'eye' at 1.5" with a 1" hole for the bushing, which I think we can use the stock bushings on......maybe......
He is sending the 1.5" eyes to me so I can check it out and possibly change them. I'm waiting for those to arrive.
If they fit the stock bushings it will be a simple bolt in operation. BUT, when I measured the opening on the rear of a stock spring it was almost exactly 25mm, 1" = 25.4mm, so I'm not sure if that will be a close enough tolerance.
There is the possibility that a competition urethane setup might work. I think the front press in bushing might be too big tho......

Anyone have a measurement on that front bushing on the leaf spring?

The alternative is to have him turn some bushings in Delrin @ $45 extra and make a 12mm sleeve to fit the bushings ourselves/possibly have the holes made to fit our stock sleeves......or some other solution with common parts if we can find them.

I may make the springs work as I have them, because I'm not sure about removing the 'eye' and replacing it myself, possibly having to drill new mounting holes which I think would weaken the spring at the ends.........I was adamant about sending them back when discussing it this past weekend, but am re-considering.....

As it is now, I'm looking for some 1.5" od bushings to fit a 2 3/8" wide eye, between a mount that is 2 1/2" wide, with a steel sleeve to fit a 12mm pin.......Any Leads?
I've checked with local spring companies, nobody got back to me yet...

As soon as I have the required parts, I will install the springs and measure the ride height etc. and post it. Bug me in about a week if I haven't posted anything.

Daryl
ps: Not having any luck with my ignition system. No spark. Aarggghhhh! Wanted to get it to the meet on Sunday, but doesn't look like it'll happen.........

pps: At this point I have to apologize to Dieter Cramer, who was giving me advice on where to get the parts to fit my springs as they are, but I was determined that they were going back to get the 1.5" eye, and I wasn't very nice about it. My apologies Dieter. I knew when I left that I didn't handle it well. Hopefully I'll be somewhat more reasonable and calm next time something like this comes up.

[mattywood]

[/quote]The settings that Koni used are not ideal for the Datsun Sports Roadster. Ideally, you need to get them re-valved - and essentially swap the valving from front to rear. Then you can get some compliancy back into the rear end, and less diving at the front. I think you'll find this will improve the roadster's handling even without changing the springs.
[/quote]


I just got my red Konis revalved and a set of Lou's springs. I have not adjusted the Konis before am unsure what is the best adjustment for road use. I have turned them back to the softest setting and then tightened them 1 and 1/2 times. Will this be too hard or just write? I don't want something with a very hard ride.

[st3ph3nm]

[quote="mattywood
I just got my red Konis revalved and a set of Lou's springs. I have not adjusted the Konis before am unsure what is the best adjustment for road use. I have turned them back to the softest setting and then tightened them 1 and 1/2 times. Will this be too hard or just write? I don't want something with a very hard ride.[/quote]

That sounds about right, but have you upgraded your front springs as well? She'll be quite tail-happy if you haven't.

Cheers,
Steve

[mattywood]

Thanks. Spoke to Lou and he reckoned 1+1/2 might be too hard. What are you running?

Ya got the new front springs. Just fitted the first rear one. One more to go. Then the front shocks and springs.

[SLOroadster]

I have my Konis (stock valving) set full soft in the rear, and will do the same with the front today. I need to get bigger lowering blocks, the back end of the car is too high. It shifts far too much weight forward causing the car to understeer. I'll see how it does when I run Sears Point in a couple of weeks.

Will

[mattywood]

Finished fitting my rear springs. Fantastic ride, much better than the old ones. The back kicked out on a turn. Just need to do the fronts now and it should be great. Great weekend.

[SLOroadster]

I set my Konis full soft to match the rear yesterday, but I'm not sure if I like it. It seems kinda floaty to me. I might add some back damping back in. The ride feels well.... plush? We'll see how it feels on the track on the 8th.

