Rear Spring popping out of mount?

Hi

I recently notced that my disco (serI) seemed to be siting a little lop
sided. I thought I must have parked it on a slight slope, but this weekend I
finally got around to having a look underneath and discoverd that the Left
Rear Spring had popped off its mounts and was sitting skew.

I got stuck in with the spring compressors this am and sorted it out,
however I am now curious as to why this happens as I certainly have not been
giving this wagon too much stick off road.

Has this happened to anyone else?

Regards
Stephen

"fanie" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hi
>
> I recently notced that my disco (serI) seemed to be siting a little lop
> sided. I thought I must have parked it on a slight slope, but this weekend
I
> finally got around to having a look underneath and discoverd that the Left
> Rear Spring had popped off its mounts and was sitting skew.
>
> I got stuck in with the spring compressors this am and sorted it out,
> however I am now curious as to why this happens as I certainly have not
been
> giving this wagon too much stick off road.
>
> Has this happened to anyone else?
>
> Regards
> Stephen
>
>
It happens to people all of the time, especially if they have fitted longer
shock absorbers as part of a suspension lift kit - it is the bit that
retailers of lift kits don;t tell you about their package!
There are 3 ways to fix it:
1/ fit matched length shocks / spring setup
2/ jubilee clip the springs to their seats - this will stop them popping out
but will limit the suspension travel you have often to less than you had
before the lift kit was fitted ( if that is what is causing the problem )
3/ fit relocation cones so if the spring comes out of its seat it is guided
back into place when the weight of the car comes back down onto it. This
will retain any axle travel you have at the moment. I sell relocators for
£40 a pair that simply bolt in to place as an easy diy job.

David
LLAMA 4x4
www.llama4x4.co.uk - have a lokk at the suspension page......

">> I recently notced that my disco (serI) seemed to be siting a little lop
>> sided. I thought I must have parked it on a slight slope, but this
>> weekend
> I
>> finally got around to having a look underneath and discoverd that the
>> Left
>> Rear Spring had popped off its mounts and was sitting skew.

Make sure that the shock absorbers have not broken their bottom mounting.
I have had 2 fail where the stud sheared/rusted away from the body of
the shock. The spring did flip out on one occasion.

Jeff

"fanie" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> Hi
>
> I recently notced that my disco (serI) seemed to be siting
> a little lop sided. I thought I must have parked it on a
> slight slope, but this weekend I finally got around to
> having a look underneath and discoverd that the Left Rear
> Spring had popped off its mounts and was sitting skew.
>
> I got stuck in with the spring compressors this am and
> sorted it out, however I am now curious as to why this
> happens as I certainly have not been giving this wagon too
> much stick off road.
>
> Has this happened to anyone else?
>
> Regards
> Stephen
>
>

This how my 300Tdi came when I'd bought it secondhand. Five
minutes with a bar sorted it.

Derry

In <[email protected]> fanie wrote:
> Hi
>
> I recently notced that my disco (serI) seemed to be siting a little
> lop sided. I thought I must have parked it on a slight slope, but this
> weekend I finally got around to having a look underneath and discoverd
> that the Left Rear Spring had popped off its mounts and was sitting
> skew.
>
> I got stuck in with the spring compressors this am and sorted it out,
> however I am now curious as to why this happens as I certainly have
> not been giving this wagon too much stick off road.
>
> Has this happened to anyone else?

This is "normal" behaviour, assuming that the spring came out at the top.
If it came off at the bottom then the clamp needs replacing.

It happens when the axle drops, at that side, further than the spring
can expand. When the axle comes back up again it sometimes misses the
hole and ends up hooked on the edge of the top spring mount. It's not
unusual with standard springs or heavy duty springs for this to happen
in quite "mild" off roading.

The bodge it and scarper way of stopping it happening is to attach the
top of the spring to the mount using jubilee clips or similar BUT this
can result in bending the bottom retaining bar so the spring starts
lifting away from the bottom plate. I've seen a vehicle equipped in this
way manage to spit the spring out completely when the bottom plate bent
and the jubillee clip gave way.

If you are using the vehicle off road regularly then you might want to
consider a more permanent solution. You can buy "off the shelf"
solutions to this problem in the form of dislocating cones. They aren't
the best way of doing it but they do work and can be bolted on in a few
minutes.

