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Spring Retainers

Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 12:01 pm
by Draven
Hey Guys,

I recently upgraded my rear shocks and at the moment with the swaybars connected the springs 'just' hold in place, you hear them clunk as the are basicly loose, but still stay put.

I would really like to play around with disconnecting the swaybars, but before I do, im trying to figure out how I could retain the spring somehow, so if the spring was a little too short it would reseat ok when the axle came back down.

Has anyone done this before ? Ideas ? Pics perhaps ?


Thanks guys.

Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 1:09 pm
by Madmac
ive done it on my maverick, i used some stainless stell U bolts to hold the coils at the top, and then made some cones that i welded onto the diff housing to guide the coils back on to their mounts.
Image
these are the cones i welded to the diff housing
Image
it seems to work pretty well, makes a bit of noise when the springs reseat, but at least they cant fall out, my sway bars have been removed completely, but im thinking about putting them back and fitting some disconnects, just to improve its on road manners

Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 1:14 pm
by Madmac
i made the cones from some 30mm flat bar with a piece of 30x30 square in the middle, they dont need to be super strong, you could even use a piece of 130mm pipe, or turn some cones up out of a piece of hard rubber or nolathene or similar. hope this helps

Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 1:17 pm
by Draven
Yea thats going to help a heap....thanks for the info.

Retainers

Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 3:17 pm
by The Big Green Meany
A good one is, A seat belt from Auto Barn and some eye bolts.
You will need to do.

Measure the distance between diff and top mount on full travel.

Get aeye bolt and bolt it to the Spring mount on the diff there are hole there already

Buy a seat belt the length measured

clip onto eye bolt and bolt other end to top of spring mount.

Easy all for under $50.

Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 3:24 pm
by dwaynes
must look into this
i was under the impression if you match your shocks to lift you wont have this problem

no swaybar and 2" lift not much difference on the road

Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 3:37 pm
by The Big Green Meany
dwaynes wrote:must look into this
i was under the impression if you match your shocks to lift you wont have this problem

no swaybar and 2" lift not much difference on the road


yep thats correct , Get the right bits to start with and you wont need retainers. 2' springs should be that hard to match up shocks. :?

Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 3:39 pm
by Draven
Yea it does help if ya match shocks and springs....but im chasing a bit more flex without lifting it again. (More down travel)

Spring

Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 3:50 pm
by The Big Green Meany
Unfortunatly it wont work that way, Once your springs start to fall out thats all ya going to get. The retainer will stop it flexing past that point.
If you want more flex go a softer spring.

Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 3:54 pm
by Draven
um.... i thought the retainer would only clamp one end of the spring.... that way leaving the axle to drop as far as the shock will let it.

Retainer

Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 4:13 pm
by The Big Green Meany
Ok if you want to bolt 1 end in place yes that will work,But you may have to make up a locator for the other end so it goes back in place correclty!

Retainer

Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 4:16 pm
by The Big Green Meany
Ok if you want to bolt 1 end in place yes that will work,But you may have to make up a locator for the other end so it goes back in place correclty!

Posted: Sat May 07, 2005 7:20 am
by HeathGQ
Draven wrote:um.... i thought the retainer would only clamp one end of the spring.... that way leaving the axle to drop as far as the shock will let it.
yeah but then there is no downward pressure on tyre for traction, so whats the point of anymore downward travel?? once the spring leaves the seat, traction can be lost.

Posted: Sat May 07, 2005 7:42 am
by Wendle
just clamp both ends of the springs in. 1 (heavy) plate and 1 bolt at the bottom, 2 plates and 2 bolts at the top. you could run no shocks and the springs won't be able to fall out. i would take pics for you, but i don't own a nissan anymore.

Posted: Sat May 07, 2005 7:52 am
by ozy1
HeathGQ wrote:
Draven wrote:um.... i thought the retainer would only clamp one end of the spring.... that way leaving the axle to drop as far as the shock will let it.
yeah but then there is no downward pressure on tyre for traction, so whats the point of anymore downward travel?? once the spring leaves the seat, traction can be lost.


but when you think about it, when it comes to downward travel, the spring isnt actually applyin downward force, so there fore, with spring in place or not, the downward pressure applied to that wheel should be fairly equal,