igor Posted April 6, 2021 Share Posted April 6, 2021 The Hilux we had at work in the early '00s was so shagged the front leaf springs bent the wrong way. It wallowed like a pig and was generally terrible to drive but everyone in the office knew that and drove it accordingly. It still got wofs but maybe it shouldn't have? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.H. Posted April 6, 2021 Share Posted April 6, 2021 Just watch if you get them reset, I had a set done and they went to hundy on them and fuck me they were stiff, could put 500kg on the back and they would hardly move. I did the usual and got them done but didn't finish the project for a while later and when I realised they were to meke I called them up but they didn't want to know 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bling Posted April 6, 2021 Share Posted April 6, 2021 30 minutes ago, Nominal said: So long as there is clearance to the bump stops and the shackles still have pivot room it should still 'suspend' OK. Ignoring setups like my work van that is single leaf. How do you think multi leaf setups are affected though when the stack is no longer acting in the way it's supposed to? Just seems like bad design to me if the loading is such that the springs are no longer working as designed. Unless of course they are designed to work inverted, but i'm not sure anyone would design for that. Depending on the spring stack layout, i'd think most would all be compressed and not able to function correctly. The van phones shown about would have the bottom spring not acting when needed, but completely compressed along it's length against the springs above it. Hitting a bump has to act on something other than the spring pack as they are all jammed together. I don't have leaf springs, but always up for learning. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nominal Posted April 6, 2021 Share Posted April 6, 2021 2 minutes ago, Bling said: Ignoring setups like my work van that is single leaf. How do you think multi leaf setups are affected though when the stack is no longer acting in the way it's supposed to? Just seems like bad design to me if the loading is such that the springs are no longer working as designed. Unless of course they are designed to work inverted, but i'm not sure anyone would design for that. Depending on the spring stack layout, i'd think most would all be compressed and not able to function correctly. The van phones shown about would have the bottom spring not acting when needed, but completely compressed along it's length against the springs above it. Hitting a bump has to act on something other than the spring pack as they are all jammed together. I don't have leaf springs, but always up for learning. The steel will still bend I guess? When mine got to that state I airbagged the car 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bling Posted April 6, 2021 Share Posted April 6, 2021 Chassis probably just becomes the spring lol. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cletus Posted April 6, 2021 Share Posted April 6, 2021 It's one of those things that "works", but is not ideal. A normal leaf spring gets longer as it compresses which pushes the shackle away from the leaf, and the spring eye at the shackle end gets closer to the chassis. When a spring is inverted, as it compresses, it gets shorter, which pulls the shackle straighter, which wants to push the spring eye back down away from the chassis, opposite to where the spring wants to go I dont know how much actual difference this makes to how a car drives or whether you can feel the difference, I guess you would need to do some proper back to back testing to ever know. But I doubt anyone would ever bother because someone who is happy to run a leaf spring inverted , is probably only concerned with how they can get a vehicle low, as easily as possible, not make it handle well No factory vehicle , performance or otherwise, has leaf springs that are inverted as far as I know 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cletus Posted April 6, 2021 Share Posted April 6, 2021 Also the spring design plays a big part in how something rides, especially when someone resets them Ie a lot of commercial van or ute type vehicles have a dual rate leaf pack where there is 2 or 3 thinner springs, and 1 or two thicker springs like the van ones earlier in the thread. Unloaded, the suspension is just using the softer thinner leafs, then when you load it up, they sit down on top of the thicker "overload" leafs If you reset them and the main soft springs are then sitting on the overload springs, that makes it really stiff , same if they are reset higher and the overload leafs are sitting against the main leaf Most car springs just have a pack of the same thickness leafs 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cletus Posted April 6, 2021 Share Posted April 6, 2021 I should be clear, "inverted" in this discussion is relating to leaf springs with a curve going the wrong way, not flipped, ie upside down, that is 100% not legal 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUNAMUCK Posted April 6, 2021 Share Posted April 6, 2021 The car I had with flat leaves couldnt get traction. Replaced them, and that improved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffs_Emporium Posted April 6, 2021 Share Posted April 6, 2021 I see my van came out with 3 and 4 pack leafs, may grab a 4 pack from a van that's at pickapart currently. Other question I have is related to this bar that goes between the B pillars behind seats, some vans have it some don't. I would