The art of suspen...sion

With the GT6 running something like right, I decided to turn my attention to the suspension; the car was sitting too high for my liking, felt a bit too wobbly and did not corner as ell as it should have. Part of the problem was down to there being positive camber on the front wheels and what looked to be a new rear spring, fitted by a previous owner, causing the rear to sit quite high. These two problems were solved quite quickly, with the addition of three extra wishbone shims to each front suspension mounting point and a one-inch spacer block fitted between the rear spring and differential.
While I was there, the rear spring mounting studs were also replaced, with Spitfire cylinder head studs, not the suppliers recommended plated studs, why fit weakened plated studs on important suspension components?

Last year I managed to pick up a pair of older design AVO coil over shock absorbers for the GT6, I'm particularly glad that I managed to get a pair of the old design considering the issues some people have been having with AVO bushes recently with them disintegrating after only a few thousand miles. Avo-bushes & boing-boing-zebedy


The shock absorbers are supplied to accept 2.5inch diameter springs, with the intention that on Triumphs the original top spring seat is used. I decided to copy Mr Sideways though, by using the AVO supplied top spring seats and fitting 2.25inch diameter springs. The advantage of doing this is to help keep weight down and reduce the cost of the springs, as now the free length of the spring only needs to be six inches.
The spring seats needed some machining to fit the new springs, but being alloy, it didn't take long on the lathe to take them down to size.


The difference was instantly noticeable, with the car cornering so much more flatly and not trying to dive into the ground under braking, but going to a spring rating of 600Lbs you would expect to feel some improvement, but fortunately the road noise and effect of poor road surfaces has not effected it too much.


Meanwhile at the back, a pair of Koni shock absorbers have been fitted, this time courtesy of Rimmer Bros, not somewhere I often buy from, but with their 20% off last month, it made them the cheapest for the Koni's.

One of the next jobs will be to check the adjusters on the rear radius arms still move, then arrange to get the whole car tracked, as it does feel as if the suspension is trying to fight itself.