2b Sliding Pillar Front Spring Rates

[Guest feralsprint]

Well I hope you guys can give me some idea of what the spring rates are on a sliding pillar front end, mine kneels over on the front when cornering and I would like to upgrade the front springs to stop it doing this, if anyone can tell me the standard spring rate and free lenght it would be great I know I should just cut the front end off and convert to wishbones but maybe later

[Guest Petemate]

Can't help at all with spring rates, but mine goes round rbts & bends great; if anything, a bit too stiff, as the front skips about during braking. The sliding bits do slide up and down.

Sorry not much help - maybe someone else can provide more info?

Pete

[Guest john]

Never heard of one kneeling over before, what colour springs do you have, mine are red. and it rides hard.

[Guest madmax]

I was told 180 lb by richard 5 years ago. chopped sliding pillocks off since then and fitted wishbones Colin

[Guest feralsprint]

Thanks people

 

it has the red springs in it, it kneels over enough to actually rub on the front of the clamshell guards when going around corners, we have put bump rubbers underneath the slides to stop it going "clang" when you drive over a hole in the road, it doesn't rub when you hit a bump its on flat surface when the load of the car is smooth, but loaded. The guards have plenty of clearance when sitting

 

well I think we might try a heavier set of springs, the harshness of the front end is caused by the design, drive one out of a driveway at an angle and you can see there is a lot of up and down movement, I guess its either heavier springs or a bump stop to limit movement

 

Jon

[Guest salty_monk]

Bump stops help but the design is just lacking a bit... My springs went soft after a couple of trackdays making the frequency of bottom bolt touching inner wheel a lot more frequent.

 

Presume you mean the wings when you say clamshell guards? Mine never touched there & they were closer than yours to the tyre.

 

The trouble with adding bump stops is that you then really limit the movement available, there's not much as it is.... Stiffer springs or perhaps adjustable dampers could be the way to go?? I've heard the dampers are from a Mini but I may be wrong.

 

Only real way to cure it is to go wishbones. As Pete says the suspension is not normally at all compliant, I could push mine into understeer fairly easily but with the wishbone model the rear end always come out way before this..

 

DIY wishbone conversion doesn't work out too expensive if you can weld the wishbones yourself (or get someone else to) & weld the tags on. Budget about £150 plus coilovers.

 

 

I have draft details that I'm sure Tony Tank won't mind me sending you if you like, also has a component checklist on there too.

 

 

Dan

[Guest feralsprint]

Dan

 

Thanks for that will look forward to getting the info you can send it to me via

 

jro11796@bigpond.net.au

 

Yep we had the same problem with the bottom of the pillar rubbing the inside of the rim, we now have 40mm spacers on the front to clear the rim and the front track is now closer to the back track in width, it has made the car more nuetral, if anything the car now oversteers nicely. When we measured the car up the rear track was 120 mm wider than the front, asking for understeer with that setup.

 

Regards

Jon

[Guest salty_monk]

Will try to send the bits through later.... I would think the reason yours leans like nobody else's is to do with the spacers & the fact that the inside of the wheels aren't stopping it first!

 

In your case I'd fit the bump stops so you get some compliancy right up to the point just before it hits the wing...

 

Dan

[Guest docter fox]

40mm spacers where did you get these and the longer bolts?

[Guest salty_monk]

Rally design do spacers & longer studs... not sure how long they go though.. I had 10mm spacers on mine.

 

Dan

[Guest docter fox]

I've found these 12 mm ones but the bolts aren't tapered in the picture? am i missing something or looking at the wrong ones?

[Guest feralsprint]

well here is a pic of the spacers, they actually bolt on and have new studs built into the spacers

 

They were made for a race car and now the centre of the tread is in the middle of the guard

 

Jon

[Guest salty_monk]

Jon,

 

They look like they would have helped me out no end. Wish I'd seen them when I still had the sliding pillar 2b.

 

Not seen anywhere you can get them over here, imagine you could have them made up specially though... Probably put a lot of strain on the bearings, but then with the lighter weight it probably all equals out somewhere...

[Guest AWhite]

Just a thought my mate had the same problem so we changed his springs for stiffer ones but then they are too hard now. I think the original springs just "went soft". So a new set of the same thing might be what you need as opposed to stiffer ones.

[Guest feralsprint]

Thanks people we might stick with the same poundage or go for 200lb springs but we will not be using the same ones as these if they go soft so quick, the car is was only delivered in 2004 and been on the road a couple of months, its amazing what will rub when you stop using the inside of the rim for a bump stop