Bumpy ride / rear suspension

[Kevin]

Hi Alec thats a good point as there was a guy from twickenham way who I met a couple of years ago with a rear tele conversion and he had managed to fit the lower mounting brackets on either side the wrong way round so that the teles had very little movement and if you went over any sort of bump you had similar symptoms to those described here as they were bottoming out through lack of travel.

[badfelafel]

OK - theyre not yellow, they are red. Oops!



They dont move much! I take it they've seized - do they need to be replaced or is there something I can do?

Where are the bumpstops meant to be?

Help!!

[jonathon]

The bumpstops are the rubber items on top of the axle,above the leaf spring mounts, they are in place and look fine. Drivers side looks lower than the passenger side going by the gap between the bumpstop and bumpstop plate on the body.
Personally I'd take the kit off and check the top mounting bracket . Is the bracket continuous across the floor or just local to the top of the damper. Check the floor for cracks and any other damage, as by the looks of this set up, you will have been running on the bumpstops.
I'd remove the leaf springs and replace them with the proper items,replace the U bolts and possibly the saddle rubbers, also check the front and rear shackle bushes.
To see if the dampers are suitable for your vehicle, measure the distance between the top and bottom damper pin, when the vehicle is at standard laden weight. Remove the dampers then fully extend them, measure this distance again, then fully close them and take this measurement. Subtract the closed length from the ladened weight length to see the available travel. It should easily exceed the distance from the top of the rubber bumpstop and the bumpstop plate on the body. Take into account the weight of a full tank of fuel, luggage and passengers, and you will soon find the reason for your problem.
Personally I would replace the top mounts if you wish to keep the system, or revert back to standard lever arms or purchase a proper kit.

[chickenjohn]

I'd see if anyone local to you has a decent set of 2nd hand lever arm dampers with drop arm. Reverting to original style damping, IMHO woulod be the cheapest and easiest route to getting a decent ride quality.

I don;t like thew look of those "red ryder" items.

[jonathon]

Although, the dampers are probably not suitable here, its the o/s leaf spring which I think is causing the problem, assuming that the car was on the level with no one in it. Change these first, then decide on your damper options

[Innovator]

You have Traveller springs ( 7 leaf). I always find these too hard for a saloon.

Check the right hand end of your axle. Something is leaking oil.

John

[Willie]

Crikey, those springs look as though they couldn't actually flex due to being
rusted solid! Whatever, if you want your wife to take to the Minor then change them to five leaf. I still say disconnect the bottom pivots of the
dampers( the telescopic units) and see if there is any difference in deflection.
I wouldn't be surprised if they were solid too and it only means undoing two
bolts. Should you wish to revert to the original lever arm dampers the only
question would be, are the original top mounts still there on the chassis or
were they removed during the conversion? The bottom plates would have to
be removed, turned over,and swopped left to right.

[Packedup]

I fitted a pair of good s/h struts to my 2000 a while ago. For the first few miles I thought the front end was very nice and firm, then it all went back to standard sogginess - The reason? The struts were seized when bought, probably from being sat in a box for a long time.

More recently I've been messing with my other Triumph, and have a problem with the front height. The reason? One of the old shocks I've rested on to roll the car around has seized up at full height...

So it wouldn't surprise me if your shocks have also seized if the car's been laid up for quite some time. Never had it happen to me in the past, but then two out of two have been like that (telescopic, but of course with springs as well, and been stored off the car).

The springs certainly look both more leafed and not exactly bountiful in terms of room to move as others have said. I agree normal 5 leaf springs and damper investigation is the way to go

[bmcecosse]

The top damper mounts look decidedly home made - I hope(as J above has mentioned) that the U bar they are bolted to goes all the way across the car. Lift the rear seat and look for cracks. Your chassis on the nearside also looks a bit odd - but maybe just the photo angle - is there a hole just beside the bump stop plate?
You can raise the sagging side for a temporary fix by making up longer shackle plates - where the spring fixes to the chassis at the back. 1" longer raises the car by 1/2" - so 2" longer (maximum I suggest) will raise it 1".
The dampers look very big diameter - they may be way over-rated for the weight of your car. The lower mounts look very low - they could easily catch on rough roads and hedgehogs! Yes - the offside is sitting low and yes - the springs are 7 leaf traveller. You can have my spare 5 leaf springs for the taking if you want them - but there is no guarantee with them. The suspension could be sitting low because of chassis problems - it's not always the spring. Try measuring as accurately as possible from the front spring mount on the floor pan to the rear chassis mount on each side - and compare. Also check for cracking/rusting around the rear chassis mounts.

[Willie]

If the top mounts for the telescopics has cracked the floor due to poor design
then the cracks will be in the boot floor underneath the wooden shelving (which can be rather difficult to remove).

[badfelafel]

Was feeling negative... but have just been out 10 mins up the road and back What a wonderful, zippy, pleasant and well designed little car - so nice to drive. Am smiling at my moggy again!

[Kevin]

Agree with what been said as regards the off side causing most of the probs you can even see where the bump stop has been hitting the floor and the tele on that side looks to be sitting at the bottom of its travel.

[bmcecosse]

Your right Willie - i was thinking could see through from the back seat - but I'm used to Traveller - is that area blocked off on the Saloon shell - I can't remember ??

[Willie]

BMC, no,with the rear seat back out of the way you can still only see the
wooden shelf over the spare wheel on the cars, there is an upright metal
panel blocking the view.

[bmcecosse]

Aye - it's slowly coming back to me now - 40 years since I had a saloon! That whole 'diaphragm' across the saloon gives it relatively massive stiffness compared to the Traveller which flops about all over the place!

[Willie]

Erased

[bmcecosse]

Nice sharp pictures Willie. Looks like your bump stops have been meeting the pad too! There is plenty of over-travel in the lever arm dampers - it's ok to cut an inch off the top of the bump stops to give a more supple ride.

[Willie]

BMC, point taken but,since I swopped the seven leaf springs for the fives I
no longer hop around roundabouts etc and since I never have rear passengers I'll stick to the present set-up. Before anyone comments I was amazed to see the rust on the wheel so it has now been rotary wire brushed
and painted!!

[bmcecosse]

Tsch tsch - rust on wheel - none of us have that, now do we!!
Actually - I would pop a bit of waxoyl into the cavities above the bump stop plate - poke out any grot first - it's a famous starting point for chassis rot.

[chickenjohn]

-snip- Before anyone comments I was amazed to see the rust on the wheel so it has now been rotary wire brushed
and painted!!

The only comment I was going to make was how clean and rust free the rear of your car looks compared to the ones I work on!
and there is LESS rust on the rear of your wheel than on the front of some of mine!
That'll be job no 57 on the list then! ;)