Will

[Skyman]

I had an interesting observation yesterday morning. Not only are my Nissan comp rear springs flat, but I think maybe a little reverse camber a bit. So, anyway, I gave a friend a ride, he's 6'6'' 230 lbs. Wow, what a difference the added weight made. The ride was real smooth, not bouncy. A full tank of gas helps a bit also. Do you know if anyone has removed leafs from the comp springs to make the ride more compliant?

Kyle

[gboone]

I removed the short leaves from my comp springs to make them slightly softer. I put C-clamps on the spring assembly to hold everything together, so I didn't even have to remove the springs from the car to remove the short leaves. No noticeable drop in ride height in the rear.

What's the status of Daryl's composite springs?

[Daryl Smith]

Pictures as promised, although a little late.....




The 'eye' where the bushing goes is 2" OD on these springs, 1 1/2" are available and would be a better fit for the roadster.

Bushings/sleeves - There problems here.
1. The 'eyes' on the springs are SAE id, and the pins on our cars are metric. I haven't been able to source a bushing/sleeve combo with SAE od and metric id to fit the spring and our stock pins.
Which means we iether have to make pins or bushings to fit. I have notified FAF, and they have an option for a 'Delrin' bushing which they can leave the centre solid or drill a hole to fit our stock pins, but they have to buy the drill bit to do it.
2. Width - The spring is 2 3/8" wide and the mount at the front is 2 1/2" this only leaves 1/16" for the shoulder of the bushing at the mount. This spring uses the same bushing setup front and rear (so there is no press in bushing at the front). I don't know if this is a problem or not, but I would suspect 1/8" to 3/16" would be more acceptable for this shoulder, which means milling the 'eye' of the spring to accomodate. FAF has also said they can do this.

Initially I thought the stock bushings or the urethane bushings Dean has for sale would work for the 1 1/2" eye, which has a 1" (25.4 mm) hole for the bushing. BUT, the eye in the stock spring is 25 mm, and after talking to Dean it seems his urethane bushings are .960" od, iirc, which means they are too small.

Initially I was going to send my springs back to FAF to have the eyes changed, but considering the cost and hassle of getting them back and forth across the border I am looking at having the bushings made, and 'eyes' milled here, by a freind.

I will have a talk with Mark at FAF to see how much the cost increase for these changes might be...........

Any insight / advice on this bushing issue would be greatly appreciated. It's all new to me......

[23yrRebuild]

The eyes look like they're easily removed from the springs, they're fastened with nuts & bolts. Can't you just send the "eye" ends in, along with Deans bushings, and the required mounting width dimensions, have it all machined together?
Mike

[GeoffM]

Hey Daryl,
12mm and 1/2" are so close, can't you use 1/2" bolts?

[Daryl Smith]

"Can't you just send the "eye" ends in, along with Deans bushings, and the required mounting width dimensions, have it all machined together?"
Unfortunately the 'eyes' are extrusions (2 sizes available). No machining done other than cutting to the width of the spring.

"12mm and 1/2" are so close, can't you use 1/2" bolts?"
0.500 inches vs 0.47244 inches, or 0.02756 inch difference.......
This was mentioned to me as an option, but, aside from drilling the front mount, you would have to cut the bolt from the lower part of the rear shackle and weld in a 1/2" bolt to replace it, or find another shacklewith 1/2" pins, the same bolt to bolt distance as the stock shackle, which would then require a custom bushing for the top of the rear shackle..........or a new top mount.....

I'm trying to keep this as easy as possible, and a true bolt in operation. The bushings from FAF seems to be the most cost effective way to do it.

I looked into buying the material here and making the bushings, but the material alone is almost $100 ..........so $45 from FAF seems like a pretty good deal........

I just re-measured the mounts for the spring and it seems to be 2 9/16" inside. Anyone care to confirm this?

Are these bushings supposed to be an 'interfernce' fit?

[spl310]

Daryl,

Why couldn't you get a universal shackle kit like this:



Drill for the appropriate spacing, cut off the offending excess and bolt away?

[Daryl Smith]

A how to for replacing those bushings.......
http://www.polybushings.com/pages/rampsprings.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;