(Lowered) Suspension Work is Done

In the two month interim since my last post, I was engaged in fact-finding and negotiations with Rimmers. Additionally, I noticed that Tony Hart had an eBay auction running for a lowering kit (1.25") that included shortened (progressive) springs for the front and shortened springs with a camber adjusting outer bracket for the rear. I emailed him and asked if my shorter shocks would work with his springs, and he said they should be just right, so I purchased them. I never got closure with Rimmers on why they were selling incompatible springs/shocks. I guess I'll just sell the standard springs I received from them on eBay to partially offset the much higher cost of the Tony Hart springs.

I received the springs from Tony and installed them in the front and back over the past several days. It was nice to be able to use my own spring compressor for the fronts at last! I stacked another washer or two inside the front strut tubes under the Gaz inserts, and this will hopefully keep them from moving vertically inside the strut. Also replaced the trailing arm bushings in the rear with poly when I put in the outer camber correction brackets. I kept the same shims that were OEM, and we'll see what the alignment shop has to say about that. Chickened out on replacing the rubber differential and rear subframe mounts with poly at this time as they didn't look bad, and that would have been a major project (I want to drive the car, dammit). The car is 1.25" lower now and looks great, although you really have to step "up" when getting out of the cockpit. Corners much better than a standard Stag. My only concern is that the front camber might be a little much for street use and cause premature inner tire wear. A trip to the alignment shop is on the agenda for next week.

Lowered and blurry (from the high rate of speed) Stag

The most difficult little job I did while the car was on the lift was to replace the speedo cable. What a pain! I duck-taped the new cable to the old one and pulled it through, but the old cable was much longer and not routed correctly. The new one from LD Parts (correct length) was much too short for any haphazard routing, so I ended up getting quite greasy and scratched up while moving it up over the tranny. Anyway, the new cable took care of the speedo twitch that had been a source of irritation.

New rear springs (red) and camber adjusting outer TA brackets

Take a look at that old rear shock! SHOCKING!

New bracket on left, old on right

I managed to do the install without disconnecting the brake lines. Note prop at left.

New poly bushes, and new outer camber bracket (on left)

Bushing removal rig