If you have some fabrication/welding facilities then you can make your
own dislocating system out of a few bits of scrap bar that works better
and is a lot cheaper than the dislocation cones. You make a permanent
clamp for the top of the spring and weld a sort of triangular pyramid
onto the bottom spring mounting plate in place of the retaining bar.

In the case that you are anticipating taking part in any events run
under the ARC banner I am led to believe that they have just banned
dislocation cones so clubs that are members of the ARC will not let you
play.

cheers

Dave W.
http://www.yorkshireoffroadclub.net/

On or around Tue, 30 Nov 2004 07:51:25 -0000, "David_LLAMA4x4"
<[email protected]> enlightened us thusly:

[spring fixes]

'ere, that's a point.

The front turrets on mine are well past their best, and if they're an
MOT-fail point then they'll fail next time as they've got big holes rusted
in 'em.

Now since I fitted longer/heavier springs, which gained about an inch of
ride height, it might be worth contemplating lower turrets to regain the
axle travel I've lost in the process, since I'm going to have to replace 'em
anyway.

How much to they cost, and which sizes are available?

"Austin Shackles" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On or around Tue, 30 Nov 2004 07:51:25 -0000, "David_LLAMA4x4"
> <[email protected]> enlightened us thusly:
>
> [spring fixes]
>
> 'ere, that's a point.
>
> The front turrets on mine are well past their best, and if they're an
> MOT-fail point then they'll fail next time as they've got big holes rusted
> in 'em.
>
> Now since I fitted longer/heavier springs, which gained about an inch of
> ride height, it might be worth contemplating lower turrets to regain the
> axle travel I've lost in the process, since I'm going to have to replace
'em
> anyway.
>
> How much to they cost, and which sizes are available?
>
>
>

The front turrets are £40 a pair plus carriage. They are available in
either standard height as a direct ( but heavy duty & galvanised )
alternative to the std ones or as a 1" lower option.

If you go any lower than 1" drop on the turrets then even with std length
shocks they will bottom out before the axle hits the bumpstops. Therefore
anything over a 1" drop turret will require just as much adding to the depth
of the bumpstop as you gain on the drop giving you no more travel - you are
just moving the same amount of travel to a different place which is IMHO
completely pointless!

David
LLAMA 4x4
www.llama4x4.co.uk

David_LLAMA4x4 wrote:

>
> The front turrets are £40 a pair plus carriage. They are available in
> either standard height as a direct ( but heavy duty & galvanised )
> alternative to the std ones or as a 1" lower option.
>
> If you go any lower than 1" drop on the turrets then even with std
> length
> shocks they will bottom out before the axle hits the bumpstops. Therefore
> anything over a 1" drop turret will require just as much adding to the
> depth of the bumpstop as you gain on the drop giving you no more travel -
> you are just moving the same amount of travel to a different place which
> is IMHO completely pointless!
>

It's not *completely* pointless - it does improve breakover performance a
little, but the payoffs (less stable overall handling) can make it not
worthwhile

P.
--
If Mind over Matter is a Matter of Course
Does it Matter if Nobody Minds?

On or around Wed, 1 Dec 2004 13:41:42 -0000, "David_LLAMA4x4"
<[email protected]> enlightened us thusly:

>
>"Austin Shackles" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>> On or around Tue, 30 Nov 2004 07:51:25 -0000, "David_LLAMA4x4"
>> <[email protected]> enlightened us thusly:
>>
>> [spring fixes]
>>
>> 'ere, that's a point.
>>
>> The front turrets on mine are well past their best, and if they're an
>> MOT-fail point then they'll fail next time as they've got big holes rusted
>> in 'em.
>>
>> Now since I fitted longer/heavier springs, which gained about an inch of
>> ride height, it might be worth contemplating lower turrets to regain the
>> axle travel I've lost in the process, since I'm going to have to replace
>'em
>> anyway.
>>
>> How much to they cost, and which sizes are available?
>>
>>
>>
>
> The front turrets are £40 a pair plus carriage. They are available in
>either standard height as a direct ( but heavy duty & galvanised )
>alternative to the std ones or as a 1" lower option.

Sounds ideal. 1" lower would suit the springs - I've got HD RR diesel
fronts on which on a V8 make it sit about an inch higher.

> If you go any lower than 1" drop on the turrets then even with std length
>shocks they will bottom out before the axle hits the bumpstops.