Mikewazowski

Sounds good. Will have to confirm a bit closer to the time, but I'm keen. Might have to try and get the wagon roadworthy for this....otherwise the sedan will suffice.

I think the blue interior looks nice (at least in the photo of it up there ^). I liked the attention to detail on your TX3, so will be following this with interest.

Hopefully this occurs. I'd be keen to tag along and meet some Oldschool peeps.

Yeah mate it sure was. Went to the quiz night there with a couple of friends. Good spotting

Point taken. I will stay the course.

Yeah I think that + new shocks (which I need anyway) might be my first port of call. Although I'm picking that 5 mm travel until it hits the bumpstop is probably not going to fly, especially since it'll sit on the bumpstop with 3 people in the car I'm pretty sure. Tempting to raise it by 15 - 20 mm, not require a cert and most of the issues will probably disappear...but it just looks so good

Yeah the bumpstop above the diff is just (a couple of mm) shy of connecting with the diff as it sits currently. The dshaft flange only hits on the corners as it rotates so I wouldn't need much clearance and then the bumpstop would actually stop any metal to metal contact as far as I can tell.

Sweet. That makes sense. So it looks as if adding another leaf and getting the springs reset (again) may well be my next port of call. Hopefully combining this with new shocks and tunnel mods should result in my driveshaft not clipping the floor. Which would be an improvement

Ah gotcha. Does the extra leaf increase the stiffness of the pack by increasing the unloaded curvature? Or is it simply that there is more material in the pack (an extra spring) which reduces deformation when the load is applied?

Thanks for all the feedback. I'm not really sure why I'd need to reset the springs since it is already low enough, or is that to compensate for the extra height gained by adding a leaf. On that note, why does adding a leaf raise the car? My front crossmember is around 80 - 85 mm ground clearance so I'm going to need a cert at this height regardless. I'd say no matter what I do I'm probably going to need to either massage the floor, or more likely, cut the floor and have a new section welded in. If I can do this and still run my original rear seat then that shouldn't be an issue. Cheers

I'm not sure whether an overload spring would help in my case since I don't think the spring flattens out completely before the floor makes contact. I was under the impression that an overload spring would only affect the spring rate once the spring pack had flattened out and touched the overload spring along its length. It is very possible that I'm not sure what I'm talking about though.

Okay, so I've lowered my 180B (610) wagon around 90 mm and I'm now having a few issues with my rear driveshaft flange (by the diff) connecting with the floor underneath the rear seat. It's lowered using 50 mm lowering blocks and the main leaves have had the eyes reversed (40 mm). It looks like I'm possibly going to have to raise the rear a little (10mm?) and/or cut and raise the floor. I'm thinking I'll need to stiffen the rear suspension to stop the floor coming down and contacting anything when I put stuff in the back/people hop in the car. What is the best way to go about this? Would I want to get and extra leaf added to the pack, or could I potentially use some of the coil-over shocks that I see listed for leaf-sprung cars that carry loads? Keen to hear people's thoughts since I'm quite new to leaf springs.

Cheers. I've got the shock in the car so might be able to give it a quick measure and see what I come up with. Yeah man, if there is a Bay of Plenty meet sometime I'd be keen to come along and put some faces to some names.

Yeah it is. The 610 is the first model of 180B. My wagon is a 1976. Ta. Also on another note, it looks like I may want to increase the spring rate to stop my driveshaft/diff from contacting the floor. Would it be worth looking into coilover shocks, or am I better off getting a leaf added to the pack to increase the rate? (Potentially this should be in tech section).

Is he the same guy who was there 5 years ago? If so, I wasn't impressed when I last dealt with him, and haven't heard great things from other people tbh. Perhaps things have changed. Might be worth calling in and investigating. Larry - yeah I know that firmer shocks aren't the answer to my diff hitting the floor. But my current ones are poked so I need new shocks anyway. I've used firmer damping in the front so I figured I may as well get a higher damping rate for the back as well. Kindest regards, Michael. Edit: Oh and it's not my diff hitting the floor, it's the flange at the end of the driveshaft. Looks like I'm probably going to have to either raise it 10 mm and see how I get on or cut my floor and get a section welded in higher to clear the driveshaft.