Speedster Buggy Springs

[Cajun]

I have a speedster that is fairly light. The ride is rather stiff. What sort of spring modifications have you made to improve ride on speedsters? Removed leafs?

Anyone tried Posies Rod and Custom springs?

 

[Logan]

I have a speedster that is fairly light. The ride is rather stiff. What sort of spring modifications have you made to improve ride on speedsters? Removed leafs?

Anyone tried Posies Rod and Custom springs?

You can remove leafs. I'm going to remove 4 or 5 on my speedster. You're probably better off only removing 4 but I'm not going for ride comfort in mine, I'm looking for the right stance.

 

[Jim Brierley]

Retain the top leaf as it is rounded to fit into the crossmember. I have 3 out of the rear spring on my speedster, none out of the front. I have a Posie's spring on the front of my tudor, it works like a new stocker. Buy it from Speedway Motors in Neb., same spring for less money.

 

[just plain bill]

I have a posies rear spring. hard to install. Probably great for street rod but if I had a light weight car and wanted a softer ride I would use a model T rear spring. Have to use shims as it is slightly narrower.

 

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

I have a speedster that is fairly light. The ride is rather stiff. What sort of spring modifications have you made to improve ride on speedsters? Removed leafs?

Anyone tried Posies Rod and Custom springs?

Is this your car?

.

 

[Cajun]

Yes

 

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Yes

I did a bunch of work on that car in the latter 90's and again in the early to mid 2000s. I seem to recall I reversed the eyes and removed some leaves then. Very possible the leaves have rust in-between and just need to be disassembled and cleaned.

That car ran several cross-country GreatRaces with 2 people on board and I never recall there being a rough riding issue. Back then, the goal was to make sure you kept all four tires on the ground to improve consistancy. That was something we worked on religiously.

 

[Fordors]

Disassemble your spring and check for worn areas, for example where the second leaf might have chafed the top of the main leaf. If there are worn areas I'd take a 7" grinder with a 36 grit sanding disc and sand the tops of the damaged leaves. With that accomplished you want to sand the leaves to give them a taper and round the ends. You are tapering the thickness for a few inches of the length and reducing the 1 3/4" width also. Don't just leave the ends square cut and deburr them, you want to put a radius on them to give a rounded end, the radius and taper allows the spring to work easier and not rub against the leaf under it. Finish the sanding with a finer grit. Next decide how many leaves you might want to leave out, lube and reassemble. The Posie or Speedway spring will work too but if you have the time and equipment you can fix your springs at home.
Not a real good photo, but it shows some of the taper; I would taper the first 3-4 inches of the second leaf thickness gradually, more than shown here and do the width as shown. Subsequent leaves will have less taper as they are shorter. Hot rod guys call this a Hollywood spring, named for a Hollywood, CA spring shop. They did these for years, but the shop closed in 2009 or so.

Sorry for the oversize post, I guess the photo I included caused that.

 

[usered]

I removed three leaves from the rear, none from the front. I run tube shocks in the rear and friction in front. It is still pretty stiff. Thinking about removing one more in the rear and one in the front to see if it helps.

 

[Cajun]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. I think that I will disassemble the springs first, clean up and lube them.

Terry-This car is used exclusively for Great Race and VCRA events. You are right in that accuracy and reliability are the number one needs in this type of event. My biggest reason for doing something about the ride is not passenger comfort. The roads we run on can be rough. We have an issue the the transmission and/or the OD can come out of gear when a very heavy bump is hit. This creates an accuracy problem.

The car is quite different from when you worked on it.

 

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. I think that I will disassemble the springs first, clean up and lube them.

Terry-This car is used exclusively for Great Race and VCRA events. You are right in that accuracy and reliability are the number one needs in this type of event. My biggest reason for doing something about the ride is not passenger comfort. The roads we run on can be rough. We have an issue the the transmission and/or the OD can come out of gear when a very heavy bump is hit. This creates an accuracy problem.

The car is quite different from when you worked on it.

Then I would believe there is something binding that is forcing the vehicle out of gear when bump is hit. No matter how hard the bump, neither should come out of gear.