like to remove it. I assume it's purely there for the hinging of the passenger and middle seat combo as the bucket seat models don't have it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zep Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 When building 4-link bars, how do I determine what bush ends are legit and what are not? Also, are there per-determined widths that they should be? Most seem to come in 2.5" and 3". What about the centre bore/bolt size? Some are forged and some are welded: vs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nominal Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 17 minutes ago, zep said: When building 4-link bars, how do I determine what bush ends are legit and what are not? Also, are there per-determined widths that they should be? Most seem to come in 2.5" and 3". What about the centre bore/bolt size? Some are forged and some are welded: vs I made my own, just scaled to the size of the tubing specified in the manuals and welded up. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cletus Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 Have a look in the CCM it specifies what size bolt etc they need to be Be aware if you are making your own, the welding doesnt agree with a high tensile bolt Also threaded link bars often come loose with articulation, a solution is to use a heim joint /rose joint/spherical bearing at one end for movement and a bush at the other to reduce harshness 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zep Posted April 9, 2021 Share Posted April 9, 2021 1 hour ago, cletus said: Have a look in the CCM it specifies what size bolt etc they need to be Be aware if you are making your own, the welding doesnt agree with a high tensile bolt Also threaded link bars often come loose with articulation, a solution is to use a heim joint /rose joint/spherical bearing at one end for movement and a bush at the other to reduce harshness Thanks. I've checked the manual and it seems easy enough. I wanted to use regular bushed joints at each end to fully reduce the harshness. I guess that I could always swap them out for heims if the thread is the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zep Posted April 13, 2021 Share Posted April 13, 2021 @cletus I saw in another thread you mentioned that Wilwoods with integrated handbrakes have failed the cert test. I wonder if you had heard or seen anything about these: https://fastlanespares.co.nz/products/wilwood-powerlite-caliper-with-handbrake Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRWEST Posted April 13, 2021 Share Posted April 13, 2021 35 minutes ago, zep said: @cletus I saw in another thread you mentioned that Wilwoods with integrated handbrakes have failed the cert test. I wonder if you had heard or seen anything about these: https://fastlanespares.co.nz/products/wilwood-powerlite-caliper-with-handbrake +1 interested on the answer to this, as have the same calipers referenced for the rear of the RX3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tortron Posted April 13, 2021 Share Posted April 13, 2021 On 07/04/2021 at 06:32, RUNAMUCK said: The car I had with flat leaves couldnt get traction. Replaced them, and that improved. This is bad enough that it even causes the same on morris minors if you can believe it 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cletus Posted April 13, 2021 Share Posted April 13, 2021 7 hours ago, zep said: @cletus I saw in another thread you mentioned that Wilwoods with integrated handbrakes have failed the cert test. I wonder if you had heard or seen anything about these: https://fastlanespares.co.nz/products/wilwood-powerlite-caliper-with-handbrake I think the ones I was talking about were a much smaller seperate handbrake caliper that were no good I have certed something with those 4 pot calipers with the handbrake inside, I have a vague memory of the handbrake lever ratio having to be spot on or there isn't enough force for them to work properly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zep Posted April 13, 2021 Share Posted April 13, 2021 13 hours ago, cletus said: I think the ones I was talking about were a much smaller seperate handbrake caliper that were no good I have certed something with those 4 pot calipers with the handbrake inside, I have a vague memory of the handbrake lever ratio having to be spot on or there isn't enough force for them to work properly Thanks man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bling Posted April 15, 2021 Share Posted April 15, 2021 Have hopefully a quick on regarding rear seatbelts. Car in question will be going through cert. When imported it was fitted with static diagonal belts in rear. As per the requirements of the time to have at least static diagonal belts. These were bolted into parcel shelf with rectangular plates. It will have passed compliance I imagine with this as it will have been required on entry due to date of import. Have been reading the seatbelt anchorage standard, which seems to have come around post compliance of said vehicle. Will going for a cert trigger a requirement to meet the standard? I have two vehicles that had the seatbelts retrofitted in the same manner and have no problems come WOF time. Just wondering if I'm going to need to do anything to get through cert or not. Both cars must have gone through compliance fine as factory they come.with lap belts and no allowance for diagonals. This work must be done on entry at the time. Cheers for any help on this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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