Series 3a Suspension

[Guest AndrewH]

Hi,

 

I have read a few posts on suspension and I have seen enough to persuade me that I need to improve my suspension all round as I have the standard RH supplied set up. My car drives well but on anything other than smooth roads it is not entirely comfortable! I plan to rebuild my engine this autumn and it makes sense to do it all at the same time as it will be easy to access front shocks.

 

On the series 3a I have inboards on the front and on the rear I have pin at top and eyelet fitting at the bottom. (I place to strengthen angle iron at the same time)

 

Can anyone recommend the ideal set up for a series 3a and the best place to go. I would like to know:

 

Open closed measurements

Spring pressure

Best place to go - heard good things about Dampertech?

 

thanks a lot

 

A

[Snapperpaul]

Red 7 has 175 springs on 10 closed 16.5 open shocks, rear.

 

I want to replace shocks as funds allow but want to lower the rear an inch or so, i will need to lower the front the same amount or handling will be bad,

 

I have already milled the front anti roll bar to half thickness and this gives me good movement at the front, others have gone the Tie bar route to good effect, i have a pair if these in the spares box.

 

Gaz are also recomended.

[niduncan]

On the back of my Series 3 I use these:

 

 

10.5 closed 16 open with 175 lb springs. These were bought direct from AVO in 2005 and cost £205 all in.

 

Still using the original shocks on the front.

[Guest AndrewH]

These look good have they improved ride comfort? I want to do the front as well as although a pain to get out I think they may make quite a lot of difference. Dampertech have quoted £340 for a complete set front and back - not sure what make as I haven't chatted through the options but basically sent an email saying I wanted a decent set to improve handling on a Series 3a Robin Hood.

 

I thought this sounded pretty good value.

[Guest MrT]

These look good have they improved ride comfort? I want to do the front as well as although a pain to get out I think they may make quite a lot of difference. Dampertech have quoted £340 for a complete set front and back - not sure what make as I haven't chatted through the options but basically sent an email saying I wanted a decent set to improve handling on a Series 3a Robin Hood.

 

I thought this sounded pretty good value.

 

 

Hi

 

I would loose the anti roll bar on the front and go to tie bars and 120/140 lbs on front. I have Dampertech they do the job

 

Paul

[Steve Walker]

These look good have they improved ride comfort? I want to do the front as well as although a pain to get out I think they may make quite a lot of difference. Dampertech have quoted £340 for a complete set front and back - not sure what make as I haven't chatted through the options but basically sent an email saying I wanted a decent set to improve handling on a Series 3a Robin Hood.

 

I thought this sounded pretty good value.

 

Best mod is tie-bars instead of the anti-roll bar, some decent dampers and 130lb springs. This transformed my ride without me touching the back end at all.

[Guest mower man]

Hi, totally agree with the last two comments .I have the same setup and can assure it works,having covered 14/15000 miles with no problems ,HTH. Dampertech are very good to deal with ,I bought 120 lb springs for the front and s/absorbers for the rear for my S7 good advice good prices MOWERMAN

[Steve Walker]

Just a quick point. You mentioned the front dampers being a pain to get out, well they are and they aren't!

 

Once you get the nosecone off (mine's fitted with nuts and bolts so it's very easy), access to the dampers is simple. I had mine off to replace the bushes a couple of months ago. The only problem I had was that the bottom bolts had rusted to the inside of the spacer tubes and couldn't be removed.

 

They're too deep down to get a Dremel to them, too surrounded by other metalwork to get an angle grinder or even a hacksaw in - in the end I had to play it a bit dangerously: I turned down a large washer to fit in the centre of a 7" abrasive disk, put a washer each side and clamped it in place with a 10mm nut and bolt, then held the bolt in an electric drill - the disk was just small enough to get into place and just large enough to reach the bolt while the chuck cleared the steering rack (I forgot to mention, I couldn't move the steering rack out of the way as those bolts have siezed too!)

 

Out of interest for anyone that needs them, the bushes for my Spax dampers are the same size as for the Zeemerides and I managed to get some at my local motorbike shop (good old fashioned type, specialising in BSAs).

[Guest Andrew M]

I have got Spax on my series 3a and the back of the car has a gap of about 5 inch from the wheel to the wheel arch, I plan to adjust to get rid of this soon and then raise the frount up (it is running a bit like a lump of cheese at the mo) will let you know how I get on.