removing rear leaf spring, linking..

[xtrmjks]

Anyone have experiences in linking the back end..any mk1/mk2 escort stuff fit??

[Jason B]

you need to get hold of nev, he'll sell you a 5 link rear kit that only requires you to buy the coilovers (kit around £250 I think, and doesn't your car already have the coilovers?) or he can make 6 link watts linked setups too. Shoot me a pm if you'd like to contact him

[xtrmjks]

PM sent!!

[classicswede]

TBH there is very little wrong with the leaf set up.

[Jason B]

hmm yes and no, for regular daily use they are absolutely fine. But for a dedicated track car or rally car they really lack adjustment

[volvorsport]

apart from tramp, twist , unsprung weight etc.

have a look at some locost parts/brakets/bushes , it can all be fabricated from that .

[Jason B]

none of which are hugely important for a daily drive. Only in a track car would any issues related to the above be significant. Also the mention of unsprung weight that is always banded around is in my opinion quite a weak argument against a rear leaf setup.

[filthyjohn]

I personally love a good axle tramp off the lights. It adds to the drama.

[volvorsport]

none of which are hugely important for a daily drive. Only in a track car would any issues related to the above be significant. Also the mention of unsprung weight that is always banded around is in my opinion quite a weak argument against a rear leaf setup.

actually , its hugely important - it means the wheel can follow the road surface better (less wheel rate) therefore meaning a more compliant ride

it also has advantages in instantaneous weight transfer during cornering - volvo only stuck with it becuase it was already there , in the case of the 300 you are stuck with it !! dont see many manufacturers using it in modern suspension ?

the point is it can be improved , so if you can why not .

[MJ]

I think that it's fairly obvious that for fast road applications, leaf springs aren't the best setup, but why change them? Considering how most people use their cars, the advantage of an upgrade will be little, but the costs and difficulty of changing the system are high.

Leaf springs are good if you haul heavy loads, and as we all know, they are still the preferred spring for vans like Transits, due to the simplicity and ability to take heavy loads and still give an acceptable, albeit not sporty, ride.

[Jason B]

actually, unsprung weight and its affects are far more broad than the basic assumption that less is better!! while the immediate effect is that it slightly improves handling, there are many other systems present which are affected by relationships between (on a basic model) the quater mass model of the car body and the unsprung mass. It would be foolish to simply approach the problem with the "less unsprung = better" arguement as until you can quantify some other basic parameters you could end up making the car handle much worse (if not make it dangerous when cruising at a particular speed correlating with a dominant system mode shape)

Also despite the weight of each leaf spring, one has to question how much lighter you would be making the unsprung weight by switching to a coilover setup (working on the premise that the majority will use steel and not titanium etc). I'm sure most people would be strengthening the setup if they replaced it and also struts don't weigh nothing. So in reality unless you are doing a proper independant rears build from scratch using a well designed system, the benefits may be relatively small for the amount of money. (as opposed to paying for some advanced driving lessons for example)

If the problem is slackness in axle location and general softness then just bung some better dampers on the back and weld on a panhard and locating bar to the existing setup.

[classicswede]

Ok we all know that leaf springs are not ideal.

The problem with the springs winding up can be reduced but fitting a second torque bar as there is only one on 340's.

Unsprung weight??? I can not see converting to a 4 bar set up as you are still using the same beam. the springs them selves are not that heavy.

The leaf spring set up with very little work can be adapted to perform very well.

Converting to a 4 bar set up can end up going wrong if you do not have the experiance in fabricating one and setting it all up. In the right hands it can be quite an improvment but for an ameture its more likely to wrong the right!

[Jason B]

I would eventually love to move to a watts link setup, but money does not dictate that this is sensible at the moment. The rear end while having a lot of quirks is very safe on these cars, by switching to a much tighter setup it is possible to make the back lose some of the progressive oversteer which is so easy to control. (Then again, all my hard driving is on wet lanes so really the back just follows )

[jtbo]

Our roads are like potato fields at this time of year, it is very big difference in such conditions, comfort alone is lot better with something more modern than solid axle and leaf springs.

Grip is lot different in such conditions too.

[Jason B]

tbh, I would be more concerned with the front suspension to begin with! At least the back wheels stay relatively flat with respect to tyre contact patch. The front wheels are horrible under plenty of lock, i.e. the tyres "knife edge" resulting in loads of shoulder wear, not sure if this is the experience of many, but that is first on my list as tbh I have no idea how my car hasn't understeered and met a hedge yet in the slippy stuff, this is probably more to do with corner commitment as the only corners I "push hard" into are those that I can see the whole of and hence set the car up accordingly.