THE INTERNATIONAL JAGUAR 'S'-TYPE REGISTER FORUM

Hi rob thanks for the side on picture, all I want is a correct car. I had a look at the gallery and as you say there are some very much like mine, the nearest one I think is P1B75290DN.I will add when I get an answer.

Regards John

1B1257BW
1972 Rover P6

John in the S model brochure there is a list of the S Types dimensions which includes ride heights which I had forgotten about. This can be found in the drop down menus at the top of the page under "S" Types Maintenance Documents. It's the yellow sheet on the left four down. This states that the ride height to the front bumper should be 14 1/2 inches or 37 cm and the ride height to the back bumper should be 16 1/4 or 41 cm. I have just measured mine in the dark but mine stands at 13 1/2 inches or 34 cm at the front and 21 1/2 inches or 55cm at the back. The difference between our previous measurements to the wheel arch was 4 inches so according to the official dimensions your car is sat just about right and mine is high. As I said before mine looks front down and according to the official diagram the jacking points and under side of the car should be parallel to the ground.
It would be interesting to see photos of the other members cars side on profile and see what measurements they have to the middle of the bumpers front and rear?

Hi Rob I found the same measurements in a original sales brochure as well as on this forum and it is getting a bit silly,. checking the dimensions from your post and the measurements from the forum my car at the rear bumper measured app 16 1/4" inches and the front measures 15 3/4" inches, these checks are from me sitting in the wheelchair .So the front is high by about 1inch but as you say the rear is about on the money and yet I know that there is a problem because of trying to remove the wheels . from the previous post my wheels and tyres appear to correct. the only variable is that these dimensions are for a car fully laden, I don't know how much higher a empty car would be.
Regards John

!B1257BW
1972 Rover P6

It would be nice if someone else came in on this John and gave us the ride heights and photos of their S types so we can perhaps get an average and go from there.
From the dimensions given I know now that the ride height of my car at the rear is high but I have no idea why. It has standard shocks and springs. It does have new mounts all around but they are only going to improve the ride height by a cm at most. I do have wider profile tyres at 205/15r but I doubt if they would raise the back by 4 inches and even if they did the front would be raised by the same amount which it is not. My profile is definitely nose down at the front.
Confused of Torquay.

Rob I totally agree it would have been great if there had been other comments. If you consider the deflection of a car that is loaded (as per dimensions) your rear dimensions I would think are more accurate, with the rear compressing down to around 16"-17"inches.

Regards John

1B1257BW
1972 Rover P6

If it's any help my car is:

From center of bumpers.

Front (QQ) 385mm (15 3/16")
Rear (RR) 470mm (18 1/2")

Unladen

Not quite the same as the factory specs.

I looked on line to try and find out how much compression there is between a laden and unladen car but in all honesty not much found , but what I did find suggest that the front hardly goes down at all but the rear drops by about 35mm . See www.thecartech.com/subjects/auto_eng2/i ... ension.htm. Under do these figures vary withr load.



Regards John

1B1257BW
1972 Rover P6

John I think the variation of compression would vary from car to car depending on the strength of spring and damper. My Lotus seven hardly moved even if you stood on the chassis and jumped up and down but my S Type is easily bounced by pushing down on a wing but when released it stops immediately. This shows the springs are work as well as the dampers. Should the car bottom out the springs have gone soft and if it keeps bouncing when you stop putting weight on the wing then your dampers have gone south. Being the driver I have never seen the car fully laden from the outside but I know that there are some really bumpy roads in Torquay which I can drive on by myself with no problems but if I have four in the car on a wedding day I can hit the bump stops on the same bump unless I slow down.
You can buy stiffer springs and dampers. These should not alter the ride height of the car but if you buy lowered springs and stiffer dampers than obviously this would lower the car. The clue is in the title I suppose. I appreciate in your condition you can't do this so get your son to open the boot and climb in. Then get him to jump up and down whilst you hold the tape measure and check the ride height. If he is hitting the bump stops when he jumps up and down then you have got to be on the limit with your springs.

A great suggestion, I will get him to try this weekend

Regards John

Sorry to witter on about the suspension , But 1B1257BW is going back to the garage at the beginning of June initially to have a set of rear road springs and also to try and sort out the front ride height. the workshop manual gives the over length of the rear springs but the front only gives an approximate amount of coils but not the length. does anybody have info on the correct length of the front springs.

Regards John

1B1257BW
1972 Rover P6