front springs

Post by **blackbox** » 03 Jul 2006 10:33 am

does any one konw what other springs fit i live in australia and it hard to get 360 spings :? :?

Post by **jtbo** » 03 Jul 2006 10:53 am

Ford Escort MKII springs are rumoured to fit. Also same for Volvo 164 springs.

Also someone mentioned that is using 240 rear springs in his track car, but don't know how much work it will be.

Post by **blackbox** » 03 Jul 2006 10:58 am

thank for that i will have to go to the wreckers and see what i can get

Post by **Gulbrandsen_Racing** » 03 Jul 2006 05:20 pm

The Ford Sierra reinforced springs will fit.. The Caravan-springs.. But you have to chop them off approx. 2.5 rounds.. to lower the car.. But it will gett STIFF!

Post by **arnagath** » 04 Jul 2006 11:05 am

Gulbrandsen_Racing wrote:The Ford Sierra reinforced springs will fit.. The Caravan-springs.. But you have to chop them off approx. 2.5 rounds.. to lower the car.. But it will gett STIFF!

How about Ford Sierra (sorry for swearing) original, not reinforced, springs? Are those stiff too?

Post by **Gulbrandsen_Racing** » 04 Jul 2006 11:53 am

i don't know, but the reinforced springs i actually had problems on compressing when i had it on the floor.. ( I weigh approx 110-115 kg....)

The coils are about 0.7-1cm thick..
It fits, but not completely..

The diameter of the coil is 130mm, and the standard springs are 128mm or so..

And you have to take the springs from the rear..

Post by **arnagath** » 06 Jul 2006 11:17 pm

Gulbrandsen_Racing wrote:i don't know, but the reinforced springs i actually had problems on compressing when i had it on the floor.. ( I weigh approx 110-115 kg....)

The coils are about 0.7-1cm thick..
It fits, but not completely..

The diameter of the coil is 130mm, and the standard springs are 128mm or so..

And you have to take the springs from the rear..

Thanks..I`ll think about those springs

Post by **dalahare** » 07 Jul 2006 02:06 am

Does anyone know what the minimum spring lenght is for our front springs for them to stay captured? and roughly what the lenght of a stock spring is? there's lots of cars here that you guys wouldn't get over there so if we had these measurements we could try and adapt something from those, alot of them are heavy tanks too, so should have firm springs,

Post by **jtbo** » 07 Jul 2006 08:47 am

You can always get shocks to lathe, make more thread and cut out if there is too much so too short springs are not really bad issue.

Length of new GLT spring is around 312mm, there is bit of variance depending manufacturer and used springs can be much different.

Here is all measures I took from front springs:
Length 312mm
Diameter of wire 12mm
Outer diameter of spring 127mm
Inner diameter of sprin 104mm
Average diameter 115,5mm
From active coil to active coil 61mm
Coils ~6,5
Active coils ~4,5

I made once little software:
http://www.janiervast.com/tiedostot/ind ... _beta1.zip

There is little error, it says major external diameter of spring, but that should be Average diameter of spring (InnerD+OuterD)/2=AverageD.
Modulus of rigidity is typically used 80000, some springs may have it even higher, but 80000 gives close enough estimates.

Active coils is number of coils -2 both ends have one coil that is against surface so those are not counted. Maybe program helps a bit when looking more stiffer springs.

Modern cars have spring rates in range of 40-60kN/m what I have heard, some sport models may have even 80kN/m, but it is typically body mass that defines spring stifness, they speak about 2Hz spring rate that should be aimed for race use, but I don't know much of this Hz stuff, I know that dampers affect to that too and therefore springs and dampers should be made to fit each other to get best result. But who has money for that kind of perfection, not me at least, barely have money for MOT,if there is nothing needed to be fixed, lol.

Post by **blackbox** » 07 Jul 2006 09:20 am

Gulbrandsen_Racing wrote:The Ford Sierra reinforced springs will fit.. The Caravan-springs.. But you have to chop them off approx. 2.5 rounds.. to lower the car.. But it will gett STIFF!

what year sierra are they from

Post by **dalahare** » 07 Jul 2006 09:12 pm

Thanks for the info jtbo, thats what i was after, i had a set of srping here i thought may fit, but they are 140mm in diamater and about 400mm long, I'll stoll down to the wrecker thought and have a poke around to see if they have something that will fit, hopefully off a heavy car.

Post by **Gulbrandsen_Racing** » 08 Jul 2006 06:48 pm

I just have to say, the Sierra springs are from the European Sierra, not the american GMC Sierra..

i took the 88 sedan, i believe.. they are 130 mm outer diam..

Its really stiff..

BUT! When you grind off the 2.5 coils (the same as me, 1.5 coils off, will give you approx. original hight..) the spring will get VERY TOO SHORT!

This is my solution..

I point-welded (sorry for my bad english, hope you will understand) the ball bearing in the top, used steelwire around the spring, 2 up and 2 down, to hold the spring and to drag down the damper, and hold it so the spring won't go out of it's place, and so that the ballbearing will stay in its place..

From the program i got 26.67.. Maybe i've done something wrong..

Post by **jtbo** » 08 Jul 2006 07:16 pm

What is diameter of spring wire, looks like to be perhaps 14mm?

You probably have made some error as I get much higher numbers, remember that you count only active coils so that is something around 2,5-3 for your springs (number of coils - 2 = active coils)
Also diameter of spring is not outer and not inner but average of these.

So if outer diameter is 130mm and wire is 14mm then average diameter is 123mm coils maybe 3 and we get 68,81.
Even 1mm makes big difference in these calculations too so it is always more or less estimate.

Post by **Gulbrandsen_Racing** » 15 Jul 2006 12:47 am

and 68.81 is a wrong number..?

Remember that it is reinforced caravan springs, what is done to it?

Post by **jimf671** » 24 Nov 2006 01:53 am

Searched and searched. I concluded that there is a Ford Escort spec that fits but its not a common one. What I did before was get springs made. It isnt horrendously expensive if you go to spring maker with the best modern kit. The computer does all the difficult stuff. If it ordinary road use you dont need to be all that careful about selecting spring rate anything from standard to double the standard rate is bearable and the stiffer it gets the better it handles.