Springs for std shocks

[CNHSS1]

ive had my S2 off the road for ages and intend on getting it back out for use this summer. The wishbones have been painted at some point but over the powdercating it looks pants, so have removed a front corner to blast the wishbones and POR15 them, and found a front spring broken in two places

shocks are in good nick (original type) so looking for new springs only. Has anyone gone up on the std spring rates over factory? realise you cant go far before needing to uprate the dampers also.
what are the std rates F&R? did a search but found nowt
what should i look to go up to over stock F&R?

or maybe someone got a pr or set of 4 std springs in v.good condition they want rid of?

thanks in advance
CNH

[Barkychoc]

Original springs are variable rate which are no longer available (unless TVRCarparts have some £££) so you can't really compare with a fixed rate spring.

I have 275 on the rear and 325 on the front of the V8S and I'm going to go stiffer they are too soft in my opinion, particularly the rears.
Thinking possibly 425 on front 375 on rear, this I think will be reasonably firm which is what I want.

[GreenV8S]

Have the dampers been rebuilt recently? It's pretty unlikely that the originals are still in good working order after all these years.

Springs are cheap in the scheme of things, but the ones you have should be rising rate springs which are not so easy to come by. But they are available.

[phillpot]

GreenV8S said:

the ones you have should be rising rate springs which are not so easy to come by. But they are available.

Bought a set of AVO shocks from David Gerald TVR little wlile back c/w rising rate springs (coils tighter one end than other) they told me they have these made for them to original spec. but not sure if AVO use different diameter to originals ?
Might be worth a phone call or an email ?

[CNHSS1]

anyone got any front springs they want to move on? once the front suspensions all blasted and painted i will need to move the car around on the drive and in and out of the garage at least, as i want to get the trailing arms off and do the same. Take on board the comments re shock condition, cars done approx 30k so they are unlikely to be worn out although not in first flush of youth, but id like to get the thing at least moveable before i spank a grand on nitrons!

[phillpot]

Got my originals kicking around somewhere, happy to lend them to you for a month or two or ......

I'm in Redditch, not exactly next door but could be worse !

[CNHSS1]

cheers for the offer. Redditch isnt a problem as one of our hillclimb mates lives in Beoley.

ive read a post on here before of someone running different springs on the std shocks but damned if i can find it now . For teh cost of springs id happily just buy some slightly stiffer than stock (to eqaute to vari rate essentially) even if they get changed again after the cars back on the road when i change the shocks as well.
anyone know the ID and free length of the originals?

[GreenV8S]

Barkychoc said:

Thinking possibly 425 on front 375 on rear, this I think will be reasonably firm which is what I want.

As the spring stiffness goes up obviously the damper stiffness has to go up too, and you become increasingly sensitive to the harshness of the damper. The better your dampers, the further you can go before this becomes a problem. I'm running 600/400 and even with some really nice Nitron dampers it is a bit much for the road to be honest, but it's superb on track. I also have no rubbers in the dampers, and quite firm polly wishbone bushes, neither of these are good for ride quality but if you're at these sort of spring rates I'd assume you're more interested in controlling geometry and body deflection rather than having a comfey ride on rough surfaces. Anyway, you could think of these spring rates as being the upper limit of what's practical on the road.

[CNHSS1]

cheers, thats helpful. Suspension dynamics are a hobby with my sprint/hillclimbing, but the Tiv is just a roadie, not interested in modifying it, but need some form of datum to work from. Ive always considered the factory springs too soft, not just in terms of handling but real world usage with 2 peeps on board, just looking to add 10% to the rate to keep the arse of the floor lol. Need it to be usable by SWMBO without worry or it will have to go. If i can achieve that and am allowed to keep it, then decent shocks and polys will be sanctioned by the finance dept ;-)

[CNHSS1]

ive removed the broken spring (broken in 2 places!) and pieced together to give me approx 10.7" free unfitted length (front spring). Im assuming this was an 11" spring and its 2.25" ID.

Barkychoc
can you remember what length springs you ordred F&R for std shocks non-adj spring seat shocks?
if you are looking to change springs and go stiffer, do you want to flog your current ones?
CNH

[CNHSS1]

barkychoc *cough*
or any one else that can help cheers

[tozerman]

Craig, not sure if it is of any help at all but you are welcome to borrow my old knackered springs and shockers if it would help you with your problem, the only thing is they are bloody heavy so you would have to collect from Derby.
Cheers.....Tony..

[jwoffshore]

The standard fronts are 11" and +/- 300lb/in. The nearest off-the-shelf springs are 10.5" free length and then choose your rate; maybe go slightly stiffer to make up for the loss of length. If the ride height ends up a bit low due the 0.5", I guess you could insert a spacer. The standard springs do ride very soft and ground out the exhaust, mind.
Can't help with the rears.

[GreenV8S]

jwoffshore said:

The standard fronts are 11" and +/- 300lb/in.

300 lb/in sounds about right in bump (for the V8S - are the V6 cars similar?), but remember that due to the dual rate springs its only about 200 lb/in in droop. So if you go to plain 300 lb/in springs it will actually tend to ride a little lower in rough roads.

[Barkychoc]

CNHSS1 said:

ive removed the broken spring (broken in 2 places!) and pieced together to give me approx 10.7" free unfitted length (front spring). Im assuming this was an 11" spring and its 2.25" ID.

Barkychoc
can you remember what length springs you ordred F&R for std shocks non-adj spring seat shocks?
if you are looking to change springs and go stiffer, do you want to flog your current ones?
CNH

Yes no problem with that - they have only done about 1500 miles. I don't know the length but they are on AVO's.

[CNHSS1]

are your AVOs adj spring seat? if not so long as the spring platforms are in the same place as the stock dampers, your springs could well be fine.

the dampers on mine are Koni fixed spring seat adjustables, OEM i assume, any pointers on how adjustable they are? ie is the valving suitable and actually makes a difference

[Barkychoc]

Springs off the AVO's will be too short for standard shocks - I tried the original springs to start with on the AVO's and it looked like a Range Rover!