Front Springs

[Mantaboy83]

Are Manta front springs meant to have a few coils resting on eachother at the top? Mine's fitted with a set of lowering springs but they dont seem to be doing a good job (crashy ride with steering wheel shake and harldy any movement when bouncing the car). They could be progessive springs but surely half the coils shouldnt be resting on eachother?

[MANTAMAN]

Yes i had a Manta with a set of 'progressive' lowering springs and after a while the Manta was really low because half of the spring had collapesed and the coils where resting on each other and hence doing nothing.

You need new springs and i'm sure somewhere on this forum someone will be able to addvise exactly which ones to get.

[Mantaboy83]

Thanks MANTAMAN,

You've settled my suspicion that the springs are tired and gone soft. A couple of years back I had to replace the rear springs as they had snapped due to fatigue. In hindsight I wish I replaced the fronts at the same time.

I bought my replacement rear springs from a local firm and they were very reasonably priced so will give them a ring to see if they stock the fronts too.

[lamchop77]

My progressive springs were like that from new. As the coils touch each other on compression it makes that coil redundant, as you reduce the number of active coils you actually increase the spring rate. If you have the -50mm springs the crashy ride is probably due to the lower arm hitting the bump stop. Eithet get a -25mm set of springs or you can cut 25mm from the bump stop itself. You need to use spax or similar adjustable shocks as well and probably tweak the camber a touch.

HTH

Chris

[Mantaboy83]

I've found a set of reasonably priced Apex springs that lower the car 40mm. Apex are a good make arent they?

[Mantaboy83]

These are the springs:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Manta-B-75-81-Apex-L...%3A1%7C294%3A50

Will these shocks be ok?:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PAIR-MANTA-B-BILSTEI...%3A1%7C294%3A50

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PAIR-MANTA-B-BILSTEI...%3A1%7C294%3A50

[lamchop77]

Can't remember what the make i put in were but they look similar. Personally i wouldn't fit a kit like that again, still seemed too soft when i had mine on the road. I would try TJM as most people on here recommend him. Looked at his website and the stuff looks good. There was mention on here about a place, i think in Sheffield who have done rally springs. Usually if they've done them before they will know exactly what is needed. I would use single rate springs 400-500 for the road on the front and probably 250 ish on the rear.

I did remember reading that if you have the rear sat 1/2-1" lower it does shift the c of g back a bit and improves the handling.

The Bilsteins are good but check out avo before you buy. I prefered the Avo stuff, just seems to be well made and the adjusters are a proper knob rather than a tiny screwdriver slot. can't tell offt he piccys if the Bilsteins still have that setup.

HTH

Chris

[Mantaboy83]

Right I'm very tempted to buy a whole suspension kit. I've already bought a Polyflex full bush kit (not yet fitted) so might as well get some decent suspension too!

I do like the look of the SPAX PSX kit. The best price I've found with a little searching is £340. Has anyone found the PSX kit any cheaper?

Or is there a cheaper alternative to SPAX that produce similar results?

[spiney_norman]

Might be worth mentioning which model your Manta is. As far as I'm aware (and I'm only talking about B series Mantas here) the 75-78 models were different between the Berlinettas and the SRs, the 78-81 SR Berlinettas had slightly different springs, and the 81-88 models were different again.

I may be completely wrong, but my Cav Sportshatch came with a set of springs which I'm told lowered it about 120mm, but I think that's only about a 40mm drop from the later GTEs.

All I can add to this is that my Cav handles beautifully on smooth roads but the ride on rough tarmac as I seem to get around here in Cardiff is... well, slightly painful at times.