Suspension misalignment

[Orlando St.R]

Thanks for that, Rob.

[Glyn Ruck]

Don't forget to contact them Glyn and get the cars details for the registry.

Have done ~ no reply yet

[jaguar&mg]

Just thought that I would add a picture of my baby, not long after she had new springs and poly bushes, you will see that she is quite high on the front , to me the back still looks a bit low

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john

I have posted about this before but, like John, I think my springs (the grey car) are a bit low at the back and too high at the front. I was optimistic that the front would settle but it has been 18 months since the new springs and this photo was taken this evening. In any case that would leave the back too low (or is it?!).

Any thoughts? It doesn't look 'right' and I would quite like to do something about it.

[cass3958]

Unfortunately there is no adjustment in either the front or rear standard shocks and springs. You can buy adjustable shocks for the rear but nothing for the front. Several years ago I had the same problem and needed new front springs anyway so bought some lower front springs from WatJag which did the trick.
Looking at your photo though forget about what the gaps look like, try measuring the height from the front jacking point to the ground and compare this to the height from the rear jacking point to the ground. If these are the same and they look it in your photo then the car is parallel to the ground which is where it should be. The S Type profile can be deceptive as the bonnet appears higher than the back which drops away quick quickly making the front appear to be riding higher than the back. As long as the sill is parallel to the ground I do not think you have a problem.
What size tyres are you running as the gap between the top of the front tyre and the bottom of the wheel arch can be affected by the height of the side wall of the tyre.

[Glyn Ruck]

When I look at your rear wheel rim ~ forgetting tyres ~ relationship with the wheelarch it looks a little low in the rear. But angle at which photographs are taken can make this deceiving. Does it really bother you?

[John Quilter]

Many years ago I was running Michelin X 195 X 15 tires and they would rub slightly on the top of the front wheel arch but only when driving over an apron into a parking lot or service station and the wheels were turned a significant amount to one side. Never seemed to cause any harm and I lived with it. It does not occur now with different tires. Apparently tire size does vary somewhat between manufacturers and even a slight difference can cause a rubbing. I believe the ride height is basically correct.

[cass3958]

We could get hyper critical here and everyone's opinion of their own car is what counts. Looking at the difference in the photos just shown I would have said Johns white S Type was too high at the back and correct at the front and the only reason I say this is that if you look at the sill and judge it against the ground the front of the car appears to be lower than the front. Glyn is right though the angle that the photo has been taken and the shadow lines really do make a difference in how you perceive the car to sit.
I still say the sills should be parallel to the ground the car is sat on.
This is my car side on and I would say my front end is a fraction lower than the back end or is it the shadows?

[Glyn Ruck]

Rob. I think your car is as close to perfect as anyone is likely to get. These cars tend to sag in the nose as the miles go on.

New cars from original brochures.

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[John Quilter]

My car does appear to be a tad low in the front after 167,000 miles on the original springs. I can live with it, but.... looking at the parts manual there is a listing for packing rings, two, one is 1/4 inch and one is 1/8th inch to accommodate for variations in spring lengths when new. I wonder how much change in ride height each of these produce? SNJ shows them to be not available. Now if, and that is a big if, I were to tear into the suspension I suppose, and I could find these items, I could adjust the ride height slightly. New springs would be an alternative but they sometimes do not produce the correct height either.

[cass3958]

John from what I have read and Glyn might be able to back me up on this but those packing rings for the front suspension where factory fitted for another strange reason.
Not as you think to raise the front ride height evenly per say but they were fitted depending on whether your car was right or left hand drive. The packing rings were placed on top of the spring on the driver's side to compensate for the drivers weight in the car. They assumed that 90% of the time the car would be driven with no passengers so the spacer jacked up the drivers side slightly so when he got in the car sat level.
I removed my spacers from the springs when I did my rebuild. I had two but I could not remember which side they came off and did not know about this drivers side thing at the time so took them out. I still have them in a box in the garage somewhere. I think I had two different sizes so perhaps one 1/4 and one 1/8 inch.
Raising the springs using spacers under the spring tops can be done and could be used to adjust the ride height but the only way to drop the height is to get shorter springs which is what I did eventually.

Strange as well Glyn that all those brochure photos are of steel wheeled cars!