Want a Herald/Vitesse/Spit/GT6 lowering block?

[mikeyb]

I'm having a few of these machined up in different thicknesses for the Herald.

Anyone else interested please pm me.  The greater the quantity made, the lower the price gets.  At the moment I'm looking at around £22-£25 each.

Can be machined up in the thickness you desire

Cheers

Mike!

[Jason]

Is Dave not selling any of vast stocks of lowering blocks to Triumph hoovers these days?
http://www.canleyclassics.com/?xhtml=xhtml/product/diffspacers.html&xsl=product.xsl

[Slimboyfat]

I thought you were in Italy buying a WC car?

[mikeyb]

I never thought to look!  However the costs dont look to be too dissimilar - especially by the time that P&P is factored in (my machinist is very local!)

[Slimboyfat]

Jason wrote:

Is Dave not selling any of vast stocks of lowering blocks to Triumph hoovers these days?
http://www.canleyclassics.com/?xhtml=xhtml/product/diffspacers.html&xsl=product.xsl

To be fair to other traders we are not the only one selling these, they have been around for a few years now.

P&P £2.60.

[Fizzy]

is fitting a spacer something you can do as a job in itself, or is it too much hassle and best left until you need to remove the spring or diff ? im pretty clueless on these, to be honest, the idea of adding a metal block to reduce height confuses me. :o what effect would the smallest spacer have on a standard, old spring ? where does the block go, and what needs to be taken out to do it ? is the handling difference noticable ona  standard car ? (mk3 spit)

[JonC]

I'm no expert, but to fit the spacer you will at least need to remove the spring, the diff doesnt need to be removed.
I'm told this can be done fairly easily without even removing the body, but the body is already removed on mine so it will be fairly simple.

It lowers the car because the spring is bolted to the top of the diff, a spacer between diff and spring effectively raises the spring thus raising the wheels (in relation to the rest of the body, on a spit this will also have the effect of removing positive camber.

[CharlieB]

You don't need to remove the spring just remove the studs (support the car first!) lift the spring a bit & slide the block in then fit new longer studs (this works for a 3/4" block anyway)
The block lowers the car by slightly more than its thickness, ie a 3/4" block lowers the car by about 1".

[Fizzy]

for the sake of 30 quid or so, how much benefit is achieved ? its not something i ever planned doing really, but it sounds relatively simple, and if you can feel a good difference in a standard car with an old spring, i might be tempted.

cheers

[CharlieB]

What's your rear camber at the moment, if your spring is old it may be low already?

[Mj17]

Is there any guide as to how much impact a 1/2" | 3/4" | 1" spacer block has on rear camber?

[mikeyb]

My need for a few different blocks is to try and find the optimum ride height for my Herald rally car.  It was originally fitted with a decambered swing spring that I suspect was also very tired. As a result it really dragged it arse along the ground!

I now have one of Rarebits remanufacturerd Courier van springs fitted.  Without a lowering block I ended up with too much positive camber - possibly due to the lack of weight at the back?  I then fitted a 25mm lowering block which brought me back nicely to a touch of negative and what started off as a just about reasonable ride height.  

However I think the spring is beginning to settle now, and I would be happier to get the ride height up a little more, but need to balance that against not changing the camber angle too much the wrong way.   That's why I need for a couple of slimmer blocks to play with!

[mikeyb]

yamaha_fizzy wrote:

for the sake of 30 quid or so, how much benefit is achieved ? its not something i ever planned doing really, but it sounds relatively simple, and if you can feel a good difference in a standard car with an old spring, i might be tempted.

cheers

fizzy, looking at the pics you posted earlier, I looks like your Spit may not need one - it has a nice level ride height and your camber looks fairly neutral.  Don't forget that if you lower the rear, you may well then have to fit lower springs to the front to get the stance level again.

[Nick Moore]

The blocks are easy to fit, Fizzy, although we had one guy write up the job in torturous detail which revealed he hadn't known about the inspection plate over the diff! The block sits between the diff and spring, and drops the car by the thickness of the spacer.

I put a swing spring in my Herald, which made it ride high, and so fitted a 1" spacer. That certainly gave it some negative camber - about 4 degrees! I've since reduced the spacer to 3/4" which reduced the crazy camber and the bum-down stance. Post a picture of your car from the rear, that'll give us an idea how the rear suspension's set up at the moment.

Nick