I recently notced that my disco (serI) seemed to be siting a little lop sided. I thought I must have parked it on a slight slope, but this weekend I finally got around to having a look underneath and discoverd that the Left Rear Spring had popped off its mounts and was sitting skew.
I got stuck in with the spring compressors this am and sorted it out, however I am now curious as to why this happens as I certainly have not been giving this wagon too much stick off road.
It happens to people all of the time, especially if they have fitted longer shock absorbers as part of a suspension lift kit - it is the bit that retailers of lift kits don;t tell you about their package! There are 3 ways to fix it:
1/ fit matched length shocks / spring setup
2/ jubilee clip the springs to their seats - this will stop them popping out but will limit the suspension travel you have often to less than you had before the lift kit was fitted ( if that is what is causing the problem )
3/ fit relocation cones so if the spring comes out of its seat it is guided back into place when the weight of the car comes back down onto it. This will retain any axle travel you have at the moment. I sell relocators for £40 a pair that simply bolt in to place as an easy diy job.
">> I recently notced that my disco (serI) seemed to be siting a little lop
Make sure that the shock absorbers have not broken their bottom mounting. I have had 2 fail where the stud sheared/rusted away from the body of the shock. The spring did flip out on one occasion.
This is "normal" behaviour, assuming that the spring came out at the top. If it came off at the bottom then the clamp needs replacing.
It happens when the axle drops, at that side, further than the spring can expand. When the axle comes back up again it sometimes misses the hole and ends up hooked on the edge of the top spring mount. It's not unusual with standard springs or heavy duty springs for this to happen in quite "mild" off roading.
The bodge it and scarper way of stopping it happening is to attach the top of the spring to the mount using jubilee clips or similar BUT this can result in bending the bottom retaining bar so the spring starts lifting away from the bottom plate. I've seen a vehicle equipped in this way manage to spit the spring out completely when the bottom plate bent and the jubillee clip gave way.
If you are using the vehicle off road regularly then you might want to consider a more permanent solution. You can buy "off the shelf" solutions to this problem in the form of dislocating cones. They aren't the best way of doing it but they do work and can be bolted on in a few minutes.
If you have some fabrication/welding facilities then you can make your own dislocating system out of a few bits of scrap bar that works better and is a lot cheaper than the dislocation cones. You make a permanent clamp for the top of the spring and weld a sort of triangular pyramid onto the bottom spring mounting plate in place of the retaining bar.
In the case that you are anticipating taking part in any events run under the ARC banner I am led to believe that they have just banned dislocation cones so clubs that are members of the ARC will not let you play.
On or around Tue, 30 Nov 2004 07:51:25 -0000, "David_LLAMA4x4" enlightened us thusly:
[spring fixes]
'ere, that's a point.
The front turrets on mine are well past their best, and if they're an MOT-fail point then they'll fail next time as they've got big holes rusted in 'em.
Now since I fitted longer/heavier springs, which gained about an inch of ride height, it might be worth contemplating lower turrets to regain the axle travel I've lost in the process, since I'm going to have to replace 'em anyway.
How much to they cost, and which sizes are available?
The front turrets are £40 a pair plus carriage. They are available in either standard height as a direct ( but heavy duty & galvanised ) alternative to the std ones or as a 1" lower option.
If you go any lower than 1" drop on the turrets then even with std length shocks they will bottom out before the axle hits the bumpstops. Therefore anything over a 1" drop turret will require just as much adding to the depth of the bumpstop as you gain on the drop giving you no more travel - you are just moving the same amount of travel to a different place which is IMHO completely pointless!
It's not *completely* pointless - it does improve breakover performance a little, but the payoffs (less stable overall handling) can make it not worthwhile
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