Thread: Old springs a reliability risk?

You can get them reset. Doesn't last as long as new ones, but may be cheaper.
Most of the springs I've seen break haven't been very old. Short of a catastrophic impact coils are pretty reliable.

Rear is about 30mm to low compared to the front going from your bumpstop measurements.
Gwynn Lewis measures them the most accurate way. Spring perch to spring perch.

I thought it was well quoted around here that 470 hub to arch was std ie zero lift.
Not 470 frt, 500 rear...or similar.
Neve heard that before.
I asume you set your cars up accordingly?
Maybe something to do with load carrying?
With minimum air in poly airbags my rears come up another 10mm.
With max air in them probably up about 20.

Dont think I've ever heard of a coil breaking,,
If its working well I'd leave it alone

Originally Posted by edddo

I thought it was well quoted around here that 470 hub to arch was std ie zero lift.
Not 470 frt, 500 rear...or similar.
Neve heard that before.
I asume you set your cars up accordingly?
Maybe something to do with load carrying?
With minimum air in poly airbags my rears come up another 10mm.
With max air in them probably up about 20.

Hang on, you have gone from arch to hub measurement, then bumpstop measurement, then hub to arch.
I was talking about your bumpstop measurements.
If measuring the spring perch way (look it up on gwynn Lewis site) front should be between 250-260mm, rear should be approx 300mm for a d90/d1/rrc, and 330mm for a 110/130.
And yes that's how I set mine up, but lift accordingly to that ratio.

Plus i can never measure any of mine the wheel arch way, as they have all run flares, or bodylifts. Spring perches never change there position unless a taller or shorter coil is fitted

Originally Posted by Vern

Hang on, you have gone from arch to hub measurement, then bumpstop measurement, then hub to arch.
I was talking about your bumpstop measurements.
If measuring the spring perch way (look it up on gwynn Lewis site) front should be between 250-260mm, rear should be approx 300mm for a d90/d1/rrc, and 330mm for a 110/130.
And yes that's how I set mine up, but lift accordingly to that ratio.

Plus i can never measure any of mine the wheel arch way, as they have all run flares, or bodylifts. Spring perches never change there position unless a taller or shorter coil is fitted

Hi thanks Vern - yes the 470 is standard for a D1 with uncut arches only.

I just measured the spring perch heights for reference.

Front 280 incl 20mm spacer
Rear 320-325

So this agrees more or less with my previous calc that the car is lifted about an inch at the front and rear.

Coils will only fail due to something that concentrates stress in the metal, almost always a defect in the material, but rarely due to stone damage or corrosion. Use and age will sag them, but not make them more likely to fail. The front springs on my County are 28 years old and done over 600,000km.

Great thanks John - that pretty much answers my question.